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A Beginner's Guide to Firefox

I've recently come to the realization that even though 90% of people come into Firefox 100% unaware of some the most impressive features that are available, this trend does not have to continue forever. As a response to this realization I've decided to publish a small how to, that will run through a number of action that I consider interesting and important to do while setting up Firefox, as well as covering a number of features that are often left out but can be incredible.

The install process with Firefox is very easy regardless of what operating system you run and I've never run into any issues while installing.

After installing, you run Firefox for the first time... dum dum dum! you know have a full fledged browser with near limitless power, and yet... all that power is trapped in kind of remote places because if it was all in the beginning and easy to find most everyone (myself included) would get lost, confused, and scrap this messy piece of junk. So, where do you begin?

Table of Contents

1. Purpose of This Guide
2. Introduction
3. What is Firefox?
4. Why Firefox?
5. Installation

• Appearances
• Toolbar
• Themes
• Extensions
• Mouse Gestures
• Chrom-Edit
• Others
• Browsing Upgrades
• Tabbed Browsing
• Pop-up Blocking
• Ad Blocking
• Quick Links
• Live Bookmarks
• Where to Get Help
• Mozillazine Forums
• IRC
• Re-Installing
• References
• Keyboard Commands
• Useful Links
• User Files

• Power Tips

1. Purpose of This Guide

This guide is kindly reprinted here with permission of the Author, Anders Conbere & is released under the terms of the Creative Commons License.

This is definitely a work in progress and many revisions will be made and are being made at the Author's site: HERE

The basic idea is that I wanted to run through the things I do when I set up someone's Firefox for them, but give them the tools to do it themselves, and the background to understand why. SO! if you find anything that you do in conjunction to the methods listed... please email me at aconbere AT gmail DOT com

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2. Introduction

2. a. What is Firefox

Firefox is a free, open-source web browser for Windows, Linux and MacOS X and is based on the Mozilla codebase. It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over Internet Explorer, such as tabbed windows, quick links, security and the ability to block ads.

2. b. Why Firefox

1) Firefox offers a spread of features in a relatively small package, this coupled with the extensibility (it's nature as a platform from which many extensions can be added) makes it a strong competitor on the browser market.

2) Security Firefox is generally more secure than other browsers on the market. The Firefox development team has an terrific track record for fixing vulnerabilities often releasing patches with in days of the release of the vulnerability. For windows users it offers a browser that isn't built into the operating system (an enormous security risk) like Internet Explorer.

3) Firefox is an Open Source application, which means that no company is using Firefox to gain wealth, Mozilla is a non-profit organization, whose work on the Firefox and Mozilla browser all return to the public in way of the source code. Being open source means that if you want to you can involve yourself in the Firefox community, you can edit the source code, you can fix bugs, you can make themes, you can make extensions, all it take is a little time and effort.

2. c. Installation

this really depends on what Operating system you use, linux, windows, OSX, bsd, etc. I will try and compile a list of helpful installation resources in the future. For now I'll provide windows users with the following link.

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3. Appearances

3. a. Editing your own Toolbars

An important first step to enjoying any software is making it look pretty. So, the first thing I do is customize my tool bars, these are the bars at the top of the browser window that contain buttons, and url bars, search bars and the like.

when you first start out your toolbars probably look something like this


--toolbar in the beginning --

This might not be ideal for you, you might not have a need for some of the buttons or you might want some more. To change the toolbars simply right click on the toolbars (anywhere should do) and a menu will appear, select "customize" from that menu. Now a smallish window will have appeared from this window you can drag and drop any toolbar item. Also very important is you can select "small icons" from the bottom of the window. This will make all the icons display smaller, conserving space and generally looking cleaner. Notice that you can move any of the toolbar items around, and remove tool bars you don't use.

when I'm done my tool bars look like this


-- finished toolbar config --

It's funny how important looks are in using an application but I find that they have a dramatic effect on how I view the effectiveness of an application. And as such the next thing I tend to do is go find a good theme to add to Firefox.

3. b. Themes

A theme is a small file that dictates how Firefox looks, buttons, scrollbars, etc can all be altered fairly easily and many variations are available at any time. In order to get more themes I suggest that you go to "tools" in the menu select "themes" and click the link at the bottom right that says "get more themes".

--click the selected area to get more themes--

This will take you to updates.mozilla.org, the website that helps catalog Firefox themes and extensions ...we'll get to those later.

