Choose Where to Download Files in Firefox 6,7,8,9

Have you downloaded a new version of Firefox (I believe this info is good for Firefox 6,7,8 and 9) and discovered that it wants to put files you download in a place you don't want or can't find? The default is in the Downloads Folder, which is under "Users" in Windows 7, or YourName Documents in Windows XP.

It's easy to change this. Find the orange bar in the upper left that says "Firefox." Click on it and then on the Options choice.

This will open the box you see in the second image here. If "General" is not the selection that shows, choose it now (the one that looks like a light switch). Then, in the middle of the box, you can select whether you want downloads to go to the file of that name (and whether you want the downloads window to stay open or close), Or if you want to specify a different location to be used all the time, or if you would like to be asked every time.




I dump downloads on my desktop. That way I can find them easily, and then move them or trash them after I've looked at the file.

Set Search Bar Default in Firefox

Does your preferred search engine in Firefox sometimes revert to one that you don't want to use all the time? This can easily happen when an update is performed, or sometimes if it locks up and has to be shut down by the system.

This is an annoying little problem. It's easy to pull down the list and click on the one you want, but how do you get it back to being the default search preference?

Using the picture above as a guide, you will notice that at the bottom of the list is a choice called Manage Search Engines. Click on that and you will see the box as below.



Then you can select the search engine preference you want and move it to the top of the list. That will make it the default search engine choice. You can order any of the others as you wish, too.

This is very simple, but it's difficult to find the instructions for how to actually do it.

New Tab Placement in FireFox 3.6

If you have downloaded FireFox 3.6 you have already discovered that one of the big changes is in where new tabs open. It used to be that if you did right-click, open in a new tab (or Cntrl click), the tab would open on the far right of your already open tabs. Now it opens right next to the page that you clicked on.

They say they made this change to help organize and group tabs together that are similar. I'm finding this hard to get used to. Sometimes it helps me organize, and sometimes it doesn't at all. I haven't decided if I will change it or not.

How do you change it, if you want to? It's not as simple as it should be, but it's not too hard. There is no way to change it under Tools/ Tabs. That is annoying.

• Open a new tab
• In the location bar (where you usually type a URL), type about:config, then press enter.
• You will see a warning about changing settings and voiding your warranty. Just press "I will be careful."
• Then you will see a screen of a lot of commands with some columns of figures or text after them. Scroll down quite a way until you find browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent
• You will note that its value is true. Double click that line and the value should change to false.
• Close that tab

Your new tabs should now open to the far right again. If you ever want to change it back, just follow these same steps and change the value back to true.

Tabbed Browsing in FireFox

Lost Your Firefox Download Choices?

With the recent updates to the Firefox browser, I have seen several complaints from people about losing the ability to choose where downloads are placed. The fix is easy!

On the top bar choose Tools/ Options/ Main. You will see the above window in Firefox 3.5.6. Then in the middle of the window is where you can make choices about how you want downloads handled.

You can choose whether to see the downloads window, and if it should close on its own when finished. You can select a location where downloads go all the time, or you can choose to be asked where you want each download sent when it is being downloaded. That is the one that I like.

Temporarily enlarging a page in FireFox

Would you sometimes like to make a web page just a little larger to see something better, but you don't want to change your settings, or do anything permanent? In Firefox, you can easily do this.

On the left is a section of one of my blogs at the setting where I normally keep it. On the right is a temporary enlargement. Both are 180x400 pixels, taken from a screen capture.

The way to do this is simply hold down Control and hit + to enlarge or - to shrink the page. This action will only affect the page in that one tab. The two shots I have shown are my normal view, and after hitting Control+ two times.

Mozilla- parent company of Firefox

web ad income Nov 14 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.01 Adgitize $.69 Project Wonderful $.05 Clixsense $.07 Chitika $.22 Neobux $.07 ______________________ Total: $1.11

Did Your Status Bar Disappear?

