• How can I speed up browsing?
• Can I convert my Netscape bookmarks for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer?
• How can I stop sounds and animations from playing?
• How can I shorten my Favorites menu?
• How can I see a blank page when I start Microsoft Internet Explorer?
• Why don't I see the pictures when I open a previously saved page?
• How do I set up Microsoft Internet Explorer to read newsgroups?
• How can I quickly get to my favorite newsgroup?
• How do I log on to an FTP site that requires a username and password?
• How do I download several FTP files at once?
• How can I quickly edit the HTML source for the current page?
• Why can't I get my MIDI file to work as a background sound?

Graphics, sounds, and animations can take a while to download, especially if you have a relatively slow modem. You can shorten the time it takes to display a page by preventing Microsoft Internet Explorer from downloading these items.

To speed up browsing

1. On the View menu, click Options, and then click the Appearance tab.
2. Make sure the Show Pictures, Play Sounds, or Show Animations boxes are not checked.

• If the Show Pictures or Show Animations box is not checked, you can still display an individual picture or animation by right-clicking the icon that represents it, and then clicking Show Picture.
• If the pictures on the current page are still visible after you make sure the Show Pictures box is not checked, you can hide them by clicking the View menu and then clicking Refresh.

To add your Netscape bookmarks to your Favorites menu

1. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the File menu, click Open, and then click Open File.
2. In the folder that contains your Netscape files (usually C:\Netscape), double-click the Bookmark.htm file. Microsoft Internet Explorer opens the file.
3. On the Favorites menu, click Open Favorites.
4. Resize the Microsoft Internet Explorer window until it fits side by side on your screen with the Favorites window.
5. Drag the bookmarks you want from the Microsoft Internet Explorer window to the Favorites window.

• You can organize your Favorites folder into categories that match your bookmarks categories. For more information, see How can I shorten my Favorites menu?.
  

• Press the ESC key, or click the Stop button on the toolbar.

To suppress sounds and animations while you are browsing

1. On the View menu, click Options, and then click the Appearance tab.
2. Make sure the Play Sounds and Show Animations boxes are not checked.

Adding an item to your Favorites menu is easy--just go to the page you want, and then click the Add To Favorites button on the toolbar. In fact, adding a page is so easy that your Favorites menu can quickly become too long. To shorten the Favorites menu, you can delete shortcuts you no longer want. You can also create submenus on the Favorites menu.

To delete a shortcut from the Favorites menu

1. Click the Favorites menu, and then click Open Favorites.
2. Click the shortcut you want to delete, and then press the DEL key.

1. Click the Favorites menu, and then click Open Favorites.
2. Click the File menu, point to New, and then click Folder.
3. Type a name for the new submenu, and then press ENTER.
4. Drag any shortcuts you want to appear on the submenu into the newly-created folder.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer opens your Favorites folder in a Windows 95 Explorer window. You can move, copy, rename, and drag items in this window just as you would in any Windows 95 Explorer window--even when Microsoft Internet Explorer isn't running.

The page you see when Microsoft Internet Explorer starts is called your start page. You can specify any page, even a blank page, as your start page.

To set your start page to a blank page

1. In Notepad, create a blank document by clicking the File menu, and then clicking New.
2. Click the File menu, and then click Save As. Type Homepage.htm as the filename.
3. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the File menu, click Open, and then click Open File.
4. Find the Homepage.htm file, click it, and then click Open. (By default, Notepad saves files in your Windows folder.)
5. Click the View menu, and then click Options.
6. Click the Start And Search Pages tab, and then click Use Current.

• If you are familiar with the HTML homepage authoring language, you can edit your new start page to include links to your favorite web sites. For more information about HTML, see For Authors Only.

When you save a web page on your hard disk, Microsoft Internet Explorer saves the text on the page but not the pictures, sounds, and animations. This is because these objects are stored as separate files on the web server (the computer from which you are downloading the page).

To save the objects as well, you must save each object individually. You can save the pictures and animations, but not the background sounds.

To save a picture or animation to your hard disk

• Use your right mouse button to click the picture or animation, and then click Save Picture As.

Microsoft Internet Explorer provides basic newsreading features that enable you to read Internet newsgroups, respond to news articles, and post new articles. By default, the newsreading feature is turned off.

Note: The Microsoft Internet Explorer newsreading features work only with news servers that support the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP). The Microsoft Network (MSN) uses a different news protocol. If you use MSN, see If you use The Microsoft Network below.

If you use an Internet service provider other than MSN

You can use Microsoft Internet Explorer to read newsgroups as long as your news server supports the NNTP protocol. Most Internet providers have news servers that support NNTP.

