Firefox 3: 8 Untold Secrets
March 1, 2009 Computer Tips And Tricks
Mozilla’s enjoyed one of the most successful launches in software history, with a record-setting 8.2 million downloads the first day it was available. 
1. Minimize the toolbar
Right-click the toolbar, choose Customize, and select Use small icons.
2. Use smart bookmarks
To create a smart bookmark, select Organize Bookmarks from the Firefox’s Bookmarks menu. In the window that opens, select Bookmarks Menu in the left-hand pane, then click Organize in the toolbar at the top and New Bookmark in the drop-down menu. Give your smart bookmark a descriptive name, such as “10 Most Recent Bookmarks.” In the Location field, you’re going to enter in a line of code telling smart bookmark what to do. For the 10 sites you bookmarked most recently, you’d enter:
place:queryType=1&sort=12&maxResults=10. There are dozens of parameters you can use; Mozilla’s developer site includes a list of commands you can use in smart bookmarks.
3. Send e-mail via Yahoo Mail or Gmail by default
If you’d rather use Yahoo! Mail, open up Options under Firefox’s Tools menu, select the Applications tab, and scroll down to the mailto: entry. Select Use Yahoo! Mail and click OK.
Gmail is not included as a built-in option in every installation of Firefox, if you don’t have it, you can add Gmail easily. Skip the Options dialogs for now and instead type about:config in Firefox’s address bar and hit Enter. In the Filter field, type gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost. Double-click the gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost entry to change it to True. Next, cut-and-paste this line into the address bar and hit Enter:
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(“mailto”,
“https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”Gmail”).
A message will appear at the top of the browser window asking if you want to add Gmail as an application. Now, repeat the process above for choosing Yahoo! Mail, but select the new Use Gmail option instead.
4. Duplicate tabs with drag-and-drop
Simply hold the Ctrl key while dragging the tab you want to duplicate to an empty space on the tab bar.
5. Change or remove the Close tab buttons
By default, Firefox 3 puts an X on each tab, similar to the X button that closes an application. You can remove this button, or see it only on the tab you’re currently viewing. Open about:config again and enter browser.tabs.closeButtons in the Filter field. Enter the following values depending on the behaviour you prefer:
- 0 (Zero) Close button only on the active tab
- 1 (Default) Close buttons on every tab
- 2 No close buttons
- 3 Single close button at the end of the tab bar, instead of on the tabs themselves.
6. Change the behaviour of the Awesome Bar
By default the Awesome Bar bases its recommendations on your recent history, pages you’ve tagged and your bookmarks. Open about:config and change the following values, depending on the features you want:
- To disable the Awesome Bar entirely and revert to Firefox 2 – like functionality, change the value of browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 1.
- To allow the Awesome Bar to recommend only sites whose address you’ve typed directly into the address bar, change browser.urlbar.matchonlytyped to TRUE.
- To remove unvisited bookmarks from the pool of recommendations, change places.frecency.unvisitedBookmarkBonus to 0 (zero).
- To remove all bookmarks from the Awesome Bar, change both places.fecency.unvisistedBookmarkBonus and places.frecency.bookmarkVisitBonus to 0 (zero).
7. Search any site from the address bar with smart keywords
Visit the site you want to search and right-click its search box, selecting Add a keyword for this search. In the window that pops up, add a short description of the search and enter a short, memorable keyword that you’ll use to trigger it.
8. View your saved passwords for any page
To view the passwords associated with any site, go to the log-in page and right- click anywhere on the page. Select View Page Info, and then the Security tab. Click View Saved Passwords. Another window will pop up showing the usernames associated with that site. Click Show Passwords to see the passwords for each username. If you want to view all of your saved usernames and passwords, open options under the Tools menu and select the Security tab. Click Saved Passwords to open a list of every site you’ve ever saved a password for. Again, click View Passwords and the list will display all of your passwords. In the Options | Security tab, click Use a master password and enter a password. Now this password will has to be entered any time you or anyone else tries to view saved passwords. You’ll be asked to enter your master password every time you open firefox; without it, Firefox won’t automatically enter saved passwords for you. Make sure you don’t forget this one!
