Mozilla Firefox Tips and Shortcuts

I have been doing a lot of google searches for tweaks for Firefox and most have come empty handed, but geestar20 has a great tread for Firefox tweak that will optimize browser loading here -> http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/177587

I come across the mozilla forums with tons of Firefox shortcuts and tips. The are spread out throughout the site, but Im going to list them here and hopefully it will help some people.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Double Clicking empty space on the Tab Bar will open a 'New Tab'

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Middleclick/MouseWheelClick on a Bookmark on your Personal Toolbar will open it up in a New Tab

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a folder will open all the bookmarks in the folder in a new Tab(s)

[bold]Tip:[/bold] holding down the Shift or Ctrl key when you RightClick to "View Image" or "View Backround Image"will open the image in a New Tab or New Window.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Unused menus or menu Items can be hidden by using the customizing your userChrome.css stylesheet

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a Tab will close that Tab.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a History item will open the page in a new Tab

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Back and Forward buttons will open the last/next page in a new Tab

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Home button will open your homepage in a new Tab(s)

[bold]Tip:[/bold] MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Throbber (the 'busy' icon at the top-right) will open the Firefox homepage in a new Tab

[bold]Tip:[/bold] For those without middle mouse buttons or mousewheels, ctrl-click will also open new tabs for links, bookmarks, bookmark folders, history items, and toolbar buttons

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Ctrl+TAB you can navigate in the tabs to the right

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Ctrl+Shift+Tab you can navigate in the tabs to the left

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Many Laptops mimic the MiddleClick/MouseWheelClick function if you click both right/left pads at the same time.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Set mutliple Home pages : Tools---->Options--->General and seperate each page with the pipe | symbol
(eg http://forums.mozillazine.org/|http://www.google.com|http://www.yahoo.com

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Clear your Download history to make the download manager more responsive : Tools---->Options--->Privacy

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Rearrange add/remove Icons on Toolbars: View--->ToolBars--->Customize....

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Drag any link to the Download Manager Window to add & download the link

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Pressing ctrl+enter will add http://www. before and .com after the text in the toolbar and load the resulting url. Similarly, shift+enter will add http://www. and .net, and ctrl+shift+enter will add http://www. and .org

[bold]Tip:[/bold] You can work offline like in IE by clicking File>Work Offline. This means that you can browse your previously visited pages even when you're offline.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] If you wish to remove an item from your Address Bar Drop down menu, Highlight it WITHOUT CLICKING and use Shift+Delete

[bold]Tip:[/bold] A bookmarks's position Dragged & Dropped (ie. change position in a Folder or move from one folder to another or move to another position on the toolbar) by highlighting it & clicking on it (WITHOUT LETTING GO) and Dragging it to your desired position

[bold]Tip:[/bold] A Folder can be move the same way as above tip but u MUST hold down the SHIFT key while Dragging

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Former/current users of IE who are accustomed to copying items from "Temporary Internet Files" folder (FireFox calls it "Cache" ) can achieve the same results by Tools--->Page Info and then select the "Media" Tab, then Highlight the item u want to download and clicking "Save As..."

[bold]Tip:[/bold] If u accidentally delete a bookmark and want to recover it, if it is not already open then, open the "Bookmarks Manager" (Bookmarks--->Manage Bookmarks) and either use Ctrl+Z or Edit--->Undo (in The Bookmarks Manager)

[bold]Tip:[/bold] DoubleClicking a file entry in the Downloads Manager will open/launch the file (provided u haven't moved it yet)

[bold]Tip:[/bold] You can also directly download anything from a page by drag and dropping it onto the 'download' icon in your toolbar (provided you put it there in 'right-click > customize')

[bold]Tip:[/bold] You can bookmark the current page by dragging the icon from the location bar to your Bookmarks folder. You can also drag it to the desktop to make an icon for that page

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Of course, you can also do what the last tip said in the other direction: drag a text file, a link, a picture, etcetera... from your folders or your desktop to Firefox and it will open in Firefox

[bold]Tip:[/bold] You can save all open tabs in a bookmark folder. Ctl-D, select the "bookmark all tabs in a folder" select or create a folder.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] To stop animated gifs from moving, press the ESC key.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Instead of clicking the Back or Forward buttons, hold down the Shift key and turn the scroll wheel to back or forward

[bold]Tip:[/bold] you can give "keywords" to your bookmarks by right-clicking the bookmark and then Properties. If you put a string in the keyword field now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark. For example, if I have a bookmark for the firefox website, I might give it the keyword "ff". Now, when I type "ff<Enter>" in the address bar, it goes to the firefox site. I find it is often faster than going through your bookmarks to find it

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Ctrl and a number key will go to the tab indicated by the number. (e.g. Ctrl+3 will go to the third tab from the left)

[bold]Tip:[/bold] CTRL+F5 refreshes the page without accessign the file cache

[bold]Firefox Mouse Tips[/bold]

[bold]Middle Click[/bold]
[bold]Note: Two-button mouse[/bold]

For those without middle mouse buttons or mousewheels, ctrl-click will also open new tabs for links, bookmarks, bookmark folders, history items, and toolbar buttons.

