Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Tips

SUBSCRIBE TO SITES

The subscriptions feature is one of IE 4.0's most powerful. By subscribing to sites, you can download any changes to your Favorites pages and view them whenever you like--even when you're not connected to the Web. Subscribing is a great way to do all your downloading at once, at a convenient time--such as while you're asleep--so you can view the pages at your leisure. (Note: you'll need to leave your computer on--but not necessarily connected to the Web--in order for it to dial up the sites and check them out.)

You can subscribe to sites in a number of ways. One of the easiest is to simply right-click a page and select Add To Favorites. Under "Would you also like to subscribe to this page?" select one of the two "Yes" options: one notifies you when the page has changed, while the other notifies you and downloads the page for you. By default, IE 4.0 will automatically connect to the page and search for changes once per day, sometime between midnight and 5 a.m.

If Internet Explorer detects any changes, its icon in your Favorites menu or Favorites Bar will show a red dot, which Microsoft calls a gleam. Just click the icon to view the page.

To make Internet Explorer check if a specific site has changed while browsing elsewhere, right-click the site in the Favorites menu or Favorites Bar and select Update Now from the pop-up menu.

SET YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTITON SCHEDULE

If you want to change a subscription's update schedule, right-click it in the Favorites menu, Favorites Bar, or Channels Bar, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Properties dialog box, click the Schedule tab. Click the Edit button to bring up the Custom Schedule dialog box. Here you can designate a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule for updating, change the update time, or force the subscription to update several times in a designated time frame. Click OK when you've made your selections.

If you use a modem to connect to the Web, you'll need to make sure unauthorized dial-up is enabled; otherwise, your computer won't be able to connect. Back in the main dialog box, check the box marked "Dial as needed if connected through a modem."

CHECK CHANGES VIA EMAIL

You're on the road again. How can you check your subscribed pages and channels? You could set up subscriptions on your laptop and let them download while you take a shower or hit meetings, but it would be more efficient to use email notification.

In the Favorites menu or Favorites Bar, right-click the subscribed page you want to track while you're traveling. Select Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Receiving tab, and check the box marked "Send an email message to the following address." Click the Change Address button, supply your email address and server (your network administrator can tell you your email server name), and click OK.

Now when your desktop computer at home or in the office finds changes in that page, it will send you an email message. (You'll need to leave your desktop system on while you're away.) Simply download your email while on the road, and then visit only those pages that report changes.

TURN OFF THE ACTIVE DESKTOP

The ability to add HTML pages, stock tickers, and other Web gobbledygook to your desktop may seem cool at first, but it does chew up processor power. To disable the Active Desktop whenever you're performing processor-intensive tasks, simply right-click anywhere on the desktop, and select Active Desktop/View as Web Page from the pop-up menus. You can repeat the process to turn it back on later.

CREATE QUICKLINKS

IE 4.0's QuickLink buttons give you one-click access to your favorite sites. To add a QuickLink button to your Links toolbar, simply drag a hyperlink (either text or graphic) off a Web page and onto the toolbar, either at the end of the row of QuickLinks or between two existing buttons. You can also drag and drop links from the Favorites menu, Favorites Bar, or History Bar to create new QuickLinks.

Once you've added a few QuickLinks to your Links toolbar, they won't all fit onscreen at the same time. Just click the tiny arrow buttons at the ends of the toolbar to scroll through the QuickLinks.

To remove QuickLink buttons, just right-click and select Delete from the pop-up menu.

SPECIALIZE YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS

You probably don't want all your subscriptions to act the same way. IE 4.0 lets you tailor each subscription so it works best for you. Right-click a subscription and select Properties from the pop-up menu. This calls up a dialog box with five tabs: General, Internet Shortcut, Subscription, Receiving, and Schedule.

The General and Subscription tabs summarize the subscription's info--name, URL, when the page was last updated, and so on. The Internet Shortcut tab shows the URL of the subscription and lets you choose a new icon for it the same way you change a QuickLink's icon. In addition to email notification, the Receiving tab lets you choose whether or not to download the page when IE detects a change. Click the Advanced button to choose exactly what you want IE to download--you can download a single page, or you can download several pages. You can also limit online time by preventing downloads over a certain size; by not downloading images, sounds, videos, ActiveX Controls, or Java applets; and by avoiding links that wander off to other Web sites. Finally, the Schedule tab lets you customize the subscription's update schedule.

PRINT WITH POWER

IE 4.0 adds a wealth of new printing features designed to help you create paper copies of useful sites. Find a page you want to print and press Ctrl-P or select File/Print to access the Print dialog box, where you'll see several new options. (Don't just click the Print button on the toolbar--by default, it bypasses the Print dialog box.)

