Tabby's Tips For Switching
To Crazy Browser From Netcaptor

Tabby customized the Crazy Browser toolbar and
moved the address bar to be on the toolbar level.
(Woo-hoo, Tabby wants the SI Swinsuit DVD!)
 
 
Some Crazy Browser Background
 
What is discussed on this page is Crazy Browser version 1.0.5. Crazy Browser is a tabbed browser that looks a lot like Netcaptor but Crazy Browser is not exactly the same as Netcaptor. Nonetheless, Crazy Browser is so close enough to being similar to Netcaptor (particularly when compared with other tabbed browsers) that you can say that although Crazy Browser is not an identical twin then it sure must be a fraternal twin with a great deal of the family resemblance. Many people consider Netcaptor to be the leading tabbed browser for Internet Explorer, but Tabby puts Crazy Browser at the top of the list of tabbed browsers. For Tabby, since the great quality of Crazy Browser is on an equal level as Netcaptor, then the free Crazy Browser beats the Netcaptor shareware browser everyday of the week. .

This page will tell you how Tabby is using Crazy Browser as a substitute for Netcaptor with tips, workarounds, and information to get back almost all of the Netcaptor capabilities that were lost when Tabby switched over to Crazy Browser. The tips, workarounds, and information should help you to get Crazy Browser surfing the world wide web in just about the same way you may have been using Netcaptor to surf websites on the internet. If you have a paid version of Netcaptor, then you might as well keep using Netcaptor. But if you still use an older ad-supported version of Netcaptor, or if Netcaptor has somehow become incompatible on your PC (such as if it crashes on you a lot), or if you don't want to pay for the shareware version of Netcaptor, then the free Crazy Browser is for you. Read this page so you can find out how to get back the quicksearch command, importing your Netcaptor Captorgroup files, and some other tips on using Crazy Browser.
 
Since this page discusses Crazy Browser version 1.0.5, then possibly a few (but maybe not all) of the workarounds may not be needed when using future versions of Crazy Browser.
 
FYI, WHOIS information says the person behind the CrazyBrowser.com domain is someone by the name of Chi Tie who is located in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. You can click here to see the WHOIS information. If you're wondering, Tabby is not Chi Tie and Tabby doesn't know the guy, but Tabby deeply appreciates all of the work that Chi Tie has put into making Crazy Browser.
 
Importing Netcaptor Captorgroup files
 
Copy all of your Netcaptor captorgroup files over and they will work just fine under Crazy Browser. Just copy all of the files and subdirectories in your Netcaptor Captorgroups directory from
 
    C:\Program Files\Netcaptor\CaptorGroups
to  C:\Program Files\Crazy Browser\Groups
 
Getting Quicksearch in the Address Bar when using Crazy Browser
 
Netcaptor has a quicksearch capability built into Netcaptor so you can type in customized searches in the address bar -- not just google searches in the address bar but also other searches such as searching other databases. Crazy Browser doesn't come with quicksearch. To get quicksearch, you can install Web Accessories for Internet Explorer 5 which you can get at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/ie5wa.asp or, for those using WinXP, you can install the WinXP version of TweakUI, included with Powertoys for Windows XP (WinXP comes with Internet Explorer 6), which you can get at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp (thanks to Fu Xuen for the WinXP tip). And once installed you will then get quicksearch in plain tab-less Internet Explorer and therefore in Crazy Browser since Crazy Browser works on top of Internet Explorer. You should be able to put in as many different customized quicksearch commands that you want.
 
