[real-eyes] Fw: Finding Shortcuts in Internet Explorer 7
- From: "Reginald George" <sgeorge@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 08:18:00 -0500
NYTimes.com: Circuits NewsletterFrom the NY Times Circuit's newsletter by
David Pogue.
Finding Shortcuts in Internet Explorer 7
In today's Times, I reviewed public beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7, a piece
of software that will become part of the daily routines of millions of
people. Overall, I like it, although it's taken Microsoft a pathetically
long time to add such basics as tabbed browsing and a Search bar. (The
previous version of Internet Explorer came out in 2001!)
Frankly, I consider the beta good enough for daily use as it is. But even if
you intend to wait for the final version this summer, clip and save this
e-column; it's a list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts that really make IE7
sing.
First up: tabbed browsing. The trick here, as in other browsers, is to
Ctrl-click a link to open up a page in a new tab. (If you have a
three-button mouse, middle-clicking a link does the same thing.)
Unfortunately, the new tab arrives in *back* of all the other open tabs.
That's great when you're working your way down, say, a list of Google search
results, and earmarking the most promising links this way for review later.
But what if you want to see a link right now? In that case, add the Alt key.
Ctrl-Alt-clicking a link (or Alt-middle-clicking it) opens it in a new
tab-frontmost.
Once you've got some tabs open, you can hit Ctrl+Tab to cycle through them,
from right to left (add the Shift key to move backward). Or, better yet, hit
Ctrl plus a number key, 1 through 8, to bring a certain tab forward. (Ctrl+9
brings the *last* tab forward.)
In the Internet Options Control Panel, you can even specify whether tabs
appear horizontally: all the way at the right end, or at the left end, of
existing open tabs.
Internet Explorer 7 offers a nice thumbnail view of all open tabs; hit
Ctrl+Q to see it. Oh, and Ctrl+W closes whatever tab you're viewing. You can
also middle-click any tab to close it.
IE7's new Search box lets you send a search request ("electric drapes" or
whatever) to Google, Ask.com or whatever search service you prefer. But
don't click in the little box manually; that's a waste of calories. Instead,
hit Ctrl+E to make your insertion point jump there. At that point, you can
type the search term and then hit Enter (or Alt+Enter to see the results in
a new tab), or you can press Ctrl+down-arrow key to see, and choose from,
the list of available search services.
The bookmarks, RSS reader and history list are all hidden in a little side
panel in IE7. Fortunately, you can open this panel directly to the list you
want if you know the secrets: Ctrl+I, J, and K correspond to the favorites,
RSS and history lists.
Here's something that's always driven me crazy about Internet Explorer: If I
type "ebay" into the address bar and hit Enter, I ought to go to
http://www.ebay.com. The program should save me having to type the
http://www and so on. But Internet Explorer instead treats "ebay" as a
*search term,* and takes me to a list of, for example, Google search results
for that word.
Still, there's a nice workaround: if you press Ctrl+Enter (rather than just
the Enter key), you force Internet Explorer to treat what you've typed as a
URL instead of a search term. So you can type "Amazon," or "eBay," or "CNN,"
and then press Ctrl+Enter to go right there. (This also works in earlier
Internet Explorer versions. So does Alt+D to highlight the address bar,
ready for typing an address.)
And what if, as a government worker, most of the sites you visit end in
.gov? Or what if you work for a nonprofit, and you visit a lot of .orgs? In
that case, add the Shift key. Ctrl+Shift+Enter adds, instead of .com,
whatever suffix you've set up in the Internet Options Control Panel.
You can find a few more of these IE7 shortcuts, plus a list of useful
Internet Explorer 6 shortcuts, on this Microsoft employee's blog, here. And,
of course, most of them have equivalents in Firefox, Opera, Safari and other
popular browsers.
In any case, you know me: If it's worth doing more than once, it's worth
learning the keyboard shortcut to save time and energy.
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