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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
* Firefox For Dummies gives you the inside scoop on the exciting new browser from the Web wizard that got it started. The book's author, Blake Ross, began developing Firefox as a teenager. Once available to the world, the simple and powerful tool was an instant hit claiming a sizable share of the Web browser market with over 140 million downloads. * In this book Blake not only gives you the lowdown on how to use Firefox for safe Web searching, but he also shares his insight into how the product came to life. It's a combination of practical tech insight and a good story that is rare in computer books. * Topics covered include downloading and installing Firefox, creating a home page, searching with Google, creating customized themes and toolbars, using tabbed browsing, downloading and saving files, maintaining security and privacy, eliminating annoying popups, and adding Firefox extensions.
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Firefox® For Dummies®
by Blake Ross
Firefox® For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Firefox is a registered trademark of Mozilla Foundation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005933668
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-74899-1 ISBN-10: 0-471-74899-4
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1O/RW/RS/QV/IN
About the Author
Blake Ross discovered computers when he was 4 and hasn’t had time to eat since then. He began working at Netscape at 14 and cofounded the Firefox project two years later to make the Web easy to use for plain old human beings. He also cofounded the SpreadFirefox.com community evangelism project, which has changed the face of software marketing and distribution. Blake was featured on the cover of Wired Magazine in early 2005, and he has since been featured in dozens of international publications and television shows to promote computing simplicity. He is on leave from Stanford University, where he is an undergraduate.
Blake is currently working on a new project with some of the original Firefox team. If you enjoy Firefox, you’ll enjoy what’s coming next, so sign up at www.blakeross.com to hear when it launches.
Dedication
For my family, who taught me everything I know. Except the computer stuff.
Author’s Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my family and friends for sticking by me and putting up with my crazy hours (the sun is rising as I write this).
Thanks to Mark Enochs and Steve Hayes at Wiley for reminding me to actually, you know, finish this book, and for putting up with the idiosyncrasies of a first-time For Dummies author. Likewise, this wouldn’t have happened without Virginia Sanders and James Russell, who rigorously reviewed the book and fixed every sentence-ending preposition you can think of. (Almost.)
Many thanks to Jatin Billimoria for helping to plan and write the book when my time was sparse.
Thanks to the MozillaZine community for their generous contributions to the book.
And finally, thanks to everyone at Mozilla who helped take Firefox to the top: Mitchell Baker, Chris Beard, Asa Dotzler, Rafael Ebron, Brendan Eich, Ben Goodger, Joe Hewitt, Chris Hofmann, Dave Hyatt, Dave Hyatt’s closet, Paul Kim, John Lilly, Scott MacGregor, Marcia Knous, Gervase Markham, Stuart Parmenter, Jesse Ruderman, Brian Ryner, Mike Shaver, Boris Zbarsky, and everyone else. On to the next 100 million!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Mark Enochs
Senior Acquisitions Editor: Steven Hayes
Copy Editor: Virginia Sanders
Technical Editor: James “Kovu” Russell
Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron
Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez
Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl, Lauren Goddard, Denny Hager, Barbara Moore, Lynsey Osborn, Heather Ryan
Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, TECHBOOKS Production Services
Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Contents
Title
Introduction
About This Book
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Conventions
Feedback
Part I : Getting Fired Up
Chapter 1: Why You Should Fire Your Old Browser
What Is a Browser, Anyway?
Why Use Firefox?
Chapter 2: Finding Your Way Around Firefox
Wandering the Web
A Browser Is Not a Search Engine
Using the Firefox Interface
Chapter 3: Setting Up Firefox
System Requirements
Getting Firefox
Installing Firefox with the Setup Wizard
Importing Your Information
Switching from Internet Explorer
Switching from Apple Safari
Reporting Broken Web Sites
Part II : Ready, Aim, Firefox
Chapter 4: Finding Information Online
Searching the Web with Firefox
Finding Text within a Page
Chapter 5: Bookmarking Great Sites
Creating and Accessing Bookmarks
Organizing Your Bookmarks
Importing and Exporting Bookmarks
Chapter 6: Returning to Sites You’ve Visited
Navigating Short-Term History
Delving into Long-Term History
Chapter 7: Browsing with Tabs
Getting Started with Tabs
Super Tabbing: Advanced Tips and Tricks
Chapter 8: Filling In Forms Quickly
Saving Your Sanity with Saved Forms
Saving Login Information for Fast Access to Web Sites
Chapter 9: Blocking Popup Ads
Blocking Popup Windows
Viewing Blocked Popup Windows
Chapter 10: E-Mailing with Thunderbird
Getting Thunderbird
Setting Up Your E-Mail Account
Receiving, Reading, and Searching E-Mail
Composing E-Mails
Creating an Address Book
Blocking Junk Mail
Getting Additional Help with Thunderbird
Chapter 11: Downloading and Saving Files
Downloading Music, Pictures, and Other Files
Saving Web Sites
Using the Download Manager
Chapter 12: Printing Web Pages
Using Print Preview
Configuring Print Options and Printing a Web Site
Chapter 13: Finding Additional Help
Using the Help Window
Getting Help on the Web
Part III : Outfoxing Hackers
Chapter 14: Clearing Your Tracks
Using the Clear Private Data Feature
Working One-on-One with Your Data
Chapter 15: Staying Safe Online
Phishing, Pharming, and Phriends
Using the PwdHash Extension
Preventing Spyware and Viruses
Staying Up-to-Date
Part IV : Dressing Up the Fox
Chapter 16: Setting Your Options
Using the Options Window
Oodles of Options
Chapter 17: Finding Your Dream Theme
Going to the Theme Park
Ensuring Theme Compatibility
Installing and Applying Themes
Updating Themes
Troubleshooting Themes
Uninstalling Themes
Chapter 18: Tailoring Your Toolbars
Changing the Items on Your Toolbars
Adding, Hiding, and Removing Toolbars
Changing the Appearance of Your Toolbar Buttons
Restoring the Default Configuration
Chapter 19: Controlling the Way Web Sites Look
Enlarging and Shrinking Text
Changing Web Site Colors
Changing How Firefox Displays Images
Viewing Web Sites in Full Screen Mode
Chapter 20: Extending Firefox
Finding Great Extensions
Ensuring Extension Compatibility
Installing Extensions
Using Extensions
Managing Your Extensions
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 21: Ten Secrets to a Foxier Web
The Find Bar Can Read Your Mind
Stopping Annoying Web Sites in Their Tracks
Making Your Privacy a One-Button Affair
Put It on My Tab!
