Chapter 24: Browsing the World Wide Web with Internet Explorer

Interacting with Web Sites Automatically

Web sites that provide some personalized service typically ask you to fill out a registration form when you first establish a relationship with the site and to log in by giving a user name and password when you return to the site in the future. Filling out forms and typing in passwords are precisely the kinds of repetitive, mindless work that computers are supposed to do for us, so Internet Explorer provides a way to do these small tasks automatically.

You should give some thought as to whether to let the browser remember passwords and which passwords to entrust to it. Once a browser has been allowed to remember a password for a personal account on a Web site, anyone who uses your user account can get into that Web account.

Remembering Passwords Automatically

If you want Internet Explorer to remember passwords for you, do the following:

1. Choose Tools | Internet Options to open the Internet Options dialog box.
2. Go to the Content tab.
3. Click the AutoComplete button to open the AutoComplete Settings dialog box, as shown here:

4. Check the User Names And Passwords On Forms check box. This setting means that Internet Explorer will insert the user names and passwords it has memorized into the appropriate logon forms for Web pages.
5. Check the Prompt Me To Save Passwords check box. This setting means that whenever you log in to a site whose password Internet Explorer hasn't memorized, it will ask you whether you want it to memorize that password. If Internet Explorer already knows all the passwords you want it to know, leave this box unchecked.
6. Click OK in each of the open dialog boxes.

When these settings are in place, you will encounter the following dialog box every time you enter a new password:

Click Yes if you want the password remembered. Checking the Don't Offer To Remember Any More Passwords check box has the same effect as unchecking the Prompt Me To Save Passwords box on the AutoComplete Settings dialog box: Internet Explorer remembers and continues to use the passwords it knows but stops asking whether it should remember new passwords.

Occasionally you click Yes to remember the password and then later regret it. Unfortunately, there is no way to instruct Internet Explorer to forget one or two of your passwords but remember the others. If you want Internet Explorer to forget all the passwords it knows, open the AutoComplete Settings dialog box (as in the previous steps) and click the Clear Passwords button.

Using Internet Explorer's Profile Assistant

Profile Assistant is Internet Explorer's tool for filling out Web forms automatically. You fill out a profile form similar to the Windows Address Book contact form. Information from this profile is used to fill out Web forms that ask for things like your address or phone number. (No information is transmitted automatically. You have an opportunity to review forms and delete or change information before submitting forms.)

To set up your profile:

1. Open the Internet Options dialog box by selecting Tools | Internet Options from the menu bar.
2. Go to the Content tab of the dialog box and click the My Profile button. The Address Book - Choose Profile dialog box appears.
3. If you already have your own information stored as an entry in your address book, click the Select An Existing Entry From The Address Book To Represent Your Profile radio button, and do just that: select an entry from the list in the dialog box. Click OK, and your profile is established.
4. If you do not want to use an existing Address Book entry to establish your profile, click the Create A New Entry In The Address Book To Represent Your Profile radio button and click OK. A Properties dialog box opens, showing a form from the Windows Address Book. Fill out as much or as little of it as you like, using the Name, Home, Business, and Personal tabs. Click OK, and your profile is established.

Internet Explorer can fill in Web forms with the information from the Address Book only when the names of the boxes on the form match the pieces of information that are entered in the Address Book--items like name, ZIP code, and phone.