This has come up a couple of times recently in the content of searching for e-dissertations (I can eke out another short post about that however), and so merits escalating to a blog post (DEFCON 3 is next).
We have had a couple of queries from user who have been unable to use the guided search or advanced search options and the drop down boxes for media or field selection have been greyed (grayed?) out. Here's a couple of suggestions to resolve matters:
1) Change browsers. Switch to Firefox or Chrome as this problem has only cropped up with Internet Explorer. If I may editorialise briefly, you should consider switching to Firefox or Chrome as both are better than Internet Explorer (in my humble opinion of course). If you are on-campus, this is a better solution as the one below may not work.
2) If you really prefer to stay with Internet Explorer, then take the following steps (these instructions come from the library catalogue vendor's technical support department):
1) Click on the Tools icon (a
small cog in the upper right hand corner of IE's Window).
2) Select "Internet options" from the list that comes up.
3) Now click on the "Security" tab that comes up in the new
"Internet options" window.
4) Please now click on the "Custom level..." button.
5) The window "Security Settings - Internet Zone" should now be open.
6) Please scroll just about all the way down to find the "Scripting"
section.
7) The "Active scripting" radio button will currently either be set
to "Disable" or "Prompt" neither is desirable and will
cause the issue as described. Please set it to "Enable".
8) Finally click on the "OK" button twice to bring you back to IE
and try the library catalogue again