Bookmarklets: The Baby Extensions
A Home for Every Occasion
Name That Bookmark!
Enjoying a Speedier Search
Feng Shui for Your Toolbars
The Scroll Wheel: Not Just for Scrolling
Chapter 22: The Ten Best Firefox Extensions
Before Getting Started
Gaining Peace of Mind with SessionSaver
StumbleUpon the Web’s Best Secrets
Kissing Ads Goodbye with AdBlock
A New Way to Surf with Mouse Gestures
Playing Music without Leaving Firefox
The Web Your Way with Greasemonkey
Managing Bookmarks More Efficiently
Keeping an Eye on Your Downloads
Making the World’s Largest Scrapbook
Honey, I Shrunk the Link!
Appendix A: Firefox Menu Reference
The File Menu
The Edit Menu
The View Menu
The Go Menu
The Bookmarks Menu
The Tools Menu
The Help Menu
Appendix B: Firefox Keyboard Reference
Navigation
Tabbed Browsing
Text Editing and Selection
Searching a Page
Searching the Web
Loading Web Addresses
Opening and Closing Windows and Sidebars
Miscellaneous
Accessing Web Site Elements with the Keyboard
Appendix C: Firefox Drag-and-Drop Reference
Getting to Know Drag-and-Drop
Getting to the Good Stuff
Extending Drag-and-Drop Further
Introduction
If you’re the kind of person who walks away from the computer thinking, “That was pleasant! Let me bake some cookies for those kids at MIT,” neither Firefox nor this book is for you.
Firefox was created for people who hate computers; who are fed up with popup ads and an Internet that takes regular coffee breaks; and who are baffled by software that seems to have a mind of its own. In short, Firefox was created for people — not programmers.
The reason a mild-mannered author can make such a bold claim is that underneath this cool exterior, I’m not only an author — I’m also a founder! I helped start Firefox — not to make money (it’s free), or sell a company (it’s non-profit), but for the express purpose of making your life easier. The other developers and I want every Firefox experience to feel like your first foray onto the Net. We want to take you back to a time when the Web was new and exciting, when spam was lunch meat and advertisements were found only in books, on television, throughout public transportation systems, on people . . . you get the idea.
But we wouldn’t turn down cookies.
About This Book
If Firefox is your time machine, Firefox For Dummies is your H.G. Wells. The goal of this book is not just to show you Firefox itself, but to help you have a more enjoyable and productive online experience with Firefox. Remember your high school science fair? We’re not here to blow up celery. We’re here to blow up celery to test the effects of explosives on vegetables. It’s a very strong practical focus, and one I strive to maintain throughout the book.
Along the way, I offer a behind-the-scenes look at Firefox development through sidebars that don’t distract from the main content. Some of these sidebars offer insight into why we made certain product designs. Others are lighthearted anecdotes of the growing pains that occurred as Firefox evolved from a tiny hobbyist project to an international success. (Note: This book is written for Firefox 1.5.)
One great thing about developer-authors is that if anything goes wrong with your Firefox experience, whether the error lies in this book or in the software, it’s my fault. You don’t have to spend any time figuring out who deserves an earful. It’s me, all me. See? Firefox is making your life easier already!
How This Book Is Organized
Like most For Dummies books, this book is organized into parts, which are divided into chapters.
When we began work on Firefox, we identified four key issues to focus on:
Painless transition from other browsers
A simplified browsing experience
Online security and privacy
Personal customization
Likewise, the first four parts of this book focus on those areas, and the fifth part encompasses additional reference material and little-known tips and tricks.
Part I: Getting Fired Up
This part introduces you to the fundamental concepts of the World Wide Web, explains Firefox’s role in the system, and helps you begin using it. If you currently use another Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Apple Safari, this part can also help you make a smooth transition to Firefox by explaining terminology differences and showing you how to import your information, such as browsing history and bookmarks.
Part II: Ready, Aim, Firefox
After you’ve gotten your feet wet, this part helps you dive into the core activities you’ll do online everyday — finding and downloading information, bookmarking and revisiting your favorite sites, and printing. This is also your first glimpse of Firefox’s innovative tabbed browsing system, which will forever change the way you surf the Web.
