The Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird discussion (Part 3)

[NetRyder]

Alright everyone, you know the drill. It's time for Part 3 of the Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird discussions thread, a follow-up to the previous thread located here.

Same guidelines as always - any posts with the sole intention of trolling and/or comparing browser X vs. Y will be deleted without warning at a moderator's discretion. This is a thread for current and potential Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird users to discuss general application-related topics, bugs and issues, upcoming releases, ask for support and offer tips to fellow users.

Let the fun begin...

 

[gonaads]

Uuuuuum O.K. Now what?

 

[gonaads]

Hmmmmm... This thread needs a mascot.

 

[NetRyder]

Responses to this thread by Unwonted, posted in here for future reference.

After a fairly well-documented resistance to all Netscape based browsers, I have chosen to step into the darkside. To those who were offended by anything derogatory I might have said about their favorite browser, I offer my most well-meant apologies. I was wrong, and I'm not afraid to admit that.

On to business! There were features in MyIE2/Maxthon that I want badly, and I need help getting them. I will use Firefox forever if someone can tell me how. I know there's a very active community out there for it, and with an open-source browser I'm sure the features I want are available.

No worries...everyone is entitled to their opinions, and nobody's going to shoot you down for yours. With that said, it's definitely nice to see more people like you moving to Firefox.
Ok, now onto each of your points...one by one.

Super Drag Drop, the ability to click a link and hold, drag it an inch away. It opens in a new tab which I will get to once I'm done with the page on which I'm browsing.

As you may or may not know, middle clicking a link (or Ctrl+click) opens it in a new tab. You can, however, also install the Super Drag and Go extension which mimics MyIE2's Super Drag and Drop behavior.

Importing bookmarks from IE

Firefox should have imported your IE Favorites by default. In case it didn't, open up IE, select File>Import and Export, and export your Favorites to a file like bookmarks.html. Then in Firefox, select Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks, then File>Import and select the saved bookmarks.html file. Done.

 

[NetRyder]

Auto refreshing pages, set to any interval I please.

TabBrowser Extensions (TBE) is one extension that has this capability. Google it. There might be other extensions that add this functionality as well.

Where's my cookies? Can I just stay logged in to OSNN.net without having the password manager remember my password?

Yes, check the "Remember me" box when you login to OSNN, and a cookie will be stored with your login details. Other cookies-related options are in Tools>Options (Privacy tab: click the + sign next to Cookies)

Minimalist (tiny) skins, because I want to see a maximum amount of the page I'm browsing.

This would depend on your personal preference. Check the themes repository to see what suits you best. Then right click the toolbar, select Customize, select "Icons" in the dropdown box, and check the "Use Small Icons" box. You can re-arrange the toolbar buttons, address bar, google bar, bookmarks toolbar, menus in whatever way you please.
EDIT: Hit F11 to enable fullscreen mode. You can still see the navigation bar and the address box, but you get more space for the actual webpage.

 

[NetRyder]

FlashSave: The ability to show all flash files on an HTML and let me download them just like any other file (E.g. Homstarrunner.com cartoons).

I'm not sure if there's an extension for this one yet. There might be...I might just not know about it. One thing you can do to find the locations of all the Flash files is hit Tools>Page Info (shortcut is Ctrl+J), and click the Media tab. You should see a list of all embedded images, sounds, flash files etc. here.

Links to good places for skins/plugins/etc.

Extensions:
http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=firefox
http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=284

Themes:
http://update.mozilla.org/themes/?application=firefox
Also look for more themes on Google, since some theme developers choose to host their themes only on their own sites.

Plugins (Flash/Shockwave/Java/Quicktime..etc):
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows.html

 

[NetRyder]

Disabling Anti-right-click scripts on a site.

This has become a built-in feature, starting with Firefox 0.9
Tools>Options | Web Features panel
Click the "Advanced" button next to "Enable Javascript" and uncheck the "Disable or replace context menus" options.

A way to murder people who use the aforementioned scripts, because they probably are jerks anyway and deserve nothing better than a greusome death.

Up to you...hiring an e-sniper would probably be quick, safe and effective.

I appreciate all your help; those are the only things that keep me from ditching MyIE2 entirely, and if you can do that, you've won me over along with a lot of other MyIE2 lovers.

Now that I've answered every one of your questions, you better damn well stick to Firefox...at least to make all those posts worth my time.
(You can also repay me in rep points, by the way)

 

[NetRyder]

Netryder, thank you for all your information. You have been most helpful in all this. I have a couple more questions:

? My tabs are fat!!! I want to resize them.
? Searches! I want the default search to be Google. I also want multiple searches, like urbandictionary, dictionary, and GIS.

Pin that, homeboy!!

