Mozilla Firefox has been the favourite browser of geeks not just for its robustness and speed but for its flexibility as well. In this series we will discuss some of the tips and tweaks that can be applied to make Firefox an indispensible part of a Web developer’s kit. In this post we will look tweaks that can be useful for common users as well as developers.
Delete Visited URL from Location Bar History :
The first tip that I would like to share over here is the one that allows you to deleteURLs from the location bar. This becomes a necessity when you want to hide (for whatever reason) the fact that you were visiting a site that you shouldn’t visit and the URL can be seen by anyone who clicks the drop down list of the location bar in Firefox. Deleting visited URL from here is too easy! All you need to do is point the cursor at the URL from the drop down list and press Shift+Delete , the URL will be removed from the Location Bar history.
Opening A Page In A New Tab Instead Of A New Window :
Tabbed browsing is a major ehancement that most web browsers have implemented lately but most of the pages are not designed with the multi-tab feature in mind. Often, while browsing on the web you come across links which open up in a new window when you want to open it in a new tab instead. To change this preference all you need to do is go to Menu Tools | Options and then select Tabs page. In the setting, “New pages should be opened in :” Select “a new tab” instead of “a new window“.
Save PDF, MP3 Instead of Opening :
A feature that both Firefox and Internet Explorer offer and I could do without is open popular file formats such as PDF and MP3. These are regular features that a lot of people like and use but occasionally there are circumstances when you would want to save the file to local system instead of opening it up in browser. Of course you can always click on the link and then click on “Save Target As..” from the context menu but even that can be avoided. To save files when you click on the link go to Menu Tools |Options , select Application page, from the “content type” list select the file type you want to save (.pdf,.mp3 etc) and in the corresponding action, select “Save File“. You can also change your file association here so that Firefox opens that particular file type with the application of your choice.
Use Search Engine Other Than Google :
Most of us search from the search box located in the toolbar of the browser with Google as the default search engine without realizing that Firefox gives us option to use not only Google but other search engines like Yahoo, Wikipedia, Delicious etc too. In fact, all one needs to do is click on the arrow on the search button and select the search engine from the list. As discussed in the previous post, this feature can also be accessed from keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Down Arrow (focus should be on search box).