Definitions

These are some terms commonly used to reference objects on the internet or within Internet Explorer.

• URL: Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the address to a particular webpage. For example, the URL to this page is: http://www.vcu.edu/vissta/training/support/tutorials/ie6tutorial/index.html
• Homepage: The homepage is the very first page that is displayed when Internet Explorer launches.
• Address Bar: The field that displays the URL of the current page. A user can type in a desired URL to display a specific page.
• Shortcut: A shortcut is a quick way to access a file or webpage. Usually a shortcut will appear as an icon on the desktop or in a menu.
• Link: A link is similar to a shortcut except links are objects within a webpage. This is an example link to this page.
• Clipboard: The clipboard is a temporary storage place for content. A user can copy to the clipboard within one program and paste from the clipboard in another program.
• Cookies: Cookies are bits of information a website may store on a user's computer. Typical information that is stored include, items in a shopping cart, what links a user has followed, and other information the website may need in order to customize their site to a particular user.
• Icon: An icon is a small picture associated with a program. Internet Explorer's icon is
  ®
• Field: A field is a place to type some information. Here is an example of a field:
  
  Sample Field

The Toolbar

The toolbar is at the top of the window and is divided into the menubar and the navigation bar.

Menubar: The menubar contains the menus for accessing different features of Internet Explorer. The menu categories are File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools and Help.

Navigation bar: The navigation bar is filled with icons representing different options a user can perform to navigate about the internet.

• The Back Button: Used to go back to the last page viewed. You can press back multiple times.
• The Forward Button: Used to go forward through previously viewed pages. Both the back and forward buttons have a drop down menu (the little black triangle) next to each button. These will pull down a selectable list of all of the previously viewed pages.
• The Stop Button: Used to stop downloading a webpage.
• The Refresh Button: Used to re-download a webpage. Generally used if a page does not display properly or the contents of the page have changed but the changes are not displayed.
• The Home Button: Displays the homepage.

File Menu

• New: Opens a submenu with some items that can be created. A new window will open another instance of Internet Explorer.
• Open: Allows the user to view a website or a folder on the user's computer. This method is identical to typing in the address in the address bar.
• Save As: Allows a user to save the current page locally to the hard drive.
• Page Setup: Opens up a setup window with options for customizing the look of a printout of the page.
• Print: Prints the current page with the constraints given in page setup. (Default settings are usually fine)
• Print Preview: Opens a window that will display what a printout will look like before a user prints.
• Send: Send is a submenu with options that allow a user to email the current page, a link to the page, or create a shortcut on the desktop.
• Close: Closes this instance of Internet Explorer.

Edit Menu

• Copy: Copies the selected contents to the clipboard.
• Select All: Selects all contents on the page.
• Find on this page: Opens a search box to search for some text on the current page.

View Menu

The view menu has a number of functions tailored to the look of Internet Explorer.

• Toolbars: A submenu with options for showing different toolbars. Experiment with the different choices to see what each option does. Placing a check next to each option enables them and makes them visible. Those options that are not checked are not enabled and not visible. Just remember to re-check the options that were originally checked.
• Status Bar: The status bar is at the bottom of the window. It displays information about various aspects of Internet Explorer. For example, when a user clicks on a link, the number of images left to download is displayed along with what page is loading.
• Explorer Bar: A submenu with various explorer options. Search opens a search box to search the internet. Favorites opens a window of all the user's saved favorites. History opens a list of all the websites a user has visited in the last few weeks.
• Go to: A submenu for jumping to a previously viewed page. Identical functions to the back and forward buttons in the navigation bar.
• Stop: Stops the current page from loading. Identical to the stop button in the navigation bar.
• Refresh: Reloads the current page. Identical to the refresh button on the navigation bar.
• Text Size: Makes the size of the text on a current page larger or smaller. Experiment with the different options to see their effects.
• Encoding: Allows the user to pick a language that may be displayed on the page. Usually the best option is auto select.
• Source: Shows the source HTML code for the current page.
• Full Screen: Puts Internet Explorer into kiosk mode. Try it now to see what it looks like. Remember to press "F11" on your keyboard to return to normal mode. Sometimes users accidentally hit the "F11" key just above the backspace button and are unable to get Internet Explorer back to normal.

Favorites Menu

The favorites menu provides a means of saving websites that a user finds useful or interesting. When the user wants to re-visit that site at a later date, they can simply click on the saved favorite and it will go directly to the corresponding page.

• Add To Favorites: Opens up a box asking where to save a favorite for the currently displayed page. The user may opt to categorize their favorites into subfolders.
• Organize Favorites: A box for moving favorites to various sub folders within the favorites menu.

Tools Menu

Within the tools menu is an option called Internet Options.

The Internet Options window is split up into 7 tabs.

• General Tab: Has options to set the user's homepage, clear out temp files, and clear the history cache.
• Security Tab: Has many different security settings. Settings set too low may leave a user vulnerable to attack by hackers, settings too high may render some sites non-functional. As a rule of thumb, the default of medium is a safe place to leave this setting.
• Privacy Tab: Has a slider setting for the handling of cookies. Cookies are generally harmless and a setting of medium is a good rule of thumb for the security tab.
• Content Tab: Contains settings for content filtering. Some organizations, like schools, will have additional filtering software to filter out inappropriate materials. Auto complete is another option on the content tab. Auto complete is designed to save information typed in text fields like login information so that a user does not have to type it in every time. To turn this feature on or off, check or uncheck the boxes for the different types of text fields.
• Connections: Stores information pertaining to how a computer connects to the internet.
• Programs: Stores which programs Internet Explorer will use for each internet service.
• Advanced: Has settings pertaining to various aspects of the web. A good rule of thumb here is the default settings.

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Internet Explorer 6 Tutorial is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.