Internet-Time Saving Tips
You can find practically anything you need on the Internet-- sound easy? Not always. Sometimes finding exactly what you need can be timely and frustrating. Fear not, here are some tips to speed things along.
If there are sites you visit frequently be sure to add them to your favorites by using the favorites button on the toolbar and choosing “add” in the favorites window. Set your home page to the page you visit most often. You can do that through the menu bar (tools, internet options).
Use web-searching tools.
Search engines (http://www.google.com , www.alltheweb.com) are web pages that find other web pages containing the key word you specify.
Web directories (www.yahoo.com, http://directory.google.com//) are sites that have lists of hyperlinks to various web pages and the links are typically organized into categories.
Meta-search engines (www.searchwiz.com, www.metacrawler.com) use the power of multiple search engines according to your search request.
Searching
There are some basic principles to keep in mind when searching on the Internet. If you do not know the URL, think of the organization most likely to provide an answer to your request and try to navigate to their site. For example, try finding the Food and Drug Association using the following suggestions.
1. Leave off the http://
2. Type www
3. Key in the assumed organization name (in this case FDA)
4. Add the appropriate domain, in this case .gov for federal government.
The most common domain names are:
.com for commercial
.net for networks
.edu for U.S. higher education
.org for other organizations
.mil for U.S. military
.gov for U.S. federal government
.int for international organizations
.state.XX.us for U.S. state governments (i.e.; .state.MI.us)
Advanced Searching
Search engines have different ways of combining words for searching. If you key in school technology, the search will return hits with either word; school, technology, or both in any order. Use double quotes “school technology” to narrow the search to an exact phrase. Use the plus (+) or minus (-) symbol to modify your search query; solar system –sun, thus removing the word sun from the search. You can link concepts with the word AND or you can vary the way a concept is described with the word OR. Be sure to look at the help files of your favorite search engine to determine which logic, or technique they use, it is not the same at every web site.
Shortcuts
Alt + D: Gets you right to the address bar and ready for data entry
F4 Key: Takes you to address bar drop down for a view of last 25 sites visited, arrow through and enter.
Ctrl + Enter: No dot-org or dot-net extension necessary type name of site, press ctrl + enter and your computer will attach the www. and the .com (key MSN, press ctrl + enter)
Shift + Click: on a link to open page in a new window.
Drag & Drop: Put shortcuts on your links bar, in your start menu, or your favorites folder. Left click, hold and drag the small blue e (Internet Explorer icon) in the address bar that precedes the web address, drag the e and drop in any of these areas for fast access to a favorite web site.
Search: You can do a simple search just by typing a keyword in the address bar, for example, “dog”.
Navigating: Scroll down web pages with spacebar, shift + spacebar to scroll up. Ctrl + end to get to bottom, Ctrl + Home to go to top. Alt + left arrow takes you up one page, Alt + right arrow back one page.
Copy: select the URL, press Ctrl + C to copy the address, open any document and Paste or Ctrl + V to past the link into a document or presentation.
