If you want to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer, you can do so here.

Keyboard Shortcuts

It might take you a little while to learn these shortcuts, but once you do, your browsing will be that much quicker. Here are some of the more common shortcuts:

• Alt+Home (Go to your preset home page)
• Alt+Right Arrow (Go to the next page)
• Alt+Left Arrow or Backspace (Go to the previous page)
• Home (move to the top of a page)
• End (move to the bottom of a page)
• F5 (reload the current page)
• Ctrl+D (bookmark the current page)
• Ctrl+F (find)
• Ctrl+O (open a new website or page)
• Ctrl+N (open a new window)
• Ctrl+T (open a new tab)
• Ctrl+W (close the current window)
• Alt+D (select the text in the Address bar)

Tab Navigation

(Note: these shortcuts apply to IE 7.0 only; version 6.0 does not feature tabbed browsing.)

If you’re like me, sometimes you have a lot of tabs open at the same time. Instead of using the mouse to select between the different tabs that you have open, use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrk+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
• Ctrl+Shift+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
• Ctrl+W (close the current tab)
• Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)
• Ctrl+Alt+F4 (close other tabs)

Mouse Shortcuts

If you’re already using your mouse and it would be easier for you to use a mouse shortcut instead of switching to the keyboard, here are some quick shortcuts. Note that these shortcuts depend on whether your mouse has a scroll wheel built into it or not.

• Shift+scroll up (go to the next page in that tab)
• Shift+scroll down (go to the previous page in that tab)
• Ctrl+scroll up (increase text size)
• Ctrl+scroll down (decrease text size)

Auto Complete

While not as well known as the shortcuts above, this can be very useful.

Go to the address bar (Ctrl+L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there – like magic!

Thoughts?

I’m curious to hear whether you find these tricks useful or not. Or, maybe you have some of your own that you’d like to share. Either way, good luck as you use Internet Explorer more efficiently!

Keyboard Shortcuts

It might take you a little while to learn these shortcuts, but once you do, your browsing will be that much quicker. Here are some of the more common shortcuts:

• Spacebar (scroll down on a page)
• Shift+Spacebar (scroll up on a page)
• Ctrl+F (find)
• Ctrl+D (bookmark the page)
• Ctrl+T (open a new tab)
• Ctrl+K (go to the search box)
• Ctrl+L (go to the address bar)
• Ctrl+ (increase text size)
• Ctrl+ (decrease text size)
• Ctrl+W (close tab)
• F5 (reload the page)
• F11 (view in full screen mode)
• Alt+Home (go to your preset home page)
• Home (move to the top of the page)
• End (move to the bottom of the page)

Tab Navigation

If you’re like me, sometimes you have a lot of tabs open at the same time. Instead of using the mouse to select between the different tabs that you have open, use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
• Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
• Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

Here’s another neat trick: if you want to view different pages on the same website but in two different tabs, simply hit Ctrl and drag the tab (in the tab bar) to the right.

Mouse Shortcuts

If you’re already using your mouse and it would be easier for you to use a mouse shortcut instead of switching to the keyboard, here are some quick shortcuts. Note that these shortcuts depend on whether your mouse has a scroll wheel built into it or not.

• Shift+scroll down (go to the previous page in that tab)
• Shift+scroll up (go to the next page in that tab)
• Ctrl+scroll up (decrease text size)
• Ctrl+scroll down (increase text size)

Auto Complete

While not as well known as the shortcuts above, this can be very useful.

Go to the address bar (Ctrl+L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there – like magic!

For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

Thoughts?

I’m curious to hear whether you find these tricks useful or not. Or, maybe you have some of your own that you’d like to share. Either way, good luck as you use Firefox more efficiently!

(Note: I’m intentionally ignoring Safari in the following discussion. Safari usage is only around 2%, owing to the niche market for Apple and Mac products.)

The Background

The answer to my question is has to do with how a browser interprets the HTML and CSS code that websites are built with. (As a brief refresher, HTML is what web pages are written in, while CSS is used to separate look from content.)

An organization called the World Wide Web Consortium develops web standards to help ensure the long-term growth of the web. Amongst many other things, these include standards for how CSS and HTML should be interpreted by browsers.

So theoretically, all browsers should interpret programming language the same way, right? Yes and no. Fortunately, most browsers do so; Firefox, Safari, and IE 7.0 all display pages (i.e., interpret the coding, i.e., adhere to web standards) the same.

(Before I continue, I should note that Microsoft – makers of Internet Explorer; the Mozilla Foundation – makers of Firefox; and Apple – makers of Safari; are all members of the consortium.)

The problem browser is IE 6.0, which doesn’t adhere as strictly to the web standards (and therefore doesn’t interpret our design coding) as the others do. So designers always have some extra work cut out for them to get their websites to appear in this particular browser as it does in other popular browsers.

And, we know that this work is necessary due to the widespread usage of IE 6.0. Most computers two years old or more are likely running it. IE 7.0 is still fairly recent, so a lot of people haven’t upgraded to it yet. This is evidenced by the fact that almost 25% of Internet users in 2008 are still using IE 6.0, even though it is already over six years old, compared to around the same percentage of those using IE 7.0.

So, the problem is not going away any time soon, but fortunately for designers, Microsoft learned its lesson and is starting to develop their browsers so that they do strictly adhere to web standards.

But how did they learn their lesson? Here’s a little history lesson to help explain.

The Quick History Lesson

By the early 2000′s, Microsoft had won the browser wars (anyone remember Netscape?) to become the dominant browser on the market. In late 2003, almost 85% of Internet users were using some version of IE.

Firefox was the up-and-comer, so Mozilla had to differentiate itself to get people to notice it. That’s why you saw new innovations in their browser, such as tabbed browsing, which is a hugely popular feature. Firefox also adhered to web standards much stricter than IE 6.0 did – another reason why it became more popular with designers than IE.

Microsoft, on the other hand, was more complacent – both in incorporating new features and in strictly adhering to web standards. And why shouldn’t they have been? The vast majority of Internet users were utilizing their product, and they had no real motivation to change anything.

But since IE 6.0 was released (back in 2002), there has been huge growth in usage of Firefox as an alternative browser. In 2008, almost 40% of Internet users are using Firefox, compared to 53% who use some version of IE – and the gap keeps decreasing steadily.

So where Microsoft was once the dominant force on the browser market, now they are playing catch-up. That’s why you see tabbed browsing and stricter standards compliance in IE 7.0 when it was released in 2006, and why you will see that as well in IE 8.0, due to be released this year.

The Solution

So how do I test that my work looks the same in IE 6.0 as it does across all other browsers?

• For starters, I use Firefox as my default browser
• My computer came with IE 7.0 installed, so I have that readily available to use
• I use Safari for Windows provided by Apple
• I use a standalone version of IE 6.0 to test in that browser (the program allows me to have multiple versions of IE running on my computer with no problems)

There are also websites, such as Browser Shots, that can be used to test for more obscure browsers that aren’t as popular.

The End

So that’s the end of this overview of a problem I confront as a designer. Now, next time I tell you I’m frustrated because something won’t work right in a particular browser, you’ll know what I mean!

And, if you’re still running IE 6.0, please upgrade!