ADD AN EDITOR Yesterday we mentioned that you can edit pages you view online--just click the Edit button on the Standard Buttons toolbar. You can change the default editor if you like, and save yourself an extraneous click. Choose Tools, Internet Options. Click the Programs tab to bring it forward. Under HTML Editor, click the downward-pointing arrow and choose from the programs in the pop-up list. Click the OK button to save your changes.

ADD COMMUNICATOR AS YOUR EDITOR This week we've been using the Edit button to open pages you are viewing for editing. Just click the Edit button on the Standard Buttons toolbar. You can even select the editor of your choice. Click Tools, Internet Options. Click the Programs tab. From the HTML Editor pop-up list, make your selection (for instance, Windows Notepad). Click OK. But what if your editor doesn't appear? This tip shows you how to add an editor. In this example, we'll use Netscape's Composer. To do so, we'll need to edit the Registry. Keep in mind that editing the Registry can cause all kinds of bad craziness on your PC. If you don't know what you're doing, it's best to avoid this tip altogether. OK, daredevils, make sure to first back up your system.dat and user.dat files in your Windows folder, preferably to a floppy (second choice would be another folder) on your hard drive. Also, if you don't know how to create new keys in the Registry, don't try now, because it's beyond the scope of a daily tip. It's just not worth the potential hassles. Onward... Launch the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run. Then type regedit in the Run dialog box that appears. Navigate to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Netscape Navigator\shell\edit\command. The Default value should display the following data value: C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Netscape.exe -edit %1. If it's not there you'll need to add it. Then quit the Registry Editor, restart your computer, and launch Internet Explorer 5. The choice should now appear in the HTML Editor pop-up list.

EDIT WITH NOTEPAD If you run your own Web site, you may occasionally want to edit a page directly from Internet Explorer 5. This means you can open any document you want, then check out and edit (aka borrow) somebody else's source code. Or you can quickly open your own pages, then edit and save them. Just click the Edit button on the Standard Buttons toolbar in IE5. Click the downward-pointing arrow and you can choose between FrontPage Express and Windows Notepad (helpful if you like editing your own HTML tags). Of course, you shouldn't use copyrighted code. But there's nothing stopping you from learning from the techniques the pros use.

CREATE FAVORITES ICON In several tips we've mentioned how Internet Explorer 5 can display custom icons in the Favorites list. This feature allows sites to use their logo or other graphics, which display when you click the Favorites button on the menu bar. If you run your own site, you can easily create one of these icons. Check out this tutorial at the Microsoft Developer's Network: http://www.pcworld.com/r/tw/1%2C2061%2Ctw-ie51123%2C00.html

REMOVE FAVORITES ICON Sometimes when you add a site to your Favorites list, you may notice that the site displays its own icon. For instance, if you click Ctrl-D while viewing the following site, its logo will appear in Favorites: http://www.altavista.com To get rid of this icon or any others, you need to clear the cache. Click Tools, Internet Options. Select the General tab. Click the Delete Files button. Click the OK button to finish up.

BROWSE LOCAL FILES You probably know that Internet Explorer 5 lets you browse the files on your computer just as you browse the Web. Here are a few shortcuts for quickly accessing files. Just type the following in your Address bar: C:\ where C is the drive whose contents you want to view. The rest of the shortcuts are pretty obvious: My Computer Desktop My Documents If you use AutoComplete for Web addresses, you likely won't need to type the entire name. Just type the first few letters and the rest of the name appears. Click the Enter button to select the correct entry. Use the cursor keys to move up and down the list. Next time, we'll tell you how to turn on the AutoComplete feature.

BROWSE LOCAL FILES Last time we mentioned how easy it is to browse local files and folders through Internet Explorer 5. For instance, you can access the My Documents folder by typing My Documents in the IE 5 Address bar. Of course, if you use AutoComplete for Web addresses, you'll only need to type the first few letters to make your directories appear. To turn on AutoComplete, select Tools, Internet Options, and click the Advanced tab. Select Use Inline AutoComplete For Web Addresses and Use Inline AutoComplete For Windows Explorer. Click OK to save your changes.

