Browsing the Web

Welcome to &brandShortName;! One of the most popular ways people use &brandShortName; is to browse the Web. The &brandShortName; browser component that lets you visit web pages, offers many ways to visit web pages and search the Web.

This section introduces you to the browser, and how you can use it to navigate, search, and save web pages.

Navigating Web Pages

Viewing Your Home Page

After the first launch, you will normally see your home page when you launch &brandShortName;. Unless you choose a home page yourself, your home page is chosen by your network or Internet service provider, or you see &brandShortName;'s home page.

To choose your own home page, see Specifying How &brandShortName; Starts Up.

Tips:

• To streamline the &brandShortName; interface, you can use Full Screen mode to display web pages using almost all of your screen. In the browser, open the View menu and choose Full Screen. You can also press F11.
• To go to your home page quickly, press CmdAlt+Home.

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Moving to Another Page

You move to a new page by typing its URL—its location (address) on the Web. URLs normally begin with http://, followed by one or more names that identify the address. For instance, http://www.mozilla.org.

1. Click the Location Bar to select the URL that is already there.
2. Type the URL of the page you want to visit. The URL you type replaces any text already in the Location Bar.
3. Press ReturnEnter.

Using the lock icon near the lower-right corner of the window, you can check a web page's security status at any time. For details, see Checking Security for a Web Page.

Tip: To quickly select the URL in the Location Bar, press CmdCtrl+L.

Location Bar

Don't know a URL? You can type part of a URL, such as cnn (for www.cnn.com); or you can type a general word, such as gifts or flowers. The browser guesses what page you want to view, or displays a page with a choice of links related to the word you typed.

If you are new to the Internet, see the Internet Guide.

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Clicking a Link

Most web pages contain links you can click to move to other pages.

1. Move the pointer until it changes to a pointing finger. This happens whenever the pointer is over a link. Most links are underlined text, but buttons and images can also be links.
2. Click the link once. While the network locates the page that the link points to, status messages appear at the bottom of the window.

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Retracing Your Steps

There are several ways to re-visit pages:

• To go back or forward one page, click the Back or Forward arrow.
• To go back or forward more than one page, click the small triangles on the Back and Forward buttons. You'll see a list of pages you've visited; to return to a page, choose it from the list.

	Back	Forward

• To see a list of any URLs you've typed into the Location Bar, click the arrow at the right end of the Location Bar. To view a page, choose it from the list.

Location Bar

• To choose from pages you've visited during the current session, open the Go menu and use the list in the bottom section of the menu.
• To choose from pages you've visited during the past several sessions, open the Go menu and choose History. You see the history list. The history list displays a list of folders. Double clicking the folders displays subfolders or bookmarks to web pages. You can double-click the URL next to the Bookmark icon to view that page.

Tip: The Sidebar History tab also allows you to choose from pages you've visited during the past several sessions. For information, see Adding Sidebar Tabs.

About History Lists

The history list contains links to recently visited pages. The Location Bar list contains links to pages you've typed into the Location Bar and then visited.

To access the history list from the browser, open the Go menu and choose History. To access the Location Bar list, click the arrow at the right end of the Location Bar.

Tip: To quickly open the history list, press Cmd+ShiftCtrl+H.

If you don't want the Location Bar or history list to display the pages you've been visiting, you can clear the history list and Location Bar history entirely or selectively.

To delete all pages from the Location Bar or history list, begin from the browser window:

1. Open the &brandShortName;Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Browser category, click History. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Browser to expand the list.)
3. Click Clear History and Clear Location Bar to remove all previously visited web pages from the lists.

Tip: Use the preferences under Browsing History to set how long and how many pages will remain in the history list.

To selectively delete pages from the history list, do any of the following:

• To delete all pages from a domain, select a page within that domain (folder) in the History list, open the Edit menu, and select Delete entire domain *.[domain name]. For example, use this command if you want to delete all pages that end in mozilla.org.
• To delete pages from a subdomain, select a page within that subdomain in the History list, open the Edit menu, and select Delete all from [subdomain]. For example, use this command if you want to delete all pages from bugzilla.mozilla.org but not mozilla.org.
• To delete a single page or folder, select it in the history list and press Delete.

Tip: To sort the history list, click one of the categories (Title, Location, or Last Visited). Click the title again to reverse the order.