- Tab height: This question came up sometime before, and I said that the height of the tabs is dependent on the theme (it's controlled by one of the files within the theme's .jar file). However, I think there is a way of altering it using the userChrome.css file. I'll see if I can find out further details...

- Searches: Use the search box that's next to the address box. If you click the magnifying glass icon, you'll see the option for Google search in there. Select it once, and it stays that way even after repeatedly opening/closing/rebooting until you change it again. The shortcut key is Ctrl+K, so hit that, type your search query terms, and hit enter. Quick and easy Google search.
Now, in the same dropdown menu, you have an "Add Engines..." option. Click that to visit the Mycroft repository from which you can add hundreds of different sites to the search bar, including UrbanDictionary and Dictionary.com

A nice little tip related to the search box. Hit Ctrl+K, then press the down arrow key. You get a nice history of all your previous searches using the particular engine that is currently in use.

 

[Henyman]

woooo yay for firefox

 

[Glaanieboy]

Another way of adding search thingies is by putting bookmarks manually in the Bookmarks -> Quick Searches container.
For example, PHP search:
Add a new bookmark in the folder I mentioned and use
Name: PHP function search
Location: http://nl2.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=%s
Keyword: php
Description: bla
Now, when you type in php <search term> it redirects to http://nl2.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=<search term>, thus replacing the %s

 

[Henyman]

Another way of adding search thingies is by putting bookmarks manually in the Bookmarks -> Quick Searches container.
For example, PHP search:
Add a new bookmark in the folder I mentioned and use
Name: PHP function search
Location: http://nl2.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=%s
Keyword: php
Description: bla
Now, when you type in php <search term> it redirects to http://nl2.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=<search term>, thus replacing the %s

nice

 

[NetRyder]

woooo yay for firefox

Very enlightening.

 

[HerbieHind]

Thunderbird brings up IE6... 62 times?

Hello,

I have installed Thunderbird and FireFox. When I click on any email address,using FireFox, it brings up IE6 62 times (instead of Tbird), running my CPU at full throttle. There is a IE window that comes up just before this happens that says "your default email client is not set up correctly". I checked IE tools>programs, and it shows Tbird as the email and newsreader default program. Now, if I am using IE, and click on an email address, Tbird comes up (meaning it works correctly). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks..

Matt

 

[NetRyder]

Matt, try this first...if it doesn't work, there's another possible fix that involves changing a registry key value.

Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs | "Set Program Access and Defaults" tab
Under "Custom", select Mozilla Thunderbird as the default mail client.

Now, open up Thunderbird and open Tools>Options | "General" tab
Make sure that the "Use Thunderbird as the default mail application" box is checked.
If not, check the box and click OK.
If it's already checked, uncheck it, click OK, go back to the Options dialog box, check it again and click OK (just to make sure that it registers itself correctly).

 

[NetRyder]

A possible registry based fix (try this only if the above doesn't work):

Start>Run>regedit
Navigate down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Classes\\mailto\\shell\\open\\command
Change the value of the "Default" string to the following (change the path accordingly, if you installed Thunderbird in a non-default location):

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -compose %1

EDIT: You might need to change the path to the old 8 character naming format, so the one above would be:
C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~2\THUNDE~1.EXE -compose %1

Try the first one, then the second if the first doesn't work.

 

[muzikool]

Firefox Icons

Came across these today.

Get them here.

Get them here.

 

[Daeron Tinúviel]

to reduce the tabs siz e u need this extension: Scrollable Tabs http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=231

then add this to your userchrome:

/* Fixed width Tabs */
tabbrowser tab {
min-width: 80px !important;
max-width: 80px !important;
}

 

[NetRyder]

to reduce the tabs siz e u need this extension: Scrollable Tabs http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=231

then add this to your userchrome:

/* Fixed width Tabs */
tabbrowser tab {
min-width: 80px !important;
max-width: 80px !important;
}

Nice one, Daeron!

 

[funky dredd]

Those are nice Muzikool! Thanks!

 

[Ketchupisyourfriend]

I've recently converted from MyIE2 to Firefox. I've been able to find extensions to fix all but one of the little complaints I originally had with Firefox.

It may seem like I'm being a bit picky, but for some reason my middle click behavior in Firefox is different than in all other windows apps. In IE, and anything else with a scroll bar, I can middle click (the scroll whell) and the four arrows appear where I clicked. I can then move the mouse in any direction and simply roll the scroll wheel to deactivate it. The four arrows still appear when I middle click in Firefox (though they look a bit different), however in Firefox I have to middle click again to deactivate the feature. This causes problems because I often middle click to deactivate the scroll function and accidentally click on another link. This opens up a new window and drives me crazy. Anyway, if anybody knows an extension or some kind of edit that will make Firefox have default mouse scroll behavior, for lack of a better term, I would be very grateful.