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76 SteveZobell 1 !!! Shortcuts
2
3
4 Both Mozilla browsers support address bar shortcuts. They currently only support one substitution, but it works pretty well for most applications.
5
6 To create a shortcut, save a bookmark to the site you wish to have a shortcut to, then edit it and put a <tt>%s</tt> where the query would go and put a name for the shortcut in the shortcut field of its properties. F.ex, a shortcut for the WlugWiki might look like <tt>http://www.wlug.org.nz/%s</tt> and be invoked with the name <tt>wlug</tt>. Then you could enter "<tt>wiki MozillaNotes</tt>" in your address bar to get to this page.
7
78 SteveZobell 8 !! Search plugins
76 SteveZobell 9
10 [Mozilla] supports the use of plugins that integrate new sites into the browser's search box. F.ex, the following file will let you perform a TitleSearch on the WlugWiki:
11
12 <verbatim>
13 <search
14 name="WLUG Wiki"
15 description="Wlug Wiki TitleSearch"
16 method="GET"
17 action="http://wlug.org.nz/TitleSearch"
18 queryEncoding="utf-8"
19 queryCharset="utf-8"
20 >
21 <input name="auto_redirect" value="1">
22 <input name="s" user>
23 </search>
24 </verbatim>
25
26 To use it, save it as <tt>wlug.src</tt> or something like that in [Mozilla]'s <tt>searchplugins/</tt> directory and restart the browser.
27
28 [Mycroft | http://mycroft.mozdev.org/] is a huge repository of search plugins for all manner of sites.
29
30
31 !! Ad blocking
32
33 If you're sick of ads add this to your userContent.css file mentioned above:
34
35 <verbatim>
36 *[height="60"][width="468"], *[height="60px"][width="468px"],
37 *[height="60"][width="234"], *[height="60px"][width="234px"],
38 *[height="600"][width="120"], *[height="600px"][width="120px"],
39 *[height="600"][width="160"], *[height="600px"][width="160px"],
40 *[height="120"][width="240"], *[height="120px"][width="240px"],
41 *[height="150"][width="180"], *[height="150px"][width="180px"],
42 *[height="300"][width="250"], *[height="300px"][width="250px"],
43 *[height="336"][width="280"], *[height="336px"][width="280px"],
44 *[height="400"][width="240"], *[height="400px"][width="240px"]
45 {
46 -moz-opacity: .2 !important;
47 }
48 </verbatim>
49
50 and restart Mozilla. You'll have to "Exit Mozilla" if you use Windows Quick Launch.
51
52 Alternatively, change the line that says <tt>-moz-opacity: .2 !important;</tt> to <tt>display: none !important;</tt> to not even bother loading ads.
79 SteveZobell 53
54 Hitting the Escape key will stop GIF animations in Firefox. To disable Flash animation, see the Flash and Java Plugin click-to-load section below.
76 SteveZobell 55
56 !!! Configuration options
57
58 These settings are set in the prefs.js file.
59
60 You can go to the URL about:config (can't make this an href in wiki!!) from within Mozilla to see a list of (all?) the preferences settings, and whether the default value is being used or not.
61
62 The site http://www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/ explains in detail what some of the more useful settings do.
63
64
65 !! Font-related settings
66
84 AristotlePagaltzis 67 Never use a font smaller than 13::
76 SteveZobell 68
84 AristotlePagaltzis 69 <verbatim>
70 user_pref("font.minimum-size.x-western", 13);
71 </verbatim>
72
73 Use anti-aliased [TTF]s::
74
75 <verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 76 pref("font.FreeType2.enable", true);
77 pref("font.freetype2.shared-library", "libfreetype.so.6");
78 pref("font.FreeType2.autohinted", true);
79 pref("font.FreeType2.unhinted", false);
80 pref("font.antialias.min", 16);
81 pref("font.directory.truetype.2", "/usr/share/fonts/truetype");
84 AristotlePagaltzis 82 </verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 83
84 AristotlePagaltzis 84 Anti-aliasing with Bitmap scaling::
85
86 <verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 87 pref("font.scale.aa_bitmap.enable", true);
88 //pref("font.scale.aa_bitmap.always", true);
89 pref("font.scale.aa_bitmap.min", 16);
84 AristotlePagaltzis 90 </verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 91
84 AristotlePagaltzis 92 Note: fonts that Mozilla lists as having a lowercase initial letter are retrieved through [X11] and don't support anti-aliasing.
76 SteveZobell 93
84 AristotlePagaltzis 94 Debian testing and unstable have a package called <tt>mozilla-xft</tt> which contains the libraries needed to use TrueType fonts with anti-aliasing.