Part III: Outfoxing Hackers
This part explains some basic principles of online safety, outlines how Firefox protects you, and suggests additional steps you can take to protect yourself. It also offers a comprehensive look at the kinds of information Firefox records during your online travels — such as saved passwords and Web site history — and shows you how to clear this information.
Part IV: Dressing Up the Fox
This is the really fun part — the one that shows you how to customize your online experience, both how it looks (with themes) and how it feels (with preferences). If you want your browser to have a particular theme, this is the chapter to visit. As if that weren’t enough, this part also introduces you to Firefox’s powerful extensions system, which allows you to extend Firefox beyond its typical capabilities by installing tiny plug-ins with one click.
Part V: The Part of Tens
The usual cap on most For Dummies books, this part offers the poor geek’s version of David Letterman’s top ten lists, including the top ten ways Firefox makes your life easier and the ten things you don’t know about Firefox but should.
Icons Used in This Book
Tips are helpful Firefox shortcuts that you might not discover on your own. You don’t have to follow any tips to get the job done, but they’ll often save you time.
These icons point out the kind of nuts-and-bolts information that make the geek in me smile, but might be of little interest to you. However, feel free to check them out if your inner geek wants some extra information.
Warnings are in place to prevent you from losing data, revealing your passwords to nosy onlookers, or otherwise doing something most people would consider undesirable and unintended. You should always read and make sure you understand warnings before continuing.
File these rare tidbits of information away in your brain for later reference. They’re sure to come in handy.
Conventions
Most of this book is written in the English language, which appears to be just fine with you. However, I discuss keyboard shortcuts so frequently that it helps to refer to them in shorthand. As the name suggests, a keyboard shortcut is a quick way to access a program command from the keyboard, and you execute them by pressing two or three keys simultaneously — special keys, such as Control (Ctrl), and a letter, such as C. (This is a common shortcut to copy text.) Rather than spelling out shortcuts each time, I abbreviate them as key+letter (for example, Ctrl+C).
When I suggest or mention keywords that can be entered on-screen as search terms, I put them in italic. When you have to choose commands from menus, I write File⇒Exit when you should choose the Exit command from the File menu.
Feedback
Firefox — and, by extension, this book — exists because hundreds of people just like you asked for a better Internet experience. Your feedback motivates us to keep working toward that goal. I encourage you to send comments, suggestions, or rants about this book or Firefox itself to me at: [email protected]. I read and respond to all mail.
Part I
Getting Fired Up
In this part . . .
Adapting to new software can be painful, but Firefox makes it easy to transition away from your current browser. The developers of Firefox have purposely mimicked certain design elements and keyboard shortcuts of Internet Explorer and other browsers, and Firefox can import your settings, bookmarks, browsing history, and saved passwords.
This part opens with a brief overview of why Firefox is worth switching to and then walks you through the brief transition process. The chapters in this part help you on your way to a better browsing experience.
Chapter 1
Why You Should Fire Your Old Browser
In This Chapter
Discovering what a browser is
Finding out why you should switch to Firefox
Looking at a little bit of history
There’s just one Internet, but there isn’t one Internet experience. How safely, easily, and quickly you browse the Web is a function of the browser you’re using. Firefox is the only one designed to meet the demands of a wired world, so if you’re not using it, you’re stuck in rush hour traffic — while 100 million others whiz by you in the carpool lane. But before I tell you why to change lanes, I tell you what a browser is.
What Is a Browser, Anyway?
Many people confuse a Web browser with a search engine, such as Google. It’s a reasonable mistake because most daily browsing begins with a search. However, whereas a search engine finds Web sites, a browser displays them. Think of the browser as your window to the Web. It doesn’t have specific knowledge about the scenery (like a search engine), but you need to look through it to see what’s out there.
In addition to displaying Web sites, the browser provides tools to help you navigate among them. I talk about basic commands like Back and Forward in Chapter 2, but most browsers also include features like Bookmarks, which help you keep track of your favorite pages. Successful browsers hide the complex underpinnings of the Web and make surfing safe, pleasurable, and easy. Check out Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1: Firefox includes just the features you need, making the Web the center of attention.
Why Use Firefox?
On the day the other developers and I started work on Firefox, before we had any users, and back when a firefox was just a red panda (it’s true!), we wrote down our goals in a one-page “vision” document. It began:
“Why Create Firefox? We want to have fun and build an excellent, user-friendly browser without all the constraints (features, compatibility, marketing, month long discussions, etc.) that afflict the current browser development.”
The document went on to outline the requirements Firefox had to meet, as I discuss in the following sections.
Giving birth to a Firefox (or, how I spent my high school years)
For a browser so focused on delivering sim- plicity, Firefox boasts an absurdly complicated past that dates back to the beginning of the mainstream Web itself. The story begins with a little company called Netscape, which made the first consumer-oriented, visual Web browser. Netscape almost single-handedly sparked the online revolution, and from 1995 through 1997, it dominated the browser industry. As the millennium drew to a close, however, Netscape faced increasingly fierce competition from Microsoft, which undercut Netscape by making its browser free. With billions in the bank, Microsoft could afford to throw thousands of engineers at its fledgling — Internet Explorer — and lose money for years.
Two milestones radically — but, in hindsight, futilely — changed Netscape’s direction around this time. First, the online service juggernaut America Online (AOL) purchased Netscape for $4.2 billion. Second, Netscape tried to level the playing field against Microsoft by making the historic decision to release its browser code through a development model called open source. Most software companies jealously guard their source code because any competitor who obtains it can easily copy the product. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. Netscape was banking on a global community of volunteer developers to emerge and help build its next-generation browser. Volunteers, in turn, would get a chance to influence and develop an Internet browser still used by millions. Leveraging free talent was Netscape’s only shot against the world’s richest software company.
