How can I use my browser effectively?
These tips will be useful not only when editing or viewing your website, but any time you are using a website browser.
Did you know that you can keep your website editor and the actual website (or website Preview if using the Preview feature) open simultaneously? It is not necessary to leave one of them to use the other.
- If the editor is already open, you can open the Preview in a separate tab or window simply by clicking the Preview My Website button in the top right of any editor screen. The site preview will automatically open in a new tab, or in a new window if the browser does not support tabs.
- If you see a link in a website and would like to open the linked page without leaving the one currently open, you can usually either right-click the link and choose an option such as Open in new tab or you can hold down a key while clicking the link (for most browsers, the Ctrl key in Windows or Cmd key on a Mac) to open in a new tab. Try searching the Help in the browser using the words keyboard shortcuts.
- You can usually also open a new tab or window using the File menu of the browser.
Switching from one tab or window to another can be accomplished using the mouse or keyboard: clicking a tab or icon representing a window in the Windows Explorer Bar, using the Window menu of the browser (to choose an open window), or using keyboard shortcuts (check the browser's Help searching for keyboard shortcuts).
Copying and pasting: when moving a lot of content from an older site to a newer site (be sure that you can legally use the content in the new site) or from a document into your site, it can save a lot of time to use shortcuts for Copy and Paste. While you can usually highlight some content and then either right-click it or go to the Edit menu to use the Copy function, it is much faster to just use the keyboard: Ctrl+C in Windows, or Cmd+C on a Mac. Paste will usually be Ctrl+V or Cmd+V, and content is Cut with Ctrl+X or Cmd+X.
Refreshing the view of your website: if you make an edit to your site and then you do not see the change on the actual site or the Preview, this is normally due to browser "cache." To conserve Internet bandwidth and so that pages load faster, browsers will usually re-use content downloaded on a recent visit when visiting a site again. If you do not see a change, you can force the browser to reload the site again from our hosting system by clicking the Reload or Refresh button. In certain cases such as when a map is embedded in a page, it is necessary to "hard refresh:" discard all previously downloaded content and completely retrieve the site again from the server. The way this is done depends on the browser:
- Microsoft Edge: Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+F5
- Firefox: Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+F5
- Opera: hold Shift key while clicking Reload button
- Safari: just click the Reload button
- Chrome: Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+F5
