13 Firefox: browsing the Web #

When typing into the address bar, an auto-completion drop-down box opens. It shows all previous location addresses and bookmarks containing the characters you type. The matching phrase is highlighted in bold. Entries visited most frequently and recently are listed first.

List entries from the bookmark list are marked with a star. Bookmarks with tags are marked with an additional label followed by the tag names. List entries from the browsing history are not marked. To search in your bookmarks only, type * as the first character of your search.

Use ↑ and ↓ or the mouse wheel to navigate the list. Press Enter or click an entry to go to the selected page. Del removes an entry from the list if it is an entry from the history. Bookmarked entries can only be removed by deleting the associated bookmark.

While most functions of Firefox are available through the menu button, some are only available from the menu bar.

Firefox offers two zooming options: page zoom, the default, and text zoom. Page zoom enlarges the entire page as is, with all elements of a page, including graphics, expanding equally while text zoom only changes the text size.

To toggle between page and text zoom, from the menu bar, choose View › Zoom › Zoom Text Only. To zoom in or out either use the mouse wheel while holding the Ctrl key, or use Ctrl–+ and Ctrl–-. Reset the zoom factor with Ctrl–0.

Tabbed browsing allows you to load multiple Web sites in a single window. To switch between pages in use, use the tabs at the top of the window. If you often use more than one Web page at a time, tabbed browsing makes it easier to switch between pages.

Use the left side of your browser window for viewing bookmarks or browsing history. Extensions may add new ways to use the sidebar as well. To display the sidebar, from the menu bar, select View › Sidebar and select the contents.

Firefox has a search bar that can access different engines like Google, Yahoo or Amazon. For example, if you are looking for information about SUSE using the current engine, click in the search bar, type SUSE, and press Enter. The results appear in your window.

To choose a different search engine, type your search term, then click one of the search provider icons at the bottom of the appearing pop-up.

13.3.1.1 Customizing the search bar #

 

To change the order, add or delete a search engine, proceed as follows.

1. Click the menu button to the right of the search bar.

2. From the list, select Settings.

3. In the Settings window, go to Search.

4. The Default Search Engine section shows the engine that is currently set as the default search engine.

5. To select another search engine, click the drop-down menu and select an engine from the list.

Figure 13.2: Firefox—manage search engines #

 

Some Web sites offer search engines that you can add directly to the search bar. Whenever you are visiting such a Web site, the icon to the left of the search bar gains a + sign. Click the icon and select Add.

13.3.1.2 Adding keywords to your online searches #

 

Firefox lets you define own keywords: abbreviations to use as a URL shortcut for a particular search engine. If you have defined ws as a keyword for the Wikipedia search, for example, you can type ws SEARCHTERM into the address bar to search Wikipedia for SEARCHTERM.

To assign a shortcut for a search engine from the search bar, click the menu button to the right of the search bar and select Settings › Search. In the Search Shortcuts section, select a search engine, double-click its Keyword column, enter a keyword and press Enter.

It is also possible to define a keyword for any search field on a Web site. Proceed as follows:

1. Right-click the search field and choose Add a Keyword for this Search from the menu that opens. The Add bookmark dialog appears.

2. In Name, enter a descriptive name for this keyword.

3. Enter your Keyword for this search.

4. Save this keyword.

Tip: Keywords for regular Web sites

Using keywords is not restricted to search engines. You can also add a keyword to a bookmark (via the bookmark's properties). For example, if you assign suse to the SUSE home page bookmark, you can open it by typing suse into the address bar.

To search inside a Web page, in the menu bar, click Edit › Find in Page or press Ctrl–F. The find bar opens at the bottom of the window. Type your query in the text box. Firefox finds the first occurrence of this phrase as you type. You can find other occurrences of the phrase by pressing F3 or the Next button in the find bar. Clicking the Highlight All button highlights all occurrences of the phrase. Checking the Match Case option makes the query case-sensitive.

