How to block banners?

Blocking banners in Ad Annihilator is an easy and straightforward process. The main paradigm behind the Ad Annihilator banner blocking process is:

Point at the banner and tell Ad Annihilator to block it.

Ad Annihilator memorizes your instruction and next time an advertisement comes from this advertiser, it is blocked automatically! The more you work with Ad Annihilator, the smarter  Ad Annihilator becomes, the more banners it blocks for you. It acts like your secretary guarding you from distractive content.

Ad Annihilator combines both easy-to-use and advanced methods for banner blocking. They are detailed further.

Easy and simple ways to block a banner

There are two basic ways to tell Ad Annihilator to block a banner:

1. Point to the banner with the mouse and press Ctrl-Alt-B on the keyboard
   OR
2. Right-click the banner with the mouse and select "Block this banner" from the context menu. Note that this method does not work with certain types of banners (for example, Flash), so the previous method is preferred.

You may also press Shift button altogether with this to see Resource Block window first. Using this dialog you may fine-tune the banner blocking but this step is optional.

That's all!

Banner sniper

Use banner sniper to shoot banners visually! It's very simple! Just turn it on and start banner hunting. To make use of banner sniper do the following:

1. Turn it on by clicking on Banner sniper button on Ad Annihilator toolbar
2. Move the mouse pointer over the banner you want to shoot. It will highlight each picture and banner above which mouse pointer hovers with a thick red border to facilitate detection of the space occupied by each banner on web pages:



3. Click on the banner. You will hear "Banner shot!" sound and the banner will disappear before your very eyes! The sound can be setup on Banner stopper tab of Ad Annihilator Options window. Banner sniper may destroy other, similar banners as well at a single shot. So you can kill several banners at once.
4. You may move the mouse to other banners and shoot them as well
5. When you are through with banner hunting, turn banner sniper off by clicking on Banner sniper button on Ad Annihilator toolbar again

Banner sniper may be used to revitalize shot banners or pictures as well. The difference is when you move the mouse over the place where a shot banner was, it will highlight it with thick green border. Then you can return the banner or picture by clicking on that place.

Automatic blocking of other banners on the web page

When you block a banner on the web page, Ad Annihilator may block other similar banners from the same advertiser. There is an option in Banner stopper tab of Ad Annihilator Options window called "Refresh affected banners on the page after filter change". If it is turned on, all other blocked banners will get of your screen immediately when you block a banner, and you can see how banners vanish right before your eyes!

Note that if this option is turned off, Ad Annihilator still blocks similar banners but they do not disappear right at that time. This expedites things a little.

Ways to block banners for intermediate-level users

In addition, banners may be blocked from Progress and Resource windows.

To block banners while they are being downloaded use Progress window. This way you may block the banner even before it is fully downloaded for the first time! You may block both banners and other resources that are being downloaded and which you do not need. Right-click the resource with the mouse in Progress window and select:

• "Block this banner" to abort banner downloading immediately and block it for future browsing;

• "Abort" just to abort banner downloading immediately. Note that at the next time this banner downloading starts again.

To block already downloaded banners you may use Resource window. Right-click the resource with the mouse in the list and select "Block this banner and abort". This blocks the banner for future browsing.

You may also press Shift button altogether with actions described above to see Resource Block window first to fine-tune the banner blocking.

To find a banner in the resource list right-click the banner itself with the mouse and select "Find this resource in resource list".

Advanced users always have their own ways

For advanced users Ad Annihilator have in store powerful and ubiquitous mechanism for banner blocking - banner filters. See Understanding banner filters for more information. Banner filters are edited in Banner filters tab. All the ways described above for banner blocking implicitly involve banner filter manipulation. They are just a convenient interface for creation of banner filters.

All the above methods can be efficiently combined to get the most from the power of Ad Annihilator. Users may add banner filters manually or by pointing and blocking them or from Progress and Resource windows; all these ways can get together to provide the most efficient user experience and intelligent banner blocking.

Related topics

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