DISCONNECT WHEN IDLE Yesterday we responded to a reader message about enabling Auto-Disconnect (Internet Explorer will prompt you to close your connection when you close the browser). Today, we look at disconnecting automatically if you aren't using your browser for a specified amount of time. Choose Tools, Internet Options. Now click the Connections tab to bring it forward. Click the Settings button to open the Settings dialog box. Click the Advanced button. The Advanced Dial-Up dialog box opens. Select "Disconnect if idle for X minutes" (where X is the number of minutes you enter). If you like, you can also enable Auto-Disconnect as described in the first paragraph. Select the "Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed" option. Click OK three times to close all open dialog boxes.

JUMP TO FULL SCREEN Want to move quickly from your regular viewing mode to full-screen mode? Keeping your browser open at full screen is especially handy when you're making presentations. And you can get there quickly: Just press F11 to toggle from one mode to another. Simple enough for you?

OPEN, LOAD, AND NEW Trying to get around the Web a little faster? Here are a few shortcuts you can use daily. Press Ctrl-O or Ctrl-L to enter the page you want to visit. Press Ctrl-N to open a brand-new window. You can use a new window to browse two or more sites simultaneously.

RECONNECT AUTO-DISCONNECT Friendly TipWorld subscriber Scott Tyler asks this puzzling Auto-Disconnect question: "How do you use Auto-Disconnect if you have turned it off previously and asked not to be asked again?" Easy enough, Scott. Just choose Tools, Internet Options. Now click the Connections tab to bring it forward. Click the Settings button to open the Settings dialog box. Click the Advanced button. The Advanced Dial-Up dialog box opens. Select "Disconnect when connection may no longer be needed." Click OK three times to close all open dialog boxes.

BUILDING A BETTER BETA It's not exactly filled with new features, but an updated version of Internet Explorer 5 is now available. You can get it at the following address: http://www.pcworld.com/r/pcw/1%2C2061%2Cpcw-ie5-16%2C00.html This version's claim to fame is a new print feature that allows you to preview pages before sealing the deal. If you're not an early adopter, hold off on this release and wait until a more fully baked one arrives. We'll give you the word when it does. In fact, we don't recommend upgrading to version 5.01 after seeing many complaints from users experiencing a range of problems. As always, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR We asked for your favorite tips, and you sent them--in droves. We received about 130 letters from readers in just a few days. This month, we'll run some of the best tips we found in the TipWorld in-box. Here's a good one from savvy tipster Timothy Couch: "Need to send a quick e-mail message? Go to Start, Run. Type mailto: and press the Enter key. "This brings up an e-mail message box so you can address your letter and send it off without having to load Outlook Express. The following will also work: mailto:pheltzel@hardlearner.com mailto:John Q Public "Note: In order for the second one to work. John Q Public must be in your Address Book." Nice work, Tim--keep 'em coming.

CLEAR HISTORY Sometimes you may want to clear the History list in Internet Explorer 5 to keep your browsing from prying eyes. Click Tools, Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog box opens. Under the History section, click Clear History, then choose OK when the confirmation box appears. Pow! Your History list magically disappears.

DELETE FAVORITES After a while, your Favorites menu in Internet Explorer 5 probably starts getting a little cluttered. Send those old bookmarks packing and start the New Year with a fresh, more organized look. Select Favorites from the menu bar. When your Favorites menu appears, right-click the Favorite you want to delete. Select Delete from the menu that appears.

DELETE TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES If you need to reclaim valuable disk space, try deleting the temporary Internet files that Internet Explorer 5 stores on your system. Click Tools, Internet Options. Click the Delete Files button, then click OK when the confirmation dialog box appears. Keep in mind that deleting these files reduces the speed enhancement you get from IE 5's internal cache. This tradeoff makes sense when disk space is more valuable to you than browsing speed.

