Data in depth: Get more from Internet Explorer's Favorites and History
Published: April 21, 2005
By Sandi Hardmeier
The Internet Explorer Web site features a marvelous collection of tutorials for new Internet Explorer users. Favorites, History and offline viewing are all briefly described under Web Browsing Basics. In this column we will delve a little deeper into these features and show you a few neat tricks.
Favorites and offline viewing
Favorites are a very easy way to store your most frequently used sites. That being said, the number of favorites stored can multiply very quickly. The larger the list becomes, the harder it can be to find what you need.
If we visit a site very often, we will want access to be quick and easy. The Links toolbar is perfect for such sites. Many people use it in its default configuration—a full width toolbar, but I have always preferred to keep mine very small, and pushed to the right hand side of screen, so that it works like a drop-down menu.
Minimize your Links toolbar to convert your links to a menu.
The Links toolbar can be displayed on the Windows Taskbar so that it is accessible even when Internet Explorer is closed. Simply right-click on any clear area on the Windows Taskbar and point to the Toolbars menu item. Click on Links to add it to the Windows Taskbar.
The Organize Favorites window makes it easier for you to decide which favorites to keep, and which to delete. There are two ways to access this window - via the Favorites Menu, or via the Favorites Explorer Pane which is opened by clicking on the Favorites button. There is no advantage or disadvantage between one or the other, so go with whatever you feel most comfortable with.
The screen shot below is taken from the Favorites Explorer Pane that appears on the left hand side of screen when you click on the Favorites button.
Click on the Organize… button to access the Organize Favorites window
Once the Organize Favorites window is open, you can access basic information about each favorite on your list, including the number of Times visited and when a page was Last visited. If a Web site has not been visited for a long time, it is worth considering whether it should keep its honored position in the Favorites folder.
The Organize Favorites folder window does more than move things around
As you can see in the previous screenshot, the Organize Favorite window has a check box labeled Make available offline. A description of this feature is available at Getting Site Updates and Viewing Offline which I encourage you to read in tandem with this article. By taking advantage of Make available offline you'll have access to a rich selection of options. Depending on what version of Windows and Internet Explorer you are using, you can set Internet Explorer to automatically update your offline pages according to a set schedule and even download other pages that can be accessed from your favorite page using hyperlinks.
Many synchronization options are accessed via the same screen
There is no need to worry about accidentally downloading large files such as programs, movies, music or PDFs via links on a synchronizing page . This is because you can control what is downloaded by clicking on the Advanced button in the Content to download section of the Download tab shown above.
Minimize download times by enabling only those options that you need.
Once a Web page is selected to be available for offline viewing and the appropriate options have been set, the page will need to be synchronized manually or via a schedule. To synchronize manually, right-click on the favorite you'd like to synchronize, and then select Synchronize. The Internet Explorer icon will change when your favorite is available for viewing offline—the little red dot that appears is called a "gleam."
Offline favorites have a different icon to normal favorites, making them easy to spot
Automatic synchronization is easily set up by opening the Organize Favorites window, right-clicking on the favorite you want to synchronize, clicking on the Properties button and then navigating to the Schedule tab. The minimum period of time between synchronizations is 24 hours, and if your computer is not connected to the Internet when it is time to update, it can be set to connect automatically.
If you are using dial-up Internet access, you may wish to configure Internet Explorer to automatically disconnect when a connection is no longer required via Tools, Internet Options, Connections tab, Dial Up Connection Settings, Advanced. Select either "Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed" or "Disconnect if idle for 20 minutes."
If you have enabled the option to receive an e-mail message when a page has been updated, the message will be sent after manual and automatic synchronizations. It is not necessary to leave an e-mail program such as Outlook Express or Outlook running. Internet Explorer will create and send the e-mail message, which will look similar to the following:
Internet Explorer can create an e-mail whenever a Favorite is synchronized
History
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft has published a very good article about Internet Explorer's History facility, Find and Return to Web Pages You've Recently Visited. I recommend that it be read in conjunction with this article.
Just like Favorites, Internet Explorer's History function has a few hidden gems. For example, you can right-click on any History entry and select Add to Favorites. Or, you can right-click a History entry and select Properties to view the exact URL, as well as information about when the site was last visited, and how many times.
Right click on any History entry to quickly add it to your favorites
Sometimes people use Internet Explorer's History as an alternative to Synchronize because they know that Web pages they have viewed are stored in Internet Explorer's cache. Although this can sometimes work, it is not dependable. This is mainly because your temporary Internet files may be taking up the maximum amount of disk space permitted as per user applied settings, so it is possible that pages previously visited, even recent ones, will not be available for offline viewing.
"Aha," I hear you say. "I will simply make my cache larger." Modern hard drives certainly leave us with plenty of room to move, but Internet Explorer's cache should not be set to a very large size, even if you have lots of space. The larger the cache, the longer it takes to search the files within before loading a page, and the greater the chance of data corruption. A corrupt cache causes problems such as "Page Cannot Be Displayed" messages when trying to view a site, and errors when trying to download files.
Data that is downloaded during synchronization is stored separately to Internet Explorer's cache, and is protected from deletion except for during synchronization or when the separate Delete all offline content option is enabled when deleting temporary Internet files (the option is disabled by default).
Leave Delete all offline content turned off to protect your synchronized favorites.
History's Search function
The History pane Search function is used to trawl through pages listed in the History pane for particular words or phrases. Be aware, though, that the Search function does not have any Boolean abilities; that is, it searches for exactly what is typed.
For example, imagine you are searching your History records for a Web page that contains the phrase "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." A search for "quick brown fox" will find the Web page, a search for "quick fox" will not. Do not use quotation marks in the History search pane unless they were also used on the page for which you are searching. If you remember some words that were on a page, but can't remember exactly how it was written, you will need to use an alternative service, such as an online search engine.
The first Search will work; the second Search will fail.
As we can see, Internet Explorer has lots of nice little features that help us to make the most of our online time, and make it easier to find those sites which have grabbed our interest.
If you are a new user, you may find Internet Explorer's built in "Tip of the Day" very useful. It can be enabled via Internet Explorer's Help menu. A window will appear at the bottom of Internet Explorer's screen, and will display a different tip every day.
New users can learn more about Internet Explorer using "Tip of the Day."
Happy surfing!!
