by Susan J. Fager, Web Developer

Have you ever opened a browser and wished that you had set the home page to something else, only to discover on another day that some other site would serve you well as the home page? Well, through my online reading and self-discovery, I found some solutions that I would like to share with you.

Multiple Home Pages
Both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 allow the user to set not just one but multiple home pages. The instructions to do so are as follows:

Firefox

1. Create a folder in the "Bookmarks" menu, using a unique name. I use "Startup."
   
2. Save the pages that you would like to use as "home." That is, every time you open Firefox, these pages will automatically load into the tabs.
   
3. Now open "Tools/Options and in the "Main" tab under "Startup," click "Use Bookmark" for the "Home Page." Then click on the folder just created ("Startup" in my case) and click OK.
   
4. That should do it! Now when you open Firefox, you will have all you favorites at the click of a tab.

Internet Explorer 7

1. Click "Tools/Internet Options" and go to the "General" tab.
   
2. In the "Home Page" portion, type in each URL you want to use for the home page and separate them with a return, so that each address appears on its own line (as described in the dialog box).
   
3. Click OK.
   
4. Again, you will now have all the pages open in a tabbed menu when you open your IE7 browser.

Multiple Browsers
I take this another step by using different browsers for different tasks. For example, a student could use Internet Explorer 7 for work-related web pages and Firefox for school-related tasks (library, UWP home page, email, etc.) or vice versa.
A word of caution: When you have the browser open and click "Home," you may end up with more tabs than you care to have!

Have a great summer!