Weekly Computer Tip # 289
31 October 2009


Open your favourite web pages in one go
(Internet Explorer 7)

Tabbed browsing is a new feature in Internet Explorer 7 (and beyond) that allows you to open multiple websites in a single browser window. When you have multiple pages open, each one is displayed on a separate tab with a little picture (a thumbnail).

Something you were always able to do in previous versions of Internet Explorer was to set the webpage you had open as your home page. So if you combine that with what I've just said about tabbed browsing, you can save all your open web pages as a set of home page tabs so that it's easier to find the pages you want to work with.

Here's how:

  1. Open all web pages you want to set as your set of home page tabs.
  2. Click the arrow to the right of the Home button, on the right of your last tab.
  3. Click Add or Change Home Page.
  4. Click Use the current tab set as your home page. (If you don't see that option, you don't have more than one tab open.)
  5. Click Yes to save your changes.

In future, your set of home page tabs will be displayed when you open up Internet Explorer or when you click the Home button. Or for those of you who love keyboard shortcuts: press ALT+HOME.

As mentioned back in March (tip_265.php) you can toggle between the tabs using the CTRL+TAB and SHIFT+CTRL+TAB keys. And it also happens that the CTRL + W trick to close an active window (tip_272.php) works; it close the current tab.

Happy tabbed browsing!

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