F IS FOR FAVORITE Thank goodness for keyboard shortcuts. They make life interesting and save time, too. Here's a personal favorite of ours for opening Favorites in Internet Explorer 5. Select Alt-A to open the Favorites menu. Then press the first letter of the Favorite you want to select. If that key names only one Favorite, the site opens right away. If you have more than one Favorite starting with a certain letter, keep pressing the letter key until you reach the one you want.

HISTORY HASSLES Yesterday we told you how to clear your History list in order to protect your privacy (and save disk space) in Internet Explorer 5. Click Tools, Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog box opens. Click the Clear History button and choose OK when the confirmation box appears. You can also tell IE 5 how long to make pages available in your history--this also helps manage disk space. From the Internet Options dialog box, enter a number in the box marked "Days to keep pages in history". Click OK twice to save your settings. Now you should be all set without any History hassles.

MAKE A PAGE AVAILABLE OFFLINE Hitting the road? Internet Explorer 5 offers a couple of cool features for browsing offline. To make the page you're viewing available for reading offline, try these quick steps. First add the page to your Favorites: Select Favorites, Add To Favorites. Select the Make Available Offline box, then click the OK button. Before you take off for your trip, connect to the Internet as you normally do. Then select Tools, Synchronize. You should get the latest version of your page downloaded to your system. Cool, huh? To view the page later, choose File, Work Offline. Then click the Favorites menu and choose your page from the list that appears.

NAVIGATION SHORTCUTS To browse like a pro in Internet Explorer 5, leave your mouse where it is and try a few keyboard shortcuts. You can jump quickly around a Web page by selecting Tab to move from link to link down the page. To select a link, just click Enter and the page opens.

RENAME FAVORITES Some Favorites in Internet Explorer 5 can have unwieldy names that may not accurately describe the page. You don't have to stick with the original name. To change a Favorites title, select Favorites from the menu bar. When your Favorites menu appears, right-click the Favorite you want to rename. Select Rename from the menu. Type a new name in the text box and click OK.

RESORT HISTORY Say you can't remember the URL of a page you opened recently in Internet Explorer 5, but you need to retrieve it. No sweat. Click the History button on the Standard Buttons toolbar. When the History bar opens down the left side of your browser, choose the site you want from the list, and it opens. To sort your History list differently, select View from the History pane, then select one of the following options: By Date, By Site, By Most Visited, or By Order Visited Today.

SKIP THE CACHE Sometimes when you view a page you've seen before, you get an older version of it. What's up? Internet Explorer 5 stores some pages on your system for faster viewing later. To make sure you always see the latest version of a page, you can tell IE5 to load a fresh version every time--although in doing so you trade off a bit of speed. Select Tools, Internet Options, and click the Settings button. Under the section marked "Check for newer versions of stored pages", select "Every visit to the page". Click the OK button twice to finish up.

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SETTING THE SOUND SYSTEM VOLUME Here is a tip from subscriber Armand C.: "I find that I often need to change the sound system volume as I navigate through the Internet. Some sites have very loud audio, and others are not loud enough. The way I have my system set up, it is inconvenient to reach the speaker volume control, so I have been double-clicking the Speaker icon in the taskbar to set the volume. I just now discovered that you don't have to open the Volume Control dialog box to set the volume--all you have to do is click the Speaker icon once to open the master volume control. Using this method, it is very easy to change the volume as you surf the Internet." Thanks for the tip, Armand.

SORTING QUICK LAUNCH ITEMS Several readers have suggested placing numbers before items in the Quick Launch folder as a means of sorting the items. You can certainly do this if you wish. Here's another way to get the same results that may tickle your fancy: Sort Quick Launch entries by using the mouse to drag them where you want. For example, if you would prefer to have Outlook Express as your first icon, just grab it with the mouse and drag it to the first position in the Quick Launch bar.

