Internet Explorer 8

The latest version of Internet Explorer came out last Friday and I’ve spent some time looking at it.

There are some excellent new features in IE8, and some questionable ones. Like every upgrade to a browser there will be things you like and things you don’t like.

Some of the things I like; Zoom – allows you to zoom in on a web site without changing the font size. I like this a lot, especially as I get older and it feels like text keeps getting smaller! Another thing I like are the add-ons. Firefox has had this option for a while, and now you can add-on functionality in IE8.  My best example is Foxmarks…this is a service that you add-on to your browser so that all of your bookmarks are synchronized on all of your computers.  Accelerators are a new option in IE8 that I also like. One of the accelerators is the mapping feature. Highlight an address on a web site and a little box appears that you can click on – you can select a mapping tool and it will automatically take you to a map using that tool.  I changed mine to Google Maps and liked this function.

IE8 boosts new safety features which are readily available from your toolbar. You can conduct what is called “InPrivate Browsing” where no trail will be left behind (no cookies, no browsing history), however, some functionality is lost with this option.

One more feature I would like to mention is the Compatibility View. When Microsoft moved from IE6 to IE7 webmasters around the world cringed because the design of our web pages no longer looked the same.  With IE8 if a page doesn’t look right (alignment is funky, or text seems off) you can select the Compatibility View option and the page will look as the web designer planned for it to look.

When you go to download IE8, there are lots of explanations of the newest features. If you are going to download, spend some time looking before you make the leap to the new version. If you are still using IE7, I highly recommend downloading IE8. If you are still using IE6, you can completely avoid IE7 and move right on over to IE8…but if you really want the best browser, I still recommend Firefox.  — Jill

Google’s new browser, Chrome

Google just launched a beta version of their own browser called Chrome. Like the giant nerd that I am I immediately downloaded it and starting using it. 

So what do I think? I like it. First of all there is less stuff cluttering up the top of the window (tool and menu bars are limited). Second, it has a very clean look to it. When I’m working on the web I don’t want to be distracted by my browser window. Third, the downloading function is easy.  Fourth, no more need for a Google search box, you just use the address bar for searching or entering a full web address. Fifth and probably their biggest selling point is their tabbed browsing functionality. Other browsers that allow you to use tabs for different web sites have the fatal flaw that when one of the sites in your tabs crashes it brings down all your other tabbed sites. Not so with Chrome – Excellent feature!

Other things I like about it – it has a total nerd factor going for it – when you go to the Tools Menu and look at Options, your choices are Basics, Minor Tweaks, and Under the Hood.  Here again the information is very clean and simple to understand. They also have some really good tools for webmasters like me to look at. 

There are only two things about it I don’t like so far. 1) Bookmarks, this is a little different than what we are used to  seeing. To bookmark a page you just click on the star next to the web address. It’s easy to do, but it wasn’t apparent to me at first. It did bring in my bookmarks from both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but I really need to reorganize them now because there kind of a jumbled mess. I also don’t like where the bookmark button is. It is on the far right side of the window and the way it pops out is just very different than I’m used to or that I like. 2) Chrome is not showing the RSS feeds from our website yet. I’m sure they will fix that. 

This is a beta release, which means it’s still being tweaked. Overall I like the clean look and feel, it’s security is good and the crash prevention is an excellent feature. You can try it for yourself if you like and read more about it at: http://www.google.com/chrome –Jill

Setting Browser Preferences

Are you still using Internet Explorer? Have you tried Firefox yet? If not give it a try. In the meantime, I wanted to talk a little bit about setting some of the preferences for whatever browser you are using.

In IE (Internet Explorer) from the menu bar select TOOLS then select INTERNET OPTIONS. You will see a window with lots of tabs, the first one being GENERAL. So what can you do here? The first thing you can do is set up your home page. This is the page that will appear every time you click on your IE icon to go to the web. I highly recommend that you set your home page to http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org – but I’m just saying! You can set your home page to just about anything you like, just type in the address or URL of your home page. Click on APPLY and OK and you are done. Click on the little house button in your toolbar and you will be taken to your homepage.

Another thing you can do on the GENERAL tab is to deal with Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, and your browsing History.

Temporary Internet Files are just that, files that are loaded into a temporary folder on your computer when you visit a website.  Click on the SETTINGS button. The first thing you see here is how often to “Check for newer versions of stored pages.” This feature works with the Temporary Internet Files to save you time when you go to a web site. If it is set to Never, your browser will use your temporary files and show you that version of the website. If the site has been changed or updated, you won’t see those changes. I have mine set to Every visit to the page. This assures that when I go back to a site I’ve been to before, I’ll get the newest version.

