Use Surf-Ahead and the Next Page command

See Getting Started for a quick description of these two crucial features.

Use the keyboard and mouse together

iRider has many keys assigned to oft-used commands, and using them in combination with the mouse can vastly speed up browsing. Important commands are also duplicated for right or left-handed use. See the Keyboard Guide, program menus, and let your mouse cursor hover over toolbar buttons to see keyboard equivalents for commands.

Close pages only when you're done with a task,
and use Close Site or Close All

There's usually no need to close pages until you're completely done with a particular browsing task (unless your Page List is getting too cluttered). Remember that iRider automatically manages memory so you don't have to worry about using too much when opening many pages. As you browse pages, you can Pin pages you're interested in, to mark them and prevent them from being closed. When you're done, you can use the Pages/Close All command to close everything except your pinned pages, or the Pages/Close Site command to close all unpinned pages in the current site.

Drag across several pages' close buttons or pins

If you want to close or pin several pages in a row in the Page List, you don't have to click them one by one. Just click the close button or pin of the first page and drag through all the pages you want to operate on.

Open pages liberally

iRider takes excellent advantage of a fast connection by letting you open lots of pages at once, so the web becomes like a magazine or book that you can flip through effortlessly. You can open pages en masse either from your Favorites (bookmarks) or from links on a site by just selecting a bunch of links and clicking on one (or using Open Selected Pages). You can also use Favorites Books. (These techniques can also be used on a slower connection, but depending on the size of the pages and the situation, you may find it more efficient to be more selective about the pages you open.)

Let's say you're shopping for clothes and you're presented with a list of items that you can click on for more information. Instead of painstakingly clicking on items you might like, just select all of them and click on one. Now they're all there for you to flip through — just like a catalog.

Not sure which of several Favorites refers to a page you're looking for? Just Surf-Ahead all the likely ones and flip through them.

Want to check up on all your friends around the world (or at least the egotists who have personal websites)? Open your "Friends" folder in your Favorites, select them all, and click one to open them all, then zip through them with Next Page. In record time and with minimum hassle, you've gone through all their sites. Would you ever bother to do this with an ordinary browser?

Some pages are formatted so that links you aren't interested in are interspersed with many links you do want to open. On a fast connection, it can often be fastest just to select and open them all, and skip the pages you aren't interested in. On a slow connection, it's generally better to selectively Surf-Ahead (right-click) the links.

Use multiple windows

iRider's File/New Window command lets you open more than one main window, each containing any number of pages. Additional windows can be useful for separating pages related to different tasks. This can be especially handy if a task needs to be interrupted in mid-stream for some other task. Since the Go/Next Page command only searches within the active window, any unvisited pages in your original window will remain unvisited while you work on the new task. When you finish the new task, you can return to your original window and resume right where you left off.

Use the mouse scroll wheel in the Page List

If your mouse has a scroll wheel, it'll let you scroll through pages in the Page List when the mouse cursor is over the List (no need to click there first).

Shortcuts to Favorites folders can be added to Favorites, even your Links Bar

Since Favorites folders are simply pages, with addresses (e.g., "favorites:Comedy/Ex-Parrots"), you can add shortcuts to them to your Favorites, just like any other page. This can help with an oft-used folder that might be buried inside several levels of other folders, but it's especially useful for setting up quick access to a Favorites folder via the Links Bar. Just add a Favorite to the Links folder under your root Favorites.

If you're waiting for pages, open more search results

If you're still having to wait for pages to download, even when using Surf-Ahead, a common technique is to open additional pages of search results immediately and Surf-Ahead additional pages from it. You can open more search results immediately by left-clicking a link to them or double-clicking an already-opened page in the Page List (equivalent to the Pages/Download Now command). Generally, the more pages you queue up with Surf-Ahead, the less likely you are to wait for pages.

Some sites also let you choose how many search results are returned on a single page, and increasing this number can have the same effect: letting you Surf-Ahead additional pages while you wait for the first pages to download. This can be important, for example, on a stock photo site or similar site with pages that contain large, slow-to-download images.

In general, you can left-click links or use Download Now to prioritize pages for immediate download. On a slow site, you can strategically do this in combination with Surf-Ahead to keep yourself busy instead of waiting for pages.

Opening multiple objects from Windows Explorer (shell)

You can open multiple objects from Windows file windows (also known as Explorer or the shell) by selecting all of them and using the File/Open in iRider command or, if iRider is configured as the default browser, pressing the Enter key. iRider will Surf-Ahead the objects, allowing you to work while they open.   iRider recognizes all Internet-related file types, including .html, .jpg, .gif and .png. Opening image files this way is a great way to browse photos.