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Stopping and Reloading

If a page is taking too long to appear, or you change your mind and don't want to view it, click the Stop button.

To refresh the current page, or get the most up-to-date version, click the Reload button, or press CmdCtrl+R.

	Reload	Stop

To refresh the current page and reset all changes made (if the page contains a form), hold down the Shift key and click the Reload button, or press CmdCtrl+Shift+R.

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Visiting Bookmarked Pages

The addresses, or URLs, of web pages can be quite long and difficult to remember. Fortunately, it's not necessary to memorize URLs in order to browse the Web. Your browser has a list of bookmarks, which are pointers to interesting web pages.

To go to a bookmarked page, begin from the Browser window:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu. The menu contains bookmarks represented by a bookmark icon, and folders that contain more bookmarks.
2. To visit a bookmarked page, choose a bookmark from the menu, or open a folder and choose a bookmark.

Tip: To retrace your steps, click the Back arrow.

You can save your own bookmarks to point to pages you frequently visit, or to other interesting places on the Web. See Creating New Bookmarks for more information.

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Using Tabbed Browsing

When you visit more then one web page at a time, you can use Tabbed Browsing to navigate the Web faster and easier.

Tabbed Browsing lets you open tabs, each displaying a web page, within a single browser window. You don't have to have several windows open to visit several different web pages. This frees up space on your desktop. You can open, close, and reload web pages conveniently in one place without having to switch to another window.

You can manage your navigation tabs easily and control when tabs are opened automatically. For more information about setting Tabbed Browsing preferences, see Browser Preferences - Tabbed Browsing.

To learn more about using Tabbed Browsing, see Tabbed Browsing.

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Using Sidebar

In addition to navigating the Web with the browser, you can let the Web come to you by using Sidebar.

Sidebar is a customizable frame 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 it continually updates.

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

To view an item in Sidebar, click its tab.

Sidebar Handle

If it is not already open, open Sidebar by clicking its handle. If the handle is missing, open the View menu in the browser, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.

Tip: To quickly open or close the Sidebar, press F9.

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Searching the Web

Fast Searches

There are four ways to search quickly: from the Location Bar, from Sidebar, from the Net Search page, and by selecting words in a web page.

Searching from the Location Bar

Searching for web pages on a particular topic is as easy as typing a question, or just a word or two, into the browser's Location Bar, as shown below.

For example, if you want to find information about baby dolls:

1. Double-click in the Location Bar to select the current text.
2. Type the word baby doll. Your typing replaces the current text.
3. Perform one of these steps:
   • Click the Search button.
   • Click Search Google for baby doll at the bottom of the drop-down list in the Location Bar. (Your default search engine may be different.)

     The default search engine you choose in the Internet Search Preferences is used. Search results for baby doll appear in both the browser window and in Sidebar. Click the links to visit web pages about baby dolls.

After you perform a search, the results are saved in Sidebar's Search tab until you do a new search. You don't have to click the Back button to retrieve the search results.

Note: In the Unknown Locations section of the Location Bar Preferences, you can set up the Location Bar so a search is automatically performed if the text you have typed is not a web location. Typing a word in the Location Bar and pressing Enter Return will then perform a search. For a more technical description of this feature, see the online document Internet Keywords.

Searching from Sidebar

The Sidebar Search tab lets you quickly search and bookmark your search results. For example, if you want to find information about toy cars:

1. If it is not already open, open Sidebar by clicking its handle. If the handle is missing, press F9 or open the View menu in the browser, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.
2. Click the Search tab in Sidebar.
3. Open the using drop-down list, and choose a search engine.
4. Type toy car in the search field.
5. Click Search. Search results for 'toy car' appear in both the browser window and in Sidebar. Click the links to visit web pages about toy cars.

Note: If the Sidebar Search tab contains a list of search engines from which to choose, then it is set to search in Advanced mode and you will have to choose one or more search engines before clicking Search. You can keep it that way or change to a basic setting in Preferences.

Tip: To display the next or previous page of search results quickly, click the Next and Previous buttons at the bottom of the Sidebar Search tab.

See Sidebar for more information on how to use Sidebar.