Next thing on the settings window to look at is the Temporary Internet files folder. You can see the location of the folder and the amount of disk space your computer computer has alloted for these files. Mine is set to 50MB, plenty of room!

Now click on VIEW FILES. If you are like me and have your Cookies turned on – you should see lots of files there. Close that window, click on OK and go back to the General Tab. You can delete all of those files you just saw, and the cookies by clicking on Delete Cookies and Delete Files. It’s okay to do this and select Delete all offline content when you delete the files.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the History. This is a helpful option you probably didn’t even know about. Go back to IE and click on the little down arrow at the far right side of the address bar. That is your History list. It you go back now to your Internet Options you can see how many days of history are there. Mine is set to three, but I push that Clear History button pretty often. After you push it and go back to IE and look again at the little down arrow, you will see nothing.

If you are sharing computer with someone knowing this information may come in handy. It’s not my job to judge, but I’m sure if you think about it, you can probably see advantages and disadvantages to the History, Temporary Internet Files and Cookies options. You can clean yours up as you like. I’ll talk about more of these Internet Options in my upcoming posts. — Jill

Let’s talk about toolbars

While you are reading this entry, click your mouse on the View menu at the top of your browser. From there, roll on down to Toolbars. What do you see? Is there a navigation toolbar, an address toolbar, bookmarks, Google, Yahoo!? Although most browsers come with some extra toolbars sometimes when you load new or update old stuff on your computer new toolbars will appear.

It only takes a second to turn these on and off to see what they are doing and if you are using them. Give it a try, I’ll wait.

So are you using any of those toolbars? Here’s a surprise, you may think you are not using them, but actually some of them are in use, even when you can’t see them. A good example of this is the Yahoo! toolbar. A staff member and I were recently working on her computer and we kept having problems seeing stuff on the web she needed to get to. We eventually figured out that her Yahoo! toolbar was blocking pop-up windows even though the toolbar wasn’t even showing in her browser window. Blocking pop-ups can be a good thing, but your browser will usually do that for you. (I’ll be writing a post on configuring your browser where I will talk more about blocking pop-ups.)

So, if you are not using the toolbars, you can remove them, and here is how. Go to Start, Control Panel, and Add or Remove Programs. Carefully look through the list of programs installed and see if you can find the toolbar. When you select the toolbar there will be a remove button or a change/remove button. If you are absolutely, positively sure you want to remove it, click the button and say so long.

Toolbars can be great in making your web surfing easier, but if you are not using them, take a minute and remove them. Remember, you can always go out and find the toolbar again and reinstall. — Jill

Browser Wars

Since I started here at Durham County as the library webmaster I have run into a lot of issues with the way our web site looks in different web browsers. These issues are a common headache for those of us trying to create user-friendly web sites.

Here are some notes on different browsers and why I like or do not like them.

Firefox – by far my favorite browser. This little open source program offers just about everything you need to find your way around the web. I love the tabbed browsing and the download manager. Since Firefox is open source, there are lots of add-ons you can use. I like synchronized bookmarks between my home and work computers. Please do be aware that you won’t be able to use Firefox for some Microsoft sites or some web applications.

Internet Explorer -  by far my least favorite browser. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has bugs. Depending on the version you are using you may see more bugs. Version 7 is the latest, and although it offers some new features liked tabbed browsing, many web pages just do not work the way the web designer made them. You should always have a copy of IE on your computer, but stick to Version 6 with all of the service pack upgrades it offers.

Netscape – The most popular browser when the web started is no longer being supported after March 1st 2008. The last version is 9 and it does offer some good options, I like the Link Pad. However, since Netscape will be no more, I recommend moving over to Firefox.

Opera – Have you ever even heard of Opera? This browser is sleek and fast. It has some great widgets you can add and it also offers tabbed browsing. If you like the look and feel of a Mac browser, Opera will give you just that.

Safari – This browser has been a Mac-only browser since it first came out in 2003. As of now though, there is a Windows version available. If you like the look and feel of a Mac on your Windows PC, this is the browser for you. It has great functionality and I like to use it to remind me that there are other users out there in the world besides us PC users.

Summing up – If you have always only used one browser, try something new. A Google search will get you to the download pages for all of these browsers. Don’t be afraid, you can run multiple browsers on your PC, just not multiple versions of the same browser.

Do hold onto the IE Version 6 if you can, although it doesn’t offer the tabbed browsing of the other browsers, it is still a very stable and necessary component on any Windows PC. — Jill