Here are some customized quicksearch commands that you can use:
 
Yahoo:   http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%s
Google:   http://www.google.com/search?q=%s
Newsgroups:   http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%s
Ebay:   http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=%s
Whois:   http://www.wwhois.com/wwhois.cgi?name=%s
Download:   http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=%s
Books:   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?mode=books&keyword=%s
Dictionary:   http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=%s
Thesaurus:   http://www.thesaurus.com/cgi-bin/search?config=roget&words=%s
 
For those using Web Accessories for Internet Explorer 5, once you have Web Accessories installed, you should be able to access the quicksearch ultility from the Links toolbar so you can customize the quicksearch commands. If you don't see the Links toolbar in Crazy Browser, then go to the menu bar and click View | ToolBar | Links. For those using WinXP, go into the WinXP version of TweakUI and look in there. Configure and set up your custom quicksearches, and then (using one of the above custom quicksearches) you can type something like "ebay pez dispensers" in the address bar to search for Pez dispensers on Ebay.
 
For another workaround for doing something like a quicksearch in the address bar, you can change the ALT-ENTER domain completion command to do the equivalent of a quicksearch. For instance, you can have the ALT-ENTER command perform a newsgroup search. Go up to the menu bar and then click Options | Advanced Options | Domain Completion and then put in  http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%s  for the ALT-ENTER command -- then type in the keywords in the address bar and do an ALT-ENTER.
 
Or if you have quicksearch working as discussed in the previous paragraphs, then you could use the ALT-ENTER command to do an Annoymizer command:  http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://%s  (after you have this command set up, type in a website URL address like "www.yahoo.com" without the "http://" in the address bar and then you can do an ALT-ENTER). Or you can use the ALT-ENTER command to do an Internet Archive WayBackMachine command: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://%s (after you have this command set up, type in a website URL address like "www.yahoo.com" without the "http://" in the address bar and then you can do an ALT-ENTER). Note that you can also put the Annoymizer and Internet Archive WayBackMachine commands in the "Go" button. To the left of the address bar is a green arrow button that you can call the "Go" button. Click the pull-down arrow to the right of the green arrow button and you'll see commands for translating web pages -- go down to the bottom of that pull-down menu and click Customize and you will be able to put in even more commands including the Annoymizer and the Interet Archive WayBackMachine commands.
 
If you want even more search capabilities, you have the Search Navigation Side Bar which is discussed in the next section.
 
Search Navigation Sidebar (CTRL-E)
 
Get Tabby's sidebar search file
(August 13, 2002 addition: FedEx delivery tracking search)
 
You can customize the Search Navigation Sidebar which is the search side column that shows up on the left side of the browser when you do a CTRL-E or if you click the search icon in the toolbar. You can get Tabby's verison of the english.htm file (updated July 3, 2002, to fix VeriSign Network Solutions domain search and to add tracking for UPS parcel deliveries and USPS mail deliveries) that you can download. Click on this link for english.zip containing the english.htm file, save the zip file to your PC, then unzip to your  C:\Program Files\Crazy Browser\Languages  directory, and (if you are in Crazy Browser) exit Crazy Browser and then run Crazy Browser again to load the new sidebar search file. If you can't get the quicksearch to work, you can at least customize the Search Navigation Sidebar (and you can also customize the aforementioned ALT-ENTER command). You can edit the english.htm file to add many other search commands. Tabby thinks the Crazy Browser's Search Navigation Sidebar is better than the one in Netcaptor.
 
Workaround for Opening A New "Blank" Tab
By Using CTRL-L "Open Link" Command
 
Crazy Browser doesn't have a keyboard command to open up a new blank tab. Under Crazy Browser, you will have to use your mouse to either click the blank page icon in the toolbar to get a new blank tab  -or-  you have to go up to the menu bar to click:
 
      File | New | Blank
 
With Netcaptor and Multizilla, you can do a CTRL-N to open up a new blank tab (Mozilla without the Multizilla add-on uses CTRL-T to open up a new blank tab). Crazy Browser doesn't have a keyboard command to get a new blank tab. However, to fulfill the same purpose of opening a new blank tab where you are going to visit a new URL website address, you can do a CTRL-L which is the "Open Link" command that brings up an "Open" dialog panel where you can type in a new URL website address. Make sure the boxes for "Open on new tab" and "Open new tab in foreground" are checked and you'll get a new tab with the new website you want to access. So, instead of opening a new tab and typing in a URL website address, you would do a CTRL-L to get the dialog panel for typing in the URL website address and then you get the new tab with the website you wanted to access. Plain tab-less Internet Explorer has the CTRL-L keyboard command (and Netcaptor has it also) if you are already used to doing CTRL-L. Quick and easy!
 