PICKING UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Several readers have asked why Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 automatically opens and dials the ISP as soon as the computer starts. The only reason we can see for this is that IE 4 will start where it left off when the computer was shut down. Suppose you're at your favorite Web site when you decide to shut down. You choose Start, Shut Down, select Shut Down, and click OK. The next time you turn on the computer, IE 4 opens, dials the ISP, and navigates to the page you were viewing when you shut down. It's assuming you got disconnected by mistake. This won't happen if you close IE 4 before you shut down.

MONOGRAM IT S.G. asks if there's a way to put your own name or company name into the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 title bar. Indeed there is, but you'll have to dig into the Registry, and you know that you need to be very careful when modifying the Registry. Make sure IE 4 is not running and click Start, Run. Type in regedit and press Enter (or click OK if the mouse is handy). When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. Right-click in a blank area of RegEdit's right pane and choose New, String Value. Name the new string Window Title exactly as shown here and press Enter. Now double-click the new string's icon and, when the dialog box opens, type in your new title as you want it to appear in the title bar. Click OK to save your change. Close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and run IE 4. Your new title should appear in the title bar.

PERSONALIZE OUTLOOK EXPRESS, TOO In the last tip, we showed you how to put a custom title into Microsoft Internet Explorer 4's title bar. You may want to do the same with Outlook Express. Once again, be careful when using RegEdit. Click Start, Run, type in regedit and press Enter. In RegEdit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express. In RegEdit's right pane, right-click the mouse and choose New, String Value. Name the new string WindowTitle exactly as shown and press Enter. Note that, though the string value for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 title has a space between Window and Title, there is no such space in the Outlook Express string. Now double-click the new string's icon and type in your new title. Click OK when finished and then close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit). The next time you run Outlook Express, your new title will appear in the title bar.

ROOM WITH A VIEW C.N. asks if there's a way to reduce the size of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 toolbar to leave more room for Web page content. We've most likely covered this before, but here goes. You can completely eliminate the toolbar if you like. Choose View, Toolbar. Toolbar is a toggle command, and when the toolbar is in view, the Toolbar command has a check mark beside it. Choosing the command removes the check mark, and the toolbar. If you want even more space, choose View, Status Bar. This is also a toggle, and selecting it turns it off. This leaves you with only the menu bar and maximizes the Web page space. To turn the toolbar and status bar back on, just reselect the options as described. If you don't want to completely remove the toolbar, move the mouse over the bottom edge of the toolbar. When the cursor turns into a vertical double arrow, drag upward. If you drag the toolbar up as far as it will go, you'll have a single-line toolbar with all the components crammed into the small space.

CUSTOMIZING THE TOOLBAR In the last tip, we discussed how to eliminate the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 toolbar. This time, let's look at how to manage the objects on the toolbar. Choose View, Options and click the General tab. Now you can decide what you want on your toolbar. You can choose to have Standard buttons, an Address Bar, Links, Text Labels, and a Background Bitmap. All you have to do is select (or deselect) the components you want and click OK. Even if you go with the absolute minimum, all the features (except for the Address Bar) will still be available from the menu. This is worth experimenting with. For example, are you sure you know what happens if you deselect Standard Buttons? Check out each option until you find the one you like best. Remember, you can always change it back to the way it was when you started.

PASTING PICTURES T.H. wants to know if there's a way to paste pictures into Internet Mail. The answer is no, not in the way you want to paste pictures. Internet Mail doesn't support graphics. If you copy a picture and then go to Internet Mail and right-click in the message, you'll find that the Paste command is available. However, when you choose Paste, the picture will be added to the message as an attachment. There's no way to paste a picture directly into a message using Internet Mail.

USING THE SPELLING CHECKER We've received mail from numerous readers who say that spell-checking doesn't work in Internet Mail, and they would like to know how to activate it. Unfortunately, you must have the Microsoft Office suite installed to spell-check your messages, because Internet Mail uses the Microsoft Office spelling checker.

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