--upate.mozilla.org--

once at updates.mozilla.org one can navigate between a number of different looks for Firefox many of these themes will have preview pictures available that will give you an idea of what they will make Firefox look like, what you choose will be up to you, and you preferences, I encourage you to try many until you find one that suites your needs.

--click the selected area to install a theme -- (notice the preview)

Now you should have a browser that you like to look at, you'll find that as time goes on you might want to change things, move things around, you might decide that you have a better place to put something or that something you thought was important no longer is. regardless this is an important first step to owning your browser (and taking back the web)

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4. Extensions - How a Little Browser Can Do So Much

Firefox is a "lite" browser. When you first get Firefox it has limited capabilities, it can surf the web and that's about it. It can't look at ftp sites, it can't check your email, chat on-line, call your mom, or do your dishes. It's a browser, that's what it was designed to be, nothing more, nothing less. What I'm trying to say is that you get what you ask for. You don't deal with the clutter or bulk of Mozilla, you don't deal with the confusion of opera (or their ads), and you don't deal with the security issues of Internet explorer.

However when some very smart people designed Firefox they realized that this kind of stripped down program, while it would allow them to focus on some the bare bones of browsing, allowing them to make a very fast, small, and secure application, was not for everyone. People want to check their email, they want, to call their mom, they want chat and they want something to do their dishes. So they decided that they wouldn't worry about those things themselves, but make a program in such a way that those features could be added easily. That's what an extension is... it's a mom-caller-dishwasher for your browser.

So how do we get these little applications? The process is very similar to how we went about getting themes. heading to the menu bar select "tools" - > "extensions" and then click the link "get more extensions". Much like with themes this will take you to udate.mozilla.org this time to the extension side of things. here you'll find a list of all of the possible "add-ons" for Firefox, small user applications to make browsing easier or more fun. In this way Firefox can remain as small as it is, being a very basic browser. While still offering all the nifty features of other browsers. This is called modular software and is popular because it makes you system more customizable.

4. c. Mouse Gestures

I chose Mouse Gestures as the first of the extensions mainly because it is almost always available right after a new release, and because there is little risk involved in the installation. Mouse Gestures can be found by clicking the "Mouse Gestures" link on the left hand bar in update.mozilla.org . From there find the proper listing (here) Click the "install" link, it wait several seconds then click the "install" button at the bottom right. This should show a dialog in the extensions window, a download progress bar, and finally it show a cookie icon, (the item will be installed after you restart Firefox).

The reason you go through all this rigmarole is that this way forces the user to acknowledge the install to prevent foreign or malicious websites from installing viruses/ad-ware on your computer without your knowledge (this is different than Internet Explorer)

4. b. Chrom-Edit

Chrom edit is a useful tool for those of us that are uncomfortable with editing config files directly (that is files that change the way Firefox acts). It can be found here

--clicked the selected area to install Chrom-edit --

notice that when you click the installation link, nothing will happen but a bar will appear at the top of the screen.

This is warning you that this is not a registered site for installing software. In order to change this click "change options" in the top right. The next window that appears will include a list of "allowed sites", since this site is safe and often has interesting extension you can add this site to the list of allowed sites by simply clicking allow.

-- click the Allow button to allow the selected address to install extensions

now try clicking the install link again, you'll receive the same dialog window that you did when at update.mozilla.org, and can follow the same steps.

Now that you've got a couple installed, restart Firefox (close all windows and open up Firefox again). The extensions should now be available to you.

4. c. Other Recommended Extensions

1) weatherfox -- gives you a weather forecast in your status bar! (you can see this in some of the screen-shots)

2) gmail-notifier -- Tells you when you have new emails.

3) web-developer -- an incredible extension for anyone developing web pages, for novices to ... well ... to intermediates. Allows you to edit code real time, and observe your changes in action.

4) MiniT -- Simply allows you to move tabs along the tab bar, nice sweet simple.

5) mouse-gestures -- You can make use of this extension in many ways, and while mouse gestures aren't for everyone they are interesting enough to at least try (navigate the web without clicking buttons with the mouse -- just move it)

6) IE View -- this is a useful extension which allows you to open up a page using the Internet explorer engine while inside Firefox (for those desperate times when you need to get to your banks website)

there are many more, but this will give you a basis with which to understand why you might want extensions.. you can experiment and find ones that you like.