Searching from the Net Search page

The Net Search page lets you type in a Search term or phrase, or explore several categories (such as Arts & Entertainment, Business, and many more) that may interest you. To visit the Net Search page, perform one of these steps:

• Click on the Search button on the Navigation Toolbar.
• Open the Tools menu and choose Search the Web.

Searching on Selected Words in a Web Page

&brandShortName; allows you to search for words you select within a web page:

1. Select (highlight) any words in a web page.
2. Right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, Ctrl-click and choose Search Web for [your selected words] for the menu.

&brandShortName; opens a new window or tab (depending on your preferences) and uses your default search engine to search for your selected words. To learn how to change the search engine used to search for your selected words and the way your search results are displayed, see Browser Preferences - Internet Search.

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Sidebar Advanced Search Mode

You can set the Sidebar Search tab to Advanced mode, which lets you narrow a search or choose one or more search engines.

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Browser category, click Internet Search. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Browser to expand the list.)
3. Under Sidebar Search Tab Preferences, click Advanced, and then OK.
4. If it is not already open, open Sidebar by clicking its handle. If the handle is missing, press F9 oropen the View menu in the browser, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.
5. Click the Search tab in Sidebar.
6. Open the within drop-down list, and choose a category.
7. Choose one or more search engines for the selected category (if available).
8. In the search field, type the word for which you want to search.
9. Click Search.

Customizing Search Categories

You can specify which search engines should be used for different categories of searches. For example, you can select one set of search engines to search for travel, and select another set of search engines to search for software.

1. Set Sidebar Search to Advanced Search Mode. See Sidebar Advanced Search Mode for details.
2. If it is not already open, open Sidebar by clicking its handle. If the handle is missing, open the View menu in the browser, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.
3. Click the Search tab in Sidebar.
4. Open the within drop-down list, click Edit Categories. You see the Edit Categories dialog box.
5. From the Categories drop-down list, choose the category you want to customize.
   Or
   To create a new category, click New and type a name for the category in the dialog box. The drop-down list now displays the name of the selected category.
6. Do one of the following:
   • To add a search engine for the selected category, highlight the search engine in the list on the left, and click Add.
   • To remove a search engine for the selected category, highlight the engine in the list on the right, and click Remove.
   • To rename the selected category, click Rename and type a new name.
   • To delete the selected category, click Delete.
7. Click OK when you are finished customizing.

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Setting Search Preferences

You can choose a different search engine as the default. You can also specify how you want search results displayed in Sidebar.

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Browser category, click Internet Search. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the Browser to expand the list.)
3. Under Default Search Engine, choose a search engine you want to use for web searching.
4. Under Search Results, select Open the Search tab in the Sidebar when search results are available if you want the Sidebar search tab to open and show your search results.
5. Under Sidebar Search Tab Preference, select Basic if you want to search using a single search engine, or select Advanced to be able to search using multiple search engines.

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Searching Within a Page

To find text within the page you are currently viewing in the browser:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Find in This Page. If the page you are viewing contains frames, you may need to click within a frame before you begin your search. You see the Find in this Page dialog box.
2. Type the text you want to find.
3. Choose from the following search options:
   • Match case: Choose this to search for a word or phrase that matches the word you typed exactly (including uppercase and lowercase letters).
   • Wrap: Choose this to allow the browser to search from where the cursor is to the bottom of the page and then continue searching from the top of the page. Note: Normally, the page is searched from the place where you last clicked your mouse to the bottom of the page.
   • Direction: Choose Up to search from the insertion point backwards to the top of the page. The default is Down.
4. Click Find Next to begin the search.

To find the same word or phrase again:

• Open the Edit menu and choose Find Again.

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Using Find-as-you-type

Other than searching text through the Find dialog, you can also search by typing directly into a Web page.

1. To search for a link, type several characters into the active browser window to navigate to any link with that text in it.

   If you repeat the same character, it will start to cycle through all the links that begin with that character. However, if it can find a match with the exact string you've typed, such as oo in woods, it will go there first.

2. To search for all text (normal text and linked text), type / before your search string. For example, type /hello to search any text containing the string hello.
3. The status bar (at the bottom of your browser window) displays your search string and whether or not the search is successful.
4. Use the backspace key to undo the last character typed.
5. To cancel a find, change focus or scroll, press Escape, or wait for the timeout.
6. Press CmdCtrl+G or F3 to find the same search text again. Press CmdCtrl+Shift+G or Shift+F3 to find previous occurence of the search text.

