Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Software & Applications

Windows Tips: Five Tips for Internet Explorer 5
By Kate Botello

Our Windows tips don't always have to be one-hit wonders. Today, we're going to do five little things with Internet Explorer 5.0. Many thanks to our fine collection of Third Geeks for helping us out here. The Third Geek is The Screen Savers's equivalent of football's reference to its fans-- the Twelfth Man.

Increase your fonts with the scroll wheel
If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, hold down the CTRL key and roll the wheel around a bit. Your font size will increase or decrease, depending on which way you roll. This is great for those who set their resolution high and can't read tiny text. Third Geek on this one: David Nettles.

Get back to where you once belonged
Holding down the backspace key does the same thing as hitting the "back" button! (Bonus: ENTER goes forward.) Third Geek: Pat.

Save seven whole keystrokes
Type the name of an address, say, thescreensavers. Hit CTRL+ENTER and the http://www and .com are added for you! Sorry, you'll have to type out .org and .net addresses yourself. Third Geek: Jeff in Fort Worth.

Looks cool and everything, but I'm over it
DHTML page transitions are truly groovy, but they can slow things down a bit. Disable them. Under the Tools menu, select Internet Options. Then select Advanced, and scroll down to Browsing. In this category, uncheck the option "Enable Page Transitions." Third Geek: Jordan, Kingsport, Tennessee.

I can't find it on the menu
This one's not for the browser per se, but you need IE 5 to make it work. You can organize your Start Menu alphabetically by right-clicking on any program in the Programs menu and choosing "Sort by Name." Third Geek: Eric in Danielson, Connecticut.

Thanks everybody! You've saved us enough clicks and time to fit in an extra game of Twister every week. Screen Savers swag (T-shirt or cap) is on its way!

More tips soon to come!