About Web Browsers > 1: Browser Display Options

NOTE: This tutorial discusses features common to most Web browsers, but provides examples and illustrations only from a recent Windows (PC) version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE version 7), the most heavily used browser. See the Links page for guides to other popular Web browsers, such as Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, and Safari (for Macintosh only).

1A: What Are Options?

Browsers, like other software programs, come with some basic settings or "options" (such as the type font, window colors, etc.) already established. You can change these browser settings by selecting Tools, then Internet Options:

Internet Explorer menu

The Internet Options panel, like the one shown in the illustration below, will open. Notice the tabs along the top of the panel. You can click on these tabs to view and change various types of options. Display options are listed under the General tab.

Internet Explorer options panel

1B: Home Page Location

The Web browser is initially set to link to the home page of the company that developed it (Microsoft, Mozilla, etc.) or to your Internet Service Provider (if they provided the browser). Every time you start up the browser, this is the first page you will see. You can change your browser's home page to any one you prefer, even a "local" one that you create yourself and store on your computer:

  1. First open the page that you want to use as your home page in your browser.
  2. Select Tools, then Internet Options.
  3. Under Home Page on the Internet Options panel, click the "Use Current" button.
  4. Then click the Apply button and the OK button at the bottom of the panel to save your changes.

1C: Colors and Fonts

The default colors set for your browser may be white page background, black text and blue links. If you don't like these, click the Colors button on the Internet Options panel to choose new background, text and link colors.

Any Web page that doesn't have color preferences encoded within it will display using the colors you chose. If the Web page designer has specified colors for a particular page, you can override them. This can be helpful if you are color blind and want to avoid problems with text in colors that you cannot see.

Click the Fonts button on the Internet Options panel to select the kind and size of type font you prefer for reading. This is especially useful if you have vision problems and want to enlarge the type size to make Web pages easier to read.

To make your color and font preferences override any others:

Click the Accessibility button on the Internet Options panel. A dialog box like the one shown below will open. Check any preferences, then click OK to save your settings. Be sure to also click the Apply button on the Internet Options panel before closing it.

Accessibility options

1D: Browser Menu Bar and Toolbar

You can control whether your browser displays a Menu Bar (see illustration below). Click on Tools, then click on Menu Bar to turn it on or off.

Internet Explorer view toolbars menu

To customize the toolbar:

Click on Tools, then highlight Toolbars to display another drop-down menu. Slide your mouse and click on Customize on the new menu. This will cause a dialog box to open like that shown in the illustration below. Select the toolbar buttons you want to add (or remove). You can also re-arrange their order.

Internet Explorer customize toolbar dialog box

Activity

Try customizing your browser toolbar. Follow the instructions on this page if you use Internet Explorer.

Pop Quiz

To override the color and font settings of Web pages, click this button:

Correct answer: [NOTE: Score is not recorded]

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