Many Laptops mimic the MiddleClick/MouseWheelClick function if you click both right/left pads at the same time.

Clicking both mouse buttons at the same time also mimics the MiddleClick/MouseWheelClick function.

[bold]Tabs[/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a Tab will close that Tab.

[bold]Personal Toolbar[/bold]

Middleclick/MouseWheelClick on a Bookmark on your Personal Toolbar will open it up in a New Tab

[bold]Folders[/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a folder will open all the bookmarks in the folder in a new Tab(s)

[bold]History [/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a History item will open the page in a new Tab.

[bold]Back and Forward buttons[/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Back and Forward buttons will open the last/next page in a new Tab.

[bold]Home button[/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Home button will open your homepage in a new Tab(s).

[bold]Links [/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on a link will open that link in a new tab.

[bold]Throbber[/bold]

MiddleClick/MouseWheel Click on the Throbber (the 'busy' icon at the top-right) will open the Firefox homepage in a new Tab.

[bold]Images[/bold]

Middleclick/MouseWheelClick on "View Image" or "View Background Image" will open the image in a New Tab.

[bold]Double Click[/bold]
[bold]Download Manager[/bold]

DoubleClicking a file entry in the Downloads Manager will open/launch the file (provided you haven't moved it yet)

[bold]Tab Bar[/bold]

Double Clicking empty space on the Tab Bar will open a 'New Tab'

[bold]Right Click[/bold]
[bold]Customize Toolbar[/bold]

You can adjust your toolbars to your liking. Right click on any toolbar, and select 'Customize'. While this dialogue is up, you can move buttons around on your toolbars by click-and-drag to the new location. The window that pops up when you do this is a holding area for unused icons. You can drag any item from it onto your toolbars to have it made available, and you can drag any icon from your toolbars onto this box to hide that icon completely.

[bold]Tip:[/bold] Some toolbar items, such as the Location bar, will expand to take up all available space.

[bold]Keyword Bookmark[/bold]

Right clicking in a search box (such as the 'search mozillazine, powered by google', on the left of this page) and selecting 'add a keyword for this search' lets you make an interactive keyword bookmark.

[bold]Here is how it works:[/bold]

Give it a name, such as 'Mozillazine search'
now, assign a keyword to it, such as 'moz'
click 'ok'

From now on, you can search mozillazine (or any other search box you used for this) from your address bar like this:

Enter 'moz search topic' in your address bar and click Go!

[bold]Drag'n Drop[/bold]
[bold]Moving bookmarks and folders[/bold]

You can change a bookmark's position in a folder or move it from one folder to another or move it to another position on the toolbar by highlighting it & clicking on it (WITHOUT LETTING GO) and dragging it to your desired position.

A folder can be moved the same way as above tip but u MUST hold down the SHIFT key while dragging.

[bold]Icons[/bold]

You can bookmark the current page by dragging the icon from the location bar to your Bookmarks folder. You can also drag it to the desktop to make an icon for that page.

Drag a text file, a link, a picture, etcetera... from your folders or your desktop to Firefox and it will open in Firefox!

[bold]Links[/bold]

"Click-and-drag" a bookmark to the main content windown (which is the biggest on the firefox userinterface),so you can open it in a new tab !

Dragging a link onto a new tab will open the link in the new tab.

[bold]Downloading links[/bold]

Drag any link to the Download Manager Window to add & download the link.

You can also directly download anything from a page by drag and dropping it onto the 'download' icon in your toolbar (provided you put it there in 'right-click > customize')

[bold]Mouse and Keyboard[/bold]
[bold]Images[/bold]

Holding down the Shift or Ctrl key when you RightClick to "View Image" or "View Background Image" will open the image in a New Tab or New Window.

[bold]Selecting text[/bold]

If you hold down the CTRL key and left click on part of a web page, that section of the page will be highlighted. If you right click on the selection and choose 'View selection source', the source code for that part of the page will be displayed.

To quickly highlight text, especially long text fields. Left-click once in the window where you want the selection to start; and then shift-click in the spot where you want the selection to end (selection range). *this is a lot easier than click-selection-dragging, especially where there is a lot of text to highlight.

[bold]________________UPDATED: 12/20/2005____________________[/bold]

[bold]Quick Google search from Address Bar[/bold]

1. Go to the "Bookmarks" drop-down menu and select "Manage Bookmarks..."
2. Select "New Bookmark..."
3. A Properties for New Bookmark will appear
4. Under Name, give it a name like, "google search"
5. Under location, put this address, "ttp://google.com/search?q=%s" but with out the quotation marks and put a "h" in front of the "ttp"
6. Under Keyword, put something very simple like the letter "g" (without quotes)
7. Hit OK then you are done.

once you have done this go to the address bar, type the letter "g" (without quotes), hit the spacebar and type any word you want to search for like "afterdawn", hit enter and you have done a quick search. For example type, "g afterdawn". press enter and a google search for afterdawn will turn up. Very Easy and Cool. Have Fun!