Type Ahead Find works with any window, such as this help file (try it!).

This feature also works with international characters such as Chinese and Japanese.

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Searching the Bookmarks or History List

To search the bookmarks list, begin from the browser window:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks. You see your Bookmarks window.
2. In the Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu and choose Search Bookmarks. You see the Find Bookmarks dialog box.
3. Use the drop-down lists to select options to define your search. Choose from the following search options:
   • Choose name, location, description, or keyword to choose where you would like to search.
   • Choose contains, starts with, or ends with if you know only part of the word or phrase for which you're searching.
   • Choose is if you know exactly what you're searching for.
   • Choose is not or doesn't contain to exclude pages.
   • Click in the field and type all or part of search word or URL (web address) for the bookmarks that you want to find or exclude.
4. Click Find. Bookmarks that match your search criteria are displayed in the Search Results-Bookmarks window.

Tip: To quickly open the Bookmark Manager, press CmdCtrl+B.

To search the History list:

1. Open the Go menu and choose History. You see the history list.
2. In the History list, open the Tools menu and choose Search History. You see the Find in History dialog box.
3. Use the drop-down lists to select options to define your search. Choose from the following search options:
   • Choose title or location to choose where you would like to search.
   • Choose contains, starts with, or ends with if you know only part of the word or phrase for which you're searching.
   • Choose is if you know exactly what you're searching for.
   • Choose is not or doesn't contain to exclude pages.
   • Click in the field and type all or part of word or URL (web address) for the bookmarks or history listings that you want to find or exclude.
4. Click Find. History listings that match your search criteria are displayed in the Search Results window.

To use the search results:

• Double-click a bookmark in the Search Results window to go to that web page.

Tips:

• To open the History list quickly, press Cmd Ctrl+H.
• If the list is hard to read, try expanding the Search Results window.

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Copying, Saving, and Printing Pages

Copying Part of a Page

To copy some text from a page, begin from the browser window:

1. Select the text.
2. Open the Edit menu and choose Copy.

You can paste the text into other programs.

To copy a link (URL) or an image link from a page:

1. Position the pointer over the link or image.
2. Right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, Ctrl-click, the link or image to display a pop-up menu.
3. Choose Copy Link Location or Copy Image Location. If an image is also a link, you are offered both options.

You can paste the link into other programs or into browser's Location Bar.

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Saving All or Part of a Page

To save an entire page, begin from the browser window:

1. Open the File menu and choose Save Page As. You see the Save As dialog box.
2. Choose a folder in which to save this file.
3. Choose a format for the page you want to save:
   • Web Page, Complete: Save the whole web page, along with images and other supporting files. This option allows you to view it as originally displayed with images. &brandShortName; creates a new directory (where the page is saved) to save images and other files necessary to show the whole web page.
   • Web Page, HTML Only: Save the original page as-is without images.
   • Text file: Save the original page as a text file. This option will not preserve the original HTML link structure, but will allow you to see a text version of the web page in any text editor.
4. Type a file name for the page and click Save.

When you view a page containing frames and a frame is currently selected, the Save Frame As option is offered in the drop-down list in addition to Save Page As. This lets you save only the page within the selected frame.

Saving a file onto your hard drive lets you view the page (or its HTML code) when you're not connected to the Internet.

To save an image from a page:

1. Position the mouse pointer over the image.
2. Right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, Ctrl-click the image to display a pop-up menu.
3. Choose Save Image As. You see the Save File dialog box.
4. Choose a folder in which to save this image.
5. Type a file name for the image and click Save.

To save a page without displaying it (which is useful for retrieving a non-formatted page, like a data file, that's not intended for viewing):

1. Position the mouse pointer over the page's link.
2. Right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, Ctrl-click the hyperlink on the page to display a pop-up menu.
3. Choose Save Link Target As. You see the Save File dialog box.
4. Choose a folder in which to save this file.
5. Type a file name for the page and click Save.

Important: Some links automatically download and save files to your hard drive after you click them. The URLs for these links often begin with ftp or end with a file-type extension such as au or mpeg. These links might transmit software, sound, or movie files, and can launch helper applications that support the files.