If a page is divided into frames, you can choose which frames to print. To print all frames on a page, select either the "As laid out on screen" or the "All frames individually" option. To print an individual frame, move the cursor into the frame you want to print and click once before you call up the Print dialog box. You can then select "Only the selected frame."

You can print all documents linked to the one you're currently viewing by checking the box marked "Print all linked documents" just below the frames section. This feature is useful, but be careful. Some pages link to a lot of other pages. You could empty your paper tray with a single click. To see what you're getting into first, check the "Print table of links" box, and click OK; you'll get a print-out of a table listing all the pages you would print if you selected "Print all linked documents."

Finally, if the page you're on contains a link to another page, you can print that linked page simply by right-clicking the link and selecting Print Target. You'll see the same Print dialog box outlined above.

ORGANIZE FAVORITES INSTANTLY

Getting your Favorites in order used to be a painful process that required opening a whole new Organize Favorites window. The Organize option is still on the Favorites menu, but you don't need to use it anymore to add or delete new entries: now you can drag and drop Favorites directly within the Favorites menu or Favorites Bar. Just bring up the menu or bar; then click and hold the file you want to move. Drag the file through the other Favorites to its new home, drop it, and you're done!

FAST FORWARD (AND FAST BACKWARD)

Click the little down arrows on the toolbar's Back and Forward buttons, and you'll get a list of recently visited pages. Then just select a page, and you're off! No more annoying click, click, click to get back to where you've already been.

VIEW FAVORITES AS THUMBNAILS

Want to preview your Favorites without actually linking to them? Select Favorites/Organize Favorites from the main menu, right-click the folder you want to preview, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box that appears, check the Enable Thumbnail View box. Click Apply, then OK. Back in the Organize Favorites folder, open that same folder, and then right-click inside the folder window, and select View/Thumbnails from the pop-up menu. IE 4.0 then presents tiny pictures of the pages. But be warned: Internet Explorer looks for these pages in your cache. If it can't find them, it attempts to connect to the Net.

FIND URLS FASTER WITH AUTOCOMPLETE

Whenever you type a URL in the IE 4.0 Address box, the browser tries to find a recently visited page that matches what you've typed so far. If IE finds a match, it automatically fills in the rest of the address. If that's not the exact URL you're looking for, right-click the Address box, and select Completions to see a list of other possibilities. Click the one you want, hit Enter, and you're on your way.

If you find the AutoComplete feature annoying, turn it off by selecting View/Internet Options from the main menu. Then click the Advanced tab, uncheck the Use AutoComplete option under Browsing, and click OK.

USE DUAL-PANE NET SEARCHES

Despite the power of today's hot search engines, using them can still be a hassle. You have to enter a search, click a link, and then--if the link doesn't turn out to be what you wanted--browse backward to return to your search results page. Opening links in a new browser window helps some, but searching is still a cumbersome process.

IE 4.0 cuts to the heart of the problem with its Search Bar, one component of the Explorer Bar. Click the Search toolbar button to bring up the Search Bar in a narrow window on the left, select a search engine, and type your search term. Click Search, and your results appear in the Search Bar without affecting the main browser window. Click one of the resulting links, and the target page appears in the right window, while your list of results continues to hang out on the left. No more annoying back and forth between the results page and the links it takes you to.

To get rid of the Search Bar once you've found a page that has the info you want, click the Search button on the toolbar. To toggle the bar back on, just click the Search button again; the results you just had onscreen will return along with the Search Bar.

USE TOOLTIPS AS SEARCH TIPS

IE 4.0's Search Bar is cool, but the narrow left-hand window doesn't have room for descriptions of the sites returned by your searches. Instead, you get a title-only list of search results. But you can find out more about each result without clicking its link. Just move the cursor over a link in the left-hand Search Bar window and hold it there. A pop-up tip appears, listing relevant information about the page, including some sample text--as long as the search engine you're using supports this feature.

LAUNCH EVERYTHING FROM THE TASKBAR

IE 4.0 introduces a great way to keep often-used folders, programs, and URLs handy. Click and hold a folder or Shortcut from your desktop or from Windows Explorer; or click and hold a link in a Web page, and then drag the Shortcut or link to the Quick Launch area of the Windows 95 Taskbar, just to the right of the Start menu. (If this area isn't showing, right-click the Taskbar, and select Toolbars/Quick Launch from the pop-up menus.) An icon appears on the Taskbar and stays there, even when you reboot your system.