Firefox also offers two quick-find options. Click anywhere you like to start a search on a Web page, type the key / followed by the search term. The first occurrence of the search term is highlighted as you type. Use F3 to find the next occurrence. It is also possible to limit quick-find to links only. This search option is available by typing the key '.

The Library can be used to manage the properties (name and address location) for each bookmark and organize the bookmarks into folders and sections. It resembles Figure 13.3, “The Firefox bookmark library”.

Figure 13.3: The Firefox bookmark library #

 

To open the Library, in the menu bar, click Bookmarks › Manage Bookmarks. The library window is split into two parts: the left pane shows the folder tree view, the right pane the subfolders and bookmarks of the selected folder. Use Views to customize the right pane. The left pane contains three main folders:

Organize your bookmarks using the right pane. Choose actions for folders or bookmarks either from the context menu that opens when you right-click an item or from the Organize menu. The properties of a chosen folder or bookmark can be edited in the bottom part of the right pane. By default, only Name, URL, and Tags are displayed for a bookmark.

To rearrange your bookmarks, use the mouse to drag them. You can use this to move a bookmark or a folder to a different folder, or to change the order of bookmarks in a folder.

Tags offer a convenient way to file a bookmark under several categories. You can tag a bookmark with as many terms as you want. For example, to access all sites tagged with suse, enter suse into the address bar. For each tag, an item is automatically created in the Tags folder of the library. Drag and drop an item for a tag onto the bookmark toolbar to easily access it.

To add tags to a bookmark, open the bookmark in Firefox and click the blue star in the address bar. The Edit bookmark dialog opens where you can add a comma-separated list of tags. It is also possible to add tags via the bookmark properties dialog which you can open in the library, or by right-clicking a bookmark in the menu or the toolbar.

To import bookmarks from another browser or from a file in HTML format, open the library by choosing from the menu bar, Bookmarks › Manage Bookmarks. To start the Import Wizard, click Import and Backup › Import Bookmarks from HTML and choose an import location. Start the import by clicking Next. Imports from an HTML file are imported as is.

Exporting bookmarks is also done via Import and Backup in the library window. To save your bookmarks as an HTML file, choose Export Bookmarks to HTML. To create a backup of your bookmarks, choose Backup. Firefox uses a JavaScript Object Notation file format (.json) for backups.

To restore a bookmark backup, click Import and Backup › Restore. Then locate the backup you want to restore from.

The Bookmarks Toolbar is displayed beneath the address bar and lets you quickly access bookmarks. You can also add, organize and edit bookmarks directly. To activate the Bookmarks Toolbar, select View  › Toolbars › Bookmarks Toolbar  › Always Show.

To edit the Bookmarks Toolbar, you can use the library as described in Section 13.4.1, “Organizing bookmarks”. Its content is located in the folder Bookmarks Toolbar. It is also possible to manage the toolbar directly. To add a folder, bookmark or separator, right-click an empty space in the toolbar and select the appropriate entry from the pop-up menu. To add the current page to the bar, click the icon of the Web page in the address bar and drag it to the final position on the Bookmarks Toolbar.

To edit a certain folder or bookmark, right-click it. A menu opens where you can Remove Folder or change other settings. To move or copy an entry, choose Cut or Copy and Paste it to the final position.

Firefox allows you to check the identity of a Web page with a single glance. The icon in the address bar next to the address indicates which identity information is available and whether communication is encrypted:

To view detailed identity information, click the icon of the Web site in the address bar. In the opening pop-up, click More Information to open the Page Info window. Here, you can view the site's certificate, the encryption level, and information about stored passwords and cookies.

On the Permissions tab, you can set per-site permissions for image loading, pop-ups, cookies and installation permissions. The Media tab lists all images, background graphics and embedded objects from a site and displays further information on each item together with a preview. It also lets you save individual items.