Although it ultimately failed to keep the company afloat in the browser wars, Netscape’s decision to open source the code lead to a vibrant community of volunteers known as Mozilla that persevered long after Netscape bowed out. Self-governing, passionate about the Web, and funded largely on donations, the Mozilla community quickly garnered respect in the development community. The great thing about open source is that anyone can join, regardless of experience, age or other constraints typically imposed on candidates in the professional world. I joined the community during high school at age 14, and soon afterward, my efforts landed me a series of internships at (rapidly sinking) Netscape.
Working in the Mozilla community and later interning at Netscape were wonderful experiences, and I probably couldn’t have asked for a better job. However, there was an itch that couldn’t be scratched in either role: the obsessive desire to create a simple, lightweight browser that didn’t encumber non-technical people with meaningless jargon and endless options. It was difficult to achieve this in Mozilla because the volunteer developers were more interested in creating a browser that catered to themselves (with all of the associated power-user features). It was also difficult to achieve this at Netscape because the company — now hanging on by a thread — resorted to monetizing its flagship browser at the cost of a simple user experience. Meanwhile, having won the browser wars, Microsoft all but abandoned the browser market entirely. Intrigued by such a wide-open opportunity, I found a small group of others within Mozilla and Netscape who shared my itch, and in 2002, we scratched it. Firefox was born.
Firefox solves your Internet headaches
It’s little wonder that computers are so difficult to use: The developers who make them have a much higher tolerance for pain. Something that’s “hard” for an average user is easy for them, and when the user is screaming “I swear I’ll throw this computer out the window!” the developer is just getting warmed up.
We’ve found two problems with the way most software is developed:
Some developers intentionally design products for themselves. This results in products that are made by geeks and intended for fellow geeks. The average user then has no idea how to use the product.
Some developers just can’t help designing products for themselves. They intend to make a product for the user, but they can’t help tweaking it into a confusing behemoth of a program.
We solved the first problem by declaring our intent in the Firefox manifesto: “The interface will not be geeky nor will it have a hacker-focus. The idea is to design the best Web browser for most people.” Solving the second, however, requires an understanding of how non-developers look at and use software, and that isn’t easy to come by.
Enter my mother. I started working on Firefox toward the end of high school, after many years of jogging down the hall to help her with computer problems. That hall bridged the generation gap and opened my eyes to how “normal” people use and understand computers.
Every Firefox developer has a story like that. Some observe their friends and family struggling; others sit down with strangers in book stores and coffee shops. We want to understand what’s wrong with your Web experience and how we can fix it. In the following sections, I discuss the main complaints we’ve gathered.
“I can’t stand all the clutter.”
Buttons. Menus. Windows. Popups. Technology is supposed to help people, so why does it always stand in your way? We want Firefox to be practically invisible, so if we’ve done our job properly, you shouldn’t notice it. Popup ads and other nuisances are blocked silently and automatically, and only the features you need are included.
One of those features is called tabbed browsing, and it will change the way you surf the Web. Tabbed browsing is the kind of thing that’s hard to explain but easy to fall in love with. (Figure 1-2 shows you tabs, and Chapter 7 tells you more about them.) When you work with tabs, you enjoy multiple Web pages in the same window, just a click away from each other! No more littered taskbar!
A Firefox by any other name
In an industry built on Windows, it’s hardly surprising that the question I’m asked most often concerns Firefox’s unusually eye-catching name. In fact, Firefox has gone by three names throughout its short lifetime.
When we started work on the Firefox project in 2002, we called it Phoenix after the mythical bird that is reborn from its own ashes. This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that the product was being reborn out of the ashes of Netscape, the very first Web browser. Because Firefox is based on much of the same underlying code as Netscape, this was an apt metaphor. It was also a playful jab at a company that, we felt, had stopped adequately serving its customers, and desperately needed to be reborn.
Unfortunately, we were a very small — and very broke — team in those days, and we didn’t have the money or the wherewithal to do any sort of legal inquiry into the name. As Phoenix grew more popular, we were contacted by a company who claimed ownership of the trademark. To avoid legal problems, we changed the name to Firebird, a synonym for Phoenix that evokes the same imagery. Of course, we still didn’t have any money, and we just wanted to get back to work on the browser. So we didn’t bother inquiring about this name, either.
We soon learned that a database project was already using the name Firebird, and the encroachment was even worse this time, because the project was open source and community-developed — just like Firefox. Oops. Because Firebird had grown fairly popular by this point, we wanted to keep the Fire moniker for continued name recognition, and spent about three months just bouncing ideas off each other:
Fireblast?
Fireworks?
Firefox?
Firesoup?
Bingo! Firesoup it was. No, just kidding. We did, of course, pick Firefox, and this time we made sure we had rights to the name. Contrary to popular belief, a Firefox is actually not a fox — it’s a Chinese red panda, as shown in the figure.
Of course, our community wasn’t going to let us off the hook so easily — especially after we poked fun at Netscape with our first two names. Soon after this final name change, a volunteer created an extension called Firesomething that randomly assigns a new name to Firefox each time you start — like Firecat or, yes, even Fireblake. What goes around comes around.
