Section 9.2. Tabbed Browsing


9.2. Tabbed Browsing

Beloved by hard- core surfers the world over, tabbed browsing is a way to keep a bunch of Web pages open simultaneouslyin a single, neat window, without cluttering up your taskbar with a million buttons .

Figure 9-3 illustrates.

Figure 9-3. When you Ctrl+Shift-click a link, or type an address and press Alt+Enter or -Enter, you open a new tab , not a new window as you ordinarily would. You can now pop from one open page to another by clicking the tabs above the window, or close one by clicking its X button (or pressing Ctrl+W).


9.2.1. Shortcut-O-Rama

Turning on tabbed browsing unlocks a whole raft of Internet Explorer shortcuts and tricks, which are just the sort of thing power surfers gulp down like Gatorade:

  • To open a new, empty tab in front of all others, press Ctrl+T (for tab ), or click the New Tab stub identified in Figure 9-3, or double-click anywhere in the empty area of the tab row. From the empty tab that appears, you can navigate to any site you want.

  • To open a link into a new tab , Ctrl-click it. Or click it with your mouse wheel.

    Or, if you're especially slow, right-click it and, from the shortcut menu, choose Open in New Tab.


    Note: Ctrl-clicking a link opens that page in a tab behind the one you're reading. That's a fantastic trick when you're reading a Web page and see a reference you want to set aside for reading next , but you don't want to interrupt whatever you're reading.But if you want the new tab to appear in front , add the Shift key.
  • To close a tab , either click the X on it, press Ctrl+W, press Alt+F4, or click the tab with your mouse wheel or middle mouse button, if you have one.


    Tip: If you press Ctrl+Alt+4, you close all tabs except the one that's in front.
  • Switch from one tab to the next by pressing Ctrl+Tab. Add the Shift key to move backwards through them.

One more note to tab fans: When you close Internet Explorer, a dialog box appears asking if you really want to close all the tabs. If you click Show Options at this point, you're offered an opportunity to "Open these the next time I use Internet Explorer." Turn that on and click Close Tabs; the next time you go a-browsing, you'll pick up right from the tabs where you left off.


Note: If you find all this tabby business confusing and unnecessary, you can turn off the whole feature. In Internet Explorer, choose Tools Internet Options. Click the General tab; under Tabs, click Settings. Turn off Enable Tabbed Browsing, and then click OK twice.
9.2.2. Quick Tabs (Thumbnails)

Once you've got a bunch of tabs open, you may face a horizontal screen-space crunch. How much, exactly, of the text "Welcome to Bass WorldThe Internet's Global Resource for Bass Fisherfolk" can you see on a half-inch tab?

Not much. But how, then, are you supposed to tell your tabs apart?

By using another new Internet Explorer feature called Quick Tabs. Figure 9-4 shows all.

Figure 9-4. Quick Tabs shows you thumbnails of all the Web pages you've opened into tabs, making it simple to tell them apart. One click on a thumbnail returns it to full size , with that tab in front of the others. All you have to learn is the Quick Tabs keystroke, which is Ctrl+Qor the location of the Quick Tabs button, shown here. (Repeat the trigger to exit the Quick Tabs view without changing anything.)



Tip: You can close a tab directly from the Quick Tabs screen, toojust click the X button in the upper-right corner of the thumbnail.



Windows Vista for Starters
Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596528264
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 175
Authors: David Pogue

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