Firefox 3 Features You May Not Have Heard Of

[User]

Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...

Most of these I suspect I would never find on my own:

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/

Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

[Indigo]

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

I can do the duplicate tabs thingy in FF2 by double clicking on an existing
tab, it's a "Tab Clicking" add-on. And managing add-ons (enabling or
disabling) is also there, although Plug-In handling may be a different
kettle of fish. Except for the multiple text selection thing, I don't see to
much else to get excited about.....I'm still going to wait until all the
kinks are worked out before upgrading.

[User]

On 09.07.2008 19:27, Indigo wrote:

--- Original Message ---

Post by Indigo

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

I can do the duplicate tabs thingy in FF2 by double clicking on an existing
tab, it's a "Tab Clicking" add-on. And managing add-ons (enabling or
disabling) is also there, although Plug-In handling may be a different
kettle of fish. Except for the multiple text selection thing, I don't see to
much else to get excited about.....I'm still going to wait until all the
kinks are worked out before upgrading.

None of the 8 mentioned features are in FF2 natively that I know of
without the aid of an extension.

Managing add-ons a la FF3 is not there in FF2 - Integrated add-ons as
mentioned. Enabling/disabling has always been there.

To see for yourself, install FF3, it's easy, stable and worth the effort.

[AndrewB]

Post by User
--- Original Message ---

Post by Indigo

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

I can do the duplicate tabs thingy in FF2 by double clicking on an existing
tab, it's a "Tab Clicking" add-on. And managing add-ons (enabling or
disabling) is also there, although Plug-In handling may be a different
kettle of fish. Except for the multiple text selection thing, I don't see to
much else to get excited about.....I'm still going to wait until all the
kinks are worked out before upgrading.

None of the 8 mentioned features are in FF2 natively that I know of
without the aid of an extension.

Item 4, the keyword bit, can be done on any type in field on any web
page by right clicking on it in FF2 and associating a keyword with it.

This is VERY handy at the office:
- "ticket NNNN" searches our bug database for ticket NNNN
- "dir STRING" searches our corporate directory for STRING

At home: (some at work too)

"weather STRING" gives me the weather for that location. (via weather.com)
"quot STRING" returns the stock price of STRING (via Yahoo finance)

etc. Keywords are very handy for those who can move around with the
keyboard. Ie: Alt-D "quot IBM" for an IBM stock quote.

Post by User
To see for yourself, install FF3, it's easy, stable and worth the effort.

I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by prioritizing
and searching your bookmarks and history with the list presented. WOW!
What a timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag bookmarks, this is
very useful. Although I have not tagged any of my bookmarks yet.


Andrew

[Indigo]

I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by prioritizing and
searching your bookmarks and history with the list presented. WOW! What a
timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag bookmarks, this is very
useful. Although I have not tagged any of my bookmarks yet.

What is "tagging a bookmark" do?

[AndrewB]

Post by Indigo

Post by AndrewB
I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by prioritizing
and searching your bookmarks and history with the list presented.
WOW! What a timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag bookmarks,
this is very useful. Although I have not tagged any of my bookmarks yet.

What is "tagging a bookmark" do?

Let's you find it easier. Sort of like a category. Such that, if you
had a number of banking related web sites, typing 'bank' in the location
bar should limit the potential choices to those tagged bookmarks, as
well as any other related bookmarks and history.


AndrewB

[Indigo]

Post by Indigo

Post by AndrewB
I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by prioritizing
and searching your bookmarks and history with the list presented. WOW!
What a timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag bookmarks, this is
very useful. Although I have not tagged any of my bookmarks yet.

What is "tagging a bookmark" do?

Let's you find it easier. Sort of like a category. Such that, if you had
a number of banking related web sites, typing 'bank' in the location bar
should limit the potential choices to those tagged bookmarks, as well as
any other related bookmarks and history.

Hmm....that does sound kinda useful, but then again I have all of my
*important*, i.e. my banking, 401(k) account, health plan, and online bill
paying account bookmarks (anything financially related) stashed in the main
"Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" show they show up as icons underneath the main
toolbar for instant access without having to look for the bookmark within
the bookmarks folder.

[AndrewB]

Post by Indigo

Post by AndrewB

Post by Indigo

Post by AndrewB
I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by
prioritizing and searching your bookmarks and history with the list
presented. WOW! What a timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag
bookmarks, this is very useful. Although I have not tagged any of
my bookmarks yet.

What is "tagging a bookmark" do?

Let's you find it easier. Sort of like a category. Such that, if you
had a number of banking related web sites, typing 'bank' in the
location bar should limit the potential choices to those tagged
bookmarks, as well as any other related bookmarks and history.