Now you can simply click the new Taskbar icon to open a folder or launch an application or Web page. If you're not sure which icons are which, hold your cursor over each icon to see its name as a pop-up Tool Tip. To see the contents of a folder before opening it, hold down the Ctrl key, and click the folder.

TOGGLE THE TASKBAR

With IE 4.0's True Web Integration for Windows 95, Taskbar buttons for running applications behave a bit differently: now they toggle. To see for yourself, launch a couple applications, and then click a Taskbar button to bring an application to the top of the desktop. Click the button again to minimize the application. (This trick works only with the buttons in the main part of the Taskbar, not with items in the Quick Launch or System Tray areas.)

You can also minimize every app on your desktop by clicking the small Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch area.

USE NEW TASKBAR TOOLS

Microsoft obviously has a thing for the Taskbar these days--but it's a good thing. You can now add a variety of new objects to this handy tool, including an Address box, your browser's QuickLink buttons, or a set of icons for launching and toggling the applications on your Windows 95 desktop. To add stuff to the Taskbar, right-click an empty spot on the Taskbar. Select Toolbars, then the option you want from the pop-up menus. The new tool appears on the Taskbar, where you can change each tool's size by clicking and dragging the double vertical bars to its left. If the Taskbar gets too crowded, you can make more space by dragging up the Taskbar's top edge.

FIND PEOPLE ON THE NET

Click the Windows 95 Start menu and highlight Find. Select People from the list of options, and you'll get a choice of Internet directories, including WhoWhere, Four11, and your new Windows Address Book. Select a directory from the Look In drop-down list, enter a name or an email address in the appropriate text box, and then click Find Now to search through millions of listings for your old high school buddy. If you find the person you're looking for, click the Add to Address Book button to keep the name handy for future reference.

FIND THINGS ON THE NET

Click the Windows Start menu, and highlight Find. Select On the Internet from the list of options, and IE 4.0 opens to a search page that lets you choose from five different search engines: AOL NetFind, Lycos, Excite, Yahoo, and Infoseek. Select a search engine, enter your topic, and search away. To set a default search engine, click its radio button, then check the "Set as default" box.

FIND FAVORITES FAST

Saving your most-visited Web sites as Favorites has always been a fine way to store them, but getting at them hasn't been easy unless you've had Internet Explorer running. Now there's an easy way to access your Favorites, even when IE 4.0 isn't open. Click the Windows 95 Start menu, and voilą! There's a new folder labeled Favorites. Highlight the folder to get a list of all your fave sites. Click the one you want, and IE 4.0 automatically launches itself and opens the page.

DRAG TO THE START MENU

True Web Integration lets you drag files and applications to the Start button, where they're automatically added to your Start menu.

DRAG AND DROP START MENU ITEMS

Don't like the location of files on your Start menu? Then click and drag 'em to a new location in any folder on the menu. Microsoft should have added this feature long ago.

CLICK ONLY ONCE

With True Web Integration, your whole Windows 95 desktop behaves more likethe Web. Up until now, you had to click a file, folder, or application onyour desktop to highlight it, and double-click it to open or launch it. Butnow you can configure your desktop so that you simply move your cursor overan item to highlight it and single-click to launch it--just like the Web.Right-clicking still calls up the context menu, where you can view andchange the item's properties.

To Webify your desktop, open any folder on your desktop and selectView/Folder Options. On the General tab, select the Web Style radio button.(Your other choices in this dialog box are Classic Style, which eliminatesall Web-like behavior such as the new folderviews and the Active Desktop, and Custom,which lets you pick and choose from among various Web behaviors.)

ACTIVATE THE ACTIVE DESKTOP

True Web Integration performs some interesting behind-the-scenes magic. Most importantly, it opens up the Windows 95 desktop to helpful incursion by all sorts of Web content, including ActiveX Controls, HTML pages, and Active Channels.

To add a new object to your Active Desktop, right-click a free spot on the Windows 95 background. Select Properties from the pop-up menu; then click the Web tab in the dialog box that appears. Make sure the "View Active Desktop as a Web page" box is checked. Then add Active Desktop objects, including images and Web pages, by clicking the New button. You'll be asked if you want to visit Microsoft's Active Desktop Gallery. If you click Yes, your desktop properties will be saved and closed, Internet Explorer will start up, and you'll be taken to the Microsoft Web site, where you can choose from such items as the MSNBC weather map and the MSN stock ticker. If you click No, you can type in (or browse to) the site or location of the file you want to add to your desktop. Once you've found your item, click OK in each dialog box that's open.

To turn off an item on the desktop, right-click the desktop, select Properties from the pop-up menu, click the Web tab, and uncheck the item's box; you can turn it back on later by checking it again. To toggle the entire Active Desktop off and on, right-click a free spot on the desktop and select Active Desktop/View as Web Page from the pop-up menus.