Tip: To set an image as your desktop wallpaper on Windows, right-click on an image and choose Set As Wallpaper from the pop-up menu.

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Printing a Page

To print the current page, begin from the browser window:

• Open the File menu and choose Print.

To print selected text, begin from the browser window:

• Select the text in the current page.
• Open the File menu and choose Print. The print dialog box appears.
• Under Print Range, click Selection.

The size of the printed page, not the size of the onscreen window, determines placement of content on the printed page. Text is wrapped and graphics are repositioned to accommodate paper size.

Using Page Setup

Note: Some Page Setup functions are different or unavailable on Mac OS, Linux or Unix.

To customize how pages are printed in &brandShortName;, you can use Page Setup. From the browser, open the File menu and choose Page Setup.

In Page Setup, you can change the following settings for pages you want to print:

• Format & Options: Choose the orientation, scale, and other options:
  • Orientation:
    • Portrait: Choose this to position the page normally, with the shorter side facing up.
    • Landscape: Choose this to position the page sideways, with the longer side facing up.
  • Scale: Type in a percentage of the original size. For example, type 50 and to make each page half the size of the original page.
    • Shrink To Fit Page Width: Select this to automatically resize the page to the width of the paper.
  • Options:
    • Print Background (colors and images): Select this to print background images and colors. If unselected, only images and color in the foreground (in front) are printed.
• Margins & Header/Footer: Click this tab to set up margins, headers, and footers:
  • Margins:
    • Top, Bottom, Left, Right: Type a margin in inches for the top, bottom, left, and right margin.
  • Headers & Footers: Each drop-down list represents either a header or a footer area. The top row of drop-down lists are for the left, center, and right header areas. The bottom row are for the left, center, and right footer areas. In each drop-dop list, choose one of the following options:
    • --blank--: Show nothing in this area.
    • Title: Show the web page title.
    • URL: Show the web page URL (URL's usually start with http://).
    • Date/Time: Show the date and time when the web page is printed.
    • Page #: Show the page number of each page.
    • Page # of #: Show the page number along with the total number of pages. For example, if you print a five page web page, 3 of 5 would be shown on the third page.
    • Custom: Type your own text. You can include any of the following codes to print specific information:
      • &PT: Page Number with Total (Example: 3 of 5)
      • &P: Page Number
      • &D: Date
      • &U: URL
      • &T: Page Title

Tip: To see a preview of changes made to Page Setup, use Print Preview.

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Using Languages and International Content

Selecting Character Encodings and Fonts

If you browse, compose, or send and receive email in more than one language, you need to select the appropriate character encodings and fonts.

A character encoding method is the way a document or message has been converted to data to be used by your computer. All web documents and mail and news messages use a character encoding method (also known as a character set, character coding, or charset).

The character encoding method for a document may depend on its language. Some languages e.g. most West European languages, share the same encoding method. Others such as Chinese, Japanese, and Russian use different methods. In contrast, Unicode provides language-independent encoding methods. UTF-8, for examples, can be used for any language document.

Your version of &brandShortName; is set to a default character encoding appropriate for your region. However, if you use more than one language, you may need to select appropriate character encoding methods and designate the fonts you wish to use for your language/script.

To select character encodings, begin from the browser window:

1. Open the View menu, choose Character Encoding, and then choose More.
2. Choose a region from the top section of the submenu.
3. Choose a character encoding within the region submenu. Repeat steps 1-3 for each character encoding method you want.

The character encoding methods you select are added to the Character Encoding menu. If you have more than one encoding method selected, the active one has a bullet (dot) next to it.

&brandShortName; can detect which character encoding a document uses, and can display it correctly on your screen. To take advantage of this capability, begin from the browser window:

1. Open the View menu, choose Character Encoding, and then choose Auto-Detect.
2. Choose one of the Auto-Detect options, or choose Off from the submenu.

To make changes to your list of active character encodings:

1. Open the View menu, choose Character Encoding, and then choose Customize. You can see the Customize Encoding dialog box.
2. Choose from the following procedures:
   • To add to the list of active character encodings, choose a character encoding from the list on the left and click Add.
   • To remove a character encoding from the active list, choose a character encoding from the list on the right and click Remove.
   • To change the order in which active encodings appear in the Character Encoding menu, highlight character encodings in the list on the right, and use the arrow buttons to move the character encodings up or down in the list.