Figure 1-2: Firefox pioneers a new, clutter-free method of surfing called tabbed browsing. It’s a favorite among users.
“I can never find what I’m looking for.”
And who can blame you? There are over 12 billion pages on the Web. The Search Box in the upper-right corner gives you direct access to a handful of top search engines from wherever you are (see Figure 1-3) and allows you to add engines to that list (see Chapter 4). When you find a relevant page, use the Find Bar to drill down even further (see Figure 1-4). Chapter 4 outlines how Firefox helps you find what you’re looking for.
Figure 1-3: Search for anything from anywhere by using the Search Box in the corner of Firefox.
Figure 1-4: Firefox’s revolutionary Find Bar automatically finds text on a page as you type.
“The Internet is a scary place.”
Every day, the media warns you about rampant identity theft, yet the world’s most-used browser — Internet Explorer — has the worst security track record of any product. Firefox was built with your security in mind and forbids the technologies that make Internet Explorer so exploitable. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the globe test for problems before Firefox reaches your computer.
Firefox also gives you complete control over the information it stores while you’re surfing, such as browsing history and saved passwords. You can choose how long Firefox remembers this information, and you can clear it all at once with a simple keystroke: Ctrl+Shift+Delete in Windows (see Figure 1-5; see Chapter 14).
Figure 1-5: Firefox’s Clear Private Data feature lets you clear all your browsing records with a keystroke.
“The Internet is slow.”
Over the past five years, a plague called spyware has infected computers worldwide. Spyware is a kind of software that creeps onto your machine and watches what you’re doing so it can display supposedly relevant advertisements. It isn’t just a distraction; it’s an invasion of your privacy, and it slows your computer to a crawl. Research indicates that much of the spyware on computers today comes through Internet Explorer. Firefox helps you avoid these annoying pests. When you cut down the spyware on your computer, your Internet connection speeds up.
“Computers are stubborn.”
Sometimes it seems like you have to obey software and not the other way round. Firefox knows who’s boss: You are. Build your dream browser through glamorous themes (see Figure 1-6; check out Chapter 17 for more info) and powerful extensions that reshape, redesign, and enrich Firefox (see Figure 1-7 and Chapters 20 and 22). You can also customize your toolbars to your heart’s content, as I explain in Chapter 18.
Figure 1-6: Who said software had to be ugly? Choose from hundreds of Firefox themes.
Figure 1-7: Extensions add new features, such as weather information, to Firefox.
“I can’t find the files I downloaded.”
It’s amazing that you can retrieve files from all over the world, but if you can’t find them on our own computers after you download them, you have a problem. Firefox integrates a Download Manager that offers one-click access to your downloaded files (see Figure 1-8; see Chapter 11).
Figure 1-8: The Download Manager makes it easy to keep an eye on your downloads and open them when they finish.
“Staying up-to-date is stressful.”
As wonderful as the Internet is, it can be overwhelming. Some people track so many sources of information that it’s impossible to keep up. Firefox brings the news to you through a feature called Live Bookmarks — bookmarks that can update themselves. Whether you want to stay on top of the headlines, the weather, or your sister’s blog, Firefox keeps you connected automatically. Figure 1-9, for example, shows the latest batch of headlines from BBC News. Firefox creates and updates this list automatically. (See Chapter 5 for more about bookmarks and live bookmarks.)
Figure 1-9: Firefox can update your bookmarks automat- ically, so stay where you are: The info comes to you.
Firefox is developed by people who care
The greeting card writers are calling me now, but I don’t know how else to say it: Firefox developers care. You’ve heard this sales pitch from companies before, but there are two differences here: We aren’t selling anything, and we aren’t a traditional company.
Firefox is a free product that is guided by a non-profit organization. Unlike most other software projects, Firefox is developed by a global network of volunteers through a development model called open source. This model ensures that the project remains open and guided by its principles, not by the ambitions of any one individual or corporation. There are no riches to be had and no stocks to be sold; Firefox developers are here because they want to create a better browser.
If you aren’t using Firefox, you’re probably using Microsoft Internet Explorer. And like most other people I’ve talked to, you probably aren’t thrilled with the experience. Maybe it’s the incessant popup ads or the weekly security updates. Maybe your computer moves more slowly than your teenage son on Monday morning. Maybe you can’t pinpoint the problem; the browser just feels inadequate.
Firefox solves these problems, but I don’t waste pages in this book giving you a feature-by-feature comparison. Feature charts are for marketing departments (yawn), which we Firefox developers don’t have to worry about (woo!). Instead, I talk about motivations. I look at what drives the people behind these products.
Internet Explorer is developed by a company that exists, first and foremost, to make money for its shareholders. This is not an attack; it’s just the reality of a public company. Using Internet Explorer wasn’t always so painful. But after it became mainstream over four years ago, Microsoft stopped developing it. After all, why upgrade a free product? Since then, sleazy salespeople have come up with a horde of new tricks to bother you online, but Microsoft has had no financial reason to combat them. Internet Explorer has thus become outdated and inadequate.
Firefox began as a hobby, not a corporate expenditure. I started it with Dave Hyatt, a co-worker of mine at Netscape, another browser company, when Netscape stopped seeing users and started seeing dollar signs. We aren’t driven by revenues or competition. Our users are our only shareholders, and they are the ones we need to satisfy.
You have nothing to lose
It takes just a couple minutes to start using a browser that could save you hundreds of hours and dozens of gray hairs. Your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history, and other information are transferred automatically from your old browser to Firefox. And it’s free. Why not?