DRAG LINKS TO THE DESKTOP

Want a quick way to access a Web site? First, make sure your Active Desktop is turned on. Then just click and hold a link in your browser and drag it to the Windows 95 desktop. (To use the page you're on, drag the icon in the top left corner of the browser and drop it on the desktop.) That automatically creates a Shortcut icon from which you can launch the page.

To change the icon, right-click it, select Properties, and click the Change Icon button in the dialog box that appears. You can then browse around to find ICO, DLL, and EXE files that contain other, more interesting icons.

MAKE A CHANNEL SCREENSAVER

The Active Desktop lets Windows 95 use the Active Channels you've subscribed to as screensavers. To activate this function, right-click a blank piece of the Windows desktop, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab. Select Channel Screen Saver from the Screen Saver drop-down list; then click the Settings button to bring up the Screen Saver Properties box.

The General tab displays a list of all your subscribed channels. Check the boxes next to the ones you want to use; Windows will cycle through all the checked channels. Below the list of channels, you can set how many seconds each channel will appear, as well as determine whether or not to play any sounds that are on these pages. Finally, you can choose whether the screensaver will close when you move the mouse or whether it will wait for you to click.

CREATE CUSTOM FOLDER VIEWS

IE 4.0's True Web Integration lets you use HTML to customize the look and layout of your folders. Select Start/Programs/Windows Explorer. Navigate to the folder you want to customize (or simply open any folder shortcuts you may have). Right-click the folder window's background. Select Customize This Folder from the pop-up menu that appears.

A Wizard will offer you three choices: "Create or edit an HTML document," "Choose a background picture," and "Remove customization." The simplest customization is simply to select a new background image to use in the folder. If you decide to create a new look and feel via HTML, the Wizard will launch your default HTML editor and load the folder icons and links. You can then modify the page any way you wish and save the resulting file (using the default name the Wizard selects). Whenever you view the folder, it will sport the look you created for it. If you hate what you've done, go back to the Wizard and edit the customization or use the third option to revert to the folder's original look.

MAKE FTP AS EASY AS ABC

With True Web Integration, any folder window can become an FTP client. Just type an FTP address in the Adress toolbar and hit Enter. You'll go straight to the FTP site. Unfortunately, you can't simply drag a file from the FTP site to your local system (dragging merely copies a Shortcut for the file). To save the remote file, click the file's name. You'll get the standard IE "Save it to disk" dialog box. From there, you can browse to save the file in any folder.

GET BRAND NEW FOLDER VIEWS

The True Web Integration capabilities that come with IE 4.0 give Windows 95folders a whole new look. To check out the differences, just open anyfolder on your system. Suddenly, all your folder windows look a lot likeInternet Explorer.

They also act a lot like Internet Explorer. Open a folder within a folder,and the new folder replaces the first in the same window instead oflaunching another window. Drill down into a few subfolders, and you can usethe Back button to retrace your steps. Other buttons let you move up onedirectory at a time; cut, copy, and paste files and folders; check a file'sproperties; undo a rename or deletion; delete a file or folder; and changeyour view of the folder.

The new folders also let you find out additional information about theircontents. Highlight the icon of any file, folder, or application in afolder window, and the window's left margin will display information aboutthe item, such as its title, the type of file it is, the date it was lastmodified, and a short description of its contents.

And there's more: select View/Explorer Bar from the main menu and pick oneof the four Explorer Bars that come with IE 4.0.Select View/Customize This Folder to create your ownlook for any folder. And if you want to view a Web page, just selectone from the Favorites menu or type its URL in the Address box; the folderwindow becomes an Internet Explorer window displaying the page you requested.

If you'd prefer to have your old folder behavior back, select View/FolderOptions from any folder you have open. On the General tab, select theClassic Style radio button. Alternatively, choose Custom, then click theSettings button to open the Custom Settings dialog box, where you can pickand choose from among the new folder behaviors.

SEND THE WHOLE PAGE

Click the Mail button in IE 4.0, and you'll notice something new in addition to the long-standing Read Mail, New Message, Send a Link, and Read News choices. The Send Page option lets you ship off the entire HTML source code of the page you're viewing. If your recipients have email clients that can view HTML files directly, they won't have to connect to the Web to view the page.

MAIL IN HTML

Outlook Express lets you create and view email in HTML instead of just in plain text. To create an HTML message, click the Compose Message button on the main menu. In the New Message menu, select Format/Rich Text (HTML). A new toolbar appears that contains standard HTML formatting buttons for fonts, lists, images, and lines. You can use these buttons to create slick HTML email that your recipients can view either in HTML-ready email programs or in a Web browser.

