Remembering Where You ve Been on the Web


Remembering Where You've Been on the Web

Internet Explorer provides a variety of ways to remember which web sites you've already visited and how to get back to them. The Back menu keeps track of the last few web pages you've viewed and a drop-down list from the Address box shows the most recent URLs that you've typed. There's also a History feature that you can check when you find yourself saying "I know I saw that last week."

When you find a web page you like, you likely will want to look at it again sometime. Favorites and Internet shortcuts allow you to return easily to a web page without having to write down or remember the page's URL (see "Using Favorites, Links, and Internet Shortcuts" a bit later in the chapter).

Using the Back Menu

The Back button has a drop-down menu of the last several web pages you have looked at during the current session. To access this menu, click the arrow on the right side of the Back button.

Using the Address Box

If you remember the beginning of the URL you are looking for, start typing it into the Address box. As you type, Internet Explorer's autocomplete feature generates a menu of URLs, based on the URLs you have visited recently. If the URL you want appears, you can choose it from the menu.

In addition, Internet Explorer maintains a drop-down list of the last 25 URLs that you have typed into the Address box. You can select an entry off the drop-down list, and the browser fetches the corresponding web page.

Examining History

Internet Explorer keeps track of the web pages that you have accessed recently. This information is stored as Internet shortcuts inside a hierarchy of folders capped by the History folder. You can turn History off, wipe the History folder clean, or edit it selectively, removing only the web pages you don't want recorded.

Clicking the History Favorites Center button (it's a picture of a gold star) on the toolbar, pressing CTRL-H, or selecting View Explorer Bar History opens the View History pane, shown next .

image from book
Covering Your Tracks and Tracking Others

If other people use (or are authorized to look at) your user account, you need to be aware of the privacy implications of the History folder, the Address box, and the Back menu. These features ( especially the History folder) provide a trail that someone else can follow to see what you've been viewing on the Web. Conversely, you may examine the History folder to see what other people (your children, for example) have been viewing on the Web.

If you want to erase that trail, do the following:

  1. Select Tools Internet Options to open the Internet Options dialog box.

  2. Click Delete on the General tab to display the Delete Browsing History dialog box.

  3. Click the Delete All button.

  4. Click Yes when you are asked to confirm. IE erases the files in your Temporary Internet Files cache, deletes downloaded cookies, deletes the history and the list of URLs that you have typed in the Address box, removes form data you have entered, and deletes any saved passwords you have entered.

  5. Click OK.

  6. If you just walk away from the computer at this point, the Back menu could still give you away, so exit Internet Explorer. This clears the Back menu.

 

Clicking the Close The Favorites Center button causes the History pane to disappear.

The History pane is organized into subfolders -one for each day of the current week and one for each previous week, going back 20 days. Selecting a closed folder expands the tree to show its contents; selecting an open folder compresses the tree to hide its contents. Each day's folder contains one subfolder for each web site visited. Inside the web site folders are Internet shortcuts to each of the pages viewed on that web site.

Delete a shortcut or a subfolder from the History folder by right-clicking it and selecting Delete from the shortcut menu.

To change Internet Explorer's History settings:

  1. Select Tools Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog box opens with the General tab on top.

  2. Click Settings in the Browsing History area. The Temporary Internet Files And History Settings dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 26-4.

    image from book
    Figure 26-4: Change the days to keep history records in this dialog box.

  3. If you want to change the number of days that the History folder remembers a web page, enter a new number into the Days To Keep Pages In History box.

  4. Click OK.

History is subject to user accounts: each user has their own History folder with its own settings.

Using Favorites, Links, and Internet Shortcuts

Favorites and Internet shortcuts are ways to keep track of web sites that you think you will want to return to.

An Internet shortcut is a small file (with the extension .url) that contains the Internet address of a web page. Opening an Internet shortcut causes Windows to connect to your Internet service provider (if necessary), open your default web browser, and display the web page that the shortcut points to.

Favorites is a folder of Internet shortcuts. This folder is accessible from the Favorites Center in Internet Explorer (click the gold star to see it). To anchor the Favorites Center (that is, to keep it open), click the Pin The Favorites Center button after you click the Favorites Center button. The Pin The Favorites Center button appears as a small left-pointing arrow. You can add Favorites to the Start menu as well (right-click the Start button, click Customize, and then click Favorites Menu in the Customize Start Menu dialog box).

Selecting an entry from the Favorites menu has the same effect as opening an Internet shortcut that points to that web page. When Favorites are chosen from the Start menu, they open in the default browser, but choosing a web page from the Favorites Center of Internet Explorer opens the page in Internet Explorer, even if another browser is the default browser.

You can place items on the Links bar to help you navigate to sites you visit often.

Adding Favorites and Links

Adding a web page to the Favorites menu automatically creates an Internet shortcut pointing to that web page. If a web page is displayed in Internet Explorer, you can add it to Favorites by clicking the Add To Favorites button (it is a picture of a green plus sign and a gold star) and choosing Add To Favorites, which opens the Add A Favorite dialog box. Another way to open the Add A Favorite dialog box is to right-click a web page and click Add To Favorites. Click the Create In drop-down button to see a list of folders in which to place the shortcut. You also can click the New Folder button to create a new Favorites folder in which to place the shortcut. If you have the menu bar open, you can click Favorites Add To Favorites as well.

To add a web page to the Links toolbar, either drag its icon from the Address box to the place on the Links bar where you want it, or click the Create In drop-down button in the Add A Favorite dialog box and select the Links folder.

Creating Internet Shortcuts on Your Desktop

To create shortcuts that appear on your desktop by using Internet Explorer, open the page to which you want to create a shortcut and choose File Send Shortcut To Desktop.

You can also create shortcuts in Windows Explorer or the desktop. From Windows Explorer, choose File New Shortcut. From the desktop, right-click and choose New Shortcut. Either way, a Create Shortcut dialog box opens. Type the URL of the web page into the Create Shortcut dialog box or, if you have copied the command line from some other document, paste it into the Create Shortcut dialog box by pressing CTRL-V. Click Next. Give the shortcut a name . Click Finish.

Organizing Favorites

If you have picked out only a few web pages, your favorites don't have to be well organized, but as time goes by, favorites accumulate like knick-knacks. It saves time to reorganize them once in a while and toss out the ones that are obsolete.

The Favorites list is actually a folder (C:\Windows\Favorites, if you haven't established user profiles on your computer; C:\Users\Msername\Favorites, if you have), and each of the entries on the Favorites list is a shortcut pointing to the URL of the corresponding web page. Consequently, one way to organize Favorites is to use the same techniques you would use to organize any other folder in Windows Explorer. You also can choose Favorites Organize Favorites from the Internet Explorer window. An Organize Favorites dialog box opens. Move, rename, or delete entries on your Favorites list by selecting the entries and clicking the corresponding buttons in the Organize Favorites dialog box.

Importing and Exporting Favorites and Bookmarks

If the computer you upgrade to Windows Vista has another web browser installed (such as Mozilla Firefox), you can import your favorites from that browser to Internet Explorer 7. To import bookmarks, select File Import And Export to start the Import/Export Wizard. This wizard provides the best way to convert between Internet Explorer's Favorites (a folder of Internet shortcuts) and FireFox's bookmarks (an HTML file of links).




Windows Vista. The Complete Reference
Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)
ISBN: 0072263768
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 296

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