Internet Explorer has become one of the most popular web browsers on the Internet. More than 90% of all web surfers are using some version of Internet Explorer. Here are some tips and tricks to help you be more efficient in Internet Explorer.

Mouse Wheel Tricks in Internet Explorer - The wheel on your mouse (if you have one) can be very useful in Internet Explorer. Here are some of the things it can do:

• Automatic Scrolling - Pressing down or clicking on the wheel makes it act as a third mouse button and gives you an automatic scrolling option. A circle with an four arrows will appear on your screen. Nudge your mouse a tiny bit down. A down arrow will appear and your mouse will begin automatically scroll down. Move your mouse above the circle with the arrows. An up arrow will appear and your mouse will begin to automatically scroll up. Moving the mouse to either side will scroll in that direction. The automatic scroll will continue until you position the cursor over the circle with the arrows again. And, the further you move the cursor away from the circle with the arrows, the faster you will automatically scroll. When you want to stop the automatic scrolling, just click anywhere.
  
  
• Resizing the Font - Ever get to a web page with really small text? With the Ctrl key depressed, move the wheel forward or backward. The font size on the web page you are viewing will resize.
  
  
• Move Back and Forward - You know you can move forward and backward through the web sites you have visited in your current browsing session in Internet Explorer by clicking the back and forward arrows in the Internet Explorer toolbar. You can also move backwards and forwards by holding the Shift key down while you move the mouse wheel forward and back. Another way you can move backward in Internet Explorer is to use the Backspace key.
  
  

Quick Access to WWW dot COM Sites - A lot of the sites you visit probably have the "www" prefix and the ".com" suffix, such as www.microsoft.com. Instead of typing out the entire name, just type "microsoft" and then hold down the Ctrl key while you press the Enter key and "www.microsoft.com" is automatically entered for you! After a while it will become second nature to just enter the name and let Internet Explorer automatically fill in the rest for you.

Save your Ink - You can choose to print only the text and graphics and not the background colors and images of a web page that can waste a lot of printer ink. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu and go to the Advanced tab. Scroll down to Printing and uncheck Print background colors and images and click Apply and then OK. Now, when you print, you will not waste unnecessary ink.

Clearing AutoComplete - Internet Explorer's AutoComplete feature is a nice way to store information you type into web fields and forms for repeat use. Sometimes though, you want to delete an entry that is never used or just do a complete housekeeping and dump the entire history of web form entries. To delete a single entry, select it and press the Delete key. To clear all entries, click on Tools, Internet Options, select the Content tab, choose AutoComplete and then click the Clear Forms button.

Change your Default Home Page - Want to have a different home page come up whenever you enter Internet Explorer or click the Home button? Navigate to the page you would like to select and choose Tools, Internet Options, and click Use Current in the "Home Page" area under the General tab. This will be your new home page until you decide to change it again.

View Web Pages While Offline - Have you ever wanted to read a web page while not being connected to the Internet? One way you can do this is to configure web sites for offline viewing. If you know what pages you want to look at later, just follow these steps:

• Open Internet Explorer. Go to the web page that you want to look at while not connected to the Internet.
  
  
• Click the Favorites menu and click the Add to Favorites command.
  
  
• In the Add Favorite dialog box, put a checkmark in the Make available offline checkbox. Click the Customize button.
  
  
• On the first page of the Offline Favorite Wizard, click Next.
  
  
• On the second page of the Wizard you're asked if you want Internet Explorer to download pages that are linked to the page you want to read. It's nice to be able to read the articles that are linked to the page you are making available offline. You shouldn't go too many links deep, or you might end up running out of disk space, or you'll have to wait a long time to synchronize the page. Click the Yes option and leave the download pages to 1 link deep from this page setting as it is. Click Next.
  
  
• On the third page of the Wizard, you can synchronize the page manually or set a schedule. In this example, we'll synchronize manually. Select the Only when I choose Synchronize from the Tool menu option and click Next.
  
  
• On the fourth page of the Wizard, select No if the Web site doesn't require a password, select Yes if the site does require a password. If the site does require a password, enter your username and password for the Web site. After making the appropriate selection, click Next.
  
  
• Click OK in the Add Favorite dialog box. The page will start synchronizing immediately. When synchronization is complete, the dialog box will close.
  
  
• Now, try testing it and see how it worked. Click the File menu and click the Work Offline command.
  
  
• Click the Favorites menu and click on the Favorites entry you want to view offline. You might see a dialog box that says "Web page unavailable while offline" if there are banner ads on the site. That's OK. Just click the Stay Offline button as many times as you need to make the dialog box go away. Now you can read the Web page, and any pages linked to that page while not connected to the Internet!