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5. Browsing Enhancements - How to Bring the Fun Back to the Internet

Now that we have a couple of extensions installed, and have a general idea of how to get around and install other ones, I'll leave the extensions section, and head into how to make the Internet easier to browse, in particular how to end ads.

5. a. Tabbed Browsing

Tabs are gods gift to web browsing, and to demonstrate why, I usually have some one go through this exercise with me.

1) go to Google
2) preform a search where you know you will get a multitude of returns and not know which one is the perfect match.
3) hold down the ctrl key... and click each link that you think is interesting

notice how each time you click it opens a "tab" in the browser window. These tabs can be extremely useful for organizing content while browsing, and will generally increase the ease by which you browse the Internet. try it out!

Keyboard commands:

1. ctrl - T: open a new tab
2. ctrl - W: close current tab
3. ctrl - tab: switch between tabs (forward)
4. ctrl - shift - tab: switch between tabs (backward)

you'll find these commands to be useful when browsing, even if they don't feel natural at first I encourage you to practice every once in a while, I think you'll come to understand why they exist.

5. b. Pop-Up blocking

First lets notice that Firefox has a terrific pop-up blocker built in and already customized for your use. However, if you ever need to allow a pop-up it's as easy as clicking "the information button" at the bottom right hand section of the screen. and select "allow pop ups from"

-- click the little guy in the corner to allow popups --

5. c. Ad Blocking

Much like pop-up blocking Firefox has the amazing ability to actually block ads within web pages. There are two ways of doing this, through the use of the adblock extension, or by editing a user file, I will be covering how to edit the user files.

Blocking Ads Through UserContent.css

To begin I suggest installing the extension "Chrom-Edit" (as described in section 2 b.). From there we'll head to the "Tips and Tricks" page at the help site for fire fox. Here you'll find a large list of little tweaks that can be done to make Firefox act in certain ways, everything from changing menu appearances to making Firefox block ads. We'll skip all these for now and head straight to the ad blocking page.

Once at the ad blocking page you'll find what is called a script; it runs a set of commands that can be passed to the browser, in this case it passes a list of things to ignore from webpages (namely... ads).

So, open up Chrom-edit: from the menu bar select tools => "Edit User Files". this will take you to the following screen.

-- first, select the "userContent" tab (top)
-- next add your script to the text area
-- then, click the save button (bottom)

select userContent.css from the tabs at the top. Copy everything in that text box at the ad-blocking page, and paste it into that window in Chrom edit and click save. Now, restart Firefox, if every thing has gone correctly you are now blocking ads!

Other things that I recommend doing are the following

disable blinking and scrolling text

Change the cursor shapes depending on what I a link will do (open a new window, open javascript)

5. d. Quick-Links

Firefox has built within it the ability to easily make "keywords" to different web pages. That is, a bookmark that can be activated from the url bar, by simply entering a word, or letter. This doesn't sound particularly useful until you apply it to web searches. With a little tweak you can make almost any site that has a search feature easily search able from the url bar.

example: If I enter "g Firefox" in the url bar, Firefox opens Google.com searching for "Firefox"

The Google search feature is pretty much already in the Firefox defaults, so editing this is easy and gives us a good starting point.

Simply select Bookmarks from the menu bar => manage bookmarks.

-- a shot of the bookmark manager --

From here you will see a nicely ordered version of your bookmarks. open up the Quick search folder, inside will be a Google quick search, a Dictionary.com quick search and a Google "feeling lucky" quick search.

1) Delete the "feeling lucky quick search (right click - delete or hit the delete key while it's selected)

2) Right click Google quick search => Properties

there will be several fields, notice the field "keyword" has "Google" in it's place, edit this to read "g".

-- a shot of the bookmark manager --

This same process can be followed in the Dictionary.com quick search changing "dict" for "d".

for making your own quick searches, go to the site you want to quick search, and search for something that will be easily recognized (I use a bunch of capital Z's for example "ZZZ"). bookmark that page (put it in the quick search folder - this isn't necessary but a helpful organizational tool). now head to the bookmark manager (like we did for editing the Google quick search) right-click - edit properties. fill in an appropriate keyword. in the URL field find the "Z's", they should be there standing out like a soar thumb (look hard). Remove all the Z's and in their exact place put "%s". This is the Firefox "put x here" command.

what this does is make it so that Firefox can put anything were %s used to go. For most search sites (not all, and some are tricky like imdb.com but I won't go into that here) the URL contains the search parameter in a specific spot every time, by adding the %s you've given Firefox the power to add anything you put into the URL bar into it's place, and thus "quick search".

