Windows Internet Explorer 7 Toolbar: It's Your Option
Published: June 20, 2006
By Mark H. Walker
Options, the world is all about options. Do you want something that tastes great or something that is less filling? Something blue or something green? Good acting or a former pop star? And the options don't stop when you sit at your computer. Internet Explorer 7 has a monitor full of choices that you can make to customize the browser experience to suit your personal tastes. Let's take a few minutes to look at them.
Several years ago a productivity study found that people working on anything less than 14" monitors were less productive than those working on larger monitors (seems obvious, right?). In today's world of 17"-22" (and bigger) monitors, it's hard to imagine that we ever worked on anything as small as 14", but the point is still germane. The more space on your monitor, the easier it is to work.
Although Internet Explorer 7 can't grow your monitor (wouldn't that be sweet?), its toolbar options can help maximize the viewing area upon it. For example, you can use small icons instead of the traditional menu bar, or remove toolbars that you don't use.
The Internet Explorer 7 toolbar.
Simply right-click anywhere on your Internet Explorer toolbar and the toolbar menu appears. The checked toolbars are currently displayed. To add a toolbar to the display, select the name of the toolbar. To remove a toolbar from the display, just reverse the procedure.
Traditionalists, please note that Microsoft understands that you might like your standard toolbar the way it used to be. To return it to its pre-Internet Explorer 7 form, select Classic Menu, and the classic menu appears, looking something like the picture below.
The Classic Menu.
Locked out
You can do more than add or subtract the toolbars in Internet Explorer 7. It's simple to arrange the toolbars however you like.
Resizing the toolbars.
After displaying the Classic Menu, click the ridge on the left side of the toolbar and drag it to the desired location. You can place the Classic Menu above, beside, or below the Links bar. After you've set the toolbars you may want to lock them in place. Right-click anywhere in the toolbars and select Lock the Toolbars. If the toolbars have already been locked, you cannot reposition them. You must unlock them (by clicking Lock the Toolbars) first.
Tip: Keep in mind that you must right-click in the toolbar area, not the browser tabs. Clicking in the browser tabs opens the browser tabs options—useful tools, but not the current point of discussion.
Customizing your toolbar
To customize the appearance of the Internet Explorer 7 toolbar, right-click in the toolbar area, select Customize Command Bar and the Customize Menu appears.
The Customize Menu.
The Use Large Icons option (the top selection) allows you to increase the size of the toolbar icons (about 20%)—a great feature for people with small monitors who don't like to strain their eyes. And if you keep forgetting what each of the icons represents, you can choose how much toolbar text you want to display (basically all, some, or none). And of course, as we discussed above, locking the toolbars in place is also an option. The Add or Remove Commands option (the last selection) is where you can really have some fun. It is here that you decide exactly which commands the toolbar will display. Don't need the Messenger button? Prefer to click a Copy button over pressing CTRL+C? Then this is the command for you.
Click Add or Remove Commands to display the Customize Toolbar window (as shown below). Adjusting the toolbar is easy. The box on the left displays all the toolbar button possibilities and the box on the right displays what is currently on your toolbar. To add a button to your toolbar, select it in the left box and click Add. To remove a button, select it in the right box and click Remove. You can also change the order of the buttons by selecting and dragging them to a new position as shown below.
Customize the toolbar by adding or removing toolbar buttons.
Tip: Keep in mind that you can only customize the standard toolbar. This type of customization is not an option on the other Internet Explorer toolbars.
What's right for me?
So which buttons are best on the standard toolbar? There is no correct answer; it depends on personal preference and how you use Internet Explorer 7. For example, if you are a website manager or you frequently build or revise web sites, you'll probably want to include the Edit button, which allows you to see and edit the code behind the webpage. You can't actually change the webpage unless you are authorized to upload your changes to the Internet site's server. But if you're a website manager, you knew that.
I like the Size button. Click on this button and a menu appears that allows you to increase or decrease the font size on the webpage you are viewing. This is great for viewing those pages with chartreuse font colors on pink backgrounds.
But wait a minute!
The standard toolbar isn't the only snazzy feature that you'll find at the top of your browser window. If you're like me, there are locations you like to visit repeatedly. That's what why we designate them as Favorites. But did you know that you no longer need to add them through the Favorites menu? Just click the Add to Favorites button to add the current website to your Favorites list.
The Add to Favorites button.
Furthermore, if the site is a favorite among Favorites (you know, one of those sites you visit several times a day), just drag the URL from the Address bar to the Favorites bar (as shown below).
Adding Favorites to the toolbar.
After you designate the site (or RSS feed) as a Favorite, Internet Explorer allows you to use and manage them easier than ever before. To view your Favorites, just click the Favorites Center button.
The Favorites Center button.
The Favorites Center appears (shown below). The Favorites Center includes three tabs and provides fast access to all your favorite websites.
View and manage favorites in the Favorites Center.
Click the Favorites tab to browse your stored Favorites, and then click a page name to open it. Click the Feeds tab to display your favorite RSS feeds. Last, but certainly not least, click the History tab to view your browser history, with activity organized by date, site, and order visited.
Tip: When the website that you are visiting offers a RSS feed, the Feed button on the toolbar will turn orange. To add the website's RSS feed to your Favorites, simply click the button.
It's easy to make the Favorites Center a permanent part of your web browser experience. Open the Favorites Center, and then click the Pin the Favorites Center button. This will anchor the Favorites Center in the viewing window. If you change your mind later, just click the close button in the top right corner of the Favorites Center.
The final option
Options. No doubt life is all about options and when those options concern the new Internet Explorer 7 toolbar, they're all good.
