(About 535 words)

Getting the Most Viewing Space in the Internet Explorer Window
by Glenn Richards, Emeritus Member of the Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL www.lscs.us
grich32(at)yahoo.com

The IE window toolbars can take up a lot of space that could be better used to see web page content.  This can be especially critical with small monitors and/or with low resolution settings.  But even with my 21” monitor at 1280 by 1024 pixels I like to maximize the viewing area.  The graphic above shows my setup (split into two rows to show the detail).

Below the Title bar are the Menu, Standard Buttons, and Address Bars in one row.  Below these is the Links Bar that has the full width of the window for its choices.  Note that for the Standard Buttons Bar I have reduced the choices to just Back, Forward, Stop, and Refresh.  These are the only tools I use frequently.  The functions of some other tools can be found under View, Explorer Bar.  Make the selection via menu item View, Toolbars, Customize.  Also in the Customize Toolbar window are the options to select “Small icons” and to have “No text labels” - my choices.

Some users may not realize that toolbars can be moved to the row occupied by the Menu Bar, but IE version 6 allows this.  To make the move go to View, Toolbars, and uncheck “Lock the Toolbars.”  This enables vertical bars at the left end of toolbars.  These are “Handles” that can be dragged with the mouse cursor.  Once a satisfactory arrangement is found, go back and check “Lock the Toolbars.”  This insures against accidental rearrangement of the toolbars.

The Links toolbar, a special function of the Favorites menu because Windows and IE make its content available on the toolbar, contains internet shortcuts that I access frequently.  Actually, in my system it has more choices than I really need because I have the space for them.  And I shorten the references to the web sites they point to to make space for as many as possible.  For instance YahMail points to the web page for Yahoo Mail, http://mail.yahoo.com/.  And NAVUp points to the web site for updating Norton Antivirus references, http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/download/pages/US-N95.html.  The same shortcuts can be found under menu item Favorites, Links.

Another space saver is shortening the IE program name in the Title bar.  Typically it is "Microsoft Internet Explorer."  Other info in this bar is the web site or other info.  I changed the program name to IE6 to make more space.  This involved editing the Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main to have an entry in the Name column of “Window Title” with a Value data of your choice (like IE6).

One last note is that I set the default Home page to Blank to prevent IE from trying to go to a web site when the window is opened.

Remember to tap the F11 key for more space.

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