Avoid Getting Stuck on a Web Site (Monday)

Try double-clicking your browser’s Back button very quickly to leave a Web page on which you are stuck. You may want to click the Stop button first to ensure that your browser isn’t trying to download something. If quickly double-clicking doesn’t work, use the History button to see a list of pages you have recently viewed. From there, you can scroll down and click to go back to the page you are trying to access.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts for Easy Web Navigation (Tuesday)

In both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, press the Alt and left arrow keys simultaneously to go back a page. Press the Alt and right arrow keys to go to the next page. You can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll Web pages. To open a new browser window, press Ctrl-O and then type the Web address in the box provided.

Find Things Fast on Web Pages (Wednesday)

Use the Find feature to quickly locate information on a Web page. To display the Find window, in Internet Explorer, choose Find from the Edit menu (or press Ctrl-F). In Navigator, choose Find On Page from the Edit menu. Once the Find window appears, you can type your search term into the box. The Find feature will search the entire page and highlight where the term appears on the page.

Reload to View the Most Recent Web Page (Thursday)

To get the most updated version of a Web page, click your browser’s Refresh or Reload button. Most browsers are configured to automatically search the cached (saved) Web files on your hard drive to quickly retrieve Web pages. That may be problematic because you may be getting an older version. By clicking Reload, you indicate that the browser should retrieve the page directly from the server, not your computer’s cached files.

Empty Your Cache Regularly (Friday)

Clean out your cache (your computer’s storage bank for visited Web pages) to speed your browser’s performance. Depending on your Web activity and cache settings, you may want to do this every few months. Otherwise, your browser spends time dumping old Web files before loading new Web pages when your cache has reached its capacity. To clear the cache in Explorer, select Internet Options from the Tools menu. Locate Temporary Internet Files on the General tab, then click Delete Files button. The process may take a few minutes. In Navigator, open the Edit menu, select Preferences, then scroll to the Advanced Files button. Click Cache to open the Cache page. Click the Clear Disk Memory Cache now.