(c) Microsoft Corporation, 2000. All rights reserved.
Welcome to the Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition Preview for MacHack 2000 attendees. This release is an unfinished product and is only available as a technology preview for attendees of MacHack 2000. Microsoft offers no support or warranty on this preview release. Please consult the EULA in the Internet Explorer 5.5b1 folder before using this beta.
This document outlines some of the features of this release. As with any beta product, caution should be used when using Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition. Furthermore, the feature set of this preview are NOT reflective of the final product and are subject to change. Lastly, this Preview is not Carbon compliant.
Appended to this Read Me are the release notes of Internet Explorer 5.0 Macintosh Edition.
MACHACK 2000 FEATURES
1. Extensible Toolbars - by Steve Falkenburg
This hack/feature allows the user to drag images (JPEG/GIF/Animated GIF/PNG) from a web page to the Internet Explorer Button Bar and create a link to the target URL for the image or execute a JavaScript. The images can be local or loaded from the network. Animated GIFs continue to animate in the Button Bar, and images in the Button Bar can have four states: enabled, disabled, rollover, and depressed.
The original Internet Explorer 5.0 toolbar configuration is stored as an XML file. This format has been extended to support Extensible Toolbars. Below is a sample Toolbar.xml file that illustrates this format.
Extensible Toolbars XML format:
Use Toolbar.xml in your "System Folder:Preferences Folder:Explorer" folder
Also, you can drag an image link directly off of a page to the toolbar as a shortcut.
2. Type-select Navigation - by Steve Falkenburg
Type-select navigation allows the user to navigate to links on a web page via the keyboard. As the user types, the link (image or text) that most closely matches the typed characters is automatically selected and a focus ring is placed around it. The user can then press enter/return and the browser navigates to the selected link.
3. Open Link in Background Window - by Maf Vosburgh
This feature allows the user to open the selected link in a new browser window that is placed behind all currently open browser windows. This is done by Command-Shift clicking a link on a web page. The number of links that can be opened in this manner depends on available memory.
4. Tasman Rendering Engine Improvements - by Tantek Çelik
Significant improvements have been made to the Tasman rendering engine in this beta of Internet Explorer 5.5 Macintosh Edition. These include improvements to our CSS 1, CSS 2, HTML 4, JavaScript, and XML support that improves performance, standards-compliance, and stability.
Choose from nine color schemes for Internet Explorer, including a color that matches your Macintosh, such as Graphite. You can also change the way toolbars display by collapsing the toolbars to maximize your Web page view, adding and removing buttons from the Button Bar, or selecting a predefined set of buttons for the Button Bar.
Track the status of one or more online auctions by using the Auction Manager. The Auction Manager can monitor multiple auctions and notify you if one of your bids is no longer the highest bid, the bidding is about to end, or an auction has closed. You can choose to update the status of an auction either automatically or manually and you can specify how you want to be notified of changes.
Collect Web pages, such as news articles and e-commerce receipts, for future reference. The Internet Scrapbook provides a snapshot in time, so even if a Web page changes, you still have a record of the page.
Enjoy live QuickTime audio and video or MP3 audio streams within Internet Explorer. Choose from a variety of music and talk radio stations, and other broadcast sites, and add your favorites to the Media Toolbar. The Media Toolbar also contains bass, treble, and volume controls.
Find information on the Internet more easily. Now you can specify the category of information you are looking for, and let the Search Assistant select and use the best search sites for finding that type of information.
Experience faster and better Web page display. Internet Explorer's new Tasman rendering engine supports the latest Web and Internet standards. These standards include HTML 4.0, CSS 1.0 and 2.0, XML 1.0 (including XSL), DOM 1.0 HTML, and PNG format graphics.
The Tasman rendering engine can also handle:
* Dynamic HTML, which includes the Document Object Model, cascading style sheets (CSS 1), positioning, dynamic styles, data binding, and dynamic content (CSS 2).
* Enhanced scripting, which provides fast, comprehensive, and language-dependent script handling for pages that use ECMA-262 Script, the recently approved JavaScript standard that is based on JavaScript 1.1.
* Dynamic font embedding, which improves printing and Web delivery.
* HTTP 1.1, which improves the speed of Web-page downloading.
1.8 Additional Features in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5
* Improved Address AutoComplete Quickly select the address of a Web page you previously viewed. Or automatically search for Web sites by typing a question mark (?) or go followed by the word you want to search for.
* Folders on the Favorites Bar Add folders to the Favorites Bar so you can quickly choose from a group of favorite pages that appear as a menu.
* Toolbar Styles Customize the Button Bar by choosing to display either icons only, text only, or both text and icons.
* Drag-and-Drop Text and Pictures Drag text and pictures from a Web page to your desktop or another document.
* Keyboard Shortcuts for Moving Through Folders Move through folders and links in the Favorites and other panes and windows by using the CONTROL and ARROW keys. Then, use the RETURN key to follow a link.
* Apple Macintosh Runtime Java (MRJ) Engine Experience active content that relies on the Apple MRJ. Internet Explorer 5 supports MRJ version 2.1 and later (version 2.2 or greater recommended). For more information about the Apple MRJ, go to http://www.apple.com/java
* New Unicode Support Display international characters properly. Internet Explorer 5 includes support for Unicode by relying on Apple's Text Encoding Converter (TEC) 1.5 system extension.
* Euro Symbol Enabled Fonts Display the Euro currency symbol. All of the fonts installed by Internet Explorer contain the Euro currency symbol.
