Anyone who knows our company has probably noticed that we have a lot of web sites. Even though I have them all bookmarked, sometimes it’s just faster to type the site name into the address bar. Or sometimes as you’re driving down the highway, you’ll read a Web address on a billboard or something. Later at your desk, you remember it and decide to go check it out. In any case, even with a huge Favorites list, sometimes you still just have to type out a URL.
So, since you are going to have to do some typing while you’re surfing sometimes, here’s a cool little time saver. If you know the site name such as LogicalTips, for example, you don’t need to type out the complete URL, i.e. www.logicaltips.com. You can avoid typing the www. and the .com. Instead of the full URL, type just LogicalTips in the address bar and press Ctrl+Enter. Internet Explorer figures out the rest and brings up the site.
And while you are typing, here are a couple of cool keyboard shortcuts I just ran across. We all know about the Home button. Clicking it takes you back to whatever page you have set as your home page in Internet Explorer. The home page is the page that appears when you first open the browser. For example, in my case, I have my Home page set to go to Yahoo.com. Sometimes when I’m surfing, I’ll go back Home to Yahoo to do a search or check out the news feeds.
If you want to avoid some mousing around to "go home," instead of clicking the button, you can press the Alt+Home key combination. Internet Explorer goes to the page you have set as your home page. And if you are tired of clicking the Back key all the time, try Alt+Left Arrow instead.