Today I learned something the hard way. My status bar on Firefox 3.5.3 was gone, and I didn't know how that had happened. What was worse... on the View menu at the top, Status Bar was checked which meant that it should be showing. Unchecking it had no effect.

It seems that I had accidentally hit the F11 key (one piece of software I have uses F12 for save, so I probably missed and hit F11 by accident hours ago, and just didn't notice that anything had changed.) In Firefox, F11 changes the view to Fullscreen mode. You can also select this from the View menu.

One thing that I can't explain at all is that in Fullscreen mode all the bars at the top of the screen should disappear too, and they didn't this one time. But as a suggestion, if your status bar disappears, and the View menu indicates that it should be showing, try F11.

In Fullscreen you can still navigate from one browser tab to another with Control+Page Up or Down. In this mode all the distractions of the many bars are temporarily hidden to help you focus on the project at hand.

web ad income Oct 23 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.15 Adgitize $.55 Project Wonderful $.01 My Survey $.55 Chitika $.01 ______________________ Total: $1.27

Quickly Minimize All Open Programs

A couple of days ago I talked about how to use the Quick Launch Tool Bar to get quick access to your most-used programs. But there is one icon there that is really handy to reveal the desktop.

See the little icon that I have circled in the graphic? I'm not sure what I think it looks like, but apparently it's supposed to be an empty monitor face.

If you need to be able to access something on your desktop in a hurry, just click that icon, and all your open programs will minimize without needing to click on them one by one.

web ad income July 21 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.22 Adgitize $.53 Project Wonderful $.04 Shareapic $.02 Clixsense $.07 ______________________ Total: $.89

Firefox 3.5 - First Impressions

I was all prepared to love Firefox 3.5, but after using it for a day, I think you should wait until they get some bugs worked out before rushing out to download it.

These are strictly personal experiences. If you want the specs, head for their web site. Right off the bat though the introduction video wouldn't play on one of my computers (not a dinosaur), so that should have been a message right there.

Supposedly 3.5 deals with javascript better. One problem with FF 3.0.x is that when you surf through Entrecard or Adgitize sites the browser gets so balled up with the javascript for their frames that every couple of hours it is so constipated that I have to close down the browser and sometimes reboot to get it to keep lumbering along. Before reaching that point it goes into "Not Responding" mode every so often and I had to wait for it to resolve its backlog of tasks.

With FF 3.5, it simply won't let me move away from the page that it's struggling with until it has finished speaking with that script. It acquires no backlog, but I have to wait for every page to do its thing. And there is no little waiting hourglass, all you get is an arrow that won't do anything no matter where you click. This is really maddening! I can't even wait till it jams up and then go make a cup of tea while it resolves itself. I'm just wasting time all the time.

And it has some problems with some interfaces. On a site where I am very active I can no longer reply to posts in the forum or upload pictures. I had to open IE (shhh) to accomplish those tasks.

And for you Entrecarders, the toolbar is not compatible with FF 3.5.

I was going to downgrade, but they've taken 3.x off their site as an option. If you want to downgrade you will need to go back to version 2.x. That strikes me as a particularly mean move on their part. I think my love affair with Firefox is over.

Be brave and download Firefox 3.5

web ad income July 16 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.02 Adgitize $.55 Project Wonderful $.01 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.02 My Survey $.10 ______________________ Total: $.71

Oh No! I Just Closed a Tab I Wanted!

And who of us hasn't said that? Well, in Firefox it's easy to get the last few tabs that you closed back again!

Actually, if you just want the most recent one you closed, hit Control+Shift+T, and there it is, like magic!



But what if the one you thought you were finished with was a couple of tabs back? No problem! Choose History / Recently Closed Tabs, and there is the list of the last 10 tabs you closed. Select the one you want or you can reopen all 10!

web ad income today (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.04 Adgitize $.83 Project Wonderful $.03 ______________________ Total: $.90 Total to date in April $5.25 Total in March $4.88