Web browsers are your gateway to the internet or World Wide Web. Browsers contain a lot of features that make your online experience more efficient. This includes things like tabs that allow you to open different web pages at the same time, and “bookmarks” or “favorites” that let you save website addresses so that you don’t have to type-in or search for frequently visited websites.
Some of the most popular browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Opera. These browsers have many useful features to help you get things done with ease. While some features of the browsers are known, others are either unknown or under-utilized,
Here, we’ll discuss some of the great features of your browser that you may not be using yet.
5 Helpful Browser Features You May Not Be Using
1. Autofill
This is an excellent feature of your browser you may not use as often as you should. The core importance of the autofill feature is to help quickly fill in details that some web pages require. As such, it can fill in names, passwords and even credit card information quickly.
How to set up Chrome autofill:
- Click on the three-dot at the right-top corner of your window.
- Go to the Chrome settings menu and access the available settings option on the autofill category. You will find three types- passwords, payment methods, addresses, and more.
- In the Passwords menu, you can change the settings in your password manager. Any password you’ve saved previously will be seen under the saved passwords section. This feature automatically works if enabled.
- You can go through the Payment methods menu to have credit card information automatically saved or filled in on applicable websites.
- The Addresses and more menu allows you to see and edit saved information of your name, addresses, and phone numbers.
ALSO READ: Reveal passwords stored in your browser – and check for the ones exposed in data breaches.
2. Print Preview
If you find a web page you want to print and are wondering how to go about it, there are two alternatives at your disposal. The first one is to make use of the menu option in the top-right corner, otherwise you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + P. This will help you preview the page and make necessary adjustments before you print it.
From the print preview screen you can adjust the size of the text on your printed webpage, or only print some of the pages rather than all of them. Making changes to what pages print and how large the scale is varies slightly between browsers. For these instructions, we’ll use the most popular browser – Chrome:
- From the Print Preview screen go to More settings > Scale to adjust the scale/size of the text and graphics on the printed page.
- Look for the Pages option to choose to print all, one or a range of pages.
If you’re trying to print an email in your web browser, you can get a printer-friendly view that doesn’t include your list of folder and commands. See how to print an email so you can read it.
If you just want to print a paragraph or two on a page, you can select/highlight the text on a webpage, right-click on the text you just highlighted, then choose print.
ALSO READ: Changing Font Size in Printed Documents or Web Pages.
3. View Browser Downloads
Sometimes, you may lose track of your downloaded files on your browser. For many web browsers, the easiest way to view your downloads is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + J. This allows you to view downloaded files in your web browser and any that are still downloading.
If you’ve already closed your browser, head over to File Explorer on a PC, or Finder on a Mac, and look for the “Downloads” folder in your user folder/profile.
4. Bookmarks and Favorites
You may not realize it but saving some of your most visited websites not only saves time, but it helps prevent your from getting re-directed to phishing websites by mistyping or clicking a bad search link. Saving your email, bank, social media or favorite news websites can save you time rather than typing ” Y A H O O . C O M ” every time you want to go there. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + D will create a Bookmark/Favorite for the website that you’re currently at. However, there are different methods of using bookmarks and favorites, depending on your browser type.
- Google Chrome: Go to the website you intend to bookmark, and click the star on the far-right part of your address bar. A menu with two columns will appear – the bookmark’s name and the folder. Fill it inappropriately and click on Done.
- Firefox: Go to the page you want to bookmark and use the shortcut Ctrl + D. Next, a menu will appear that shows Edit this bookmark. Choose an appropriate name for the bookmark if you desire and click on done.
5. Browser tabs
Browser tabs are one of the most useful features when trying to use more than one webpage at once. For a complete article on how and why to use browser tabs click here.
Contact us if you need help with what is likely the most-used app on your computer – your browser.