The Knowhow
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Managing Bookmarks
Once you've begun collecting lots of bookmarks, things can start looking a little messy. Follow the steps below to get rid of any unwanted bookmarks.
Open up Mozilla Firefox and click on the Bookmarks tab at the top of the browser window and then hover over Bookmarks Toolbar. The bookmarks will appear on a drop-down box to the right.
To delete a bookmark, right-click on it from the menu and click Delete.
To create a new folder, go to the Bookmarks menu at the top of the browser and right-click on Bookmarks Toolbar. A pop-up will appear; click on New Folder... A new window comes up, which lets you give the folder a name and description (as shown below):
Click Add and your new folder (here it's called News Items) will appear on your list of bookmarked items. To add your bookmarks to it, simply drag and drop them into the folder.
To organise your bookmarks so there in a specific order e.g. alphabetical, return to the bookmarks tab on the Firefox toolbar and select Show All Bookmarks:
A new window will come into view; select Bookmarks Menu. Now, click on the View tab and from here you can choose to organise your bookmarked items by; name, date, last visited, keyword and other useful choices.
Backup Bookmarks
It's always a good idea to keep a backup of all your useful bookmarks. To do this in Firefox, open up the browser and at the top click on Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks (see below):
A new window will open (see below); at the top of this screen select Import and Backup > Backup... On the next screen select where you would like to store the backup file and if needed, rename it. When done click Save:
Changing the home page
Open Firefox and click on the Firebox button in the top left hand corner (Tools menu for XP). From the menu, click Options. In the General tab type in your preferred opening website in the Home page text box. Note: Make sure the drop-down box above this has Show my home page selected.
Delete browsing history and cookies
The browsing history is a record your computer keeps of the websites you've visited, which is useful if you regularly return to the same webpages. The longer and more detailed your browser history gets, the more your browser - and internet connection slows down. Cookies are tiny files which are stored in a folder on your computer. These files are used to personalise your visit for next time e.g. the website will load quicker or your login details will be remembered. Once you start visiting lots of sites, these cookies will start taking up space, so it's a good idea to do a cleanup once in awhile.
Follow the steps below to delete your browsing history and/or cookies:
Open Firefox, click on the Firefox button in the top left corner and go to History (Tools In Windows XP). A menu will appear; click on the option Clear Recent History...
A new window will show; from the drop-down box, choose the time frame you want to clear your browsing history/cookies for e.g. from one hour ago, several days ago or since you first started using the browser.
Click on Details and place a tick next to each of the fields you want to delete information from e.g. Cookies, Browsing & Download History of Active Logins for passwords. Once you've chosen, click Clear Now.
Removing individual cookies:
Open Mozilla Firefox and click on the Firefox button in the top left hand corner. A menu will appear; click on History (Tools in Windows XP) and then Options.
Go to the Privacy tab and click on remove individual cookies. A new window will appear; select the cookie you want to delete and click on the Remove Cookies button.
When finished, click Close.
Where your downloads are saved
Open Firefox and click on the Firefox button in the left hand corner (Tools in Windows XP). A menu will appear; click on Options.
In the General tab, you'll see a section called Downloads. Next to 'Save files to', it will show the folder that downloads are being saved into. To change where downloads are kept, click Browse... and choose a folder you would like them to go. When chosen, click OK.
When downloading something from a website, a pop-up will show asking if you want to open or save the file. To look at recent downloads, click on the Firefox button in the top left corner (Tools for XP) and then Downloads. A list will be shown of the latest downloads - to find where each has been saved, right-click on a download in the list and click Open Containing Folder.
If you still can't find your download:
Click on Start > Search > For Files or Folders... A pop-up will come into view; on the left side, click on All files and folders.
Type in the name of the file and make sure the 'look in' section has the name of the main drive you use (usually C:) - click Search. The C: drive will now be scanned and once complete any results will be shown on the right side of the pop-up window.'
Changing the font size, colour or style of a webpage
When browsing the internet, sometimes the font on certain pages can be a bit hard to read. To change the style to your liking:
Open Mozilla Firefox and click on the Firefox button in the top left corner (Tools for XP users) and then Options. On the Content tab, under 'Fonts & Colours' you can choose your preferred font and size. If you click on Colours... you can select which colours you want for the text, backgrounds and links. If you want these choices for every website, remove the tick next to Allow pages to choose their own colours, instead of my selections above and click OK.
Note: The steps above will change the font size on every webpage but the font style will only change on websites that don't have a pre-defined style. To choose your own, from the Content tab, click on Advanced..., choose your ideal fonts and then remove the tick next to Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above. Click OK when finished.
Firefox add-ons
One of the best things about Firefox is that you can customise many aspects of it with downloadable add-ons, so you can get the browsing experience you want. It's simple to get these features as there is a built-in function to search through them straight from the Firefox browser.
To start using add-ons and getting the best from your browser:
Open Mozilla Firefox and click on the Firefox icon in the top left corner (Tools for XP users) and then Add-ons. Alternatively, hold down Ctrl, Shift, and A at the same time and the Add-ons Manager will open. From here, you can download new content or manage and remove existing add-ons.
Changing your browsers appearance:
There are two types of add-ons that can change the Firefox browser's appearance:
- Personas: They alter the background; behind the icons at the top of the browser screen. These can contain mages from movies to cartoons, pictures of nature or animals or even digital or abstract art.
- Themes: Changes the whole way Firefox appears. They alter the shape and appearance of the interface; changing colours and adding special effects.
Depending on which add-ons you're using, you may be able to use both types of add-ons at the same time.
You can also add a number of extensions to Firefox which can do everything from capturing screenshots to saving the content of websites so you can read them offline. There's a number of plug-ins for popular web applications such as Shockwave, Flash and QuickTime.
Browsing and downloading add-ons:
Go to the Add-ons Manager and in the bottom right hand corner there is a box called More ways to customise. In this box, click Browse all Add-ons. This will bring up Mozilla's website with all different types of add-ons. You can also look at collections people have made of especially useful downloads or sort each category to see the most popular items.
To install an add-on click on the add-on you would like and select Add to Firefox. When the download has finished, click Install Now. Note: You might need to restart Firefox for your add-on to start working.
Enabling, disabling and removing add-ons:
Go to the Add-ons Manager and click on the Extensions, Appearance or Plugins tab, depending on the type you want to change. From here, click Enable to activate an add-on, Disable to stop it running or Remove to uninstall it.