Chapter 2
Finding Your Way Around Firefox
In This Chapter
Discovering basic Web concepts
Getting comfortable with the Firefox interface
New software is overwhelming, and not just for the person using it. When my mother tries a new program, I don’t get to sleep for weeks. Although the other Firefox developers and I have tried to make Firefox self-explanatory, any change involves a learning curve. This chapter explains the basics of the Web and the Web browser, and then shows how they apply in a Firefox world. Most importantly, it walks you through the buttons and toolbars you will use in your day-to-day surfing.
Wandering the Web
The Web began as an arcane communications tool for scientists and government officials, but today a half-billion people have usurped it for everything from shopping to photo swapping. I won’t bore you with a longwinded description of what the Internet is and how it came to be, but I do want to share some of the fundamental concepts that I explore throughout this book.
The Web is a global network of billions of pages. In the real world, this would be an organizational nightmare. Can you imagine the filing cabinets? But the Web offers a radical solution: There is no solution. Rather than being neatly categorized and indexed, the Web is literally one giant mess. Pages come and go at random, and no central authority keeps tabs on them.
If this is a weakness of the Web, it’s also its greatest strength. Because there’s no Web authority, nobody censors, controls, or monopolizes content. Anyone with an Internet connection can broadcast his or her message around the world.
Looking for links
The glue that holds the Web together is the link, a clickable target on a page that takes you to a new page or elsewhere within the same page. In the early days of the Web, most links were underlined blue text, but today almost anything can be a link — even pictures. Perhaps the best part about links is that they don’t discriminate; they can bridge a sports page to a pasta recipe or connect a news site to your family photos. A typical Web site (such as www.onlinecomics.net) might contain dozens of links to other pages, as shown in Figure 2-1.
Increasing your search engine savvy
In a medium as chaotic as the Web, where do you begin? Let a search engine be your guide. Search engines are tools that try to make sense of the Web’s information. The most popular ones, such as Google (www.google.com) and Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), can reveal thousands of useful pages on any topic in under a second, as shown in Figure 2-2. Many people confuse search engines and browsers, but the two are quite different; see the section “A Browser Is Not a Search Engine,” later in this chapter.
Figure 2-1: The Online- Comics site contains links to comics from dozens of genres, including Political and Supernat- ural. (Are those really different?)
Figure 2-2: The most popular search engine, Google, can find thousands of useful pages on any topic imaginable.
Feeling at home with Web addresses
Just as each home in your city has a unique address, each page on the Internet has an address that people can use to access it. Fortunately, Internet addresses don’t require directions. (“Turn right, then left, continue on for 4 million pages. . . .”) Unfortunately, Internet addresses are absurdly complicated and serve as daily reminders that the Internet wasn’t originally designed for normal folk. Even the simplest ones look like gibberish:
http://www.dog.com/
The .com suffix here means that the Web site at this address belongs to a commercial entity (indeed, this is a dog supplies outfit). Other suffixes include .org for organizations and .net for Internet providers.
In general, understanding the meaning of Web addresses isn’t important. As long as you know where to type them, you can get where you want to be.
The home page is where the heart is
When it comes to browsing, the home page is a Web site that loads automatically when you start your browser and serves as your browsing launch pad. Many companies aggregate news, sports scores, and other information onto a single portal page. As an example, Figure 2-3 shows the My Yahoo! page, at http://my.yahoo.com. Some people set portals as their home pages, and others prefer to start their browsing with a search engine. By default, Firefox caters to the second group by offering a Google home page, but it’s easy to change (see Chapter 16).
Figure 2-3: My Yahoo! combines many types of informa- tion onto a single page that you can set as your home page.
The Back, Forward, Reload, and Stop commands
Before you go onto the Web, you should understand four basic browsing commands. These commands have been around since the dawn of the Internet:
Back returns you to the last Web site you visited. If you go to the CNN Web site, click the Sports link, and then click Back, you’re back at the CNN front page. Now you can click Forward to return to the Sports page.
Reload fetches the newest version of the Web site you’re currently viewing. For example, you might want to leave the CNN Web site open and reload it occasionally to see the latest headlines.
Web sites take a little bit of time to load, but you can Stop loading them at any time.
A Browser Is Not a Search Engine
It’s a reasonable mistake to confuse your browser with a search engine because most daily browsing begins with a search. However, whereas a search engine finds Web sites, a browser displays them. Think of the browser as your window to the Web. It doesn’t have specific knowledge about the scenery (like a search engine), but you need to look through it to see what’s out there.
In addition to displaying Web sites, the browser provides tools to help you navigate among them. Most browsers include many features, like the Bookmarks feature, which helps you keep track of your favorite pages. Successful browsers hide the complex underpinnings of the Web and make surfing pleasurable and easy.
Using the Firefox Interface
Before diving into specific areas of Firefox, I walk through the main interface (see Figure 2-4) you’ll use each day, identifying features by the names I use throughout the book.
Figure 2-4: This is the main Firefox window you use while surfing.
The Content area
When you first launch Firefox, you see the Firefox Start page shown in Figure 2-4. This page offers fast access to Google searches for news, images or general content, and the reason you’re seeing it now is because it’s the default home page. Take note of the box that holds the home page. This is called the Content area, and all of the Web sites you visit will load here.