MIX MAIL AND NEWS

Outlook Express combines your mail reader and newsreader into a single interface, letting you view messages from both sources without having to open a new window or start a different application. You can also file email and news messages in that same folder. First, create a new folder by selecting File/Folder/New Folder from the main menu. Type your new folder name and click OK. Now you can drag mail and news messages from the message header window on the right directly into your new folder.

ADD NEW SUBFOLDERS INSTANTLY

To quickly add a new subfolder to your standard set of mail folders, right-click the folder you want to use as the parent, and then select New Folder. Enter the new folder's name, and click OK.

FILTER THE NEWS

There are two big problems with Usenet newsgroups these days: first, popular groups get more messages than anyone would ever want to read; second, undesirable, disruptive individuals (let's call them "twits" for short) show up whenever a large number of people congregate in a newsgroup. Outlook Express's newsgroup filters can help solve both problems.

Select Tools/Newsgroup Filters from the main menu to get started. Click Add to create a new filter. In the Where To Filter section, select the group you want to filter, and then add your own info to the "Do not show messages that meet the following criteria" section. For example, if you know that a certain twit uses the same email address for all his or her postings, enter that address in the From line. If a certain news thread has become overly long and annoying, you can avoid it by typing the subject line in the Subject box. You can also choose to avoid messages under a certain length or over a certain age.

USE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS TO MANAGE MAIL AND NEWS

These days, many people have multiple email accounts, both personal and business-related. Outlook Express makes it easy to create several accounts that you can check independently or all at once. With Inbox Assistant, you can even combine multiple accounts and put your mail in different folders based on those accounts.

When you first install Outlook Express (as part of the IE 4.0 installation) you create your first account. To add more, select Tools/Accounts from the Outlook Express main menu. Click the Add button, and then select Mail to create a new mail account. A Wizard steps you through the process of creating the new account. When the Wizard finishes, click the Close button in the Internet Accounts dialog box. To check mail in any or all of your accounts, select Tools/Send and Receive from the Outlook Express menu, and choose either All Accounts or an individual account name.

SORT MAIL AUTOMATICALLY

The old Internet Mail in IE 3.0 had an Inbox Assistant to help you sort mail messages as they arrived, but Outlook Express's new Inbox Assistant puts it to shame. To access the Assistant, select Tools/Inbox Assistant from the main Outlook Express menu. Then click the Add button to create a new sort rule. The old Inbox Assistant let you select only basic To, From, CC, and Subject criteria, and then only let you move corresponding messages to a new folder. The updated Inbox Assistant gives you many new options, such as deleting messages, autoreplying, leaving copies on the server, or forwarding messages to a different address.

You can even use the Inbox Assistant to sort mail that's already in your inbox. Just set up your sorting rules with the Inbox Assistant, click the Apply To button, and select your inbox. Outlook Express filters through the existing inbox messages and applies the rules accordingly.

ARRANGE YOUR TOOLBARS

IE 4.0 makes it easy to arrange your toolbars however you like. Hide and unhide them by selecting View/Toolbars from the main menu and clicking Standard Buttons, Address Bar, or Links. To rearrange the bars, just grab a toolbar's handle (on its left edge), and drag it wherever you like.

To use your desktop real estate more efficiently, put two toolbars on the same line. To see items that may be obscured, click the tiny arrows at the edges of the toolbars to scroll through the items. Or just double-click a toolbar's handle to have it slide completely out of the way (only the handle will remain in view). Double-click the handle again to bring the toolbar back.

CHANGE QUICKLINK ICONS

You're not stuck with the page-on-a-globe icon Microsoft supplies for your QuickLink buttons. To change a QuickLink's icon, right-click it, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. On the Internet Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon button. Choose one of the icons that appears, or click the Browse button to find more icons. (Hint: try the c:\windows\system\shell32.dll folder.)

INCREASE YOUR NET SECURITY

Internet Explorer 3.0 gives you the option of getting a warning when a Web site tries to transfer a cookie or install an ActiveX Control. But most of us get sick of being warned almost constantly and end up turning the warnings off altogether, blindly accepting every potential security risk.

But IE 4.0 has a new way to let you stay secure without going crazy: a security model called security zones that allows you to assign different levels of security to different groups of Web sites. The four zones you can use are Intranet (for sites on your own corporate intranet), Trusted (for those Internet sites you trust enough to download files and applications from), Internet (for general, unknown Internet sites), and Restricted (for those sites your network administrator deems dangerous--for instance, that contain software that may damage your computer or network).