Figure 13.4: The Firefox page info window #

 

Firefox comes with a certificate store for identifying certificate authorities (CA). Using these certificates enables the browser to automatically verify certificates issued by Web sites. If a Web site issues a certificate that has not been signed by one of the CAs from the certificate store, it is not trusted. This ensures that no spoofed certificates are accepted.

Large organizations usually use their own certificate authorities in-house and distribute the respective certificates via the system-wide certificate store located at /etc/pki/nssdb. To configure Firefox (and other Mozilla tools, such as Thunderbird) to use this system-wide CA store in addition to its own, export the NSS_USE_SHARED_DB variable. For example, you can add the following line to ~/.bashrc:

export NSS_USE_SHARED_DB=1

Alternatively, or additionally, you can import certificates manually. To do so, in the menu bar, open the Preferences dialog by clicking Edit › Settings. Select Privacy & Security › Certificates › View Certificates › Your Certificates › Import and select the certificate to import. Only import certificates you absolutely trust.

Each time you enter a user name and a password on a Web site, Firefox offers to store this data. A pop-up at the top of the page opens, asking you whether you want Firefox to save the password. If you accept by clicking Save, the password is stored on your hard disk in an encrypted format. The next time you access this site, Firefox automatically fills in the login data.

To review or manage your passwords, open the password manager by clicking Edit › Settings › Privacy & Security › Logins and Passwords  › Saved Logins in the menu bar. The password manager opens with a list of sites and their corresponding user names. By default, the passwords are not displayed. You can click the eye icon to display them. To delete single or all entries from the list, click Remove or Remove All, respectively.

To protect your passwords from unauthorized access, you can set a master password that is required when managing or adding passwords. In the menu bar, click Edit › Settings, choose the category Privacy & Security and activate Use a Primary Password.

By default, Firefox keeps track of your browsing history by storing content and links of visited Web sites, cookies, downloads, passwords, search terms, and formula data. Collecting and storing this data makes browsing faster and more convenient. However, when you use a public terminal or a friend's computer, for example, you could turn this behavior off. In Private Browsing mode, Firefox will not keep track of your browsing history nor will it cache the content of pages you have visited.

To enable the Private Browsing mode, in the menu bar, click File › New Private Window. The current Web site and all open tabs are replaced by the Private Browsing information screen. As long as you browse in private mode, the string Private Browsing is displayed in the titlebar of the window.

Disable Private Browsing by closing the private window.

To make Private Browsing the default mode, open the Privacy & Security tab in the Settings window as described in Section 13.7.1, “Preferences”. Go to the History section. Choose Use custom settings for History from the drop-down menu and check the Always use private browsing mode.

Note: Bookmarks and downloads

Downloads and bookmarks you made during Private Browsing mode are kept.

Firefox offers a wide range of configuration options. These are available by choosing Edit › Settings in the menu bar. Each option is described in detail in the online help, which can be accessed by clicking the question mark icon in the dialog.

Figure 13.5: The preferences window #

 

Extensions let you personalize Firefox to fit your needs. With extensions, you can change the look and feel of Firefox, enhance existing functionality, and add functions. For example, extensions can enhance the download manager, show the weather, or control Web music players. Other extensions assist Web developers or increase security by blocking content such as ads or scripts.

There are thousands of extensions available for Firefox. With the add-ons manager, you can install, enable, disable, update, and remove extensions.

If you do not like the standard look and feel of Firefox, install a new theme. Themes do not change the functionality, only the appearance of the browser.

13.7.2.1 Installing add-ons #

 

To add an extension or theme, start the add-ons manager with Tools › Add-Ons and Themes from the menu bar. It opens the Add-ons Manager either displaying a choice of recommended add-ons or the results of your last search.

Use the Find more add-ons field to search for specific add-ons. Click an entry in the list to view a short description. Install the add-on by clicking Add to Firefox.

Figure 13.6: Installing Firefox extensions #

 

To activate freshly installed extensions or themes, Firefox sometimes needs to be restarted by clicking Restart now in the add-ons manager. Restart this way to make sure that your browsing session is restored.