Author Topic: Firefox 2 hints and tips (Read 41185 times)

Carol Haynes · « **on:** October 25, 2006, 06:01 AM »

Thought it might be nice to get people to post hints and tips about using Firefox 2 ...

Here is one I discovered that is a new feature ...

Ever closed a TAB only to realise you wish you hadn't? Try Ctrl + Shift + T and you can step back through closed tabs and they will be reopened in new tabs. Really useful.

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #1 on:** October 25, 2006, 12:17 PM »

Ever closed a TAB only to realise you wish you hadn't? Try Ctrl + Shift + T and you can step back through closed tabs and they will be reopened in new tabs. Really useful.
-Carol Haynes (October 25, 2006, 06:01 AM)

realise = real eyes realize real lies.

WOW!
i heard all about the spell-checker that's built in, and when i quoted you, it did that little underline thing to show it's misspelled. thats awesome!

and thanks for the Ctrl + shift + T tip, i found that by pressing that combo several times, it opens ALL OTHER previously closed tabs as well, not just the past last one.
it even does it in the original tab location!

sweeeeeeet.

JavaJones · « **Reply #2 on:** October 25, 2006, 12:25 PM »

Have you ever had one of those moments where you were about to say something only to realize that doing so would make you an a-hole? Yet you really want to say it still?

- Oshyan

mrainey · « **Reply #3 on:** October 25, 2006, 04:29 PM »

About half of my extensions died when I installed 2.0, so my tip is - wait a little while before you upgrade (I had to revert to 1.5.0.7).

Eóin · « **Reply #4 on:** October 25, 2006, 04:36 PM »

realise = real eyes realize real lies.

WOW!
i heard all about the spell-checker that's built in, and when i quoted you, it did that little underline thing to show it's misspelled. thats awesome!
-jammo (October 25, 2006, 12:17 PM)

Except you forget that Carol speaks British English under which 'realise' is the correct spelling

Darwin · « **Reply #5 on:** October 25, 2006, 05:28 PM »

Yeah, reading and writing American English does tend to colour one's thinking. I hadn't realised that there were so many different perspectives on how words should be spelled. If I can ever get organised enough, perhaps I'll try to find an on-line dictionary that outlines the differences between American (and Canadian and Australian and New Zealand and South African) spellings and utilisation and British spellings and utilisation...

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #6 on:** October 25, 2006, 10:42 PM »

Hint for those who are in England or Canada or anyone who spells "colour" with a U: to download another dictionary go to https://addons.mozil...ionaries/?lang=en-US

It took me a long time to figure this out.

source: http://www.lifehacke...s-209941.php#c556200

in case your monitor shops off long URL s, here is tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/y6fz3l

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #7 on:** October 26, 2006, 03:10 AM »

Ever closed a TAB only to realise you wish you hadn't? Try Ctrl + Shift + T and you can step back through closed tabs and they will be reopened in new tabs. Really useful.
-Carol Haynes (October 25, 2006, 06:01 AM)
realise = real eyes realize real lies.

WOW!
i heard all about the spell-checker that's built in, and when i quoted you, it did that little underline thing to show it's misspelled. thats awesome!
-jammo (October 25, 2006, 12:17 PM)

Please excuse my ignorance - unfortunately I speak and spell real English

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** October 26, 2006, 03:11 AM »

About half of my extensions died when I installed 2.0, so my tip is - wait a little while before you upgrade (I had to revert to 1.5.0.7).
-mrainey (October 25, 2006, 04:29 PM)

Override version checking and you can reenable them - I didn't find any that wouldn't work (except for RoboForm and they have now released a version 2 extension).

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #9 on:** October 26, 2006, 03:14 AM »

Yeah, reading and writing American English does tend to colour one's thinking. I hadn't realised that there were so many different perspectives on how words should be spelled. If I can ever get organised enough, perhaps I'll try to find an on-line dictionary that outlines the differences between American (and Canadian and Australian and New Zealand and South African) spellings and utilisation and British spellings and utilisation...
-Darwin (October 25, 2006, 05:28 PM)

Canadians generally follow British English spellings (though they tolerate US spellings). Not sure about NZ or Oz.

