Basic Firefox And Tips

Fonts and colours

Self-explantory, just go and play with the options available.

File Types

Whenever you click on a download, Firefox will prompt you to either open or save it. If you don't want Firefox to prompt you, this is where you manage it.

Click on the Manage... button.

A new window will open. In this window, you will see a list of common extensions and what Firefox will do with it.

For example, a file ending with .swf (it's called extension, but for the non-techie here, I will just write it as a file ending with .xxx)

Look under Action and you will see that Firefox will open it.

Click on Change Action... at the bottom left hand corner.

From here, you can change how Firefox handles them.

Open them with the default application - this will open the file using the default application set.

Open them with this application - you get to choose a program to open this particular type of file.

Save them on my computer - Firefox will not prompt you to either open or save, but save it directly. If you have set Firefox to prompt you where to save (see first post), you will get another dialouge. Otherwise, it will always save to your preferred location.

Use this Plugin - this is the recommended action, since most of us aren't programmers and probably won't bother to get a Flash player. A plugin would work nicely in this case.

It's the same for the rest of the extensions.

For extensions which are not listed, Firefox will automatically save them.

Basic Firefox And Tips

Now on to the next tab - Tabs

Under New pages should be opened in:

1. A new window - Whenever you click on a link that will open a new window, Firefox will open a new window, very much like Internet Explorer.
2. A new tab - Whenever you click on a link that will open a new window, Firefox will force it to open as a tab, rather than a window.



Warn me when closing multiple tabs - Firefox will warn you when you close Firefox that has more than one tab open.

Warn me when opening multiple tabs might slow down Firefox - pretty much redundant, never had it warned me before, when I opened 40 tabs at one go.

Always show the tab bar - very obvious. Uncheck (untick) this box, your tabbing bar will be gone when only one tab is opened. When more than one tabs are being opened, the tab bar will be shown. It's a matter of personal preference here.

When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately - again, very obvious. Rather than stay in the same page after opening a new tab, Firefox will switch to the new tab immediately. Unchecking (unticking) this box will tell Firefox not to.

Basic Firefox And Tips

Downloads

Show the Downloads window when downloading a file - it will show a window. If you uncheck (untick) this box, no window will be shown. The manual way would be to go Tools > Downloads or press Ctrl + J to show the download window.

Close it when all downloads are finished - the download window will close and notify you that all downloads have finished, at the bottom right hand corner, near the clock. If you uncheck (untick) this box, the download window will not close. Firefox will still notify that downloads have finished.

Save files to ___________ - Firefox will always save the files to this location, in this example, desktop. If you use this option, Firefox will not prompt you where to save, but will automatically save it.

Also, Firefox will not prompt you when you save double copies of the same file; it will automatically be renamed, for example file.exe, file(2).exe.

Always ask me where to save files - Whenever you download a file, Firefox will open another window. This allows you to choose a location where you want to save the file.

Basic Firefox and Tips

First, will be the basics.

There's a lot... more than tips...

Basic Firefox Guide

Basic Firefox Configurations

Go to Tools > Options.

Click on Main.

Startup

Startup section lets you configure your home page.

If you select Show my home page from the drop-down list for When Firefox starts, Firefox will load whatever home page you've set it to. In my example, it will load a blank page.

f you select Show a blank page from the drop-down list for When Firefox starts, Firefox will show you a blank page. It's very much like setting about:blank as your home page.

Selecting Show my windows and tabs from last time for When Firefox starts will load all the websites that you've opened in your last session. It's very useful if you have done your research half way and don't want to search around again. This option eats up the most resources as well, so use it only when needed.

As for the Home Page field, it's self-explanatory. It will set your homepage. I prefer it to be blank. You can set anything you want.

If you decide to set one of your bookmarks as homepage, select the Use Bookmark button. Bookmarks Manager will open. Choose your favourite bookmark and click OK.

Clicking on the Restore to Default button will restore Firefox's homepage to its default page, which is a Google search page, modified to suit Firefox.