To use Apple QuickTime with Internet Explorer, the QuickTime PowerPlug extension must be installed in its default location, the Extensions folder in the System Folder.
To download and install QuickTime on your computer, go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Internet Explorer 5 automatically displays Web pages at the standard resolution setting (96 dpi) for most Web sites. If you visit a Web site designed for older Macintosh browsers, the text on the site might appear too large. To adjust your text size setting for these sites, you can adjust your text zoom setting or change the default font size for text.
To adjust the Text Zoom setting:
* In the View menu, select Text Zoom, and then choose the
percentage or size you want.
The recommended percentage is 75% for web pages designed for older Macintosh browsers.
Note The Text Zoom setting will automatically return to the default setting of 100% in each new Explorer window that you open and each time you quit Internet Explorer.
To change the default font size:
1. On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
2. Under Web Browser, click Language/Fonts.
3. On the Size pop-up menu, click a new size.
The recommended font size is 12 to imitate older Macintosh web browsers.
3.4 Viewing Web Pages That Contain ActiveX Controls
Some Web pages may contain ActiveX controls that have been designed specifically for Windows-based computers and are therefore not supported by the Macintosh. If you are unable to view a Web page that contains such a control, try turning off ActiveX content in Internet Explorer to view the page.
To turn off ActiveX content:
1. On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
2. Under Web Browser, click Web Content.
3. In the Active Content area, clear the Enable ActiveX check box.
4. Click OK.
5. To display the page with ActiveX content turned off, click Refresh.
Note Internet Explorer 5 cannot verify the integrity of ActiveX controls. If you do not turn off ActiveX content, you should download and use ActiveX controls only from Web sites that you trust.
When you download a large Web site for offline browsing, it requires a large amount of memory and, once downloaded, hard disk space. For this reason, Internet Explorer 5 does not download any Java applets or ActiveX controls that might be included on the site. It is recommended that you browse large Web sites that use Java applets or ActiveX controls online.
3.7 Resolving Date, Time, and Regional Settings Conflicts
Some Web sites use the date, time, and regional settings on your Macintosh to display timely and regional information. If these settings are not correct on your Macintosh, these Web sites might not work correctly.
If you are running Macintosh OS 7.6.1 - 8.6, use the Map control panel to change date, time, or regional settings. If you are running Macintosh OS 9, use the Date & Time control panel to change these settings. For more information about changing these settings, see Mac OS Help.
3.8 Browsing Secure Web Sites Through a Proxy Server
If you connect to the Internet through a proxy server, you might have difficulty accessing secure Web sites. Depending on your proxy server, you might be able to access these sites by using the tunnel method.
To use the tunnel method:
1. On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
2. Under Network, click Proxies.
3. Click the Settings button next to the Secure Proxy box.
4. If this button is unavailable, do one of the following:
* Click the Settings button next to the Web Proxy box.
* Select the Secure Proxy check box, and then click Settings.
If you change your network settings without first quitting Internet Explorer, you might experience problems using Internet Explorer. It is recommended that you either quit Internet Explorer before changing your network settings or restart Internet Explorer after you change these settings.
If you put your computer to sleep without first quitting Internet Explorer, in some rare cases you might experience problems using Internet Explorer after you wake your computer. It is recommended that you either quit Internet Explorer before putting your computer to sleep or restart Internet Explorer after you wake your computer, if you experience such problems.
If a Web page does not appear to be formatted correctly, try resizing the Explorer window or selecting Refresh from the View menu.
In some cases, this might not correct the problem. This is because Internet Explorer 5, as a newer Web browser, might reveal mistakes in the HTML source code of a Web page. If this is the case, the Web page author should update the content of the page so that it displays correctly in newer Web browsers.
If you have difficulty displaying Web pages, try deleting the Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders from your hard disk.
To delete the Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders:
1. Quit Internet Explorer.
2. In Finder, open the System Folder.
3. In the System Folder, open the Preferences folder.
4. Drag the Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders from the Preferences folder to your desktop.
5. Restart Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer creates new Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders in the Preferences folder.
6. To maintain your favorite pages, open the Explorer folder on your desktop, and then drag the Favorites.html file to the new Explorer folder in the Preferences folder.
7. To make sure your favorite pages have been maintained, click Favorites on the Window menu in Internet Explorer.
8. Delete the Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders on your desktop, as they unnecessarily use hard disk space.
If deleting the Explorer and MS Internet Cache folders does not correct the problems you are having, you might also try deleting your Internet Preferences file.
Note The Internet Preferences file is also used by the Internet Config control panel (the Internet control panel, if you are using Macintosh OS 9) and may contain preferences that are used by other Internet programs, such as e-mail and news programs. The Internet Preferences file also contains your Internet Explorer preferences settings, your cookies, and your file helper settings. Do not delete this file unless you have first written a record of all of these settings.
To delete the Internet Preferences file:
1. Quit Internet Explorer.
2. In Finder, open the System Folder.
3. In the System Folder, open the Preferences folder.
4. Drag the Internet Preferences file to your desktop.
5. Restart Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer creates a new Internet Preferences file in the Preferences folder.
6. To reenter your default Internet Configuration settings, point to Control Panels on the Apple menu, and then click Internet Config (click Internet if you are using Macintosh OS 9).
7. Delete the Internet Preferences file on your desktop, as it unnecessarily uses hard disk space.
