Power Surfing Uninterrupted

As mentioned previously power users or surfers usually have a multitude of window tabs open at any one time. The reasons vary however it's basically an optimization of time. That is whilst a web surfer is reading a particular page they're loading another page in a tab in the background.

Firefox has an excellent feature called "open link in new tab" which will create a new tab and commence loading the link in that tab. The beauty is that you stay on the page you were viewing allowing you to continue uninterrupted whilst the browser is busy loading the other page.

Why would you do this ?:

• The page that you're currently looking at contains so many interesting links that if you start clicking on the link on the page you may lose track of the original point or page you landed on.
  

• You have a very slow internet connection and surfing in this way allows you to compensate for slow internet speed and allows you to optimize your time.
  

• Allows you to veto the new content and close the tab if you're not interested in that link.
  

Opening New Tabs and Windows

A lot of power users have many frequently used and visted sites in their link bar. Usually these people will be browsing multiple sites at any one time. Rather than open a new tab using CTRL-T or File --> New Tab or Window and then click on the link you want to visit there's a great shortcut you can use.

If you want to open a link bar in a new TAB simply hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and then with the mouse left-click on the link you want. A new TAB will be opened and the site loaded. If you want to open the link in a new window hold down th SHIFT key and then click on the link you want and a new Firefox Window will open and load the link you want.

Tab Menu

You may not realize it but the tabs contain a sub-menu which is accessible via the right-click of the mouse (see below). Again suitable for power users the sub-menu gives you at your finger tips:

• New tab
• Reload Tab
• Reload All Tabs
• Close Other Tabs (and leave the current open)
• Bookmark this tab
• Bookmark All Tabs
• Close Tabs

Organising Your Tabs

As you know one of the benefits of Firefox is the multi-tab browsing ability. Sometimes if you build up a number of tabs and are switching between each, you may have one tab on one side of your screen and the other way across the other side.

You can actually move a tab by simply:

• click and holding the tab with the mouse
• move across the screen until you see the little arrow pointing down (see picture red circle below)
• letting go of the mouse button

It's that easy. If you want to close a tab you simply click on the little (x) on the tab and it doesn't even need to be the active tab.

Sorting Your Bookmarks

If you have built up a significant number of bookmarks you may have used the Bookmark Manager to put them into some kind of order and structure using folders. The difficulty with the Bookmark Manager is you have to move folders or links individually if you want them sorted. They'll appear sorted in the bookmark manager but not in the drop down menu.

To sort the items in the drop down menu simply:

• click on the menu
• rightclick on any individual book
• left click on sort by name - voila !

Managing Multiple Profiles

Many FireFox users who have grown up with the Netscape profile options will be glad to know this feature is still available in FireFox. To access the profile menu simply open a command prompt or create a short with the -p switch.

So the command is 'firefox -p' and you will be presented with the following screen. Here you have the option to create a new profile, rename or delete a profile.

Importantly you have the option to have FireFox load the profile selector when you run FireFox. If you create a new Profile you'll be presented with a screen where you click next until you get to the point where you can enter a profile name as shown in this screen.


What are the advantages of profiles:

• Separate bookmarks
• New Profiles load quickly
• Different household members can customize FireFox how they please

What is Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux however various ports have been made to other operating systems.

Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and a large community of external contributors working in a collaborative and open source philosophy. The focus of the site is to provide download links, installation tips as well as configuration and usage information.

You can download firefox with Google toolbar below and after installation use the following posts as reference and guides.