I liked Dolphin because of gestures, but I had stopped using it, I ran accross this article when it was updated:
 
10 Popular Android Apps You Should NOT Install | MakeUseOf10 Popular Android Apps You Should NOT Install | MakeUseOf
By Dan Price, June 03, 2016; Updated Oct 15, 2020

Dolphin Gestures allow you to overcome the loss of a keyboard on tablets of any size.  Dolphin is certainly not the first to have gestures, but has done gestures correctly, allowing you to create your own gestures for standardized actions, and for your own bookmarks and bookmarklets.  When you are able to make your own gestures you are much more likely to adopt them quickly and remember them longer.  Dolphin Gestures can include JavaScript. 

This document describes how I converted some of my keyworded bookmarks and bookmarklets to bookmarks and bookmarklets with gestures, and some links as gestures only without a bookmark.


Dolphin Gestures

Location: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/dolphin/dolphin_gestures.htm
Home page: http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox.htm
[View without Frames]

Setting up Android   (#android)

Having had my tablet sent in for repairs twice, I'm getting better at setting up things on my Android and the Dolphin Browser.  Applications such as Evernote with data stored in the cloud designed for editing from any device any time, pretty much take care of themselves since synching is automatic and can also be manually invoked.  Evenote use of the term local files is not defined anywhere that I can see, unfortunate in this age where software is no longer properly documented.

Automatic spelling fixing is a disaster.  Make sure you turn if off in Language & Keyboard settings:  Android keyboard settings > Quick fixes [turn off].  Unfortunately you no longer see suggestions which you would mostly choose to ignore anyway. You can test in the search box -- [test here] to ensure that "goo " does not get changed to "Google " when the spacebar is used -- turned off "Popup on keypress" and now it works as wanted (no correction). Really unfortunate is that this seems to slow the response.

Spell checking on Dolphin is a disaster, because it assumes you want to make the change, and I hardly ever do, and even if I wanted to take the correction 80% of the time the automatic part kills you.  It also messes up entry of anything with embedded periods such as urls and email addresses.  Any such introduced errors are difficult to remove especially since Android like iOS and Mac only provide for backspacing removal not in either direction.  There is no such thing as pointing to a misspelled word with wavy lines and selecting a correction or addition to the the dictionary from a context menu.

in Application settings: checkmark "Unknown sources" (Allow installation of non_Market applications) so that you can restore applications from your backup.

I restored all of my applications using "App Backup & Restore" which I had previously used to backup my applications, which were backed up to the removable SD card.  The card was removed before sent out for repair.  My settings did not get backed up so had to fix up settings in applications, especially Dolphin.  I can not and will not use my desktop bookmarks etc on Android.  A list of my android applications (android_myapps.htm) -- Includes links to these Dolphin Addons: Text Sizer, Send To Browser, Tab History, Screen Cut, and Dolphin Reader, after restoring them from their .apk files, many of them did automatic updates. Some additional information can be see in my Dolphin (newtab) webpage. I have since added "Bookmarks to SD" but can't read the output file so don't know if it is any good and it does not get created on mountable SD card so currently is useless.

Incompatible devices, can't install App   (#cannotinstall)

Most common reason for not being able to install a Dolphin extension is probably that you are not signed into the correct Gmail account for the Play Store.  Bring up Dolphin then bring up your gmail, and see if you are signed in under the same id used for for "Play Store" on your Android and as seen in your Dolphin settings: From within Dolphin > Menu key > More > Settings > >

Setting up and/or Restore Dolphin Browser usage   (#dolphin)

Bookmarks and links into Dolphin as Gestures   (#bookmarks)

The first part is simple.  I do not want to copy all of my Firefox desktop bookmarks to Dolphin because bookmarks are hard to access without bookmark toolbar, sidebar, and menus.  The gestures I want are basically many of the links within my Dolphin (newtab) page as they are the pages I generally want to access from my tablet without typing. The gestures created here do not show up as bookmarks only as gestures.

At the bottom of your Dolphin settings, move your Dolphin Gesture button to the lower right corner where it is less likely to interfere with content and links on a page.

At the bottom of Gestures, use the "More Actions" to bring up the "My Gestures" panal(s) where you assign your own gesture to dolphin actions.  Suggest immediately adding

Saving Bookmarklets to Dolphin   (#bookmarklet_conversion)

Some bookmarklets of general interest, test by clicking on each, after first clicking on the link above to reposition page.  Use the "Reset" bookmarklet to reset page.  Demo reposition

Each of these still work in Firefox: (and can be invoked using Firefox keyword shortcuts) o  [no image]  – PDF


The bookmarklets here for Dolphin and other Android browsers have been modified from and differ from those used on Windows and Macs, particularly the the ones that use substitution (%S or %s) in Firefox on PCs, and are using a Prompt box instead on Android. Demo reposition

Reset:  Reset (F5),  Navigation:  back:  forward:, Title and Tabs:  rename:  NT: (new tab)  NTnt: (alt) 
Text and Links:  paren tips HREF visible   ALT visible  highlight links  int/ext links  LDOC: (combined parentips+hi+in/ext)  HREF:count  HREF:x (Android browsers) Show Classes and IDs   id:  keywords:  keywords:count  subs: Substitution via %S within href  prompts:  make link
Self Reference: m: minus p: plus up: upd: date: (updated) owner:arc:cached: g-ag: dead:LatLong: linked: next: similar:
SelfRef SEO: ax: Alexisword:freq
Sharing (Extract for):  Send: title/url/desc  copyURLdesc: loc:, Sharing (with phones/tablets): qr: (qrcode)
Size: grid: pgdim: resize:help
Sorting: SortSelect:(487), SortTable:(1792)
Statistics (webpage): images:count words: (cnt), (more information)
Style (appearance): bml: bml:x bold: borders: Nofollow: Readability invert: linkify: [Linkify test] ns: wrap:
 

Substitution/Prompts (based on k.html with %s or %S): Searches: [g:] gs: g-h: tr:ddg:
• Dictionary/Thesaurus:  acronym: def: define ahd: dict: idioms:  say:   t: 
• Subs/Prompts Sites:  ans:  ask:  digg:  how:  gender:  images: images:face (portraits) images:huge  L:   Lg:   maps:  pro:  snopes:   u:   w:  
• Subs/Prompts Multiple sources: njnews sci:,  Google Play Store:  play:
 

Translate tr:;
Zapping Annoyances [zap]:  zt: zap timers -- STOPS the JavaScript CLOCK displayed at the top of this page.
Can't be demonstrated here: remember:, Test on another page: Sort a Table.

Repetitive: 99:EasyDefineHyperDic hyper-dictionary

    chk:toggle (chk)   tickall: (tic) (:: Check boxes belong within form tags ::)
[Go Back] [Return to TOP]

Main Firefox pages (on-site):  [Customizations, Extensions],  [Tabs],  [Bookmarks],  [Keyword shortcuts],  [Context and other menus
The gestures in Dolphin can use many of the same keyword shortcuts for urls and for bookmarklets as you may have assigned in Firefox, the difference being that you create and use a drawn gesture in Dolphin rather than a typed keyword shortcut.

Help improve this page by sending your comments to: David McRitchie send email comments


Copyright © 2012 - 2013,  F. David McRitchie,  All Rights Reserved