Tabbed browsing feature is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 7 but in case its not, you can go to Menu Tools|Internet Options, From the preference window that pops up, “General” is the default tab but if it is not than you would have to select “General” and then click on the “settings” button next to the text “Change how web pages are displayed in tabs“. In the dialog box that pops up, enable the first checkbox labeled “Enable Tabbed Browsing“. As with most of these tweaks, you would have to restart Internet Explorer 7 to let the changes take effect.
Here are a couple of features that I really like about Internet Explorer 7’s tabbed browsing.
If you visit two or more website so regularly that you are confused which you should set as your homepage, you can chose in favor of neither by setting both (or more) of them as your homepage. Go to Internet Options from Toolsmenu and in the “General” tab go to the text area where your homepage url is set. Go to the end of the sentence and click “enter” to start a new line. Type the new url and save settings. The next time you launch Internet Explorer 7, both these pages will be loaded.
Note: Option is enabled by default, to disable it refer the tips below
Another tweak that is actually enabled by default is the Quick Tabs feature. This feature is included to help you manage multiple tabs without having to switch to them for every detail. If you look at the title bar of the first tab (this feature is available only if you have multiple tabs active) then you should also be able to make out a smaller tab before it with a symbol of four boxes. Click on it, you should be able to see snapshots of the loaded pages. It allows you to refresh pages, close them or switch to them by just clicking on the snapshot.
Note: Option is enabled by default, to disable it refer the tips below
Following are tips and shortcuts to work with tabbed browsing:
Ctrl + Click – To open a link in a new tab, right-click on it and click on “Open in New Tab” (remains inactive)
Ctrl + T – To open a new tab and make it active click on the empty space just after the end of the title bar of the last tab. You can also find it in the context menu.
Ctrl+Shift+Click – Open link in new tab and make the tab active ( Ctrl + Click does the same thing but the new tab remains inactive)
Ctrl + T – Create a new tab and make it active.
Ctrl + Tab – Switch between tabs (right)
Ctrl + Shift + Tab – Switch between tabs (left)
Alt + Enter – Open a new tab in the foreground from the Address bar or search query.
Alt + Q – Toggles Quick Tabs
Ctrl + Alt +F4 – Close other Tabs
Ctrl + W – Close current tab (or the current window if tabbed browsing is disabled)
Reference:An exhaustive list of Keyboard Shortcuts for Internet Explorer 7 can be foundhere.