So, if you're switching from Netcaptor to Crazy Browser, you might as well use the CTRL-L keyboard command instead of doing the old CTRL-N keyboard command from Netcaptor. (Tabby is still trying to break the CTRL-N habit....)
 

 
Different Menu Command Sequence
to Save URL as Shortcut on the Desktop
 
Crazy Browser has a different menu sequence for saving a web page's URL address as a shortcut to the desktop. Under Netcaptor, you would click
 
      File | Send Shortcut to Desktop
 
But under Crazy Browser, you would instead have to click
 
      File | Send | Shortcut to Desktop
 
It may seem like one extra step, but you don't have to click okay to confirm that the shortcut will be placed on the desktop which is what you would have to do in Netcaptor. So, you're saving a step. Crazy Browser follows the same command sequence that you have in plain tab-less Internet Explorer.
 
You can also right-click on the page and then click "Create Shortcut" on the menu panel that pops up in Crazy Browser. This right-click method is the same in Internet Explorer and in Netcaptor.
 
Blocking Specific URLs when using Crazy Browser
 
Netcaptor has a built-in capability for blocking specific web page URL addresses while you are using Netcaptor. But Crazy Browser doen't have that built-in capability. What you can do instead is edit the HOSTS file in your C:\WINDOWS directory to insert the URLs you want to block. This will also block out the URL from being accessed by any other browser on your PC. Note that blocking URL addresses is not the same as stopping pop-ups which Crazy Browser does very well. Tabby can easily edit the HOSTS file so a URL-blocking capability is not really needed in Crazy Browser.
 
Crazy Browser Doesn't Have An Alias
 
Netcaptor has an "alias" capability that you can use to merely type in a word instead of typing in a whole web page URL address. For instance, if you regularly like going to a web page with a very long URL address like http://www.verylongdomainname.com/longdirectoryname/longwebpagename.html then you can use the Netcaptor "alias" capability to shorten that down to one word that you would merely type in the address bar. Crazy Browser doesn't have that capability. Sorry, no workaround for that, but Tabby has rarely used the Netcaptor "alias" capability -- so Tabby can live without it.
 
Outlook Express 5.5 Link Issue
 
There is one issue you may encounter when you are using Outlook Express 5.5 to read email or to read newsgroup posts. When you click a link in the email or the newsgroup post that you are reading with Outlook Express 5.5, the tab-less Internet Explorer 5.5 may open up with the link that you clicked even though you may have set Crazy Browser (or even another tabbed browser) to be your default browser. This is a common problem that happens with both Crazy Browser and Netcaptor -- and may also occur with the other tabbed browsers. But you should not have this problem with Internet Explorer 6.0, Internet Explorer 5.0 Outlook Express 6.0, and Outlook Express 5.0. There is a workaround to this problem for those users with Internet Explorer 5.5 and Outlook Express 5.5. The workaround that you would use for Crazy Browser is the same exact workaround that you would use for Netcaptor (so there isn't any difference here on this issue). What you do is copy the link (right-click the link and click "Copy Shortcut") from the email message or from the newsgroup post that you are reading in Outlook Express 5.5, then you would go to the browser and do a SHIFT-CTRL-N which opens up a tab with the link that was copied from the email or from the post. It's not a very elegant solution, but you will avoid opening up Internet Explorer 5.5 if you are still using Internet Explorer 5.5 and Outlook Express 5.5.
 
