%brandDTD; ]> Customizing &brandShortName;
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Customizing &brandShortName;

You can customize &brandShortName; to better suit your needs using features like Sidebar, bookmarks, and Tabbed Browsing.

This section describes the customizable aspects of &brandShortName;'s browser component.

In this section:
In this section:

What is Sidebar?

Sidebar is a customizable area in your browser where you can keep items that you need to use all the time—the latest news and weather, your address book, stock quotes, a calendar—and many other available options. Sidebar presents these items to you in tabs that are continually updated.

&brandShortName; comes with some Sidebar tabs already set up, but you can customize Sidebar by adding, removing, and rearranging tabs.

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Opening, Closing and Resizing Sidebar

To open Sidebar, press F9 or open the View menu in the browser, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.

Once Sidebar is opened, you can use its handle to close, open and resize Sidebar's frame. Move the mouse pointer up and down along the left edge of the &brandShortName; window. The pointer changes to a hand when it touches the handle for Sidebar, as shown in the picture.

image of sidebar with
      handle

Sidebar
Handle

To close Sidebar with its handle, do one of the following:

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Viewing Sidebar Tabs

To view a tab:

Tip: To reload a Sidebar tab, right-click on the tab title and choose Reload from the pop-up menu.

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Adding Sidebar Tabs

To add a new tab:

  1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar, and select Customize Sidebar from the menu
  2. In the Customize Sidebar dialog box, select a tab from the list on the left. Double-click the folders to open or close folders.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Continue adding as many tabs as you want.
  5. Click OK to finish.

Note: If you add more than eight tabs to Sidebar, &brandShortName; hides the remaining tabs to reduce clutter. To scroll through the hidden tabs, click the down arrow button at the bottom of Sidebar until you see the desired tab. Click the up arrow button to once again scroll up.

Tips:

You can also turn Sidebar tabs on and off.

  1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar. Current tabs are listed in the lower part of the menu.
  2. Select the tabs you want displayed in Sidebar. Remove the checkmark (deselect) to turn a tab off (it will still be available from the menu).

Tip: To quickly turn off a Sidebar tab, right-click on its name and choose Hide Tab.

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Customizing Individual Sidebar Tabs

Note: Not all tabs can be customized.

  1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
  2. Select an available tab from the list on the right.
  3. Click Customize Tab if it is enabled. A window appears with information and options for customizing the tab.

    The instructions vary depending on the source of the tab—in addition to &brandShortName;, tab providers can be any company, organization, or individual who uses the Internet.

  4. After you follow the tab provider's instructions, close the customization window (or follow the provider's instructions to close it).
  5. Click OK to finish.

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Reorganizing Sidebar Tabs

  1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
  2. Select a tab from the list on the right.
  3. Click Up and Down to change the tab's placement.
  4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to continue reorganizing as many tabs as you like.
  5. Click OK to finish.

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Removing Sidebar Tabs

  1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
  2. Select a tab from the list on the right.
  3. Click Remove.
  4. Continue removing as many tabs as you like.
  5. Click OK to finish.

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Tabbed Browsing

In this section:

What is Tabbed Browsing?

Tabbed Browsing lets you open more than one web page in a single window. Each web page has its own tab across the top of a single browser window. Each tab appears on the Tab Bar. For example, you can visit mozilla.org, icq.com, and cnn.com within one window instead of three windows.

Click this to open a new tab.
tab bar
Tab being viewed. Click this to close the tab being viewed.
Tab Bar

You don't need to have several windows open to visit several web pages; thus, freeing up more space on your desktop. Instead, you can open, close, and reload web pages conveniently in one place without having to switch to another window.

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Setting up Tabbed Browsing

There are several ways to customize Tabbed Browsing. For example, you can change your preferences to open new browser tabs from the Location Bar. You can set up Tabbed Browsing in other ways too, such as loading new browser tabs in the background so the first page is kept on top while the second page is loading. To learn more about setting up Tabbed Browsing in &brandShortName;, see Browser Preferences - Tabbed Browsing.

