%brandDTD; ]> Browsing the Web

Browsing the Web

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

This section introduces you to Navigator, and how you can use it to browse, search, and save web pages.

In this section:

Navigating Web Pages

In this section:

Viewing Your Home Page

When you start &brandShortName;, you see Navigator, your browser. A What's New page appears automatically in the browser window when you first launch &brandShortName;.

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:

[Return to beginning of section]

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:/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
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. Navigator 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.

[Return to beginning of section]

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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Retracing Your Steps

There are several ways to re-visit pages:

Navigation Buttons
Back Forward
Location Bar
Location Bar

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 Navigator, 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 Navigator window:

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

Tip: In Remember visited pages for the last [__] days, you can set the number of days pages will remain in the history list.

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

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

[Return to beginning of section]

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.

Navigation Buttons
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.

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator 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.

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator 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 Navigator Preferences - Tabbed Browsing.

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

[Return to beginning of section]

Using Sidebar

In addition to navigating the Web with Navigator, 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 Sidebar
Handle
If it is not already open, open Sidebar by clicking its handle. If the handle is missing, open the View menu in Navigator, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.

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

[Return to beginning of section]

Searching the Web

In this section:

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.

Location Bar with Search Term

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:

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: You can also use Internet Keywords to search from the Location Bar.

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 Navigator, 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:

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 Navigator Preferences - Internet Search.

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator category, click Internet Search. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator 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 Navigator, 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.

Sidebar 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 Navigator, 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:
  7. Click OK when you are finished customizing.

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator category, click Internet Search. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the Navigator 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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Using Internet Keywords

Internet Keywords work with the Location Bar to help you quickly find specific types of information. There are several ways to use Internet Keywords:

Important: To use Internet Keywords, you must press ReturnEnter on your keyboard instead of clicking the Search button. Pressing ReturnEnter activates the Internet Keyword feature; clicking Search initiates a search.

To see the difference, try this:

  1. Type apple imac into the Location Bar and press ReturnEnter. Apple Computer's iMac Web page appears.
  2. Now type apple imac into the Location Bar and click Search. You see a list of links related to Apple Computer's iMac models.

If typing Internet Keywords into the Location Bar is not working for you, check your Smart Browsing preferences to be sure the Internet Keywords feature is enabled.

Quick Stock Quotes

To see a recent stock quote for a company, type quote followed by the company's stock ticker symbol, and press ReturnEnter.

If you don't know a company's stock ticker symbol, type the company's name. The quote page will list all companies with similar names, and you can choose the one for which you want a quote.

[Return to beginning of section]

Searching Within a Page

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

  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:
  4. Click Find to begin the search.

To find the same word or phrase again:

[Return to beginning of section]

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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Searching the Bookmarks or History List

To search the bookmarks list, begin from the Navigator 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:
  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:
  4. Click Find. History listings that match your search criteria are displayed in the Search Results window.

To use the search results:

Tips:

[Return to beginning of section]

Copying, Saving, and Printing Pages

In this section:

Copying Part of a Page

To copy some text from a page, begin from the Navigator 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 Navigator's Location Bar.

[Return to beginning of section]

Saving All or Part of a Page

To save an entire page, begin from the Navigator 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:
  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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Printing a Page

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

To print selected text, begin from the Navigator window:

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.

To have an early look at how a page will look before it is printed, you can use Print Preview. Begin from the Navigator window:

In Print Preview, you have the following options:

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 Navigator, open the File menu and choose Page Setup.

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

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

[Return to beginning of section]

Using Languages and International Content

In this section:

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 Navigator 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 Navigator 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 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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Setting Language Preferences

The language you use for &brandShortName; affects the text of buttons, dialog boxes, menus, tools, and other items. The functionality of these items remains the same.

To set your preferred language:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Appearance category, click Languages/Content. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)
  3. Under Installed language packs select a language pack.
  4. Click OK.

    Note: You must restart &brandShortName; after you change your preferred language.

The content pack you use affects the home page, bookmarks, toolbar contents, Sidebar, and other items.

To use a content pack:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Appearance category, click Languages/Content. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)
  3. Under Installed content packs select a content pack.
  4. Click OK.

    Note: You will need to restart &brandShortName; after you change to another content pack.

Tip: To download more language packs or content packs, click Download More.

Web pages are sometimes available in several languages. &brandShortName; presents pages in the language you prefer, if it is available. You can specify the languages you wish to see, in order of preference.

To set language preferences:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Navigator category, click Languages. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)
  3. Click Add. You see the Add Languages dialog box.
  4. Select a language and its code. If you wish to add a code not on the list, type the language and its code in the Others field (see note below). If you want to reorder the languages in the list, select a language and click Move Up or Move Down.
  5. Click OK.

Note: Two-letter codes enclosed in brackets appear next to each language in the list. These are standard abbreviations for languages. For a complete list, see the online document, Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages.