The toolbars
Three toolbars sit above the Content area. The first is the standard Menu Bar, which you’re probably familiar with from other programs. The Menu Bar, shown in Figure 2-4, offers access to virtually everything you can do in Firefox, and I discuss each command in depth in Appendix A.
Below the Menu Bar is the Navigation Toolbar, also known as the primary toolbar. By default, the Navigation Toolbar, shown in Figure 2-4, offers only those commands you’ll need while browsing, such as Back and Forward. It also includes the Location Bar, where you can type in the address of a page you want to load. You can use the Search Box at the far right to search popular sites such as Google, Amazon, and eBay from anywhere on the Web.
The Bookmarks Toolbar, shown in Figure 2-4, provides a place to house your most frequently used bookmarks. By default, Firefox includes two bookmarks on this toolbar: Getting Started (a Firefox help page) and Latest Headlines (an automatically updated list of news stories). Chapter 5 shows you how to delete these items and add your own.
The Status Bar
Firefox also includes a Status Bar that sits at the very bottom of the window. The Status Bar, shown in Figure 2-4, displays information about the page you’re currently viewing. For example, as a Web site loads, the Status Bar displays progress information via a progress meter. When you move the mouse pointer over a link on a Web site, the Status Bar displays the address of the linked page. The Status Bar also displays information about the security of a Web site, as I discuss in Chapter 15.
Sidebars
Firefox displays certain types of content in sidebars that open on the left side of the screen. A sidebar doesn’t replace the Web site you’re viewing; it just shoves it over to make room, as shown in Figure 2-5. This location makes it an ideal access point for things you might need while surfing. For example, Chapter 6 demonstrates displaying browsing history in a sidebar (shown in Figure 2-5) so you can keep track of where you are and return to old sites quickly. You can also display your bookmarks list and even arbitrary Web sites in sidebars, as I discuss in Chapter 5, and as shown in Figure 2-6.
Figure 2-5: The History Sidebar displays your history list so you can keep track of where you are and revisit sites.
Figure 2-6: The Bookmarks Sidebar allows you to access and search your favorite sites quickly.
The Find Bar
The Find Bar (see Figure 2-7) is a thin toolbar that appears above the Status Bar when you need to find text in a page. It replaces the Find window that most other applications use, and we think it’s a much faster and less intrusive way to search. Chapter 4 discusses the Find Bar in depth.
Figure 2-7: The Find Bar opens at the bottom of the window, so it never gets in the way of your searching.
Chapter 3
Setting Up Firefox
In This Chapter
Acquiring Firefox from the Web or a CD
Installing Firefox with the Setup Wizard
Using the Import Wizard
Installing Firefox is as easy as using it. After you install Firefox, the handy Import Wizard allows you to import your settings and bookmarks from other browsers — like switching flights but having your luggage transferred automatically. Whether you use Windows or Macintosh, this chapter tells you everything you need to know to get started.
System Requirements
You should check to make sure that your computer is powerful enough to handle Firefox before installing it. If you bought your computer in the past three or four years, it should be fine.
To install Firefox on Windows, we recommend using Windows XP, although other flavors of Windows (such as Windows ME or Windows 2000) are supported as well. Your computer should also have at least a 500 MHz processor and 128MB of RAM.
To install Firefox on the Macintosh, we recommend using OS X 10.1 or later. For best performance, your computer should also have at least a 667 MHz PowerPC G4 processor with 256MB of RAM and 72MB of free hard drive space.
Getting Firefox
Firefox is available both on CD from the Mozilla Store and as a free download from the Firefox Web site.
Downloading Firefox
If you already have an Internet connection, the best way to get Firefox is by downloading it for free from our Web site. It’s a small file, so it should only take a few minutes to download — even on the slowest of Internet connections. To download the setup file:
1.Navigate to the Firefox Web site (www.getfirefox.com).
2.Click the Free Download link and save the Firefox Setup file to your computer’s Desktop.
3.When the download finishes, double-click the Firefox Setup file on your Desktop.
For Windows
If you are using Windows, the Setup Wizard appears and walks you through the installation process, as shown in Figure 3-1. For detailed instructions, see “Installing Firefox with the Setup Wizard,” later in this chapter.
For the Mac
If you are using a Macintosh, a folder containing a Firefox icon appears, as shown in Figure 3-2. Simply drag the icon onto your desktop, then double-click it to launch Firefox.
Figure 3-1: The Firefox Setup Wizard in Windows.
Figure 3-2: The Firefox disk image on a Macintosh.
Using a Firefox CD
If you don’t yet have an Internet connection, or if you want to install Firefox on your friends’ computers (remember, it’s free and open source!), you can order Firefox on CD for just a few bucks from the online Mozilla Store. Orders must be placed via the store’s Web site, so if your Internet connection isn’t working yet, you can use a friend’s computer.
1.Navigate to the Mozilla Store Web site (www.store.mozilla.org).
2.Click Software & Guides in the left sidebar.
3.Add the Firefox CD to your cart.
4.When you finish shopping, click Check Out. If this is your first time using the Mozilla Store, you will need to create an account. The Store Web site walks you through this painless process.
5.When the CD arrives in the mail, put it in your computer’s CD tray.
For Windows
If you are using Windows, the Setup Wizard appears and walks you through the installation process, as shown earlier in Figure 3-1. For detailed instructions, see “Installing Firefox with the Setup Wizard.”
If you’re using Windows and the Setup Wizard does not appear automatically, you can open it manually. Double-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop, double-click your CD drive, and double-click the Firefox Setup file.