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Opening Tabs

You can open a browser tab in the following ways:

Opening a New Blank Browser Tab:

Opening a Web Page Link in a Browser Tab:

Tips:

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Moving Tabs

Tabs are displayed in the order you open them, which may not always be what you want. To move a tab to a different location within a &brandShortName; window, simply drag it there using your mouse. While you are dragging the tab, &brandShortName; displays an indicator to show where the tab will be moved. Alternately, you can use keyboard shortcuts to move tabs within a window if desired.

Note: The keyboard shortcuts don't work when a text box has focus.

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Bookmarking Tabs

A bookmarked group of tabs is called a Groupmark. To bookmark the group of browser tabs in the current window:

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Bookmark This Group of Tabs.
  2. Type a name for the bookmark group in the Name field.
  3. Choose a folder in which to create your Groupmark, or click New Folder to create a new folder for your Groupmark.
  4. Click OK to add the Groupmark.

Tip: To learn how to use a group of tabs as your home page, see Browser Preferences - Browser.

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Closing Tabs

You can close browser tabs in several ways:

Closing the Browser Tab Being Viewed:

Click this to open a new tab.
tab bar
Tab being viewed. Click this to close the tab being viewed.
Tab Bar

Tips:

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Changing Fonts, Colors, and Themes

In this section:

Changing the Default Fonts

Normally, web pages are displayed in the default font set by your browser or in a font chosen by the web pages' authors.

To change the default fonts:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Appearance category, choose Fonts. (If no options are visible in this category, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)
  3. From the "Fonts for" drop-down list, choose a language group/script. For instance, to set default fonts for West European languages/script (Latin), choose Western.
  4. Select whether proportional text should be serif (like Times Roman) or sans-serif (like Arial). Then specify the font size you want for proportional text.
  5. If an appropriate font is available for your language/script, select fonts for Serif, Sans-Serif, Cursive, Fantasy, and Monospace. You can also specify what font size you want for monospace text.
  6. Specify whether the default font should be serif or sans serif.
  7. Select a fixed-width font and size. Certain types of text, such as equations and formulas, are displayed in a fixed-width font.

Many web page authors choose their own fonts and font sizes. To allow fonts other than the ones specified in your preferences, check Allow documents to use other fonts.

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Changing the Default Colors

Normally, the background and text colors on web pages are determined by the default colors set by your browser or by the pages' authors.

To change the default colors:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Appearance category, choose Colors. (If no options are visible in this category, click to expand the list.)
  3. Click the colored blocks next to Text, Background, Unvisited Links, and Visited Links. Choose a color for each from the color chart. You can also specify that links should be underlined.

Most web page authors choose their own colors. You can override the authors' intentions by selecting Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors specified.

When viewing the source of a web page, you can see the HTML syntax of the source of a web page highlighted in specific colors by selecting Enable syntax highlighting.

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Changing the Theme

You can change the look and feel of &brandShortName; by using a different theme. Changing the theme can be done either from the View menu or from the Add-on Manager.

From the View menu:

  1. Open the View menu and choose Apply Theme, and then select a theme from the menu.
  2. Quit and restart &brandShortName;.

From the Add-on Manager:

  1. Open the Tools menu and choose Add-on Manager.
  2. Click the Themes button in the toolbar.
  3. Select a theme from the list, and then click the Use Theme button.
  4. Quit and restart &brandShortName;.

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Toolbars

In this section:

The Navigation Toolbar, pictured here, helps you move around the Web.

navigation toolbar
Back Forward Reload Stop

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Personal Toolbar

The Personal Toolbar is completely customizable—you decide what you want to keep there.

Personal Toolbar
Personal Toolbar

You can easily add, delete, and rearrange items in the Personal Toolbar.

Turning Buttons On and Off

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Click Browser.
  3. Under Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbars, choose the buttons that you want on your toolbar.
  4. Click OK.

