Understanding the Internet Explorer User Interface

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Figure 18-1 points out the most crucial landmarks of the Internet Explorer window.

SEE ALSO
For information about displaying, arranging, and customizing the toolbars, see "Customizing the Toolbars." For information about the Radio toolbar, see "Listening to Internet Radio Programs."

  • Toolbars. Allow quick access to commands and Web pages that you use most often. Like Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer can display the Standard Buttons, Address Bar, Links, and Radio toolbars in any combination and arrangement you choose.
  • The default buttons on the Standard Buttons toolbar are described in Table 18-1. The Address bar displays the address of the page you're currently viewing. You can also use the Address bar for navigation: type the address of a page you want to go to into the Address bar and press Enter. The Links toolbar provides one-click access to your most frequently used pages. The Radio toolbar makes it easy to tune to Internet radio broadcasts.

  • Explorer animation. Indicates when Internet Explorer is waiting to receive information from a computer on the Internet; a globe icon spins around the Windows flag while Internet Explorer is waiting.
  • Document area. Displays the Web page you are currently viewing. Any items that are highlighted (usually by underlining) are links, and clicking them takes you to the page they point to.
  • Status bar. Gives you information about what Internet Explorer is currently doing.

SEE ALSO
For details, see "Understanding the Status Bar."

click to view at full size.

Figure 18-1. The Internet Explorer window has a set of tools and controls surrounding the document viewing area.

Table 18-1. Standard Buttons Toolbar

Toolbar IconDescription
Displays an earlier page in the list of previously viewed pages
Displays a later page in the list of previously viewed pages
Stops downloading the current page
Downloads the current page again, ensuring that the latest version is displayed
Displays your home page
Displays (or hides) the Search bar, which provides access to Internet search providers
Displays (or hides) the Favorites bar, which provides access to your favorite sites
Displays (or hides) the History bar, which provides access to sites you've visited recently
Launches your mail or newsreader program (by default, Microsoft Outlook Express), and lets you send links and pages to others via e-mail
Prints the current page

NOTE
Some programs add buttons to your Standard Buttons toolbar. (For example, Microsoft Office 2000 adds an Edit button, which opens the current page in your HTML editor, and a Discuss button, which lets you add discussion comments to the current page.) And Internet Explorer itself has additional buttons you can use. For information about changing the Standard Buttons toolbar, see "CustomizingToolbars."

Using Full Screen View

To increase the amount of screen real estate that you can use for viewing a Web page, Internet Explorer provides a special view called Full Screen. In some instances, Internet Explorer automatically switches to Full Screen view, but you can switch to this useful view at any time. To switch to Full Screen view, press F11 or choose Full Screen from the View menu. (If you use this view frequently, you might want to add the Full Screen button to the Standard Buttons toolbar.) In Full Screen view, Internet Explorer expands to fill the screen, the title bar and window borders disappear, the menu bar merges into the toolbar, and the toolbar shrinks down to a single row, leaving the majority of the screen to display a Web page, as shown in Figure 18-2.

TIP
Finding the Taskbar

Because Internet Explorer completely fills the screen in Full Screen view, the Windows taskbar isn't visible. However, it appears when you move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen at the taskbar's usual location. Alternatively, you can use shortcut keys to switch windows: press Alt+Tab to switch to another open window, or press Ctrl+Esc to open the Start menu and display the taskbar.

click to view at full size.

Figure 18-2. In Full Screen view, standard window elements disappear and Internet Explorer fills the screen.

In Full Screen view, the toolbar occupies a single row at the top of the screen, but you can specify which elements you want to include on the toolbar. Right-click the toolbar and choose Menu Bar, Address Bar, Links, or Radio. A check mark in the shortcut menu identifies each element you've selected. (The Standard Buttons toolbar is always included in Full Screen view.) Within the limits of the single row, you can resize each of these elements by dragging the vertical line at the left edge of each toolbar element.

TIP
To completely maximize the viewing area, in Full Screen view, right-click the toolbar and choose Auto Hide. The toolbar then retracts into the top of the screen; you can redisplay it by moving the mouse pointer to the top edge of the screen.

To switch from Full Screen view back to Internet Explorer's normal window, click the Restore button, or press F11 again.

Displaying and Hiding Explorer Bars

As we've seen in Windows Explorer, an Explorer bar is a separate pane that's displayed on the left side of the Explorer window. Three of the Explorer bars available in Windows Explorer—Search, Favorites, and History—are quite useful in Internet Explorer. (They were in fact designed for Internet Explorer and then incorporated into Windows Explorer.)

You display an Explorer bar in one of two ways: click its toolbar button, or open the View menu and choose one from the Explorer Bar submenu. To hide an Explorer bar, click its toolbar button or choose its View-menu command again. Or simply click the X (the close button) in the Explorer bar's upper right corner.

In Full Screen view, the Explorer bar retracts into the left edge of the screen. To display it, move the mouse pointer to the left edge; when you move the mouse pointer away from the Explorer bar, it again slides off the left edge. A small pushpin button appears on the Explorer bar, next to the close button. To prevent the Explorer bar from sliding away, tack it down by clicking the pushpin button. Click the pushpin button again to restore the "auto hide" behavior.

TIP
You can make any Explorer bar wider or narrower by dragging its right edge.

Understanding the Status Bar

The status bar provides information about the Web page you are viewing, as well as about the current state of the browser. The status bar is organized into sections, with each section providing a different type of information.

On the left is the current progress status. While you download a Web page, an icon and text in this area explain what the browser is currently doing. After the page has arrived, this area shows the address for any link you point to. To the right of the progress status text is the progress bar, which is active only while Internet Explorer downloads information. The bar fills up as data for the current page gets downloaded.

SEE ALSO
For more information, see "Working Offline," and "Working with Secure Sites."

The middle section of the status bar is split into two small panes. Each pane either displays an icon or is empty. The first pane displays an icon when you are working offline. The second displays a lock icon if you have a secure connection to a Web site.

On the right end of the status bar is the security zones area. This displays the icon and name of the security zone for the current Web page.



Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
ISBN: 1572318384
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 317

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