Firefox Rocks…Tweak it and Like it!

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Other Browsers…

If Firefox is your web browser or choice (and we think it’s *way* better and safer than Internet Explorer), you may (or may not) already know that one of Firefox’s strengths is the huge number of downloadable add-ons that you can use to customize it’s appearance and user experience. While there are way too many add-ons to list, here are a few Firefox features that you might find very useful!

One tweak that that can make your web browsing experience more enjoyable is to customize the default email setting. Firefox uses your OS email program by default, so this means that if you have a Windows the default setting is Outlook while Mac users are defaulted to Mail. Given the prevalence of other email programs (Gmail instantly comes to mind) it’s probable that you want some other email program to be the default in Firefox.

If you want to change the settings so that whenever you click on “Send Link” or the “mailto:” link your preferred email program instantly works, this is the way to do it:

1.) At the top of the browser, click on “Tools”.

2.) Next, click on “Options” from the drop-down menu.

3.) A box will pop up, and one of the options is titled “Applications”. Click on that.

4.) A list is going to appear – scroll down until you see “mailto”

5.) Next to the words “mailto” you’ll see a mini-drop down menu with choices of another email service. I chose Gmail because that’s what I use, but you can choose or enter whatever service you want.

6.) When you are done, click “OK” to confirm the changes.

Easy, isn’t it!

Firefox also has a TON of shortcut keys. These are few basic ones to get you started:

1.) Control + Page Up/Down = moves to the previous or next tab.

2.) Control + Shift + T = opens the last tab you closed.

3.) Control + Shift + N = opens the last window you closed.

4.) Control + Shift + Delete = clears your recent history.

5.) Control + U = check out the page source.

But that’s not all. You can check out more shortcut keys here!

You can also go here for even more add-ons…you’ll find great add-ons regardless of how you use Firefox, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Sometimes you have to edit Firefox manually and not through it’s simple interface. Don’t be put off by the thought of having to manually tweak Firefox – it’s not that hard, and you can click here to read how to manually make simple changes that have BIG results. I would explain them, but there are PAGES of potential changes you can make, so peruse around and tweak the settings that best suit your needs. Enjoy!