Adding Personal Toolbar Bookmarks

You can add buttons for your favorite bookmarks, or folders containing groups of bookmarks. To create a new bookmark to add to the Personal Toolbar:

  1. Open a web page you want to bookmark.
  2. Drag the bookmark icon image of bookmark icon(located to the left of URL in the Location Bar) to a desired place on the Personal Toolbar. You can drag the icon directly to the Personal Toolbar, or to a folder on the Personal Toolbar. For more information, see Adding Bookmark Folders to the Personal Toolbar.

Note: The bookmark icon image
  of bookmark icon may appear as another page-specific icon if you have checked Show Website Icons in preferences. See Appearance Preferences - Appearance for more information on changing this preferences.

Each item in the Personal Toolbar folder appears as a toolbar button. You may need to enlarge the browser window to see them all.

Adding Bookmark Folders to the Personal Toolbar

You can add bookmark folders to the Personal Toolbar to sort your favorite bookmarks into categories. For example, you can have one folder on the Personal Toolbar for hobby-related bookmarks and another folder for work-related bookmarks. To add a new bookmark to the Personal Toolbar:

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. Select your designated Personal Toolbar Folder.
  3. Click New Folder on the toolbar.
  4. Type a name for your new bookmark folder. By default, the name is New Folder.
  5. Click OK to confirm your new bookmark folder name.

The new bookmark folder will appear at the end of the Personal Toolbar.

Designating a Bookmark Folder as Your Personal Toolbar Folder

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. Select the bookmark folder whose items you want to appear on the toolbar.
  3. From the View menu, choose Set as Personal Toolbar Folder.

The buttons in your Personal Toolbar now correspond to the bookmarks in the folder you designated.

Removing Bookmarks from the Personal Toolbar

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. Click the Personal Toolbar Folder.
  3. Select the bookmark or folder you want to delete.
  4. Press Delete on your keyboard.
  5. Close the Manage Bookmarks window.

Tip: To quickly remove a bookmark placed on the Personal Toolbar (not in a folder), right-click on the bookmark and select Delete.

Rearranging the Personal Toolbar

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, click the Personal Toolbar Folder.
  3. Select a bookmark or folder and drag it to a new location.
  4. When you are finished rearranging items, close your Bookmarks window.

Note: Standard buttons on the Personal Toolbar such as Bookmarks, Search, Go, Print and Home cannot be rearranged, but they can be turned off and on.

Tip: To move a bookmark placed on the Personal Toolbar quickly, click and drag the bookmark to another location on the Personal Toolbar or to a folder.

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Status Bar

The Status Bar is located at the bottom of any &brandShortName; window. It includes the following:

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Component Bar

Use the Component Bar at the bottom left of any &brandShortName; window to switch between tasks (such as browsing or mail).

component bar

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Hiding a Toolbar

There are two ways to hide the toolbars.

To minimize a toolbar:

To completely hide a toolbar, including its triangle:

  1. Open the View menu.
  2. Choose Show/Hide and uncheck the toolbars you want to hide.

To reverse this action, open the View menu, choose Show, and then select the toolbars you want to show.

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Bookmarks

In this section:

What Are Bookmarks?

Bookmarks are shortcuts to your favorite and most-visited web pages. Rather than typing in long URLs (web addresses), you can create bookmarks that take you directly to the pages you want to see.

You access your bookmarks through the Bookmarks menu, the Bookmarks tab on Sidebar, and the Manage Bookmarks window. You can control what's listed in the Bookmarks menu by adding bookmarks for your favorite web pages and organizing your list of bookmarks any way you want.

Using Bookmarks

&brandShortName; comes with some bookmarks already available. To use a bookmark:

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu.
  2. Choose a bookmark from the list or from a folder in the list.

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Creating New Bookmarks

You can bookmark your favorite websites to make it easy to return to them.

To bookmark the current page, perform one of these steps:

Personal Toolbar
Personal Toolbar

Notes:

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Organizing Your Bookmarks

To organize your bookmarks, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks. Perform any of the following tasks in your Manage Bookmarks window.