IE automatically assigns any site you access internally (that is, without going through your company's Internet server) to the Intranet zone. You yourself select the list of sites in the Trusted zone. Your network administrator may use the IE 4.0 Administration Kit to assign certain sites to the Restricted zone, thus preventing harmful software from making its way into the company's network. Everything else falls into the Internet zone.

To add a site to a zone, select View/Options from the main menu. In the Options dialog box that pops up, click the Security tab. Select a zone from the drop-down list; then click the Add Sites button. In the new dialog box that appears, type the site's URL in the "Add this Web site to the zone" box, and click the Add button. Click OK.

Back in the Options dialog box, you can set the security level for the zone. Choose from High, which blocks all content that could damage your computer; Medium, which warns you before running such content; Low, which runs such content without warning; and Custom, which lets you pick and choose what to download or run. Under Custom, click the Settings button to bring up a new dialog box where you can choose to turn off or on or be warned about ActiveX Controls, Java applets, scripts, and various types of downloads.

FIND AND SUBSCRIBE TO CHANNELS

To access IE 4.0's Active Channels, click the Channels icon (a satellite dish) in the IE toolbar. The Channels Bar lists available channels and appears as a pane on the left side of the browser window. (Another way to get to it is to click the same icon in the Quick Launch area of the Windows Taskbar. This brings up the Channel Viewer, which is essentially a full-screen version of IE. Move your cursor to the left side of the screen, and the Channels Bar slides out.)

Certain channels, such as Disney and MSN, are available directly from the Channels Bar. Others are grouped into categories--click a category, and you see a listing of the channels in it. You can also click the Microsoft Channel Guide option in the Channels Bar, which downloads the latest list of available channels; click one of the categories to locate individual channels you want to subscribe to. (Once enough channels have been added, Microsoft plans to include a search engine in the Channel Guide; for now, you can easily navigate all channels using the basic index.)

Click a channel to preview it. If you like the channel and want to be notified when it's updated, you can subscribe by clicking the Add Active Channel button. (You may need to go one or two screens into the preview to get to this button.)

When you go to a channel you've subscribed to, Internet Explorer shifts to full-screen mode and the Channels Bar disappears. You can get it back simply by moving your cursor to the left side of the screen.

GO FAR WITH THE EXPLORER BAR

Microsoft has added a handy new navigation feature to IE 4.0: the Explorer Bar. Actually, that's the collective name for its four components: the Search Bar, the Favorites Bar, the History Bar, and the Channels Bar. When activated, each bar appears in a pane on the left side of the browser window, while the main part of the window continues to show Web content.

To activate any of the Explorer Bars, just click its icon in the toolbar. Click a link in any Explorer Bar, and the right pane takes you there--without closing the bar in the left pane. This feature is perhaps the most useful when you're performing a search, but it comes in handy when you're using your Favorites, History, or Channels list, too.

To replace the existing Explorer Bar with a different one, just click a different toolbar icon. To make them all go away and get your whole browser window back, click the X in the upper-right corner of the bar.

TYPE LESS WITH AUTOCOMPLETE

Here's another way AutoComplete can save you some typing: to go to a commercial site with its own domain name, just type the domain name (for example, cnet), and press Ctrl-Enter. Internet Explorer automatically wraps http://www and .com around the name.

FIND FOLDERS FASTER WITH AUTOCOMPLETE

AutoComplete isn't just for browsers anymore. Now when you start to type the path and name of a folder into a folder window's Address toolbar, Windows automatically fills in what it thinks is the rest of the path and name. If it's not the folder you're looking for, right-click the Address bar, and select Completions from the pop-up menu to see a list of other possibilities. Click the one you want, hit Enter, and you're there.

NAVIGATE FAST THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Who says DOS is dead? In any folder window, just type the old DOS command .. (two periods) in the Address toolbar to go up one folder level.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR DETAILED VIEW

If you're the type who likes to know a lot about your files and folders, you probably choose to look at your folders in Details View. But you may care more about some details than others--and they're not necessarily the details Microsoft gives you first. But IE 4.0's True Web Integration lets you rearrange the details the way you like.

To move a column, drag its label and drop it where you wish; the whole column will follow along. To resize a column, place your cursor between column labels, then drag to the right or left.

To save your new settings for the folder and all its subfolders, hold down the Ctrl key as you close the folder window.

IMPORT ADDRESS BOOKS AND MESSAGES

Don't start from scratch with Outlook Express! It's easy to import your existing Netscape or Eudora email messages and address books.

To import messages, select File/Import/Messages from the main menu. A Wizard steps you through the process of importing the message.

