Title Bar

Let's take it from the top. The name of the Web site or title of the page you are viewing is found on the top left hand corner of your screen. Traditionally, this horizontal blue bar runs across the entire width of your screen. This blue bar that contains the name of the Web site is called the Title Bar. The Title Bar will serve as a trusty anchor, always letting your know where you are by sharing the title of the Web site you are visiting. This bar does not take you anywhere, but it always lets you know where you are.

Menu Bar

Underneath the Title Bar are other bars that can be used for moving around the Internet. If you are looking for quick and easy ways to navigate, the bars located at the top of your screen under the Title Bar will be helpful. One of the most useful bars is the Menu Bar. You will quickly appreciate each of the options found on the Menu Bar.

The Menu Bar is the horizontal band that contains commands and options that can be chosen. In Internet Explorer, these selections are File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help.

Clicking on each of the items in the standard Menu Bar at the top of your page will drop down a menu that is a useful way to access the many features of the Internet Explorer program. The last menu item is the Help item. You will be surprised and relieved how often you will be able to click Help and find the answers you need.

The Menu Bar is a very useful tool when trying to make your way around a Web site. Because the Menu Bar offers so many helpful functions, the quicker you master File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help, the better. It does not take long to learn the purpose of each of these menu items that help you move around the Internet.

Address Bar

Because the Address Bar offers a unique method of navigating the Web, it will be explained in greater detail a little later in this lesson.

Tool Bar

As its name implies, this is the area where a lot of work gets done. The Tool Bar is much like the Menu Bar stretching from left to right across the top of your screen just under the Address Bar. Because the Tool Bar is the workhorse of bars, it is larger and contains many useful icons divided into three areas. Each of these icons has a text description of its function under the icon itself. If you do not see the text description, hold your cursor over the icon, and the function of the icon will appear. Either way, it will not take you long to associate each function with its picture. Let's become familiar with the first area which contains five icons. The remainder of the icons on the Tool Bar will be explained in later lessons.

Back/Forward
The first icon on the Tool Bar is the Back Icon. You will be surprised how often you will want to return to a Web page or Web site you enjoyed earlier.

How about another direction change? Ready to return to the Web page you were viewing before you backtracked with the Back arrow? Yes, there is a tool for that. The Forward icon can return you to square one by revisiting each page successively.

Let's review. How would you find a page that you have just visited? To return to the last page you viewed, simply click the Back arrow icon on the toolbar.

If you want to view one of the last nine pages you visited in this session, just click that small black down arrow located to the side of the Back or Forward icon. You will see a list of the sites you have visited previously. Then just click the page you want from the list.

Stop and Refresh Icons
It will not take you long to appreciate two other icons found on the Tool Bar. The Stop icon is located to the right of the Back and Forward arrows. Clicking the Stop icon will stop the page you have selected from downloading.

This icon is especially useful. Click the Stop icon if a page is taking too long to download. What if you changed your mind and do not want to visit a page? Just click this icon. Occasionally you find that you have clicked on a wrong link. Again, the Stop icon to the rescue.

The next icon is not quite as intuitive as the old familiar Stop icon. It is the Refresh icon. Refresh makes sure you are viewing the latest version of the current Web page. Remember one of the unique characteristics of the Internet is that it is dynamic and fluid. Information is continuously being added, and Web pages are constantly changing. It might be important to you that you are viewing the very latest information. For that reason, you have a Refresh icon. Just click the Refresh icon and your browser will reload the latest version of the page you are viewing.

Home Page Icon
In reference to this icon, home page is the Web page that your browser uses when it starts, the Web page that appears every time you open your browser. Clicking the home page icon found on the Tool Bar will take you to the specific page you have set as your browser's home page.

Next Lesson: Addresses/Address Bar