76 SteveZobell 95
96 !! Colour-related settings
84 AristotlePagaltzis 97
76 SteveZobell 98 I changed the settings of the colours to use in the browser's Preference pages. I prefer light text on a dark background - however, mozilla still uses dark blue for highlighting text, which can be hard to see. I discovered these settings which change these colours:
99
84 AristotlePagaltzis 100 <verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 101 user_pref("ui.textSelectBackground", "#b4b2b4");
102 user_pref("ui.textSelectForeground", "#000000");
84 AristotlePagaltzis 103 </verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 104
105 This gives me black text on a light grey background for text that is selected by the mouse or by searching.
106
107 !!Email
108
109 To use your default MailClient instead of Mozilla Mail, use
110 user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.mailto", true);
111
84 AristotlePagaltzis 112 Now this doesn't seem to work in Linux, so you might want to go to the [Mozex|http://mozex.mozdev.org] site and get Mozex, an extension that lets you use any program you like for external links, viewing source etc. (And feed it <tt>evolution ~mailto:%A?Subject=%S&Cc=%C&body=%B</tt> )
76 SteveZobell 113
114 !!!Plugins
115
116 !!Installing Plugins
84 AristotlePagaltzis 117
76 SteveZobell 118 If you have problems with plugins, almost all of them can be solved by manually copying the right files from your installation of whatever-player into your plugin directory. Check out [http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/] for which file does what.
119
120 If you are using Mozilla 1.3 (whether beta or otherwise) and g++-3.2 and trying to use the Sun Java plugin, you might have problems. Try using the Blackdown JRE/JDK. A good way to diagnose problems with plugins in Mozilla is to run:
121
122 mozilla --debug
123
124 Generally, plugins need to be compiled with a similar version of g++ as mozilla itself was compiled (since g++ changed "name-mangling" schemes between version 2.9x and version 3.x).
125 If you only install plugins provided by your distribution, then they have probably compiled everything with the same compiler version. This is the same with the EnigMail [PGP] plugin for MozillaMail - they provide two versions, one for each compiler version.
126
127 __Macromedia Flash Plugin:__ after struggling for months with flash plugin crash, bringing Mozilla down with it, whenever a web page had flash on it, I finally solved the problem. The problem was an issue between Flash 6.0 r79 and XFree86. My X Config file (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4) had a color depth that wasn't an even-byte-boundary depth. It was "~DefaultColorDepth 15". When I changed the line to read "~DefaultColorDepth 16" flash started working-- no more crashing. Hooray!
128
129 !!Disabling plugins
130 Mozilla-based browsers (including Galeon) don't seem to have any easy way of disabling plugins under Linux. http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/ and http://forums.mozillazine.org/ will only tell you how to disable them under Windows (the "plugin.scan" preference) or tell you to delete the plugin file (under linux). But if you are using a machine that you do not administer, and it has plugins installed into system directories like /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, then you are pretty much stuck with it.
131
132 __But__ - there is a way to get your mozilla to not use the annoying acroread pdf plugin (or any other annoying plugin) - edit your $HOME/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat
133 file. First, completely close down your browser. Open the file in an editor, and
134 remove the lines related to the pdf (or whatever) plugin. For me, I removed the
135 following lines:
136
84 AristotlePagaltzis 137 <verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 138 /opt/Acrobat5/Browsers/intellinux/nppdf.so:$
139 :$
140 1092927951000:1:1:$
141 :$
142 nppdf.so:$
143 1
144 0:application/pdf:Portable Document Format:pdf:$
84 AristotlePagaltzis 145 </verbatim>
76 SteveZobell 146
147 The format seems to consist of lines ending with ":$" - the filename, a blank line, a magic number of some sort, a description of the plugin, the name of the plugin, and then a number saying how many lines follow. Those following lines (indexed from 0)
148 contain all the mime-types that the plugin handles.
149
150 Now I can control how my pdf files open, instead of being forced into that horrible acroread browser plugin...
151
152 !!Using user css to hide/disable plugin content
153
78 SteveZobell 154 You can enable the Flash and Java plugins but not automatically load flash animations or Java programs by using CSS and XUL.
