Browser tricks for faster, smarter web surfing

The fact is, most Internet users just scratch the surface of the time-saving features built into the two most popular browsers on the market - Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla Firefox. Learning some of those features, though, can save you a lot of time over the long haul, perhaps leaving you to wonder how you ever lived without them.

Quicker tabs

Firefox's original claim to fame was its tabbed interface. But now that Internet Explorer 7 has tabs as well, everyone can enjoy looking through multiple websites without spawning a plethora of browser windows.

Most people use the slow way to open a new page in a tab. In Internet Explorer, instead of clicking a new tab and then opening a webpage, hold down the Ctrl key and click a link you'd like to appear in a new tab. The page will open in a new tab while leaving focus on the current page. Hold down Shift and Ctrl at the same time while clicking a link to open the page in a foreground tab, stealing the focus from any page already displayed.

In Firefox, instead of right-clicking a link and choosing Open Link in New Tab, click a link with your mouse scroll wheel button to open it immediately in a new tab. You can also use the Ctrl and ShiftCtrl keyboard shortcuts that apply to IE7.

Go smoothly You spend a lot of time scrolling up and down long webpages, and both Firefox and IE7 make those trips less jarring with a feature known as smooth scrolling. Essentially, smooth scrolling makes moving up and down a webpage less jarring by smoothing out the transition when you press the PgUp or PgDown key or use your mouse to move the horizontal scroll bar of your browser.

In Firefox, enable smooth scrolling in the Advanced section of the options dialog box. In IE7, click ''Use Smooth Scrolling'' in the Advanced section of the Internet Options dialog box. In both browsers, the Options dialog is accessible from the Tools menu.

Shorthand searches

Many people spend a lot of time typing the ''World Wide Web'' and ''.com'' of Web addresses. In both Firefox and IE7, that's unnecessary.

Instead, just click in the Address bar of either web browser, type the root of the URL - for example, just ''microsoft'' instead of www.microsoft.com - and press Ctrl-Enter. Either browser will automatically insert ''http://www'' in front of the word and ''.com'' at the end, giving you the complete address you need to reach the website.

In Firefox, you can also press ShiftEnter to have the browser append ''.net'' to the word, and Ctrl-Shift-Enter will take you to ''.org'' addresses.

Nifty zooms

Having trouble reading text on a web page? Both IE7 and Firefox have handy zoom features with which you can quickly increase and decrease the size of text on a page.

In either browser, hold down the Ctrl key and click the plus (+) symbol on the numeric keypad of your keyboard to increase the size of text. Use Ctrl in conjunction with the minus symbol to decrease the size. To reset the text size, hold down the Ctrl key and press the zero (0) key.

In IE7, you can also do the same thing if you have a scroll wheel on your mouse. Hold down the Ctrl key and move the scroll wheel forward or backward to increase or decrease the text size.

Living with AutoComplete

The AutoComplete features of IE7 and Firefox are great if you don't want to retype data constantly into form fields and if you have no concerns about privacy on the PC you use. But plenty of people forego the advantages of AutoComplete for fear that their histories can be used against them somehow.

No problem. IE7 makes removing AutoComplete history simple. From the Tools menu, click Delete Browsing History. You'll then have the option of which types of browsing history to remove. At any time in IE, you can press Ctrl-H to see exactly which sites you've visited. Right-clicking any of them will present a popup menu from which you can select Delete.

Firefox is just as effective at helping you stay secure. To eliminate AutoComplete history in Firefox, open the Tools menu, and click Options, Privacy. Explore the options in the Private Data area to determine exactly which AutoComplete information and history data you'd like to remove, and when. — DPA

scratch the surface to find out about, deal with or understand only a small part of a subject or problem over the long haul over a long period of time; over the long term claim to fame the reason someone or something is famous interface the way a computer presents information to a user or receives information from a user spawning causing to be produced

plethora an amount greater than is needed or wanted foreground the part of a view that is nearest to you scrolling moving text on a computer screen up or down jarring having an unpleasant or annoying effect transition changing from one state or condition to another horizontal going across or parallel to the bottom

enable to make possible to do something accessible able to be used, entered, reached, seen, etc. privacy the state of being alone and not watched or disturbed by other people forego to decide not to have or do something you would like to have or do secure safe; unharmed eliminate to remove or get rid of