|
  |
|
|
FIREFOX 2 WORTHY AND ESSENTIAL TWEAKS
Firefox 2 has been eagerly awaited by many, and it was released in December. It’s got some nice improvements over earlier versions, and there’s no reason you won’t want to install the latest version. Attention has been paid to the smallest of details: where in the old versions you had “Open in Tabs” under a bookmark with multiple tabs, you now have “Open All in Tabs”! You’ll be pleased to know that people are coming up with updated extensions rapidly, so you won’t be deprived of yours very long and many already work. Tab Close Buttons Probably the first thing you’ll notice when you open a new tab in Firefox 2 is that each tab has a tabclose button! This is nice, really, but you might just be used to the old version’s behaviour. It turns out there are more than two options. Open the about:config page, go to browser.tabs.closeButtons. Set it to one of the following. 0 shows a close button only on the active tab. 1 makes close buttons visible on all tabs—Firefox 2’s default behaviour. 2 makes it no close buttons at all! You’ll have to use the right-click to close a tab. 3 is the old default—a close button at the end of the strip of tabs. The Go Button Annoyance The “Go” button is now (irritatingly) merged with the location bar. What does it do, anyway? All you need to do to make it go away is to set browser.urlbar.hideGoButton to True. Tab Sizes One irritant can be the vanishing size of tabs when there are too many open. Isn’t there a way to make them a set size, and then have a tab scroll button, you ask? There is, in Firefox 2. (We’re not sure about earlier versions). To specify the minimum size for a tab modify browser.tabs.tabMinWidth. For some reason, if you want to, you can also specify the maximum size of a tab: modify browser.tabs.tabClipWidth. A Helpful Warning? Firefox 2 warns you when opening more than 15 tabs at a time. This typically happens when you click on “Open All in Tabs” in a bookmarks folder. It says something about Firefox slowing down. You can modify this at browser.tabs.maxOpenBeforeWarn. Just set it to the number of tabs at which you’d “like” the warning, or just type in “999” or something to save yourselves a few picoseconds of thought. Closing A Tab OK. This is a tiny niggle, but when you have a fresh new browser, you want everything just perfect, don’t you? Consider this: when you close a tab, Firefox 2 takes you back to the tab “that opened it” (meaning the tab you were in when you opened the new tab) if you haven’t changed to another tab in the meantime. (Open and close a few tabs to get what we’re saying.) In Firefox 1.5, you were always taken to the immediately previous tab. To restore that behaviour, set browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose to False. SSL Support Support for SSL version 2 is deactivated by default in Firefox 2. Only SSL 3 is supported. If you happen to encounter an old Web site that requires SSL 2, you’ll need to enable it. This is pretty rare, but here’s the about:config key anyway—set security.enable_ssl2 to True. Search Results To make Firefox display search results in a new tab, set browser.search.openintab to True. The key might not be present, in which case you’ll have to add it yourself. The Spell Checker Spell checking is disabled by default in single line text boxes. To make it do the spell check (if you’re that conscious about your spelling!), set layout.spellcheckDefault to 2. The Search Button If you want to remove the Search button, you’ll need to edit the userChrome.css file. Add the following lines:
.search-go-button-stack {display: none
!important; }
#searchbar { margin-right: 1em
!important; }
To find the userChrome.css file, navigate to {Drive}:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\random_name.default\chrome
Here you’ll find “userChromeexample. css”. Rename it to userChrome.css when you’re done with your changes. Adding Feed Readers Firefox 2 by default supports only three Web feed readers: Bloglines, Yahoo! and Google Reader. You can, however, add as many providers as you like, and use any of them as your subscription manager. For this, you’ll need to do a couple of about:config tweaks, and add some preferences.
Under about:config, create a new preference by right-clicking on any preference and selecting New -- String. Enter “browser.contentHandlers. types .6.title” for the preference name. Then enter the URL of whichever service you want to use—Newsgator, for example (www.newsgator.com) for the value. As you add more Web feed readers, you will need to change the “6” to the next number. 6 happens to be the first available. Create a new preference and enter “browser.contentHandlers.types.6.type” for the preference name. Enter “application/vnd.mozilla.maybe.feed” for the value. Create yet another preference name and enter “browser.contentHandlers.types.6. uri” for the preference name, and “http://www.newsgator.com/subscribe.php?url=%s” for the preference value.
You’re done—just restart Firefox.
|
|
 |
|
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "FIREFOX 2 WORTHY AND ESSENTIAL TWEAKS" has been specified by the contributor as:
Public Domain
The copyright for this content has been relinquished by the author. The content may be used freely by anyone.
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