Who was it that said "American and England are two countries divided by a common language" (or something like that) ?

tomos · « **Reply #10 on:** October 26, 2006, 07:22 AM »

in case your monitor shops ...
-jammo (October 25, 2006, 10:42 PM)

anyone ever read the book by Bill Bryson about English in America & how it differs from in England/Britain (& Ireland & elsewhere ...)
It's called Made in America & its a fascinating read.

Often pronunciations, meaning & usage of words in the States stem back hundreds of years -
meanwhile they changed in Britain - AND vice-versa (eg Fall was formerly used in England instead of Autumn)
It's the same in Ireland actually - sometimes Irish pronunciations can be similar to English pronunciation of a couple of hundred years ago (Tay=Tee, Faather=Father etc.)

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #11 on:** October 26, 2006, 01:40 PM »

Override version checking and you can reenable them - I didn't find any that wouldn't work (except for RoboForm and they have now released a version 2 extension).
-Carol Haynes (October 26, 2006, 03:11 AM)

where is the option to disable version checking?

i went to: Tools > Options > Advanced ???

i can find nothing on Version Checking.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** October 26, 2006, 01:45 PM »

Type about:config in the address box and press return

Scroll down to extensions.checkCompatability and double click the value (True) it should change to False. Then restart Firefox.

(Click the thumbnail if you aren't sure and look for the yellow high lights)

Firefox 2 hints and tips

AdIyhc · « **Reply #13 on:** October 26, 2006, 02:04 PM »

Do you guys know how to edit keyboard shortcut keys and rightclick menu?
With Opera, it's in a file. Does Firefox has any file that contains all these??

dk70 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 26, 2006, 03:54 PM »

Surfkeys https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2282/ and Functions for Keyconfig https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1537/ show what Keyconfig https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1537/ can do.

You can modify any menu but not so easy doing it manually so there is Menu Editor https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/710/ A few extensions might give trouble but generally it works. Full control over most menus in Firefox.

Mozillazine seems to be slow right now but search for this. Not complicated but lots of details. Here are some of my entries. Kicks rightclick stuff out.

menuitem[label="Send Image..."] {display: none !important;}
menuitem[label="Send Link..."] {display: none !important;}
menuitem[label="Bookmark This Link..."] {display: none !important;}
menuitem[label="Bookmark This Page..."] {display: none !important;}
menuitem[label="Set As Desktop Background..."] {display: none !important;}
#context-stumble-tagit { display:none !important; }
#context-stumble-search { display:none !important; }

Last 2 is for Stumbleupon extension. Anything can be modified which is good since some extensions dont have tickboxes to disable/enable. Check out www.userstyles.org for possibel useful code or perhaps Extensionsmirror http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/ Most info is available somewhere. Not all 1.5.x.x tricks works on 2.0 I think, Im not really into this but anyone can hack a little

All this stuff goes into userchrome.css but Menu Editor works directly with localstore.rdf. Gigantic shortcut compared to notepad.

Related is Custom Buttons, I have 5-6 of them - nice effects and you only need 1 extension not 5. Also being transformed to 2.0 status and extension comes as an official and alpha version. A little messy but check it out should you get hooked on modifications. Some have quite unique features, ie. all my top menu is only seen when I hover a Firefox icon. No space wasted. I have menu for starting applications, opening folders. One starts IE with current url, other buttons for Opera etc. Another do not show searchbar but only icon and drop down list of engines, uses urlbar as search and also acts as a go button for it = less pixels, no loss in functionality. All sidebars is accumlated into 1 button. Needs polishing but definitely nice once you find useful buttons, may be 50-75 or so to pick from now. http://custombuttons...d4f6a189e0015dd11fe8 You should read threads on each one, as said not all are 100% perfect due to 1.5.x.x vs. 2.0 vs. extension version mess.

Mark0 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 26, 2006, 04:07 PM »

Just one tip that interested me. Firefox 2.0 default putting the close icons on every tab. I prefer instead just one single red X icon, on the right.
Just set browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3 to have it this way.