Hmm....that does sound kinda useful, but then again I have all of my
*important*, i.e. my banking, 401(k) account, health plan, and online
bill paying account bookmarks (anything financially related) stashed in
the main "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" show they show up as icons
underneath the main toolbar for instant access without having to look
for the bookmark within the bookmarks folder.

Me too. But I'm so much faster on the keyboard, I'm finding it fairly
easy to do something like: alt-tab to Firefox, alt-d, cu (for credit
union), down arrow, enter. Maybe give it a whirl for your most frequent
used bookmarks.


AndrewB

[Indigo]

Post by AndrewB
Me too. But I'm so much faster on the keyboard, I'm finding it fairly
easy to do something like: alt-tab to Firefox, alt-d, cu (for credit
union), down arrow, enter. Maybe give it a whirl for your most frequent
used bookmarks.

Yeahbutt....you have to take your hand off of the mouse to do it your way,
can't see how it can be faster than the other way.

Oh, on another topic, I had to upgrade to AVG V8.0 today, finding the free
download link took some work, I know Charles posted it here or in .social
but I couldn't be arsed to search for it. For some reason, my AVG V7.5
stopped accepting updated .dat files 28 days ago, every time I hit "update"
it would come back "unsuccessful" and say I needed to reboot, but that
didn't fix anything.

Dunno what happened there, maybe some mickeysoft patch screwed it up -- in
the last month IE7 (which I rarely use) has been having the really weird
problem too -- it would work ok, but when I close the browser I get a "IE
has stopped working" error message, and instead of shutting down it reloads
IE -- kind of annoying, dontcha think? I think this only happens when I go
to the Ameritrade website, which uses Java runtime (?). I *thought* there
was an "IE repair" tool, but damned if I can find it. Maybe it disappeared
when they killed off Outlook Express in Vista?

[Indigo]

Post by Indigo
Dunno what happened there, maybe some mickeysoft patch screwed it up -- in
the last month IE7 (which I rarely use) has been having the really weird
problem too -- it would work ok, but when I close the browser I get a "IE
has stopped working" error message, and instead of shutting down it
reloads IE -- kind of annoying, dontcha think? I think this only happens
when I go to the Ameritrade website, which uses Java runtime (?). I
*thought* there was an "IE repair" tool, but damned if I can find it.
Maybe it disappeared when they killed off Outlook Express in Vista?

Okay, this is a bit more serious than I thought -- it's not limited to the
Ameritrade website. I just updated the stock quotes in one of my financial
spreadsheets in Excel using the MSN Money StockQuote add-in (Office 2003
Pro), and IE crashed when I closed the "update" window, then tried to
restart itself again, blah blah blah.......anyone ever seen this behavior
before, and if so, how do I fix it?

[AndrewB]

Post by User
--- Original Message ---

Post by Indigo

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

I can do the duplicate tabs thingy in FF2 by double clicking on an existing
tab, it's a "Tab Clicking" add-on. And managing add-ons (enabling or
disabling) is also there, although Plug-In handling may be a different
kettle of fish. Except for the multiple text selection thing, I don't see to
much else to get excited about.....I'm still going to wait until all the
kinks are worked out before upgrading.

None of the 8 mentioned features are in FF2 natively that I know of
without the aid of an extension.

Item 4, the keyword bit, can be done on any type in field on any web
page by right clicking on it in FF2 and associating a keyword with it.

This is VERY handy at the office:
- "ticket NNNN" searches our bug database for ticket NNNN
- "dir STRING" searches our corporate directory for STRING

At home: (some at work too)

"weather STRING" gives me the weather for that location. (via weather.com)
"quot STRING" returns the stock price of STRING (via Yahoo finance)

etc. Keywords are very handy for those who can move around with the
keyboard. Ie: Alt-D "quot IBM" for an IBM stock quote.

Post by User
To see for yourself, install FF3, it's easy, stable and worth the effort.

I *LOVE* the search functionality on the location bar by prioritizing
and searching your bookmarks and history with the list presented. WOW!
What a timesaver. Coupled with the ability to tag bookmarks, this is
very useful. Although I have not tagged any of my bookmarks yet.


Andrew

[D.F. Manno]

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

The auto-outing feature is troublesome:

<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/8/92131/38448/39/548126>

[Bar0]

"D.F. Manno" <***@mail.com> wrote in message news:dfmanno-***@news.cesmail.net...
...
Yeah, it would be if one prefers the closet, or is in the military. How does
FireFox do that?

[AndrewB]

Post by Bar0
...
Yeah, it would be if one prefers the closet, or is in the military. How
does FireFox do that?

