Presentation for ExxonMobile Retirees Group

Outline

Where to Get Firefox  (#where)

• http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Preliminary Videos #intro

• Digg - What's new in Firefox 3? Check out this demo!, Mike Belzner, A quick (3min:50sec) prerelease overview of some of the new features in Firefox 3.  Wikipedia article:  Address bar
• Jonathan Zittrain | The Colbert Report | Comedy Central, Jonathan Zittrain wants to save the good chaos of the Internet and separate it from the bad chaos that will stomp on everything. (6min:32sec)

Some topics that would probably be covered (briefly)  (#topics)

• Comparison of Keyboard Shortcuts between Firefox, IE7, Opera 9.5 and Safari 3.1.1
• Creation and Use of Keyword Shortcuts (not available in IE7)
• Tabbed Browsing (options)
• Some hidden preferences not available in tools, options that have to be set in about:config or in configuration files.
• Installing an Extension, extensions are used to modify/customize Firefox
• Some hidden preferences not available in tools, options that have to be set in about:config or in configuration files.
• Making some Customizations to Firefox context menus (right-click menus), and toolbars.
• Invoking other browsers, editors, etc. on your system from Firefox with the "Launchy" extension (Windows users)
• Search Engines, how to use, how to install
• Some "Chrome" changes via "Stylish" extension.
• Viewing a page without styling (View, Style, No Style), or with "ReadEasily" extension.
• Zoom Features (view, zoom options), and with "Mouse Zoom" extension
• Use of Bookmarklets
• Options, and configuration settings
• Help Facilities, MozillaZine KB, newsgroup (mozilla.support.firefox)

More Information  (#more)

• Firefox Customizations (Notes) (home page, 421.85 KB)
• Firefox Documentation Locators
• Firefox customizations in pictures
• Browser Keyboard Shortcuts (Table)
• Firefox Keyword Shortcuts
• Tabbed Browsing in Firefox, and companion page Tabs configuration, extracted from About:config entries - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
• Right-Click Menus and Toolbars in Firefox
• Search Mozilla and other Firefox Searches

• Add to Search Bar ♦,  Extension provides the ability to effortlessly add your own search engines from any search form you find.  Make any pages' search functionality available in the Search Bar (or "search box").  Just make a right click in a search field and choose "Add to Search Bar..."
• You should have no problem finding the following extensions through my web page which has additional brief install/usage comments that you will not find otherwise when installing the extensions.  Document Map, keyconfig, Launchy, Linky, PermaTabs Mod, QuickRestart, Stylish, and I wouldn't be able to do much without CopyURL+, and Copy All URLs.

Stylish extension (#stylish)

• Bookmarks Toolbar Blue/Folders, Red/Bookmarks
• Keyword addition for Add/Change Bookmark (Fx3) | userstyles.org
• Tab Color Underscoring active/read/unread | userstyles.org, along with Tabs Bar Mimimal Size | userstyles.org
• Menu and SearchBar Minimal Height and it's companion Navigation/Location Bar Minimal Height

• Color Toolbar(s) to identify profile (DM*) | userstyles.org, help identify an additional profile such as might be used with a TEST profile, or to distinguish a different user
• Google groups without ads | userstyles.org, but don't forget about these extensions: Adblock (or Adblock Plus), Customize Google.
• Scrollbar Menu | userstyles.org, set height to 740px, autorepeatbutton is the top and bottom scrolling chevrons on the area itself, this will scroll all menus including: context menus(like style 54), bookmarks(like style 56).

Keyword shortcuts

• For Help -- ::, about:config (aboutconfig:),  Tools, Options (toolsoptions:)
• For referencing/comparing archived copies of a current webpage:  archived: archive: Internet Archive Wayback Machine (set up for comparisons)
  [-- javascript:location = 'http://web.archive.org/web/*dc_/'+escape(location); void 0 --]
  ::, aboutconfig:, toolsoptions:, g:, ffp:,

about:config preferences   (#pref)

• network.prefetch-next, false, prevent loading from continuing after page is loaded.

Also check out additional tab preferences in

• http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/tabs_config.htm
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/MozillaZine_Knowledge_Base:About

• browser.link.open_external,   3, Opens external links in a new tab
• browser.link.open_newwindow,   3 (default)
• browser.search.openintab ,   True, When performing a search from the Search Bar, open the results in a new tab.
• browser.tabs.closeButtons,   3, Put close at right of tabs bar
• browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace,  False, Existing tabs will be preserved when loading a folder of bookmarks.
   
• extensions.checkCompatibility,   false, bypass compatibility checking
• extensions.checkUpdateSecurity,   false, install extension from other sites
• nglayout.enable_drag_images,   false, remove ghost image/picture attached to cursor when dragging link, favicon, picture, or tab.

• view_source.editor.external set to True
• view_source.editor.path set to c:\winnt\notepad.exe [use \windows\ in Vista instead of \winnt\]

The above can be created in user.js a file with content can be found here, the cards should look like this, with a lot more content:

user_pref("browser.tabs.closeButtons", 3);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkUpdateSecurity", false);
user_pref("general.warnOnAboutConfig", false);

Extensions (#extensions)

The extensions I have on my normal profile can be seen in an Infolister listing: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/infolister_listing#extensions

The following list might be used as an introduction to extensions

• Copy URL+, Copies to clipboard the document's URL along with the title or the selected text.
• Copy ALL URLs, Copies and pastes all urls of open tabs inclusive history in structured and well defined form to and from the clipboard.
• Document Map, Displays the current page's heading structure in the sidebar, allowing rapid navigation between sections keyconfig, Rebind your keys. (means add/change/remove keyboard shortcuts)
• Launchy, Open links and mailto's with external applications like Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Outlook etc
• Linky, Open/download/validate links and pictures in tabs or windows
• Open Profile Folder, Open current profile folder from the "Tools" menu.
• PermaTabs Mod, Create non-closable tabs that stick around between sessions - modified for Fx3
• QuickRestart, adds Ctrl+Alt+R and a "Restart Firefox" item to the "File" menu. **important**
• Split Browser, Splits browser window as you like.
• Stylish, Customize the look of websites and of the user interface, quickly test changes you might make to userChrome.css These extensions would be demonstrated from my main profile
• Adblock, Filters ads from web-pages
• McAfee Site Advisor, enhances Google search results with safety/risk symbols and links
• PageDiff, A simple page diff application. works with source code by line.
• Customize Google, Enhance Google search results and remove ads and spam from search results.
• Menu Editor, Customize application menus: main context, tabs context, other context menus, each of the menus, particularly the Tools menu,
• (oldbar, there should be a style available again), URL bar uses Firefox 2 style results (at least it is small extension)
• Mouse Zoom, Zoom with the mouse.
• Image Zoom, Adds zoom functionality for images and possibly
• (Nightly Tester Tools), Useful tools for the nightly tester. Unfortunately casual users may have to use this, if preferences fail to install old/reliable extensions.

Also touch on use of  keyword shortcuts, and bookmarklets.

Related   (#related)

• Firefox Customizations (Notes)
• Vista Basic Home