Select the Add This Page to Favorites button on the right side of the address bar (or press Ctrl+D). After you select this button, a Add to Favorites panel appears, as shown in Figure 6-3. Select the Add button to add Dummies.com to your Favorites list. Later in this chapter, “Bookmark and Revisit Your Favorite Websites” explains how to go to your favorite websites by selecting sites on the Favorites list.
You can change the text in the Add to Favorites panel before you select the Add button. However, there's usually no need to change the text unless it's overly long or unclear.
Browsing the web consists of entering addresses, following links, going forward and back, and revisiting your favorite websites. Relatively simple activities can absorb hours.
Keep Edge open if you want to go on to the next topic in this chapter.
FIGURE 6-1
FIGURE 6-2
FIGURE 6-3
Open Multiple Pages in Separate Tabs
Open Edge if it isn’t already open.
Go to the Google website at www.google.com. You can get there by typing www.google.com in the address bar and pressing Enter.
Select the New Tab button (or press Ctrl+T). This button is located to the right of the rightmost tab, as shown in Figure 6-4, top. A new web page appears, as shown in Figure 6-4, middle. What’s more, a new tab (not coincidentally called New Tab) appears at the top of the screen.
On the new tab, enter www.dummies.com in the address bar and press Enter. You open the Dummies website on the second tab, as shown in Figure 6-4, bottom. Now two websites are open in Edge. Google.com is open on the first tab; Dummies.com is open on the second. Notice the web page names on the tabs.
To close a tab, select its Close button (the X) or make sure that you are looking at the page you want to close and press Ctrl+W.
Select the first tab, the one with the name Google. You return to the Google website.
Browsing in multiple tabs allows you to keep one page open while visiting another, perhaps to compare information or to follow a different thought.
The keyboard shortcut for switching between tabs is Ctrl+Tab.
Select the Close button (the X) on the Dummies.com tab to close that particular tab. Close tabs when you want to reduce clutter and simplify switching among open tabs.
The keyboard shortcut for closing the current tab is Ctrl+W. (W? Long story.)
FIGURE 6-4
Search for Anything
With Edge open, go to the address bar and type travel. A drop-down list of search terms with the word travel appears as Edge attempts to guess what you’re searching for. (Ignore this list for this exercise, but take advantage of it later.) Select Bing Search on the right side of the search term list to open the Bing website.
You can search the Internet from the Search icon on the taskbar without opening Edge. Type a search term in the Search box. The Search panel lists items pertaining to the search term you entered, including ideas for web searches. Select a web-related item to search with Edge.
A search results page appears, as shown in Figure 6-5. The results come from www.bing.com, which is the default search engine for Edge. A search engine is simply a website that provides links to web pages that match your search. (That definition, however, ignores the complex process going on behind the scenes.)
Scroll down the page of search results. Select any link you want to follow. If you get to the bottom of the page, select the Next button to see more search results.
Some of the “search results” are advertisements. In Bing searches, the results at the top of the page and the right side of the page are paid for. Be careful of these advertisements, which are designed to sell you something, not to provide information. If you prefer not to see advertisements on web pages, see “Block Ads on Web Pages,” later in this chapter.
Return to the previous screen by selecting the Back button (or pressing Alt+left arrow).
Select the address bar and type travel new mexico (no capitals needed). As you type, potential matches for your terms appear in the drop-down list. If you see an item matching the search you want, select it in the list. Otherwise, press Enter.
Different search engines turn up different results. Other search engines include Google (www.google.com) and Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com). To use one of these search engines when exploring the web, enter its address in the address bar.
Note the tabs at the top of the Bing page, below the Search box. The first tab is All, which contains the results you see by default. Additional tabs vary with the search. Select each of the tabs, which may include any of the following:
Images displays pictures matching your terms.
Videos displays clips and snippets related to your search terms.
Maps will help you get there.
News displays search results from recent news, instead of all the results of the broader web.
Shopping directs you where to shop for items that match your search term.
Leave Edge open if you want to move on to the next topic.
FIGURE 6-5
Bookmark and Revisit Your Favorite Websites
Open Edge, if it isn’t already open, and go to your favorite website on the Internet (or if you don’t have a personal favorite, just go to www.dummies.com). If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you soon find websites that you want to visit again and again. Rather than memorize the addresses of these websites, you can add them to your Favorites list to make revisiting them quite easy.
Select the Add This Page to Favorites button (located on the right side of the address bar; it’s shaped like a star). The Add to Favorites panel opens, as shown in Figure 6-6. Use this panel to describe the websites you want to revisit, and store their names in the Favorites panel (you’ll take a look at the Favorites panel in Step 4).
Before selecting the Add button to add your favorite website to the Favorites list, consider doing the following:
Enter a shorter, more concise, more descriptive name in the Name text box.
Open the Save In menu and select a folder name to store the website in a folder. (Step 8 explains how to create folders of your own.)
To verify that the website you are currently visiting has been added to the Favorites list, select the Favorites button (or press Ctrl+I). The Favorites panel opens, as shown in Figure 6-7. Look for your website in the Favorites panel.
Select the Back button to go to the website you visited previously. This button is located in the upper-left corner of the screen. Next, select the Favorites button (or press Ctrl+I) and, in the list of bookmarked websites, select the website you bookmarked in Step 3 (see Figure 6-7). Your favorite website opens on the screen.
Don’t hesitate to bookmark a website that you expect to revisit. Unless you bookmark it and add it to your Favorites list, you might not be able to find it again.