Practicing the Black Art (03/02)
Internet Explorer Links Toolbar
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@comcast.net
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
There are times when someone will ask if the Links Toolbar on Internet Explorer can be changed, moved, or eliminated. This question arises because the nature of the Links Toolbar is not always understood. The Links Toolbar is really an extension of the Favorites folder and should be used to access those Websites you visit frequently. The default position of the Links Toolbar is next to the Address Bar. To find out what toolbars you can use, after you start Internet Explorer, right click on any tool bar that happens to be visible and you will get a popup menu that allows the various toolbars to be turned on, off, or moved. Let's take a look at the toolbars and their popup menus:
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The top illustration shows the Links Toolbar after it has been moved from its default position to the right of the Go Button. Each toolbar has a slightly different menu and each menu is shown with its default options. You can display or hide any toolbar from any of the menus. The Address Bar menu turns the Go Button on or off, and the Tool Button Menu allows us to customize the Button Tool Bar by adding or removing various tool buttons. The Links Bar Menu has no unique options.
You can 'freeze" the toolbars in position by clicking the Lock the Toolbars option on any of the menus. All the toolbars in the illustration are bounded on the left by vertical dotted lines. Grab any of these borders with your mouse to drag the toolbar up, down, or sideways in the window. The illustration below shows the toolbars rearranged with the Go Button turned off.
When Internet Explorer is first installed, Microsoft fills the Links Toolbar with a bunch of nearly useless items. Unless you work for Microsoft, why would anyone want to visit Channel Selector more than once to know you don't need it? To remove any unwanted link, right-click on it and select Delete from the popup menu as the illustration on the left shows.
Most of the remaining options are relatively straightforward. The Make available offline option allows you to download, or "synchronize" information between a Website and your system in a similar way to Active Desktop in Windows 98.
The Properties option gives you information and lets you do some very interesting things. Choose the option and you get the following dialog box:
The Web Document tab shows up by default. The URL: box shows you the Web Address of the site.
The Shortcut box lets you access the site with a simple series of keystrokes that brings you to the Website even if the Links Toolbar is turned off.
Visits: shows you how many times you've visited the site.
You can change the Link's icon if you wish and also download active content from the Website every time you visit it if you check the box.
We've told you everything except how to put an icon on the toolbar. The location of the Links Toolbar makes it a convenient place for shortcuts to Websites that you use frequently. Once the link is positioned on the bar, simply left-click it switch to Website it represents. You can add a page to the Links Toolbar in a variety of ways:
- If you are on a Website and have the Address Bar visible, drag the Internet Explorer icon for the page from your Address Bar to your Links Toolbar. The icon is located to the immediate left of the URL.
- Drag a link from a Web page to your Links Toolbar. If you move your mouse around a Web page and suddenly it turns into a hand, you've found a link. You can drag this link to the Links Toolbar and position it wherever you like.
- Drag a link to the Links folder in your Favorites list. Open the Favorites menu from the Menu Bar and you will see the Links folder. You can drag or paste a link into this folder and it will show up on the Links Toolbar.
Experiment with the various toolbars to find out what they do and how they perform their functions. Use them with foresight and good judgement and you can greatly enhance any computing experience. The only danger with the Links Toolbar is that you might become too enamored of it and fill it to a point where it becomes cumbersome. A small dose of common sense is the best preventative. :
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Copyright 2002. This article is from the March 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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