To configure Microsoft Internet Explorer as your newsreader

1. Obtain the following information from your Internet service provider:
   • The address of your NNTP news server
   • Whether the news server requires authorization, and if so, the user name and password you should use
2. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the View menu, click Options, and then click the News tab.
3. Make sure the Use Internet Explorer To Read Internet Newsgroups box is checked.
4. Fill in the fields with the information obtained from your service provider.

Notes

• To obtain a list of available news groups, click the Go menu, then click Read Newsgroups. Microsoft Internet Explorer displays a list of the news groups available on your Internet service provider's news server.
• If you are denied access to a news server and you are sure you have the correct news server name and authorization information, contact your service provider. Some Internet service providers allow newsgroup access only if you are connected to the Internet by using their phone numbers.
• If you decide to stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer to read news, clear the Use Internet Explorer To Read Internet Newsgroups check box. You may have to reinstall any newsreading software you were previously using.

If you are a Microsoft Network user, you already have access to Internet newsgroups through MSN. MSN and Microsoft Internet Explorer use different news protocols, so you cannot use Microsoft Internet Explorer to read newsgroups; use the MSN newsreader instead.

To ensure that MSN and Microsoft Internet Explorer are configured to read newsgroups

1. Make sure that your MSN service type is set to "Internet and MSN". (You can find out your service type by right-clicking the MSN icon on your desktop, and then clicking Connection Settings. You can change your service type by clicking Access Numbers.)
2. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the View menu, click Options, and then click the News tab.
3. Make sure the Use Internet Explorer To Read Internet Newsgroups box is not checked.

• In Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can read newsgroups by clicking the Go menu and then clicking Read Newsgroups. Microsoft Internet Explorer starts MSN, which displays a list of available newsgroups.
• In MSN Central, click Categories, and then double-click the Internet Center folder. MSN displays the Internet Newsgroups forum.

If you know the address for the newsgroup, you can type it in the Address box in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Use the following syntax:

news:newsgroup

For example, to go to the comp.infosystems newsgroup, you would type news:comp.infosystems in the Address box.

Tip

• You can create a Favorites shortcut for a newsgroup. To do this, go to the newsgroup you want, and then click the Add To Favorites button on the toolbar.

Some File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites require you to log on before you can list or transfer files from that site. To connect to such sites using Microsoft Internet Explorer, you need to include the logon information in the Address box.

To connect to an FTP site that requires you to log on

1. Make sure the Address box is visible in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To display it, click the View menu, and then click Address Bar.
2. Click in the Address box, and then type the address and logon information for the FTP site. Specify the address using the following syntax:

   ftp://username:password@name of server

   For example, to connect to an FTP server named ftp.company.com with the username guest and the password mypass, you would type the following in the Address box:

   ftp://guest:mypass@ftp.company.com

The easiest way to do this is to click the File menu, click New Window, and then open the second FTP file in the new window.

You can also let Microsoft Internet Explorer open a new window for you. If you are downloading an FTP file and click another link, Microsoft Internet Explorer asks you if you want to stop downloading. Click No. When you are asked whether you want to download the second file in a new window, click Yes.

Microsoft Internet Explorer can open the current page in Notepad or in your favorite HTML authoring program. You can switch back and forth between your HTML editor and Microsoft Internet Explorer, making changes in your editor, saving them, and then viewing the changes you just made. When you switch back to Microsoft Internet Explorer, it automatically refreshes the page if it detects any changes.

To use Notepad or WordPad to edit the current page

1. Click the View menu, and then click Source. Microsoft Internet Explorer displays the HTML source for the current page in either Notepad or WordPad, depending on the size of the file.
2. When you have made your changes, click the File menu, and then click Save. (If the page is located on a server on the Internet, you cannot modify the original page. To save the modified copy on your hard disk, click Save As.)

1. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, click the View menu, click Options, and then click the File Types tab.
2. In the list of registered file types, click Internet Document (HTML), and then click Edit.
3. Click New, and then type Edit in the Action box.
4. In the Application Used To Perform Action box, specify your HTML authoring program. Microsoft Internet Explorer adds the Edit Current Page button to the toolbar and links it to the specified program.

• Click the Edit Current Page button on the toolbar. (If the button does not appear on the toolbar, you need to configure Microsoft Internet Explorer by carrying out the previous procedure.)

In the HTML authoring language, you can specify a MIDI file as a background sound by using the BODY BGSOUND tag. However, sometimes the MIDI background sound does not play when loaded from a web server, although it plays correctly when loaded from your local computer.

The most likely cause of this problem is that your web server is not configured to handle MIDI files properly. Ask your web server administrator to ensure that MIDI files are configured to use the MIME type "audio/x-midi". After this change is made to your web server, your MIDI files should play properly.