There's a option to clear the history. And also to do it automatically
when the browser is closed. That might minimize checks to recent URLs
and bookmarks. I'd have to experiment.


AndrewB

[Indigo]

Post by AndrewB

Post by Bar0
...
Yeah, it would be if one prefers the closet, or is in the military. How
does FireFox do that?

There's a option to clear the history. And also to do it automatically
when the browser is closed. That might minimize checks to recent URLs and
bookmarks. I'd have to experiment.

But clearing personal history wipes out all of the cookies you have to
auto-login to certain websites, right? That's a royal PITA, especially when
you have a dozen or more legitimate sites on your work PC with saved log-in
info.

[AndrewB]

Post by Indigo

Post by AndrewB

Post by Bar0
...
Yeah, it would be if one prefers the closet, or is in the military.
How does FireFox do that?

There's a option to clear the history. And also to do it
automatically when the browser is closed. That might minimize checks
to recent URLs and bookmarks. I'd have to experiment.

But clearing personal history wipes out all of the cookies you have to
auto-login to certain websites, right? That's a royal PITA, especially
when you have a dozen or more legitimate sites on your work PC with
saved log-in info.

How about using the password manager?

And no, clearing the personal history does not delete cookies, depending
on how you've checked the options on the Clear Private Data dialog box.
One's options on the dialog (Windows):
- browsing history
- download history
- saved form and search history
- cache
- cookies
- offline website data
- saved passwords
- authenticated sessions

On the Privacy Options, you can clear private data every time you close
Firefox.


AndrewB

[Indigo]

Post by AndrewB
How about using the password manager?

Firefox has a password manager? Where?

Post by AndrewB
And no, clearing the personal history does not delete cookies, depending
on how you've checked the options on the Clear Private Data dialog box.
- browsing history
- download history
- saved form and search history
- cache
- cookies
- offline website data
- saved passwords
- authenticated sessions

Ah, yes. Took another look at that, and I *did* have those options set to
not clear saved form and search history, etc. Will try to remember that
if/when I get another job, as far as my home PC goes I don't care.

One thing I'd REALLY like to see is an option dialog box to permanently save
a cookie when you get one you want to keep. Right now, you have to manually
go look for ones you know you want and hit the "right arrow" button to put
them on the ignore list when clearing cookies. If you haven't done it in a
long time, it's incredibly laborious to filter the list and find the ones
you know you want to keep.

[Indigo]

Post by D.F. Manno
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/8/92131/38448/39/548126>

Oiks! Thanks for finding that info, D.F. Not that I have anything to hide,
but reading other complaints about it interfering with the "normal" way of
using the browser and the apparent visiual clutter (with no way to disable
it) means I'm definitely sticking with FF2 for now.

I chuckle when I saw this, reminded me of something funny (but potentially a
fireable offense) that happened to me at work years ago:

"UPDATE II: according to Mozilla, bookmark titles are also included in the
location bar drop down results. Time to rename all your private
bookmarks!!!"

Back in the dark ages before my old company set up a server for creating
temporary FTP user directories for transferring large files, I was using a
free online service called "Xdrive". One time I was having issues with my
PC's browser function (some ancient version of IE), so one of the IT techs
logged on to my machine remotely to check things out. I watched as he waded
thru various settings, then he started looking at my bookmarks to find the
website that was giving me problems. He found the "Xdrive" link, and
immediately loaded it, expecting to find porn, I guess. I instantly got on
the phone to explain to him that it was a harmless file transfer service!
After looking at the web page info, he moved on. Sickening feeling for an
instant there, though!

[User]

On 10.07.2008 16:45, D.F. Manno wrote:

--- Original Message ---

Post by D.F. Manno

Post by User
Since some FF 3 issues have come up here ...
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/
Selecting multiple text is one VERY useful feature I surely can use.

<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/8/92131/38448/39/548126>

Troublesome maybe but don't blame Firefox .. ;-)

To defeat this, do about:config in the url window and then in the filter
box, type or copy/paste:

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll

Double-click the resulting line to change from false to true. The change
is immediate, no need to exit/restart.

[User]

Post by User
To defeat this, do about:config in the url window and then in the filter
browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
Double-click the resulting line to change from false to true. The change
is immediate, no need to exit/restart.

Should be just the opposite. The value is already "true", should change
it to "False".

[Indigo]

Post by User

Post by D.F. Manno
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/8/92131/38448/39/548126>

Troublesome maybe but don't blame Firefox .. ;-)

Well who else is to blame? They wrote the dumb code, after all.

Post by User
To defeat this, do about:config in the url window and then in the filter
browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
Double-click the resulting line to change from false to true. The change
is immediate, no need to exit/restart.

I have no clue what all that means/does.....