Importing an address book is even easier. Select File/Import/Address Book from the main menu. Select the email client you want to import from; then click the Import button. Voilą!

ADD REPLY RECIPIENTS TO THE ADDRESS BOOK

If you've gotten a message from someone new, you can now easily add their address to your address book. When you reply to that person, right-click the To field, and select "Add to Address Book" from the pop-up menu.

FIND PEOPLE FAST

It's easy to find someone's email address when you've got the whole Net at your disposal. Just click the Find People icon on Outlook Express's front page. A dialog box pops up offering you several different directories to choose from, including Bigfoot, WhoWhere, and Four11. Choose a directory to search, type the first and last name of the person you're looking for, and click the Find Now button. The matches are displayed below. Select the person you want, and click the "Add to Address Book" button for later reference.

SEND A V-CARD

With Outlook Express, you can send a V-card--or electronic business card--as an attachment to email messages.

To set up a card, select Tools/Stationery from the main menu. In the Stationery dialog box, click the Signature button. In the Signature dialog box, find the Personal Business Card area, and click the New button. Enter the info for your V-card, and click OK when you're done. Back in the Signature dialog box, select the card, and then check the box marked "Attach card to all outgoing messages." If you subsequently send a message that you don't want your card attached to, just toggle the card off by selecting Insert/Business Card from the New Message menu as you're composing the message.

(Note that V-cards will work only with email clients that support them, such as Outlook Express and Netscape Messenger. Other programs will display an unreadable attachment.)

PIN THE CHANNELS BAR

When you're viewing channels in full-screen mode, you may find it distracting to have the Channels Bar open and close whenever you move the cursor near the left side of the screen. To stop this from happening, click the thumbtack icon at the top of the Channels Bar; this will keep the Channels Bar open and force the content to the right side of the IE window.

UPDATE ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CHANNELS AT ONCE

There are times when you don't want to wait for your channels' and subscriptions' scheduled updates. You can manually update each subscription individually, but what if you want them all updated at once? Just select Favorites/Update All Subscriptions from the main menu.

A great time to do this is when you're heading out for lunch. You can have IE check all of your subscribed Web sites for changes and download them while you're out, and any of the day's changes will be ready to view when you return.

INCREASE YOUR CACHE SIZE

If you subscribe to multiple Web sites and channels, particularly ones with a lot of storage-hogging graphics, sounds, ActiveX Controls, or multimedia, you may need to increase the amount of storage space on your hard disk available for IE 4.0 to stash pages.

Select View/Internet Options from the main menu. In the Internet Options dialog box, select the General tab and click the Settings button under Temporary Internet Files. In the Settings dialog box, drag the slider to set the amount of disk space as high as you think you'll need for your pages. A typical page, with lots of graphics, is usually less than .5 megabytes, so plan accordingly. (As a general rule, allow between one and four percent of your hard disk space for your cache.)

DOWNLOAD SUBSCRIBED SOUND AND VIDEO

If you have the disk space to set a large cache size, you might want to have Internet Explorer download sounds and video from subscribed sites for offline browsing. This will allow you to cache data from sites or channels that showcase, for example, music previews, then listen to them the next day without any of the usual delays.

In the Channels Bar or Favorites Bar, right-click a subscribed channel or Web site and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Properties dialog box, click the Receiving tab. Under Subscription Type, select "Notify me when updates occur, and download for offline viewing," then click the Advanced button. Under Items to Download, you can check the items you want to download: images, sound and video, and ActiveX Controls and Java applets. Items you leave unchecked will not download automatically. Finally, you can choose a maximum number of kilobytes to download per update.

PUT A CHANNEL ON YOUR DESKTOP

One nice feature of the Active Desktop is that it can display channel content as part of the desktop. Since most users don't want full-size animated pages competing for precious desktop space, desktop channels are usually pared-down versions of their full browser counterparts.

A handful of content providers currently offer desktop versions of their channels, but many more are on the way. One that's available now is from CNET's SEARCH.COM--it lets you perform Web searches right from your desktop. Just type a keyword in the text box and click the Search button; an Internet Explorer window will launch with the results (or if your browser is already open, the results will appear there). Another available desktop channel is PointCast's news ticker, which keeps you abreast of the latest headlines. Clicking the ticker's headlines opens the story in the Internet Explorer browser.

To add a channel to your desktop, simply open the channel in Internet Explorer, then click the appropriate button (some channels use their own desktop button; others use Microsoft's standard "Add to Active Desktop" button).

You can also place the Channels Bar on your desktop in the same way you add items such as Web pages and ActiveX Controls (see "activate the Active Desktop"). Once the Channels Bar is on your desktop, just click a channel to launch it in Internet Explorer's full-screen mode.