Bye!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #16 on:** October 26, 2006, 04:34 PM »

Just one tip that interested me. Firefox 2.0 default putting the close icons on every tab. I prefer instead just one single red X icon, on the right.
Just set browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3 to have it this way.
-Mark0 (October 26, 2006, 04:07 PM)

Thanks - Brilliant!! The new X on every tab was driving me nuts!

Tekzel · « **Reply #17 on:** October 26, 2006, 07:16 PM »

Thanks - Brilliant!! The new X on every tab was driving me nuts!
-Carol Haynes (October 26, 2006, 04:34 PM)

Oh man, I hate the single close thing, I have to have an X on every tab. Thats one of the reasons I loved my second favorite extension: Tab Mix Plus.

The only FF extension I can't live without is Super Drag and Go, I hate not having it available. I run about 20 extensions but only a few do I use constantly.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #18 on:** October 27, 2006, 01:36 PM »

Another about:config variable to alter is browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

I have set this to 10 which allows me to have a lot of tabs open with Firefox resorting to a scrolling tabs bar. By default it is set to 100.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #19 on:** October 27, 2006, 04:49 PM »

Carol Haynes:
Type about:config in the address box and press return
Scroll down to extensions.checkCompatability and double click the value (True) it should change to False. Then restart Firefox.

That doesn't work for me.
I didn't have that value, so I entered it in the file. The item now appears, and toggles true/false without any problem, but FF still checks and then disables some of my favourite plug-ins.

Among others, 2.0 rejects both the latest AI Roboform and Surfulater.
Is it mandatory to uninstall 1.5.x when using the final 2.0?

Has anyone another idea?

BTW, Carol, shouldn't that be Pancakes for England?

dk70 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 27, 2006, 05:15 PM »

Make sure "type" is boolean when you make entry.

Surfulator is compatible with FF2 http://www.surfulate...#Firefox%20Extension and http://www.softasitg...howthread.php?t=1035

This Roboform extension is compatible as well https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/750/

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #21 on:** October 27, 2006, 05:45 PM »

Carol Haynes:
Type about:config in the address box and press return
Scroll down to extensions.checkCompatability and double click the value (True) it should change to False. Then restart Firefox.

That doesn't work for me.
I didn't have that value, so I entered it in the file. The item now appears, and toggles true/false without any problem, but FF still checks and then disables some of my favourite plug-ins.

Among others, 2.0 rejects both the latest AI Roboform and Surfulater.
Is it mandatory to uninstall 1.5.x when using the final 2.0?

Has anyone another idea?
-cranioscopical (October 27, 2006, 04:49 PM)

Strange? I would suggest you uninstall Firefox and delete its program folder and then reinstall 'cos it sounds like something got screwed up during the update to version 2.

The latest build of RoboForm has to be downloaded for version 2 and it installed for me without problem.

BTW, Carol, shouldn't that be Pancakes for England?

LOL

NeilS · « **Reply #22 on:** October 27, 2006, 06:09 PM »

The Roboform installer checks which version of FF you are running and installs a different version of the extension for 2.0, so if you installed Roboform before upgrading, that would explain why it says it isn't compatible. Same thing happened to me, trying to get the latest version of everything before the FF update.

Installing Roboform again should fix it.

NeilS · « **Reply #23 on:** October 27, 2006, 06:17 PM »

Ooh, I just noticed that the setting Carol mentioned was spelled extensions.checkCompatability, but it should be extensions.checkCompatibility. If you had to add it manually, maybe you've got the same misspelling in your prefs?

One way to check if it's working is to look at the Extensions Manager and you should see an info box telling you that you have compatibility checking disabled. You need to restart FF after changing the setting before this shows up though.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #24 on:** October 27, 2006, 08:34 PM »

Thanks to Carol, dk70 and NeilS for giving me some ideas to pursue.

I do have the correct version of Surfulater FF add-in, but perhaps not Roboform (I'd assumed that its latest version gathered through 1.5.7 would be the right one for 2.0).
As for compatability, I assumed that was an FF mis-spelling, so entered it verbatim with an 'a' not an 'i'. I did set it as boolean.

I'll see what I can do based on your suggestions, up to and including erasing the whole thing, in order to start over.