Three Tips for Better Browsing
When it comes to searching the internet, you may feel so comfortable with using your browser that it has become second nature to you. You probably pay scant attention to it because it is as common for you to use as is a knife for buttering your bread.
But then, someone may show you a new way for using your knife. Suddenly, it’s not just a tool for spreading butter. Likewise, you can come to see your browser with new eyes.
The following tips can help you sharpen your view of using your browser, save you time, and make your browsing life a little bit easier.
Tip One: Change Font Size
Tip Two: Multiple Home Pages
Tip Three: The Power of Tabs
Bonus Tip: Tiny URLs
Tip One: Change Font Size
Sometimes in your travels on the Internet, you may come across a Web page with a small font that makes reading the page difficult. This problem can be easily fixed. Simply hold down your Control key (or Command key for Mac users) and tap the ‘plus’ key on your keyboard. Tap until the font is at your desired size.
If you accidentally make the font too big, simply hold down the Control (Command) key and tap the hyphen (or minus) key to bring the font size back down.
Changing the font size this way is a temporary solution and does not permanently affect how fonts are displayed in your browser.
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Tip Two: Multiple Home Pages
Do you have two or more Web pages that you access on a regular basis? Would you like to be able to set them as your homepage? Piece of cake!
Once you get multiple homepages set up, every time you open your browser each homepage will open in its individual tab. Then, you will have quick and easy access to multiple pages at one time.
Firefox
First, open a new tab for each page that you want to set as a homepage. Then, on your menu bar, go to Tools, then Options, and click on the Main tab.
(On a Mac, click on Firefox, Preferences and then the Main tab.)
Now, just simply click the button Use Current Pages. Then click the Okay button. You’re all set! Every time you click on the Home button on your navigation bar and every time you open Firefox, all of your homepages will open up in their own individual tabs.
Internet Explorer
Go to the second site that you want to set as your homepage. Click the down arrow next to the Home Page icon that is on the right hand side of the browser window.
Select Add or Change Home Page. In the next window that comes up, click Add this Web page to your homepage tabs. 
Then click Yes. That’s all there is to it!
(At this time, we are not aware of any way to set multiple homepages in Safari.)
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Tip Three: The Power of Tabs
Sometimes you may want to quickly open a new tab in your browser, and you don’t want to click on File and drag down to New Tab. You want something faster, easier. There are several ways to do this.
Firefox
If you don’t want to take your hands off the keyboard, hold down Control and hit the T key. (On a Mac it is Command + T.) This will create a blank new tab.
Another way is to right click on an empty spot on the tab bar. In the pop-up menu, select New Tab. (This works on both Windows and Mac OS.)
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer has two easy ways to create new blank tabs. One is to hold down Control and then tap the T key on your keyboard.
The other way is to click the partial tab that is to the right of your last tab.
Every time you click this partial tab, a new blank tab is created.
Internet Explorer has another nice tab feature. Let’s say you have been doing research and have many tabs open. You want to go back to information on one tab, but you can’t remember which one. You remember what the page looks like, but you can’t remember the name of the site. The Quick Tabs button in Internet Explorer can come to your rescue. You can find the Quick Tabs button on the left-hand side of the tab tool bar.
When you click Quick Tabs, you will see a thumbnail of every tab that you have open.
Clicking on a thumbnail will take you immediately to that tab.
Rearranging Tabs
Sometimes you need your tabs to be arranged in a different order. To do this, click on the tab you want to move. Keep holding down on your mouse and drag the tab to the desired position. When you release your finger, the tab will snap to the new spot. This works on Windows and Mac OS in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
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Bonus tip: One for Good Luck
TinyURL
Have you ever had a long URL that you needed to include in a document, but it was so long that it wrapped from one line to the next? And when it was clicked on, it didn’t work?
Or, have you ever sent or received a long URL in an e-mail message that didn’t work when it was copied and pasted it into a browser? If so, TinyURL is for you!
TinyURL is a free service that takes a long URL and turns it into a shorter one.
To create the shorter URL, copy the long one to your computer’s clipboard and then go to tinyurl.com. Paste your long URL into the Enter a long URL to make tiny textbox.
Click the Make TinyURL Button. Voilà! You now have a short URL. The new URL will never expire.
All you have to do now is copy the short URL and paste it in your desired document or e-mail message.
Now that you understand the purpose and process behind using TinyURL, there’s something even better. TinyURL has set things up so you can simplify the whole process. Here’s how.
First, you need to put a link to TinyURL on your link toolbar. In Firefox (both on Windows and on Mac) and in Safari, click and drag the provided link to your link toolbar. (The link is about mid-way down the page on tinyurl.com.)
In Internet Explorer, you have to add the link the same way you would add a Favorite to the link toolbar.
Once you have the link set up in your toolbar, you can use the simplified process. The next time you are on a site that has a long URL that you want to convert to a tiny one, all you have to do is click on the TinyURL button that is on your links toolbar.
A tiny URL will immediately be created and copied to your clipboard. All that is left for you to do is to paste it into the document or e-mail message.
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