[Return to beginning of section]

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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Plug-ins and Downloads

In this section:

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

Plug-ins

Plug-ins are helper applications that extend the functionality within Navigator and run within &brandShortName;. Plug-ins 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 plug-ins installed, so you have to add them separately.

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

To see what plug-ins you currently have installed, do any of the following:

[Return to beginning of section]

Helper Applications

When files can not be used within &brandShortName;, you have to 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 in the Helper Applications preferences panel tell Navigator which helper applications to use on your computer. Usually, these preferences don't need to be changed since they are preconfigured. Also, if Navigator doesn't know which helper application to use, it allows you to find helper applications within the download dialog box.

The download dialog box has these options:

Tip: You can clear your saved options for Always ask before opening this type of file in preferences. For more information, see Navigator Preferences - Helper Applications.

For experienced users to fine-tune the Helper Applications preferences:

  1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Navigator category, click Helper Applications. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the Navigator to expand the list.)
  3. Perform any of the following procedures:

    To add a new helper application to the list:

    1. Click New Type. You see the New type dialog box.
    2. Type a description of the type of files the application works,with; for instance, movies or sound files.
    3. Type the MIME type. MIME types consist of two words separated by a slash. For instance, a TIFF image file's MIME type is image/tiff.

      Note: When you download a file, &brandShortName; will show you the MIME type on the download dialog box.

    4. Type the file extension (suffix) used by this file type. If this type of file uses more than one extension, type them all, separated by spaces.
    5. Click Choose, then select an application that handles files of this type.
    6. Click OK.

    To specify how Navigator should handle different file types:

    1. Select a file type from the list and click Edit.
    2. In the dialog box, type in the MIME type you want this file to use.
    3. Choose between having downloaded files saved on your hard disk, opened with the default application in your system settings or opened in an application that you specify. Click Choose to specify the application.
    4. Click OK.

    To remove an item from the list:

    1. Select a file type from the list and click Remove.
    2. Click OK.

To learn more about Helper Application preferences, see Navigator Preferences - Helper Applications.

[Return to beginning of section]

Download Manager

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

To open Download Manager, do the following:

The following menu options are available in Download Manager:

[Return to beginning of section]

Improving Speed and Efficiency

In this section:

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 & Plug-ins.

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator 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?

[Return to beginning of section]

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 Navigator 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:

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:

[Return to beginning of section]

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 a new version of &brandShortName; is available.

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

[Return to beginning of section]

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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Making &brandShortName; Your Default Browser

&brandShortName; is best known for displaying web pages, both on the Internet and on your computer. To easily open web pages, you can make &brandShortName; your default browser.

Common Internet Files and Protocols

Making &brandShortName; your default browser allows it to automatically open common file formats and protocols used on the Internet. Common Internet file formats and protocols include the following:

Changing Default Browser Settings Automatically

After installation is finished, &brandShortName; checks to see if it is the default browser for any of the common Internet file formats or protocols. If it isn't, you are asked, &brandShortName; is not currently set as your default browser. Would you like to make it your default browser?

Click Yes to make &brandShortName; the default browser. If you click No, you will be prompted with this question each time &brandShortName; starts, unless you deselect the checkbox Check at startup next time, too.

If you deselect the checkbox, Check at startup next time, too, you can still make &brandShortName; the default browser by changing your settings in Preferences. To learn how to set &brandShortName; as the default browser through &brandShortName; preferences, see Navigator Preferences - Navigator.

Customizing Default Browser Settings

You can manually customize how &brandShortName; handles various file formats and protocols. For more information, see Advanced Preferences - System.

[Return to beginning of section]

Using Quick Launch

Quick Launch shortens the time it takes for &brandShortName; to start. When &brandShortName; uses Quick Launch, the &brandShortName; logo icon is present in the system tray (near the clock).

Quick Launch Icon
&brandShortName; Quick Launch Icon

Tip: To quickly start components (such as Composer, Mail & Newsgroups, and the Address Book window), right-click the &brandShortName; logo icon and select the component in the pop-up menu.

When you installed &brandShortName;, you were given the option of enabling or disabling Quick Launch. If enabled, Quick Launch loads part of &brandShortName; into memory when Windows first starts (and each time &brandShortName; first starts up). Quick Launch allows &brandShortName; to stay in memory after you close all &brandShortName; windows. This lets &brandShortName; quickly start up when you need it, without having to load all of &brandShortName;. If your computer is low in memory, you can disable Quick Launch to conserve memory.

To enable or disable Quick Launch in &brandShortName;:

  1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
  2. Click the Advanced category.
  3. Select Keep &brandShortName; in memory to improve startup performance to enable Quick Launch, or deselect it to disable Quick Launch.
  4. Click OK.

    Tip: To easily disable Quick Launch, right-click on the &brandShortName; logo in the system tray (near the time) and select Disable Quick Launch in the pop-up menu.

[Return to beginning of section]

Proxies

In this section:

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:

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 the Navigator to expand the list.)
  3. Select one of the following:

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.

[Return to beginning of section]

Copyright © 2003-2010 The Mozilla Foundation.