Efficiency Tip #34 – Start Page

Depending on where you bought your computer, it probably came with a browser that starts at a corporate web site – Dell – Apple – Gateway.  The first thing you probably do when you get to this page is go somewhere else.

Change your start page to something more useful.  For many years I used a custom page that I created.  A late version of it can be found here.  This page has every “normal” thing I do listed with a link.  I can check my web mail, login to Blackboard, view the news and go to my favorite pages.  There is even a Google search at the top.  Ten years ago, my start page used Alta Vista as the search engine.  Times change.

Now I use Protopage as my start page.  Protopage overcomes the main problem I had with my original start page – ease of change.  My old page required me to edit the HTML of the page.  That almost always involved FTP’ing the file as well.  It was difficult enough that I didn’t add temporary links like I do now.  Just today I added three links to my Protopage.  I put them in the “test” window.  This is where potentially useful things go until I can decide if I really will use them often.  If I use the link enough, I will keep it.  Otherwise, I will remove it. 

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