76 SteveZobell 155 This can also be used for arbitrary types.
156
157
78 SteveZobell 158 !!Flash and Java plugin click-to-load
76 SteveZobell 159
160 Copy the following into your your <tt>$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/''salt''/chrome/userContent.css</tt> file:
161 <verbatim>
162 /* Prevent flash animations from playing until you click on them. */
163 object[classid$=":D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"],
164 object[codebase*="swflash.cab"],
165 object[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"],
166 embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"],
167 embed[src$=".swf"]
168 { -moz-binding: url("resource:///res/clickToView.xml#flash"); }
78 SteveZobell 169
170 /* Prevent java applets from playing until you click on them. */
171 object[codebase*="java"],
172 object[type="application/java"],
173 embed[type="application/java"],
174 applet[code$=".class"]
175 { -moz-binding: url("resource:///res/clickToView.xml#java"); }
76 SteveZobell 176 </verbatim>
177 The file location of the userContent.css will be different for other browsers: try <tt>$HOME/.galeon/mozilla/galeon/chrome</tt> or <tt>$HOME/.mozilla/default/''salt''/chrome/userContent.css</tt>.
178
179 Next, copy the [ clickToView.xml | http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/software/clickToView.xml ] file into the "res" subdirectory of the directory where firefox is installed. The command "which firefox" can help determine the directory where firefox is installed, and root may be needed to install the xml file. The xml file comments also give directions for installing clickToView, including hints for Windows OS users.
82 SteveZobell 180
181 Any Flash and Java content will be replaced by a button, and if you click the button it will start the animation. Sometimes flash content covers other content and then shrinks to reveal the real page content. To help manage this, the button is translucent (until you put the cursor over the button) to show what is under it. There is also an X button inside that deletes the click-to-view button without playing (this capability was added on 9/21/06).
76 SteveZobell 182
183 clickToView.xml really should be in the chrome directory with userContent.css, but this is not yet supported. Eventually, "profile:///chrome" may be available to replace "resource:///res". And "file:///" will not work here. Keeping a copy of clickToView.xml in the chrome directory is a good idea anyway, and you may want to use a symlink to the xml file in chrome from the res directory.
184
185 It is possible to load the clickToView.xml from the web instead of installing a local copy, but this can be slow and the xml file may not always be available or may be modified without your knowing. Use a local xml file if you can, but if necessary the file can be loaded from the web by replacing the moz-binding line with this:
186 <verbatim>
187 { -moz-binding: url("http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/software/clickToView.xml#flash"); }
188 </verbatim>
189
82 SteveZobell 190 There is also a Firefox extension called ~FlashBlock that provides similar capabilities.
76 SteveZobell 191
192 !!!Misc Neat Stuff
193 http://webfx.eae.net/games/minehunter/launcher.html
194
195 !!Keyboard shortcuts
196 For people that want to know the keyboard shortcuts:
197 As of version 1.4, this is in mozilla's help: "Help" menu -> "Help Contents" -> "Mozilla Keyboard Shortcuts".
198
199 http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/mozkeylist.html
200
201 !!! Printing under [Linux]/[Unix]
202
203 Rather than using the <tt>PRINTER</tt> or <tt>LP</tt> EnvironmentVariable~s to determine where to print, [Mozilla] inspects <tt>MOZ_PRINTER_NAME</tt> instead and falls back to a default of <tt>lp</tt> if it is unset.
204
205 !!! Firefox
206
207 If you find that Mozilla is a little too heavy for your system, try out [Firefox|http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/]. The current version (1.0) is very stable and much lighter on memory than Mozilla. It supports Mozilla's useful features, including tabbed browsing, popup suppression and the fact that it is, of course, based on the wonderful Gecko. It also adds a few features, including extension support (to make the default browser more "minimal"), and fully customisable toolbars!
208
209 Note that MozillaFirefox is a replacement for the Mozilla browser component only, and doesn't include Mail, Composer, or any of those things. However, a lightweight, XUL based mail client called [Thunderbird|http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/] is a work in progress, but is still in a very early stage.
210
211 MozillaFirefox will become the "official" Mozilla web browser (rather than the current, large integrated browser/mailer/chatzilla that is code-named ~SeaMonkey).
212 The project's internal name was recently changed from Phoenix to Firebird to Firefox (it's explained on the MozillaFirefox page.) However, the first release is expected to be called simply "Mozilla Browser" (until a better name is found :)
213
214 There is good support now for Mac OS X. You could also look at [Chimera|http://chimera.mozdev.org/].
215
216 !!! IMAP
217
218 !! Courier-IMAP and the Folder Namespace Saga
219 The IMAP spec allows IMAP servers to use whatever namespace they like to store the messages and defines an extension (RFC2342 - NAMESPACE extension to IMAP4) that describes how a IMAP client can discover what this is.