To change the default fonts within a language group:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, click Fonts. (If no subcategories are visible, 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, choose Western.
4. Select whether proportional text should be serif (like Times Roman) or sans serif (like Arial). You can also specify what font size you want for proportional text. Proportional text varies in width.
5. (If available) Select a font for Serif, Sans-Serif, Cursive, and Fantasy.
6. Select the monospace font (like Courier) that you want to use for web pages. Monospace text is fixed in width, so each character or letter takes the same amount of space.

Many web page authors choose their own fonts and font sizes. You can use the author's font settings by selecting Allow documents to use other fonts.

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Setting Language Preferences

The language you use for &brandShortName; affects the user interface—text of buttons, dialog boxes, menus, tools, and other items. You can download and install language packages from the SeaMonkey Project Releases page and then use the Appearance Preferences panel to switch user interface language.

A web page can sometimes be available in several languages. In the Languages Preferences panel, you can configure &brandShortName; so the page is shown in the language you prefer. You can have multiple languages and list them in order of preference.

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Finding a &brandShortName; version in your own language

If you're looking for a version of &brandShortName; in a language other than American English, you can download it from the SeaMonkey Project Releases page.

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Plugins and Downloads

The browser can handle many types of files. However, for some files, such as movies or music, &brandShortName; needs plugins or helper applications that can handle those files. If the browser doesn't have the needed helper application or plugin, it can still save the file to your hard disk. When saving files, you can keep track of them using Download Manager.

Plugins

Plugins are helper applications that extend the functionality within the browser and run within &brandShortName;. Plugins like Sun Java, Macromedia Flash, and RealNetworks RealPlayer allow &brandShortName; to show multimedia files and run small applications, such as movies, animations, and games.

&brandShortName; comes with no additional plugins installed, so you have to add them separately.

To see a full list of &brandShortName; plugins you can install, see the PluginDoc page on MozDev.org.

To see what plugins you currently have installed, do any of the following:

• Open the Help menu and choose About Plugins.
• Click in the Location Bar, type about:plugins and press ReturnEnter.

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Helper Applications

When files can not be used within &brandShortName;, you have the option to launch helper applications that open outside of &brandShortName;. For example, to play MP3 files, programs like Winamp can be opened outside of &brandShortName;.

The settings for this are explained in detail in Preferences - Helper Applications.

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Download Manager

You can use Download Manager to keep track of files you download. Download Manager shows the following information:

• filename
• time remaining before download is complete
• transfer speed
• percent complete
• time elapsed
• web location (source)

To open Download Manager, do the following:

• Open the Tools menu and choose Download Manager.

The following menu options are available in Download Manager:

• Properties: Select a file being downloaded and click Properties to show the progress dialog box.
• Cancel: Select a file being downloaded and click Cancel to stop the download.
• Remove from List: Select a file and click Remove from List to remove a canceled or finished download. This will not delete the file from your hard disk.
• Launch File: Click this to open a selected file.
• Show in Explorer Browser Finder: Click this to show the location of a selected file.

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Improving Speed and Efficiency

Automatic Loading

When you bring a web page to your screen, &brandShortName; automatically loads (starts up) several features that help interpret web pages. These features, Java and JavaScript, can make web pages more lively, but they take time to load.

To learn how to turn off Java, see Advanced Preferences - Advanced.

To learn how to turn off JavaScript, see Advanced Preferences - Scripts & Plugins.

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Using Custom Bookmark Keywords

Bookmark keywords allow you to create shorthand aliases for bookmarks and Web searches. For example, if you give the bookmark to http://www.mozilla.org the keyword m.o, you can enter m.o in the Location Bar and the browser will load http://www.mozilla.org.

To set a keyword, you must first create a bookmark for the URL. Then,

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In the Bookmarks window, click on the bookmark that you created.
3. Click Properties.
4. In the bookmark Properties dialog box window, enter a short string into the Keyword field and close that dialog.

Now, you can enter the keyword in the Location Bar, and &brandShortName; will load that URL.

Search with Keywords

Custom keywords can be used to create shortcuts for your favorite search engines, too. For example, you can create a keyword so that entering g Lord of the Rings will perform a Google I-Feel-Lucky search on Lord of the Rings.

