Using Mozilla Firefox
The Firefox web browser has been downloaded over 50 million times in the past six months, according to The Mozilla Organization. This follow-on to the Mozilla Suite browser (itself a follow-on to Netscape Navigator) has proven itself extremely popular as an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Here are some tips to get the most out of Firefox.
Tabbed Browsing
One of the main features, tabbed browsing lets one open new pages, sites, and windows within the same Firefox window. This prevents the multitude of browser window icons from taking up space in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and makes switching between pages easier. Right click or CTRL+click to open a link in a new window. If the tab bar is visible one can also drag a link onto a tab or an empty space on the bar. All open tabs can be bookmarked together in a folder, and can all be opened at once into separate tabs.
Shrink-To-Fit Printing
Ever print a web page that had its right side cut off? By default Firefox shinks the width of a printed page to avoid this. Use Print Preview to manually set a width.
Extensions
Mozilla sponsors hundreds of free extensions to Firefox, which you can find via the Tools/ Extensions dialog. Extensions are even rated by users. Examples include the excellent "Tabbrowser Preferences" and "Web Developer" extensions as well as RSS readers (see accompanying article).
Updates
Firefox will check for updates to itself and display a red up-arrow in its menu bar when an update is available (1.0.4 is the current version as of this writing). Firefox will also check for updates to your installed extensions automatically if that option is checked in Tools/Options/Advanced.
Download Firefox
Firefox can be downloaded via ITS StartCenter.
May 2005
Send this article to a friend!
Subscribe to The ITS Connection
Related articles