Five Firefox Tips

Posted on January 10th, 2008 by Jason

The thing I like best about Firefox is that just when you think you know everything there is to know about the browser, something new comes along and surprises you.

I discovered five new Firefox tips today. Maybe these are old hat and you know them already. Or maybe like me, you had no idea these could be done.

1. Quick search – without going to a search engine first.

Are you reading a website and you subsequently discover a word or phrase that you want to put into a search engine? Up until now, I would just open a new tab, type in the URL for Google and manually type the word or phrase in. But it seems there is a faster easier way.

Just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse’s left-click button. Then drag the highlighted text into the address bar in the browser. Then press “enter”. Firefox will now perform a “Are you feeling lucky?” Google search for you.

2. Delete visited URL’s

When you drop down the box underneath the address bar, you can see your recent browsing history. But what if you want to remove one URL from that list? Maybe you’ve been looking at a naughty site and you don’t want your girfriend to know? Or maybe you’ve been shopping for your loved one online and you want to keep it a secret?

Just drop down the URL box, highlight the URL you want to zap then press the “delete” button on your keyboard. The URL will then be removed from the list.

3. Navigate to browser tabs using the keyboard

Instead of using the mouse to click on a tab, why not use the keyboard instead? Pressing CTRL + TAB together will bounce you from tab to tab, starting from the one in the far left and working its way along. Or if you want to go to a specifc tab straight away, you can do that too. CTRL + 2 will take you directly to the second tab from the left. CTRL + 5 will take you to the fifth tab from the left.

4. Start downloads instantly

Instead of right-clicking on a download link, choosing “save to target” and pressing enter, just drag the download link to the “downloads icon” in the toolbar. The download will start automatically.

5. Grab files off webpages, even protected webpages

Have you ever wanted a picture, file or video off a webpage but you can’t, because it’s been protected? Just right-click on the page, choose “View Page Info” then the “media” tab. Find the file you’re looking for from the list and click on “save”. (note : this doesn’t work for everything but I have still had a pretty high success rate nonetheless).

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Firefox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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7 Responses to “Five Firefox Tips”

  1. MS Windows Vista Compatible Software on 10 Jan 2008 at 9:58 pm #

    you know everything there is to know about the browser, something new comes along and surprises you. I discovered five new Firefox tips today. Maybe these are old hat and you know them already. Or maybe like me, you had no idea these could be done.(more…)

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  3. Jesus on 15 Jan 2008 at 5:13 am #

    lmfao at these being tips , i call it general knowledge. try this one
    type this in the url
    about:config
    change the netwrok.http.pipelining to true
    change network.http.pipelining.maxrequest to 30
    change network.http.proxy.pipelining to true by double clicking the line….
    new-integer “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” set it to 0
    your browser speed is considerably faster , they should make me a moderator of this site as i see bad tweaks and general info everywhere.
    u want real tips and help optimizing your pc contact me xlx_jesus.saves_xlx@yahoo.com

  4. Firefox Tips you May Not Know About | PCTips Box on 23 Jan 2008 at 5:15 am #

    [...] day I find new Firefox tips and tricks that I didn’t know about and then I find out that other people didn’t know about them either. [...]

  5. January 2008 Popular Tips for PcTipsBox - TOP10 | PCTips Box on 01 Feb 2008 at 5:23 am #

    [...] Five Firefox Tips [...]

  6. Crippo on 17 Mar 2008 at 5:49 pm #

    @Jesus

    Yeah, this site is one giant fart, it’s only some copy-pasted crap, most of them not even corrupt or not changing anything at all.

  7. marsh8472 on 30 Aug 2008 at 3:14 pm #

    ^that jesus guy sucks on his mom’s balls.

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