(note: for ease of use Ctrl-L will take you to the url bar)

5. e. Live Bookmarks

RSS (really simple syndication) makes it easy to keep up on news and blogs. If you read the news, or visit a friends blog chances are that you've bumped into RSS and haven't even known it. You'll notice that in the latest versions of Firefox (1.0PR and higher) that when you visit a site that has an RSS feed

-- click the selected area to open up the live bookmark dialog --

To add an RSS feed simply click that icon, select one of the "subscription" options. (usually I choose the RSS, and 2.0 if available). Add the bookmark to one of your folders (bookmarks by default). now if you go look at the bookmarks menu item, you'll see that there is folder that corresponds to the RSS feed you just added. This folder will be automatically updated when you open Firefox, and will have within it all the different "articles" that the site is sending out.

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6. Where to Get Help

If you are spending any time using this browser chances are good that you will run into something that will force you to say "hmmmmm", scratch your head, or even shout "HEY YOWSERS". This could be a bug, a feature question, a misunderstanding, or a curiosity, it doesn't really matter because in the end there are two great places to get that fixed... namely the Mozillazine Forums, and IRC.

6. a. Mozillazine Forums

Note: PLEASE search the forums, both in the search feature, and through recent posts, before creating a new topic

One of the best places to find help with any issues you are having with Firefox is the Mozillazine forums. Here you can find a number of different repositories for ideas, questions, tips, tricks for any of the Mozilla products. Important to us are the Firefox support and the Firefox General forums, as these are the most generally useful.

As a word to the wise, forums are only useful if used properly. Let me elaborate. Always ask you questions clear and concisely, always include as much relevant information as you can, without overloading the reader. Examples include 1) what version of Firefox you are running? 2) what operating system you are running? 3) what precisely the problem is? 4) how exactly the problem has arisen? . If this is your first time using a forum I can almost guarantee that you will make mistakes, that people will call you out on it, but persist, it doesn't take long to figure it all out, and most of the forum attendees are more than willing to help.

6. b. IRC

Q: What is IRC

A: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, it's basically A REALLY fancy instant messenger, that allows many many people to connect to a single chat at one time, it could be considered a "chat room", but I'll refrain from calling it this due to connotations that befall chat rooms and because IRC is so much more.

In order to limit the amount of guiding I have to do I've decided to limit my topic to Chatzilla, as this will be available to anyone using Firefox. Although many of the steps I'm going to take are universal to all irc clients, I can't guarantee that they will work.

Thusly the first step will be to install Chatzilla you can find it at upate.mozilla.org or --> here. After you've installed the client you can find it in the menu bar under tools --> Chatzilla. SO open it up!

You'll find yourself in a window that should look a little bit confusing, and perhaps a bit daunting, and if you've never used a command line interface you might get a little confused, don't worry I've made screenshots.

The first thing to do is join a server. Chatzilla comes with several preprogrammed in so joining on is fairly simple. For today we'll stick with irc.mozilla.org, since this is where we'll find all the Firefox channels (rooms)... in chatzilla this is entered as moznet. To join a server simply type /server and then the server name. So, to join moznet we'll type /server moznet .

-- enter /server moznet to join the irc.mozilla.org server--

Now you're on the moznet server. What you do now is join a channel. A channel is a place where all the chatting takes place (sometimes thought of as a "room"). To join a channel type "/join" and then # followed by the channel you want to join. In this case we'll join the Firefox channel, to do this type /join #firefox

-- enter /join #firefox to join the Firefox channel--

Now you're in the Firefox channel, type anything in the text area, and everyone in that room will see it. Have a question? Don't be shy, ask. Don't ask to ask.

your window should look something like this

-- enter anything in the text region to send messages --

If you want to join another channel it's easy, just type /join #[whatever channel you want].

For instance /join #mozillazine, will open a new tab at the bottom with the Mozillazine channel in it. you can either click these tabs or hit ctrl-tab to switch between them. Let it be noted for the record that there is a TON more to IRC than this, but this is enough knowledge to get you started, and to figure out how to ask questions etc. To find out more, try the /help command. Also ask someone in one of the channels.

As a word to the wise: much like the Mozillazine forums IRC is most usefull when questions are clearly worded, calm, meaningful, and state all the relevent information. If no one responds to your question try again later, don't get upset, either no one knows the answer, or no one is around. As with before include 1) what version of Firefox you are running? 2) what operating system you are running? 3) what precisely the problem is? 4) how exactly the problem has arisen? .