Rare Framed Page Issue
 
One rare but slightly annoying issue that may occur for Crazy Browser is if a framed web page is on one tab and if you click a link in another tab and if that link is suppose to open up another new tab (if using plain tab-less Internet Explorer they would have opened up in new browser windows), then Crazy Browser may try to open that link in the tab that has the framed web page but does not succeed in loading. (This does not seem to occur with Netcaptor but Tabby has previously experienced similar non-loading links but those could have been bad links.) This issue is only for framed web pages where the whole page is framed and it doesn't look like it is framed. For instance, this page here at http://www.tabby.tk is framed (yes, for this website unless you went straight to Geocities). Keep this page open on a tab in Crazy Browser and then go to a website that has links that normally open up into new tabs (which would be new browser windows if using plain old Internet Explorer) and you'll see that the tab may not open but instead may try to open up in the tab that has the framed web page (you'll notice the indicator on the tab with the framed web page showing that a page is trying to load). This should not occur with a site with framed sections like if there is a side frame with a menu -- those should be okay. This also may not occur for javascript-enabled links but it may occur for links that have the target="top" or target="blank" tags (if you write HTML code for web pages then you would understand what that means). The workaround for this issue is if you click a link and the page is not loading, look for and close the tab that has the framed page -OR- simply hold down the shift key and click the link to try to force the link to open up in a new tab. Not a big issue but a rare slight annoyance that can be lived with once you recognize what is happening. Tabby can live with this rare issue since Crazy Browser is such a good and free tabbed browser. Nonetheless, Tabby is expecting this to be fixed in a future version of Crazy Browser.
 
Extras when Closing Tabs with Crazy Browser
 
Another note on tab behavior: This is not a biggie and can be seen to be an advantage that Crazy Browser has over Netcaptor. When you close tabs under Crazy Browser, you immediately go to the next tab to the right. This is different from Netcaptor where you go to the tab to the left. If you are like Tabby, you may go to web page and then start clicking links while the shift key is pressed down so the clicked links open up in new tabs to the right. So, when you close the tab you are in, you then go to the next tab to the right. Very nice. (Of course, if you are at the end of the tabs to right, then you'll go to the tab to the left as you close the current tab.)
 
Also, if you haven't discovered it yet, Crazy Browser has Undo closed tab commands. Do an ALT-Z and you can "undo" (or reopen) tabs with the web pages that you have closed. Have you ever closed a tab (which would be like closing a browser window if using plain un-tabbed Internet Explorer) for a web page accidently. ALT-Z will get it back! And you get a history of your closed tabs. Go to the menu bar and click Edit and you will see the Undo closed tab commands. Very very nice. Tabby says the Undo closed tab commands help to give "nine lives" to tabs including when used in combination with the History commands which can also be accessed from the menu bar or from the History icon on the toolbar! Compare this to Netcaptor.
 
Micellaneous
 
Despite the various differences, you can use Crazy Browser as a great substitute for Netcaptor. As previously mentioned, Crazy Browser is not an identical twin to Netcaptor, but could be considered a fraternal twin with the same family resemblence but with the differences that fraternal twins have. And for those folks who think Crazy Browser is a decompiled rip-off of Netcaptor, well, you're wrong as you can see from all the differences discussed on this page. If you have any comments about Crazy Browser, don't just send them to Tabby. You should also go to http://www.crazybrowser.com and send an email with your feedback to the creator of the Crazy Browser software. If you are using Crazy Browser, then go up to the menu bar and click  Help | Send Feedback. Rumor has it that a new version Crazy Browser could be coming out towards the end of summer or thereabouts. Tabby sent in Tabby's feedback and would encourage you to do likewise. Crazy Browser is a good browser and its continued development as freeware should be encouraged.
 

 
You can Click Here to see the list of Tabbed Browsers
including Crazy Browser that you can get for your PC.
 

 

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Tabby uses the program discussed
on this web page. And Tabby says
you should check it out also.
 
Copyright © 2002 Tabby's Tabbed Browsers