[bold]How to back up Bookmarks [/bold]
1: from menu bar Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks...
it will open bookmarks manager window
2:
from bookmarks manager bar File -> Export...
and save the file

[bold]Sure Way to Block ALL Ads from Firefox[/bold]
There is a Extension Called [bold]Adblock][/bold] that most people use, but there is a second extension that goes with it called [bold]Adblock Filter Set G[/bold] that pretty much disables all third party ads, but still keeps the browser functional without disabling the banners that come from the host site.
Both extention can be found here:
Adblock -> http://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=10&application=firefox
Filter Set G -> http://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1136&application=firefox

Both are 1.5 ready.

What makes these two so great is that there is no set up involved. Just install Adblock then filter Set G and you are done.

[bold]Google Suggests[/bold]
This is just a simple extension for the google search bar. It is just an autocomplete for the search bar.
find it here-> http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/suggest/install.html

[bold]IE Tab[/bold]
This is an awesome extension for those web pages that will not load in Firefox. It does what it's name suggest it will open an internet explorer tab within firefox and you can switch back and forth with a single click by clicking on either the firefox or IE icon that is located on the status bar.

find it here -> http://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1419&application=firefox


[bold]Well Thats it![/bold] I hope this is useful for all of the aD people out there. If there are anymore that I missed feel free to post them here.

 

holy shiznit thats a lot of tips...no way I can remember all of them, but there are some good ones there that will come in handy...thanks

 

nice list of shortcuts. i havent seen these anywhere

 

awesome tip! can totally use that. keep it up!

 

No problem guys, just here to make this community better!

 

deez, love the lotr thing, lol

 

Thanks deezp1. Some of these will come in very handy.

 

No problem guys (and girls), Im here to help.

Since Im here here is another one I have just discovered.

[bold]Quick Google search from Address Bar[/bold]

1. Go to the "Bookmarks" drop-down menu and select "Manage Bookmarks..."
2. Select "New Bookmark..."
3. A Properties for New Bookmark will appear
4. Under Name, give it a name like, "google search"
5. Under location, put this address, "ttp://google.com/search?q=%s" but with out the quotation marks and put a "h" in front of the "ttp"
6. Under Keyword, put something very simple like the letter "g" (without quotes)
7. Hit OK then you are done.

once you have done this go to the address bar, type the letter "g" (without quotes), hit the spacebar and type any word you want to search for like "afterdawn", hit enter and you have done a quick search. For example type, "g afterdawn". press enter and a google search for afterdawn will turn up. Very Easy and Cool. Have Fun!

 

My tip : Use Opera. Imo its way better.

 

n00b, come on. I understand Opera is a great browser, but in most opinions, firefox is far superior. Anyways, this is not a place to compare what is better, but a place to help each other out on great firefox tips. if you want to argue what browser is better, there are tons of other threads that do it.

 

lol...some people just have to show off and be a loud mouth.

 

while I'm here her is another one.

[bold]How to back up Bookmarks[/bold]
1: from menu bar Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks...
it will open bookmarks manager window
2:
from bookmarks manager bar File -> Export...
and save the file

 

I have recently started using firefox (was using IE) and I am really enjoying it's functionality. There is something I miss from IE and I'm sure firefox does it, but I haven't found it.

Can Firefox highlight the words you typed in for a search? For example if I went to google and typed "firefox highlight results", will every used of those words show up highlighted so my eyes can browse down the page quicker?

Thanks! I enjoyed your post deezp1 about all the shortcuts.

 

Now that you found these great tips and functions, now make the page loading faster http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/177587

Now lets see if I can answer your question,

If you type in "firefox highlight results" and you found a ton of hits and you decide to go into some of those sites, firefox will remeber the last site you went into and it will be highlighted purple to let you know that that was a site you went into.

hope (I think) i answerd your question.

 

I think he is asking about once he already has done a search he wants to highlight the searched word.

you can do this two ways:

1. After you have done your search (with whatever search engine you like) hit the [bold]Ctrl-F[/bold] and a search box pops up at the bottom of the page. Type in the word you did a search for and as you are typing that word, a highlighter shows up and highlights the word

This only highlights the first occurance of the word, click the "Find Next" to get the next occurance of the word.

Also, by clicking the "Highlight" button highlights ALL of the occurances of the word.

2. If you go to Tools->Extentions then click "Get More Extentions," There is a Firefox extention that automatically highlights the word you. I believe the extention is called "context highlight"

I dont like using that extention though because it only highlights all occurances of the word and it can get annoying. I would stick with the first option I gave you.

Hope this helps!

 

thx for the google search tip deezp1

 

Thanks Deep,
That helps alot!

 

tham Deezp those were alot of Tips that helps lot. thanks

 

Sorry, wrong forum.

 

Awesome sig bobright. I like yours too, Deezp1