For the Mac
If you’re using a Macintosh, a folder containing a Firefox icon appears, as shown in Figure 3-2. Simply drag the icon onto your desktop, then double-click the icon to launch Firefox.
Installing Firefox with the Setup Wizard
On Windows, the Firefox Setup Wizard walks you through the installation process. (The procedure on a Macintosh is a simple drag-and-drop operation as described in the previous section.)
1.The first screen of the Setup Wizard welcomes you to Firefox. Click Next to continue to the End-User Software License Agreement.
2.Select “I Accept the Terms of the License Agreement” and click Next.
You’ll probably just skip past End-User Software License Agreement without reading the actual text, but it’s worth a read if you enjoy the fine language of legalese. The Software License Agreement tells you, among other things, that you can use Firefox free of charge, but if something goes wrong, the Mozilla Foundation isn’t legally liable. Of course, in that unlikely situation, we’re here to help.
3.The Setup Type screen appears, allowing you to select either a Standard or Custom setup. If you have no preference where Firefox installs and don’t need advanced tools, just accept the Standard option and click Next.
The Custom option allows you to choose:
• Where Firefox gets installed on your computer. For example, maybe you have several hard drives and you don’t want Firefox setting up shop on the C drive.
• Whether Firefox installs advanced tools, like the Document Inspector for analyzing Web site code. These tools are for advanced users.
• Where Firefox should put its flashy, foxy icons. This option is available in case you don’t like clutter on your Desktop or in your Start menu.
The Summary screen confirms what you’ve decided to install and where it will be installed.
4.Click Next to begin installation.
The Install Complete screen appears when Firefox is installed.
5.Click Finish to launch Firefox.
By default, the Firefox Home Page is Firefox Start, which offers fast access to Google Search. If you’ve installed Firefox before and would rather keep your old home page, deselect the Use Firefox Start as My Home Page check box.
Importing Your Information
When you first launch Firefox, the Import Wizard appears and walks you through the migration process. You can also access the wizard at any time by choosing File⇒Import.
Firefox supports importing information from any of the following browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Netscape
Opera
Apple Safari
OmniWeb
Camino
And, of course, earlier versions of Firefox
The import process is short and sweet, and when you’re finished, Firefox looks and acts like your previous browser. Where possible, importing adds to your Firefox information rather than replacing it. For example, if you used Firefox for a week before deciding to import, the bookmarks or passwords you saved during that time won’t be lost, as you see in the following steps:
1.Open the Import Wizard by choosing File⇒Import.
2.Select the browser to import from, and then click Next.
The first screen of the wizard lists the browsers currently installed on your computer, as shown in Figure 3-3. If you aren’t ready to import, click Cancel.
Figure 3-3: The Import Wizard auto- matically finds and displays the browsers installed on your computer.
3.Select the information to import, and then click Next.
Several options are available, as shown in Figure 3-4. The available options depend on the browser from which you are importing.
• Internet Options: Transfer your former browser’s settings to Firefox. Firefox can only transfer the settings it supports.
• Cookies: Transfer the cookies that are used in the other browser. A cookie is a piece of information that a Web site stores on your computer, such as your preferences for that site. Cookies make it easier for a site to remember you if you have visited it before.
• Browsing History: Transfer the history of Web pages you’ve visited. Transferring your history allows you to revisit the sites you visited with your former browser.
• Saved Form History: Transfer the form information collected by your former browser’s form-filling mechanism. This way, you can get access to form information, such as Internet searches, that is saved in your other browser.
• Saved Passwords: Transfer passwords your former browser saved when you logged in to Web sites.
• Favorites/Bookmarks: Transfer your list of bookmarks (also called Favorites).
By default, Firefox imports everything it can, but you can deselect any type.
If you choose to import settings, Firefox will be configured as much like your former browser as possible. Naturally, Firefox can’t support every setting available in another browser, but it inherits the ones it can.
Figure 3-4: Firefox can practically replicate your previous browser by importing everything from bookmarks to saved passwords.
When you click Next, the import process begins. It should take less than a minute.
4.The final screen (see Figure 3-5) shows you the information that Firefox has imported. Congratulations! Click Finish to start using Firefox.
You can make Firefox look even more like your old one by customizing the Firefox toolbars to match the other browser’s toolbars, as I discuss in Chapter 18.
Figure 3-5: It normally takes less than a minute to import your data. When you see this screen, you’re ready to use Firefox.
Switching from Internet Explorer
The Windows version of Firefox is designed for an easy transition from Internet Explorer. It supports nearly all of the Internet Explorer 6.0 keyboard shortcuts and offers similar toolbars, menus, and colors.
Keyboard shortcut differences
There are just two minor keyboard shortcut differences to be aware of if you’re switching from Internet Explorer, as you see in Table 3-1.
Terminology differences
A rose by any other name might work for Shakespeare, but computers are less forgiving. Table 3-2 describes some of the differences in terminology between Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Feature differences
Firefox does not support these Internet Explorer features:
Content Advisor
Privacy Report
Synchronize
Web Content Zones
Switching from Apple Safari
Just as the Windows version of Firefox is tailored to former Internet Explorer users, the Macintosh version is designed for Safari fans.
Keyboard shortcut differences
The Macintosh version of Firefox sticks to Safari’s keyboard shortcuts as faithfully as possible, but there are a few differences to be aware of, as shown in Table 3-3.