UNSUBSCRIBE TO CHANNELS

Not a Disney Channel kind of person? If IE's prelisted channels are getting in your way, you can remove any of them by right-clicking its button in the Channels Bar and selecting Delete.

Just follow the standard subcribing procedure to get a channel back in your Channels Bar.

CREATE A PERSONAL NEWS PAGE

After you have subscribed to the MSNBC channel, click the Personalize This Page link (at the bottom of the large graphic, just above the text menu bars) to fill out the customization form. This lets you choose what you would like to appear on your Personal Front Page, including items such as national and international news, commerce, sports, and local weather. For instance, if you love hockey but couldn't care less about football, simply request hockey scores but no football scores.

Once you've set it up, your Personal Front Page appears every time you visit MSNBC, just below the standard front page. To change your preferences at any time, just click the Personalize This Page icon again.

GET A PERSONAL NEWS ALERT

If you need breaking news, try MSNBC's Personal News Alert, which notifies you whenever news of certain topics changes.

To install News Alert, go to the MSNBC home page and click the Toolkit link in the menu bar at the bottom of the page. Next, click the bull's-eye icon next to Personal News Alert. Here you can read about News Alert; when you're ready, click on the bull's-eye icon next to "How to download News Alert" to install the Alert applet. (The site's instructions tell you not to save the program to disk, which is fine if you just want to test the program out. To install it permanently on your hard drive, however, you should choose the "Save it to disk" option in the security box that pops up.)

A bull's-eye icon appears on your desktop. Double-click it to complete the News Alert installation. A smaller bull's-eye icon appears in the System Tray on the right end of your Windows Taskbar. Normally, this icon is a muted black on gray, but when News Alert detects changes in the news topics you request, the icon changes to flashing red. Just click on the icon to launch the News Alert window. Summaries of the new news stories will appear in the window; click the left and right arrows in the upper-right corner to scroll through the summaries. Click the Full Story link at the bottom of any summary to open the complete story in Internet Explorer. You can also use the File menu to launch MSNBC, CNET's NEWS.COM, or Microsoft Investor in IE, manually check for new news alerts, or review recent alerts.

News Alert defaults to checking for the same types of news stories you specify in your Personal Front Page. But you can use the News Alert window's Customize menu to configure the applet to look for the news you want. For example, selecting Customize/MSNBC Sections lets you choose which categories of stories, such as World, Commerce, and Sports, should generate alerts. Selecting Customize/Personal Topics lets you specify keywords so that News Alert will generate alerts from stories containing those words. And selecting Customize/Stock Quotes lets you receive an alert any time a stock in your portfolio gains or loses a specified amount.

GET EMAIL DELIVERY

Instead of going to the MSNBC channel, you can receive your MSNBC news by email. The Front Page is sent as an attachment with an email message; to read it, you'll need to install the Personal Delivery Launcher, a browser plug-in, on your computer. (This service won't work with WebTV.)

To get the Personal Delivery Launcher, go to the MSNBC channel's home page and click on the Toolkit link in the menu bar at the bottom of the page. In the Toolkit, click the winged globe icon next to Personal Delivery. Click the Download Launcher button to download the plug-in's installation software to your hard disk.

Before you leave MSNBC's Toolkit page to run the launcher's installation program, click the Continue button on the Personal Delivery page. Fill out the form with your preferences for news categories, days you want to receive news, time of delivery, and your time zone. Click the Subscribe button.

Next, install the Personal Delivery Launcher. Double-click the installer icon on your desktop. Click Yes when prompted, and you're done.

Now, when you receive your Personal Delivery notice in your email client, you just double-click the attachment. The plug-in you installed will launch your personal news page in an Internet Explorer window.

GO FULL-SCREEN

Internet Explorer 4.0's toolbar adds a new button that lets you see more ofa Web site at once. Just click the Fullscreen button to have IE take overyour whole screen--without IE's standard interface framing the Web content.(An icons-only version of the standard toolbar remains at the top of thescreen.) Just click the Fullscreen button again to return to normal view.

EASTER OR GOOSE EGG

Select "Help" from the main menu. You'll see "About Internet Explorer," and a dialog box will pop up. While holding the Ctrl and Shift keys, use your left mouse button to select the IE logo and then drag it all the way to the left. Next, while still holding the keys down, move the logo to the right,going over the "Microsoft IE 4.0" black text. A button will then be revealed that says "Unlock." Click it.

If the IE logo is not already over the earth, it will merely rumble, but if it is moved over the Earth or is already there, it will open a new window,revealing a long list of credits about the makers of IE 4.0, as well as a few inside jokes.