PowerToys are a set of free, unsupported tools designed to
enhance your Internet Explorer browsing experience. And enhance
they do. Created by the Internet Explorer developers themselves,
who categorically (but with a wink and a grin) warn that, "By
downloading these unsupported tools you are using them at your
own risk -- you know, like bungee jumping in your underwear or
dating your best friend's sister. Go ahead, live life on the edge
for once! We're sure you'll like them!" We won't comment on their
choice of imagery or humor, but we do use and heartily recommend
PowerToys. You'll find them at:
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/powertoys/
Did we mention they're free?
Image Toggler -- toggles images off and on. When you click the Toggle Images.exe button in the Links bar, it's six mouse strokes for the price of one (no more laborious View / Internet Options / Advanced / click to scroll down / un-check "Show pictures" / OK... whew). Reload the current page to clear the images on that page, if desired. The page you browse right after the toggle will behave according to the way you toggled. This'n is our favorite.
Links List -- shows an ordered list of the current page's links. Right-click on the page (except for a link or graphic) and select Links List. A new window lists every link as, naturally, a link. Pure simplicity, pure genius!
Open Frame in New Window -- see the content of a particular frame without all those irksome sidebars. Right-click inside the target frame and select Open Frame in New Window.
Quick Search -- lets you quickly access search engines from right inside your Address bar. Like so, type hb lynx into the address bar and this launches a search with HotBot on the keyword "lynx".
Since these PowerToys are undocumented, you might find using this one awkward until stumbling onto the trick: you must first "save" specific Quick Search keystroke shortcuts. To have the command hb your_text_here search HotBot for the desired text, activate the Links toolbar, click on the Quick Search.exe button, select the hb shortcut item from the list, and click Save. Type hb your_text_here in the Address bar and up comes HotBot's main search page and your search.
The annoying part about Quick Search's user interface is that when you run it the next time to set up another search service, the Internet Explorer Quick Search dialog box doesn't tell you which shortcuts you've already saved. You either have to remember, or waste time creating a shortcut you've already saved.
Text Highlighter -- the Internet Explorer equivalent to Microsoft Word's highlighting feature. Select text you want to highlight, right-click, choose Highlight. Word offers a rainbow of 15 highlight colors, whereas Text Highlighter offers one: yellow. Even with only yellow, it's still a cool tool.
Web Search -- only visible when you right-click on some selected text. If "Lynx" is the selected text, when you choose Web Search a new Internet Explorer launches and does an AutoSearch on Yahoo. In brief, Internet Explorer's AutoSearch allows you to search directly from the Address bar by typing go, find, or ? followed by a space and a search string. The Default value of the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl, typically something like:
"http://home.microsoft.com/access/autosearch.asp?p=%s"
determines what search service is used. You can use the must-have Windows 95 PowerToy -- that's Windows, not Internet Explorer -- called TweakUI to change this behavior.
The Windows 95 PowerToys are at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/contents/
powertoys/w95pwrtoysset/default.asp
For more information on the Windows 95 PowerToys be sure to
browse the WUON vault at:
http://www.PRIMEConsulting.com/articles/wuonarticles.html
The Win98 version of TweakUI is on the Win98 CD in the \Tools\Reskit\Powertoy folder.
Zoom In / Zoom Out -- zoom in or out on a Web page image. Right- click on a graphic then select Zoom In or Zoom Out. The Refresh button will quickly snap you back to normal when you've zoomed yourself into oblivion.
