WebRev Blog

Rememer when I was complaining a few weeks ago about not liking the newest version of Internet Explorer?  Well, I've been using Firefox since then, whenever possible (it was my favorite, anyway). But I finally got tired of those little pop-ups, asking me if I would like to upgrade to the newest version of Firefox, so I went for it.

Surprise!  The newest version of Firefox has EVERYTHING I found confusing about Internet Explorer, and now I couldn't find my stuff in either browser. 

Don't Panic! I told myself.  You can make it, and all of your stuff is probably still there...somewhere.  I remembered a corporate training session I attended several years ago, called "Who Moved my Cheese?" which is all about dealing with change in the workplace.  I'm glad I didn't call on my other favorite trainig session memory, and throw the whole thing like a Fish!

The good news is that once you get it figured out in one browser, it's easy to figure it out in the other one. 

The first thing you'll probably want to do is resize the window you type your URLs in.  It's at the top left of the screen, and all you have to do is click on the right edge of that window, and drag it as far to the right as you want. 

Secondly, it's now important to know that instead of opening new "windows" in our browser, we open new "tabs."  This is done by clickiing on the tiny little tab at the right of the open one.  This took some practice for me, because I was used to just opening a new window by clicking on the icon in my status bar.

The third thing you'll want to do in both browsers is click on the drop-down "Tools" menu, and find your internet "options," and re-set your home page.  This will put the world right for you very quickly, as things will start to look much more familiar.  The private-browsing options are here, too.  In Firefox, it's that little Orange tab at the upper-left corner of the screen that just says "Firefox."  In Internet Explorer, it's still called "Tools." 

The "home" shortcuts and links to your bookmarks and settings are little icons in both browsers at the top-right of the screen. 

Allow yourself a little bit of time to just explore what is there.  It'll be much less frustrating than trying to find what you're looking for while you're on the phone with a client (just a hypotheical example).  Good luck!

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.