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7. Re-Installing

The re-installation process has been one that has been in continual evolution since I began using Firefox some time ago, and it has become MUCH more stable, and friendly, however... accidents can happen, and as a result I have a couple of suggestions to make before you "update" firefox with a fresh install.

Sometime because of feature changes, or because of now conflicting extensions it may be required that you do a "clean" re-installation of Firefox. When you first install Firefox, it creates a user profile for you, this will be found at the following locations depending on your operating system:

Windows:
C:Documents and Settings[User Name]Application DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesdefault.xxx

Linux:
~/.mozilla/firefox/default.xxx/

OsX:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/default.xxx/

where xxx is a random string of 3 characters.

This profile contains everything from user preferences, to extensions, to themes, and is not removed when you un-install firefox. In almost all cases you can simply re-install firefox, start it up, and everything will be exactly how you left it before the installation. However if something goes wrong it can wipe out this directory, and you can lose all your bookmarks, and your user config files.

As a result I recommend finding and making copies of the following files

1. /default.xxx/user.js
2. /default.xxx/bookmarks.html
3. /default.xxx/chrome/userChrome.css
4. /default.xxx/chrome/userContent.css

Also, you can simply make a copy of the entire profile and save that folder somewhere. If anything goes wrong you can simply delete the profile that currently exists, and past in the old copy.

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8. References

8. a. Keyboard Commands

Navigation

1. ctrl - L: bring cursor to the url bar
2. ctrl - K: bring cursor to the search bar
3. ctrl - N: new window
4. ctrl - R: reload page
5. esc : stop page load
6. back-space: back
7. ctrl - F: find in page
8. / : find in page
9. ' (apostrophe): find in page - links only
10. ctrl - G: find in page - next
11. F3: find in page - next
12. F11: full screen

Tabs

1. ctrl - T: open a new tab
2. ctrl - W: close current tab
3. ctrl - tab: switch between tabs (forward)
4. ctrl - shift - tab: switch between tabs (backward)
5. Mouse: ctrl - Left Click: open link in a new tab
6. Mouse: Middle Click: open link in a new tab

Browser Features

1. ctrl - P: print
2. ctrl - M: open a new email
3. ctrl - J: open the download manager
4. ctrl - A: select all
5. crtl - B: open bookmarks side-bar
6. ctrl - H: open histroy in side-bar
7. ctrl - I: page info
8. ctrl - U: page source
9. ctrl - D: bookmark page
10. ctrl - S: save page as
11. ctrl - O: open file
12. ctrl - Shift - I: open Dom inspector
13. ctrl - +: increase text size
14. ctrl - - (minus): decrease text size
15. ctrl - 0 (zero): normal text size
16. Mouse: ctrl - scroll wheel: increase/decrease text size

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8. b. User Files

The following are the most common User Files. That is, files that users can edit to change prefrences with in firefox. These files will be found in your user "profile"which will be found at the following locations depending on your operating system:

Windows:
C:Documents and Settings[User Name]Application DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesdefault.xxx

Linux:
~/.mozilla/firefox/default.xxx/

OsX:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/default.xxx/

where xxx is a random string of 3 characters.

These files are all basic text files, with a different tag at the end. If one isn't present, you can make it (don't worry it's easy). Simply open your favorite text editor, add whatever you were after, to the file, and save it as "user.js" or "userChrom.css" etc.

1. /default.xxx/user.js - Used to change various preferences.
2. /default.xxx/bookmarks.html - used to store your bookmarks
3. /default.xxx/chrome/userChrome.css - Used to change the appearance of the browser.
4. /default.xxx/chrome/userContent.css - Used to change the appearance of web pages.

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8. c. Useful Links

1. udate.mozilla.org
2. Firefox Help
3. Firefox Help - Tips and Tricks

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Power Tips

Make Firefox Faster

After you get past the beginner stage with Firefox, try this "power-user" trick to make it download pages faster by allowing multiple connections so it can download more than one file at a time. It's only useful for broadband users, so if you're still on dial-up you can just skip this one for now. Revisions will be made and you can comment on the Author's site: HERE

Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!

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This guide is kindly reprinted here with permission of the Author, Anders Conbere & is released under the terms of the Creative Commons License.

02.02.2008. 04:04

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