To create a custom keyword for use with a Web search:

1. Go to your search form (e.g. www.google.com).
2. Enter a dummy search string (e.g. ILoveMozilla).
3. Submit the search query.
4. After the results have loaded, open the Bookmarks menu and choose File Bookmark.
5. In the File Bookmark dialog, look the Location field. Replace the dummy string (e.g. ILoveMozilla) with %s. For example, the location might become http://www.google.com/search?q=%s&btnI=I'mFeelingLucky.
6. Enter a keyword in the Keyword field.
7. Give the bookmark a name and choose the location for the bookmark.
8. Close the dialog.

Now you can search without going to the search page first by entering keyword search_words in the Location Bar.

For more details and examples, see How Cool are Custom Keywords?

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Changing Cache Settings

Your computer stores copies of frequently accessed pages in the cache. This way, the computer doesn't have to retrieve the page from the network each time you view it.

To set the size of the cache or to clear it:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)
3. Enter a number in the Size field to specify the size of the cache. 50 MB is sufficient. To clear the cache immediately, click Clear Cache.

Important: A larger disk cache allows more pages to be quickly retrieved, but more of your hard disk space is used.

When you quit &brandShortName;, it performs cache maintenance. If maintenance takes longer than you wish, try reducing the size of the disk cache.

To specify how often the browser checks the network for page revisions (so that you don't keep stale pages in the cache too long):

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)
3. Choose from the following options:
   • Every time I view the page: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache every time you view it.
   • When the page is out of date: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache when the page is determined by the server to have expired.
   • Once per session: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache once for each time you start &brandShortName;.
   • Never: Select this if you do not want &brandShortName; to compare cached information to the network.

If pages that should be in the cache are taking longer to appear than they should, make sure the preference is not set to Every time I view the page, because the verification requires a network connection that takes time.

To refresh a page at any time:

• Click the Reload button in the browser's Navigation Toolbar. The computer checks the network to make sure you have the latest version of the page.

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Getting the Latest Software Automatically

&brandShortName; can notify you when updates for your software are available, and it can install the updates automatically. &brandShortName; can also inform you when new versions of &brandShortName; and installed add-ons are available.

To learn about setting up automatic software installation, see Advanced Preferences - Software Installation.

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Using a Mouse Wheel

If your mouse has a mouse wheel, you can control how the mouse wheel functions in &brandShortName;.

To learn more about setting up a mouse wheel, see Advanced Preferences - Mouse Wheel.

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Proxies

This section explains how to work with proxies.

Setting Proxy Values

Many organizations block access from the Internet to their networks. This prevents outside parties from gaining access to sensitive information. The protection is called a firewall.

If your organization has a firewall, the browser may need to go through a proxy server before connecting you to the Internet. The proxy server prevents outsiders from breaking into your organization's private network.

Before you start:

• If there's a proxy configuration file at your workplace, ask the system administrator for its URL.
• If there's no proxy configuration file, ask your system administrator for the names and port numbers of the servers running proxy software for each network service.

To set the browser to work with the proxy:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Proxies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Browser to expand the list.)
3. Select one of the following:
   • Direct connection to the Internet: Choose this if you don't want to use a proxy.
   • Automatically discover the proxy configuration: Choose this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically detect and configure the proxy settings, using the WPAD protocol.
   • Automatic proxy configuration URL: Choose this if you have a proxy configuration file or URL, then enter the configuration URL.
   • Manual proxy configuration: Choose this if you don't have a proxy location (URL), or the automatic proxy discovery was unable to setup the proxy settings correctly.
     • Proxy: Enter the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server.
     • Port: Enter the port number in the Port field. Click on Advanced to set Advanced Proxy Preferences
     • No Proxy for: Type the domains and/or IP addresses that you do not want to use a proxy for. Separate each entry with a comma. (Example: .mozilla.org, .net.nz, 192.168.1.0/24.)

Domain names are the part of a URL that contains the name of an organization, business, or school—such as mozilla.org or washington.org. If you use local host names without the domain name, list them the same way. Use commas to separate multiple host names. The wildcard character [*] cannot be used.

For more information on using the Proxy preferences panel, see Advanced Preferences - Proxies.

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