Tip: You can open the Manage Bookmarks window from the Bookmarks tab in Sidebar. Click on Manage at the top of the Bookmarks tab.

To view bookmarks inside of folders:

To move a bookmark or a folder to another location in the list:

To create a new folder or separator:

To remove a bookmark or a folder from the list:

  1. Click to highlight the bookmark or folder that you want to remove.
  2. Press the Delete key on your keyboard, or click Delete in the Bookmarks window.

To sort your bookmarks in the Manage Bookmarks window:

Designating a New Bookmark Folder

When you create a new bookmark, &brandShortName; normally adds it to the bottom of your bookmarks list. If you prefer to file your bookmarks in a folder, you can designate a new bookmarks folder.

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, select a folder to hold new bookmarks.
  3. Open the View menu and choose Set as New Bookmark Folder.

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Changing Individual Bookmarks

You can change the information for any individual bookmark.

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, click a bookmark.
  3. Click Properties.
  4. In the bookmark Properties dialog box window, click the Info tab.

You can rename the bookmark (the name appears in your bookmark list), add descriptive information, or set a keyword.

You can also set &brandShortName; to check bookmarked websites for changes.

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, click a bookmark.
  3. Click Properties.
  4. In the bookmark Properties dialog box, click the Schedule tab.
  5. Use the pull down lists to specify how frequently you want &brandShortName; to check the bookmarked page for changes.
  6. If you want to be notified when the bookmarked page changes, click the Notify tab and choose a notification option.

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Searching Your Bookmarks

To search the bookmarks list:

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu and choose Search Bookmarks. You see the Find Bookmarks dialog box.
  3. In the drop-down lists, choose options to define your search, and then click Find. Bookmarks that match your search criteria are displayed. Choose from the following Search options:
  4. Double-click a bookmark in the list to go to that page.

Tip: If the list is hard to read, try expanding the search results window.

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Exporting or Importing a Bookmark List

Your bookmarks are stored in a file named bookmarks.html. You can export a copy of this file and save it in a folder of your choosing. You can then edit it and treat it as you would any HTML file.

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu, and choose Export.
  3. In the Export Bookmarks File dialog box, choose a folder. Your bookmarks.html file will be copied into the folder you designate.
  4. Click Save.

Your &brandShortName; bookmarks are not altered by this procedure.

You can also import bookmarks files from other sources. For example, you can import bookmarks files from earlier &brandShortName; versions, other browsers, or from bookmarks files that your friends send you.

Before you start, make sure that the bookmarks file you want to import is an HTML file.

  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
  2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
  3. In the Import Bookmarks File dialog box, locate and select the bookmarks file you want to import.
  4. Click Open.

The imported bookmarks file is treated as a group of new bookmarks and added to the bottom of your bookmarks list. If you have designated a new bookmark folder, the imported bookmarks are added to that folder.

Note: Importing a bookmarks file imports the bookmarks and folders from that file. It does not create two bookmarks files.

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Specifying How &brandShortName; Starts Up

In this section:

Specifying a Starting Page

You can specify the page that loads when the browser starts:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under "Display on Browser Startup" choose whether you want a blank page, your home page, or the last web page visited to open automatically when you launch your browser.

    Note: If you selected Home Page, type the URL in the Location Bar.

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Changing Your Home Page

Your home page is the page that opens when you click the Home button in the Personal Toolbar. Depending on how your preferences are set, it may also be the page that opens automatically when you launch &brandShortName;.

To specify your home page:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Click the Browser category.
  3. In the Home page section, perform one of the following:

Tip: To specify your home page quickly, drag the bookmark icon image of bookmark icon from the Location Bar to the Home Page button on the Personal Toolbar.

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Specifying Which Components Open at Launch

You can choose components (such as Mail & Newsgroups and Composer) to launch when you start &brandShortName;:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Click the Appearance category.
  3. Select the components you want opened automatically each time you start &brandShortName;.

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