Internet Explorer 7 has been redesigned to display less of itself and more of the sites you visit. The cumbersome toolbars and menus of previous versions of Internet Explorer have been replaced with a few essential icons and some useful new features, such as tabbed browsing. The new design makes web browsing simpler and faster. However, you are still able to turn on the familiar Menu Bar and Toolbars if you wish. This document introduces the Internet Explorer 7 environment.
One of the most useful additions to Internet Explorer 7 is tabbed browsing, which allows you to view multiple sites in one window by using tabs. Also new is the absence of the menu bar and other toolbars; these are hidden by default, but can still be set to display from the Tools button.
The Command Toolbar, 
replaces IE 6's Menu Bar. The Command Toolbar holds the most common commands for printing, changing your home page, and configuring your internet options. Two of command icons, Page and Tools, are shown expanded below. *Users can easily display and continue to use the IE 6 Menu Bar by pressing the Alt key.
For more information on displaying toolbars and the menu bar, refer to Customizing the Environment.
The graphic below highlights more of the new features in Internet Explorer 7, and is followed by brief descriptions of these highlighted features.
Favorites Center
The Favorites Center button quickly displays a pane with your saved web sites; by default, when you click one of your Favorites, the pane disappears (also see Using Favorites).
Add to Favorites
Next to the Favorites Center button is the Add to Favorites button, which lets you add web sites to your Favorites (also see Using Favorites).
Tabs
With tabbed browsing, you need to open only one browser window to view multiple web pages. Tabs provide quick access to all open pages. The New Tab button opens a blank page for browsing (also see Tabbed Browsing).
Quick Tabs
Quick Tabs let you navigate tabbed pages from thumbnail images (also see Tabbed Browsing).
NOTE: The Quick Tabs button appears only when multiple tabs are open.
Tab List
The Tab List lets you navigate open tabs from a pull-down list (also see Tabbed Browsing).
NOTE: The Tab List button appears only when multiple tabs are open.
Feeds
The Feeds button makes it easy to view and subscribe to RSS feeds (also see Using RSS Feeds).
NOTE: The Feeds button turns orange (i.e., activates) only when you visit a site with RSS feeds.
Search
With Search, you can search the Internet from your current window. Microsoft's Live Search is the default Search provider, but you can easily add more providers (e.g., Google, Amazon, Wikipedia) and set your own default (also see Search Options).
This document is based on and developed from information published in the LTS Online Help Collection (www.uwec.edu/help) developed by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and copyrighted by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Used by permission.