The Explorer Bar

The Explorer Bar is a special frame which opens on the left side of IE 4's viewing area. Its contents depend on which toolbar button - Search, Favorites, History or Channels - you click to open it. Once the bar's open, you can quickly switch between contents by clicking different toolbar buttons. Clicking the currently 'active' toolbar button closes the Bar - when you reopen it, the bar's previous contents are intact. You can also change the width of the Explorer Bar by dragging its right-hand edge.

Click on one of the buttons above to see how its Explorer Bar contents work, or just read on down through this page.

The Explorer Bar - Search

Search engines are Web sites which help you find other Web sites. Type a keyword (or words) into a search engine's query form, and the engine searches its database for Web sites with matching descriptions. It then sends you a results page containing hyperlinks to the sites it's found.

IE 4's Search Explorer bar makes it much easier to use the results pages returned by search engines. Query and results pages appear in the Bar, and when you click on a results page hyperlink, the target Web page opens in the main viewing area on the right of the screen.

You can quickly check out different sites from the results page by clicking on their hyperlinks - as you click each one, its target site opens in the main viewing area. With earlier browsers, once you'd viewed pages from one 'found' site, getting back to the results page to view a different site meant backtracking through the history list.

Tips for using the Explorer Search Bar:

• You have to be on-line to use the Search Bar.
• You can choose which search engine to use from the 'Select provider' drop-down list.
• To view found sites full-screen, click the 'Search' toolbar button - the Explorer bar quickly disappears. Click 'Search' again, and the Bar reappears, with the search results intact.
• Search engines tend to return sites containing any (rather than all) of your search keywords, so aim to use a small number of unambiguous words rather than lots of broad terms.
• You can create a Favorite (bookmark) of the current page (the one in the main viewing area) by dragging the page icon from the address bar onto the Favorites toolbar button.

The Explorer Bar - Favorites

Favorites - or 'Internet Shortcuts' - are links to Web sites you've visited. When you click on a Favorite, IE 4 takes you directly to the relevant site, saving you the need to type its URL (address) into the Address Bar.

Clicking the Favorites toolbar button to access the contents of your Favorites folder. This can include sub-folders, e.g.in the example on the left. To see the links in a sub-folder, just click on its name, and the list will expand to show them (click on the sub-folder name again to close it). To open a link (e.g. ), just click on it. Favorites which aren't stored in sub-folders appear at the end of the Favorites list - you may have to use the scroll arrows (at the top and bottom of the Explorer Bar) to see them.

To create a Favorite for the Web page you're currently viewing, drag the current page icon from the Address Bar into the Explorer Favorites bar (see right). You can also create one by choosing Favorites...Add to Favorites from IE 4's menu bar (see below)

To create new sub-folders, choose Organise Favorites... from the Favorites menu.

You can drag-and-drop Favorites files to reorganise them. If you right-click on a Favorite, a filing menu pops up with options to delete, rename and subscribe to the Favorite. Favorites are always listed in alphabetical order within each folder/sub-folders, so to bump your favourite Favorites to the top of  the list, change their names to start with '!', e.g. !FutureNet.

Favorites are also the way to create Web site subscriptions, a new feature in which IE 4 notifies you when a site's contents have changed, and optionally downloads its pages for you to browse off-line. Click here for more details on site subscriptions.

The Explorer Bar - History

Most browsers keep a history list of the Web pages you've visited, but only for the current browsing session and in simple chronological order. IE 4 provides a history list spanning not just sessions but days and weeks, and presents it as a structured list of the sites you visited each day.

Like the other Explorer Bar options, you can quickly toggle the History Bar open and closed by clicking on its toolbar button. Using the History list is similar to using the Favorites list - click on a week, day or site name to open it up and show the items 'inside' it, click on it again to close it. Within each site you can see hyperlinks to the individual pages you've visited - click on one of those and the Web page is opened in the main display area.

IE 4 keeps copies of pages you've visited in a cache on your hard drive, deleting them only when the space is needed for more pages (see Setting IE 4 Options for more details on Temporary Internet Files storage). To view locally-stored copies of pages that you've previously accessed, check the Work Offline' option on IE 4's File menu. To force IE 4 to go on-line and check for updated versions of the pages in your history list, uncheck the 'Work Offline' option.

Right-clicking on a history list entry opens a menu offering one of two delete options (although both have similar effects). 'Delete Local Copy' tells IE to delete the copy of the Web page held on your local disk. The other option, 'Delete History Item' is offered when you right-click on a site, day or week entry.

The Explorer Bar - Channels

The hot topic on the Internet at the moment is 'Push' technology, which will allow publishers to deliver tailored information services to your desktop automatically. IE 4's Channels are a first step along the Push route, designed with dial-up Internet users (who can't use true 'push' systems as they're not permanently connected) in mind.

At heart, a Channel is a Web site, and subscribing to a Channel is very similar to subscribing to any other site (click here for more details on site subscriptions). As with ordinary subscriptions, you can tell IE 4 to automatically download the site's contents for later browsing from your local disk. However, if the Channel's authors have set up the necessary customisation features, you will be able to choose which information is downloaded. For example, you might tell a news Channel to send you just business and sports items. When IE 4 connects to the Channel site for a download, only business and sports pages are transferred. If you a have a permanent (i.e. non dial-up) connection to the Internet, you can allow Channel sites to tell IE4 when to download new information.

Webcasting

Channels are an extension of Webcasting, and are housed in one of IE4's new pop-out panes. As the desktop has been facelifted with a browser metaphor, you can nominate portions of it that can accept 'live' HTML pages from your nominated channels.

Webcast content is managed via the Subscriptions feature of IE4.0. Specify how much content you want, when you want it and how you would like to be notified when that information changes. The Update Now feature allows you to refresh content when you need it.

A Full Subscription for off-line reading will retrieve content up to 5 levels deep on a daily /weekly/monthly schedule, and notify you when it has done so.

The details required to Subscribe have been covered in the Subscriptions section, but the method is exactly the same for installing Channels, Desktop Components and Screen savers. The benefits of Webcasting are obvious; get information when you want it not have to wait for it to download. On or Off-line IE4.0 caters for users with modems or direct connections, and the advent of Dynamic HTML takes the onus off the server. Webcast content is defined by the special Channel Definition Format (CDF) file.

Viewing Channels

The other major difference between Channels and ordinary Web sites is the way they are presented by IE 4. You don't have to search for Channel sites as they're catalogued in the Microsoft's Channel Guide, accessible by clicking the Guide item at the top of the Explorer Channel Bar. Icons representing the Channels you've subscribed to also appear in the Explorer Channel Bar - click on one and it will expand to show you the Channel's individual sections (like the Site headers in the History list). Click on a section name and the page will open in the right-hand side of the browser screen.

You can also view Channels in the Channel Viewer by right-clicking on its Channel Bar icon and choosing Open Channel. This is actually IE 4 in full-screen mode, with a compact version of the Tool Bar and the Explorer Channel Bar. The contents of the Channel Bar can also be displayed on your Active Desktop - pick a Channel from there, and the Channel Viewer opens automatically.

How To Use Channels In IE 4