To reverse the effect, just double-tap the screen again.
Surprisingly, these features are touch-only. There’s no way to pinch or double-tap zoom with the keyboard or mouse.
The second and arguably even more fun effect involves pinching the screen to zoom arbitrarily. Simply pinch the screen with two fingers to zoom out, and then “reverse the pinch” to zoom back in.
Actually, there’s a third way. If you’d prefer to change the screen zoom permanently, you can configure IE Metro to do so. Please refer to the section “Configuring IE 10 Metro,” later in this chapter, for details.
While IE Metro utilizes the same Download folder as the desktop version, the download experience is, naturally, a bit different. This browser utilizes a pane just above the navigation bar, asking whether you’d like to Run, Save, or Cancel the downloadable file. This is shown in Figure 7-15
Figure 7-14: You can zoom in to a text column or other on-screen area by double-tapping it.
Figure 7-15: The file download experience
You may be familiar with this process on the desktop version of IE, which offers advanced save options—Save and run, and Save as—in addition to the choices offered in IE Metro. But as it turns out, the Save option in IE Metro is identical to Save and run on desktop IE. That is, IE Metro will prompt you to run a downloaded file—assuming it passed the SmartScreen security screening—as shown in Figure 7-16.
All files downloaded through the Metro environment are automatically scanned before you’re allowed to open them.
Figure 7-16: You’re prompted to run files downloaded from IE Metro.
Searching the web from a web browser has evolved over the years, with desktop versions of Internet Explorer first offering a dedicated search box and then integrating search directly into the address bar. In the Metro-style version of Internet Explorer, this capability has been refined yet again: This browser uses the integrated Search contract capabilities of Windows 8 to provide Internet search capabilities.
So you perform a search just as you do in any other Metro-style app: Open the search pane from the Charms bar and start typing.
Here’s how:
• Touch: Swipe in from the right side of the screen to open the Charms bar and then tap Search.
• Mouse: Move the mouse cursor into the top right or bottom right of the screen and then move the cursor along the right edge of the screen; then, click Search.
• Keyboard: Press Winkey + Q to open the search pane.
However you do it, the search pane will resemble Figure 7-17.
Figure 7-17: To trigger an Internet search from IE Metro, you must use the search pane.
As we explained in Chapter 3, the Search contract that backs this functionality is available system-wide in Windows 8 to any Metro experiences that choose to support it. And many do: This interface is used to search for Metro-style apps, classic Windows applications, settings and control panels, and files, as well as many different Metro-style apps—including, as it turns out, Internet Explorer Metro.
Here are a few things to note about this functionality.
First, the default search engine is Bing. This choice is inherited from the desktop version of Internet Explorer and is extremely laborious to change. If you simply want to perform a one-time search via Google, or some other service, you’re better off navigating to that service’s website manually.
Okay, so you really want to change the search provider? Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Here are the hoops you need to jump through:
First, open the desktop version of Internet Explorer, as you can’t change search providers using IE Metro. Now open the Tools menu by clicking the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the window (or type Alt + T); then, click Manage Add-ons. This opens the Manage Add-ons window.
On the left, click Search Providers, then drill down to your preferred search service on the right; then, click the Set as default button.
Of course, you probably only have one search provider, Bing, installed on your PC. To install another search provider—the reason you’re reading this—click the Find more search providers link at the bottom of the window. This will load the Internet Explorer Gallery website where you will then need to find and install a service provider.
One last hoop: Newly installed providers don’t always show up in the Manage Add-ons window immediately. To make that happen, you may need to close the Manage Add-ons window and try again. It’s surprisingly laborious.
Second, the search pane maintains a list of recent searches. So you may see these appear below the search box in the search pane. Click one to rerun that search.
In addition to supporting the Search contract, Internet Explorer Metro also supports the Share contract, allowing it to share web pages with other apps.
To share a web page from IE Metro, open the share pane via the Charms bar. This works identically to the procedures detailed in the previous section, but you will choose Share instead of Search from the Charms bar. When you do, the Share pane appears as shown in Figure 7-18.
Only a handful of built-in apps can act as receivers for share events from Internet Explorer Metro, including Mail and People, the latter of which connects to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Select the app you wish to share with and that app’s Share interface will appear. In Figure 7-19, we’re using the Mail app to share the current web page with others via e-mail. (This experience will vary from app to app.)
Figure 7-18: You can share web pages with others using the Share contract.
Figure 7-19: A few apps can act as Share receivers and accept your share request.
Not all Metro apps do.
To print from the Metro-style version of Internet Explorer, you can access the Devices interface, which is also accessible via the Charms bar. This is the standard way to print from Metro-style apps. However, IE Metro also supports the traditional Ctrl + P keyboard shortcut.
Once displayed, the Devices pane should resemble Figure 7-20.
Select a printer from the list and you’ll see a screen like that in Figure 7-21, with options that are specific to that printer. Tap Print to print the page.
Figure 7-20: Printing occurs via the Metro-style Devices interface.
Figure 7-21: Metro apps have pretty sophisticated printing choices.
Some printers may not support showing all the advanced configuration options you’re used to seeing via the Devices interface. But don’t fret; you can still access those features via the print dialog shown in desktop applications, including the desktop version of Internet Explorer.
If you already have the app in question, the item will read, Switch to app. Tap that and the app will run.