Internet Explorer 8 is quickly getting rolled out via Windows Update. After getting some time to test it with Multiple IE (for IE6 testing [...ugh]) I just got it installed on my development box.
IE 8 is a great (albeit extremely late) update for web developers, and I’m hoping that it catches on quickly – however, one thing stands out for me, and thats the UI. Having IE7 & 8 on different setups I’m fairly familiar with the new UI, and despite seeming weird and counter-intuitive, I’ve never actually tried to do anything about it – What web developer actually uses IE for anything other than testing, anyway?
To help bring the browser inline with other typical browser designs I did a quick google search and found some useful articles… which I’ve compiled here for convenience. I’m not necessarily trying to make IE look exactly like Firefox, Safari or Chrome, I’m really just aiming at getting most of the interface’s items in the (seemingly) logical place that is shared by most of the other browsers.
More space for tabs
From my experience, alot of people dont actually take advantage of tabbed-interfaces in browsers, despite being a huge time saver. Personally, with both IE 7&8 I’ve thought the interface was cluttered. Particularly the tab bar, and I dont doubt that this doesn’t help a user who hasn’t used tabs before to get started… Cluttered = too hard + ignore. So lets try and clean it up a bit. Having a large widescreen I still dont want my tab bar cluttered, and IE doesn’t help that much in its default state. Heres a few simple things you can do:
Internet Explorer 8 - Customize menu
Remove unnecessary items from the right of the tab bar using the “Add or Remove Commands” option. I basically get rid of everything except the Print, Page & Safety items. In the above screenshot, there is also the option to “Show Only Icons” – this will also give you an extra bit of tab area.
Add or remove items from the command toolbar
You can also go a bit further and if you use your favourites toolbar you can move your Command Toolbox to the top right, seperate from the tab bar alltogether. I wont be using this for further screenshots as I dont use IE’s favourites bar (which is required to align the command options to the right). Just unlock the toolbar and drag it up to the favourites bar. Here’s an example of what you will get:
Internet Explorer8 - moving toolbars around
Much better. I’ve also resized the search box in this shot, which you can also do when the toolbar is unlocked.
Move the refresh & stop buttons
In Internet Explorer’s continued desire to be different just for the sake of it… the Reload and Stop buttons have been moved to the right of the address bar (and really going against most browser UI’s I see and a seemingly logical grouping of buttons with Back/Forward). This is an easy fix:
Internet Explorer 8 - Move reload & stop buttons
Restore the menu bar to its normal location
With the new command bar in IE7/8, the menu bar became basically redundant, along with Windows Vista moving away from the menu bar idea altogether. If you’re running XP, though, you’re surrounded by applications that all use the standard windows menu bar: File, Edit, View, etc and it can be a problem for some if you’re suddenly moved over to IE 8. You can easily turn the menu bar on again by right clicking the top bar and ticking the “Menu Bar”, but it shows up below the address bar by default – another counter-intuitive location.
Unfortunately there is no direct option to fix this within IE, but there is a Registry fix that can be easily applied. I wont repeat this as there are plenty of articles available online that describe this and it deals with registry editing which can be nasty if you don’t know what you’re doing. Follow the instructions carefully though and there shouldn’t be a problem. (Note: fixes for IE7 will also work for IE8).
Done! Internet Explorer with the menu bar enabled and at the top along with other fixes in place.
Much better – note that I’ve also disabled the command toolbar as you can get everything that it offers under the menu bar… And thats about it!
I didn’t include changing the search engine for the search box – as it really comes down to personal preference (even though its “Live Search” by default) and its fairly easy to change. Microsoft’s IEBlog also wrote a bit about customizing IE8 a couple of weeks ago, and has a few things I haven’t included here. If you’re an IE user it might be worth checking out.
Customizing Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 is quickly getting rolled out via Windows Update. After getting some time to test it with Multiple IE (for IE6 testing [...ugh]) I just got it installed on my development box.
IE 8 is a great (albeit extremely late) update for web developers, and I’m hoping that it catches on quickly – however, one thing stands out for me, and thats the UI. Having IE7 & 8 on different setups I’m fairly familiar with the new UI, and despite seeming weird and counter-intuitive, I’ve never actually tried to do anything about it – What web developer actually uses IE for anything other than testing, anyway?
To help bring the browser inline with other typical browser designs I did a quick google search and found some useful articles… which I’ve compiled here for convenience. I’m not necessarily trying to make IE look exactly like Firefox, Safari or Chrome, I’m really just aiming at getting most of the interface’s items in the (seemingly) logical place that is shared by most of the other browsers.
More space for tabs
From my experience, alot of people dont actually take advantage of tabbed-interfaces in browsers, despite being a huge time saver. Personally, with both IE 7&8 I’ve thought the interface was cluttered. Particularly the tab bar, and I dont doubt that this doesn’t help a user who hasn’t used tabs before to get started… Cluttered = too hard + ignore. So lets try and clean it up a bit. Having a large widescreen I still dont want my tab bar cluttered, and IE doesn’t help that much in its default state. Heres a few simple things you can do:
Internet Explorer 8 - Customize menu
Remove unnecessary items from the right of the tab bar using the “Add or Remove Commands” option. I basically get rid of everything except the Print, Page & Safety items. In the above screenshot, there is also the option to “Show Only Icons” – this will also give you an extra bit of tab area.
Add or remove items from the command toolbar
You can also go a bit further and if you use your favourites toolbar you can move your Command Toolbox to the top right, seperate from the tab bar alltogether. I wont be using this for further screenshots as I dont use IE’s favourites bar (which is required to align the command options to the right). Just unlock the toolbar and drag it up to the favourites bar. Here’s an example of what you will get:
Internet Explorer8 - moving toolbars around
Much better. I’ve also resized the search box in this shot, which you can also do when the toolbar is unlocked.
Move the refresh & stop buttons
In Internet Explorer’s continued desire to be different just for the sake of it… the Reload and Stop buttons have been moved to the right of the address bar (and really going against most browser UI’s I see and a seemingly logical grouping of buttons with Back/Forward). This is an easy fix:
Internet Explorer 8 - Move reload & stop buttons
Restore the menu bar to its normal location
With the new command bar in IE7/8, the menu bar became basically redundant, along with Windows Vista moving away from the menu bar idea altogether. If you’re running XP, though, you’re surrounded by applications that all use the standard windows menu bar: File, Edit, View, etc and it can be a problem for some if you’re suddenly moved over to IE 8. You can easily turn the menu bar on again by right clicking the top bar and ticking the “Menu Bar”, but it shows up below the address bar by default – another counter-intuitive location.
Unfortunately there is no direct option to fix this within IE, but there is a Registry fix that can be easily applied. I wont repeat this as there are plenty of articles available online that describe this and it deals with registry editing which can be nasty if you don’t know what you’re doing. Follow the instructions carefully though and there shouldn’t be a problem. (Note: fixes for IE7 will also work for IE8).
Done! Internet Explorer with the menu bar enabled and at the top along with other fixes in place.
Much better – note that I’ve also disabled the command toolbar as you can get everything that it offers under the menu bar… And thats about it!
I didn’t include changing the search engine for the search box – as it really comes down to personal preference (even though its “Live Search” by default) and its fairly easy to change. Microsoft’s IEBlog also wrote a bit about customizing IE8 a couple of weeks ago, and has a few things I haven’t included here. If you’re an IE user it might be worth checking out.