Firefox Tips and Extensions

© 2006 Usha Andra

Firefox is free and downloadable at http://www.mozilla.com/.

Shortcuts:

· Full screen F11

· Open bookmarks as a sidebar Ctrl-B

· Open history as a side bar Ctrl-H

· Bookmark a page Ctrl-D.

· To search click Ctrl-F, a new box opens up at the bottom of the browser window. While you type the word, Firefox starts searching for it right away. If it is not found the background of the search box turns red.

· To clear all your private data stored: Ctrl-Shift-Del and click “Clear private data now”

Firefox allows you to search for words you select within a web page:

· Select (highlight) any words in a web page.

· Right-click the mouse button, and choose "Search Web for [your selected words]" from the menu.

· Firefox opens a new tab and uses your default search engine to search for your selected words.

Tab browsing is one of the Firefox’ neat features. You can open multiple pages at the same time in a single browser window:

· To open a new, empty tab: Ctrl-T.

· Navigate from one page to another by clicking on the tabs located on top of the active page.

· You can close the active tab by clicking on the red-white “x” at the right side of the tabs.

· You can open a link in a new tab by clicking the link with the middle mouse button or Right-clicking on the link and choosing “Open Link in New Tab” from the context menu.

Firefox comes with a few popular search engines installed.

· Type the word in the small search box located next to the address bar

· Pick the search engine by clicking on the small icon with the downward pointing black arrow and selecting the desired one (the default search engine is Google).

· Hit enter to run the query.

To add new search engines

· Click the small icon with the downward pointing black arrow

· Select “add engines” and the Firefox “Add-ons – Search engines” page opens up.

· Click on the search engine you want to install

A few examples of available search engines are: Google, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Ebay, Wikipedia, Webster Merriam Dictionary, IMDB

You can improve your browsing experience by installing cool, fun extensions. Extensions are small add-ons to Firefox that change existing browser functionality or add a new functionality. To add a new extension:

· From Tools menu select Extensions. The Extensions window pops up displaying already installed extensions.

· Select Get More Extensions. The “Add-ons – Extensions” page opens up

· Select and install the desired extension

Some cool extensions: Mouse Gestures, foxpose, Adblock, Dictionary Search, Dictionary Tooltip, Scrapbook, and Colorful Tabs.

You can add bookmarks directly to the bookmark toolbar and go to your favorite and/or frequently visited pages with a single click.

· Enter the URL address of the webpage you want to bookmark

· Select the icon in the address box (to the left of the URL address), drag and release it into the bookmark toolbar located right under the address box.

· Click it with middle mouse button if you want to open it in a new tab.

Firefox supports Live Bookmarks, which keep updated constantly and automatically. They can point to various Web sources, like CNN headlines, Yahoo Sports Baseball, postings on your friend’s blog. To add Live Bookmarks:

· Go to the page you want to live-bookmark. If it is available for live-bookmarking an orange icon appears at the right end of the address box.

· Click on the orange icon and add the Live Bookmark under either Bookmarks or Bookmarks toolbar.