220
221 Now if you are like me you like to have different folders from your Inbox that you keep mail in, and you prefer that these folders are on the same level as your Inbox not subfolders of your Inbox. Unfortunately due to some weird interactions between Courier-imap and Mozilla this doesn't work by default. However you can get it working with some magic in the mozilla configuration.
222
223 * Go to the account config screen for the account in question.
224 * Choose Server Settings > Advanced
225 * IMAP Server Directory should be "INBOX." (no quotes) (IMPORTANT)
226 * Personal Namespace should be empty (IMPORTANT)
227 * Shared Namespace should be "shared." (enter the quotes in to the textbox)
228 * Other Users should be empty
229 * Allow server to override these namespaces should be unchecked (IMPORTANT)
230
231 Click OK and exit out of the config. You must completely close Mozilla (Mail, Browser everything) before these changes will take effect - This caught me out a few times.
232
233 You can now create and use folders at the same level as the Inbox with Courier-IMAP
234
235 --Actually, it only appears that you are doing this. Arguably the same point, but the way the data is stored on the server doesn't change. So if you fire up mozilla on a different computer without having made the above changes, you will still get the old view of your directories
236
237 !! Checking all IMAP folders for new messages
238
239 By default Mozilla will only check the INBOX of an Imap server for new messages, to change this behavior.
240
241 * Completely Close Mozilla
242 * Backup your prefs.js
243 * Add the following line
244 user_pref("mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new", true);
245 * Save the file
246 * Start Mozilla
247
248 !! Turning off the crud people put on their web pages
249
250 * about:config (see above) gives access to the browser.blink_allowed flag
251 * Preferences -> Privary & Security -> Images permits you to rein-in looping gifs
252
253 !!! Trouble-shooting
254
255 I had a problem where Mozilla (version 1.2.1) would hang when going to the "Helper Applications" preference. I found that if I moved the "XUL.mfasl" file out of the way (in my ~~/.mozilla prefs directory) things worked again after the next mozilla startup.
256
257 Also, I had a similar problem where one day mozilla mail would work but any attempt to start a browser would result in it sitting in a loop allocating memory. Removing the large XUL.mfasl fixed this (mozilla recreates this file the next time you start).
258
259 This might also fix problems if Mozilla/Firefox crashes on startup after upgrading to a newer version.
260
261 !! Using the mouse buttons for page forward/back
262
263 Mozilla catches M-Left and M-Right, and also M-~ScrollDown and M-~ScrollUp, as Page-forward/Page-backward commands.
264 In theory, you can bind any key to do this, via the 'mozilla -remote xfeDoCommand(back)' or some similar magic, but the back and forward commands aren't actually implemented yet.
265
266 If you run sawfish, you can get Button 6 and Button 7 on your Intellimouse Explorer Pro Optical Whatever to do page forward/back by hacking at your ~/.sawfish/custom file. I added a dummy event for Button6-Click and Button7-Click (say, open xterm) via the control panel applent (sawfish-ui), and then opened my custom file and edited the event as shown below. Note that after this I wasn't really able to edit my custom bindings any more, as sawfish-ui didn't know how to deal with synthesize-event.
267
268 ((synthesize-event "M-Left" (input-focus)) . "Button6-Click") ((synthesize-event "M-Right" (input-focus)) . "Button7-Click")
269
270 What this actually does is sends a M-Left or M-Right on Button6/Button7 click. It works.
271
272 There might be a nicer way of doing this in other window managers. or it might be possible to get mozilla to grab button6/7 itself, I dont know.
273 --DanielLawson
274
275 For a more generic approach, install the [IMWheel|http://jcatki.no-ip.org/imwheel/] daemon and create a .imwheelrc in your user directory. To map
276 the side buttons to alt-left and alt-right, put into it:
277
278 <verbatim>
279 ".*"
280 None, Up, Alt_L|Left
281 None, Down, Alt_L|Right
282 </verbatim>
283
284 Finally, run 'imwheel -b 67' to map buttons 6 and 7 only. See Google or the IMWheel site for more examples.
285 --Pradeep Sanders
286
287 Another possibility is to remap the mouse buttons using xmodmap. This was actually done under Solaris (Nevada build 30), but I see no reason why it shouldn't also work under Linux (I don't currently have a Linux machine to try it).
288
289 I discovered through trial and error (and a little luck) that buttons 6 and 7 were indeed making Mozilla move back and forward through the browsing history (I didn't actually have to do any of the above steps).
290
291 Using xev to debug the mouse buttons (I have a Logitech MX700), I found the following:
292 <verbatim>
293 Button Desc
294 1 Normal left button
295 2 Press the wheel
296 3 Normal right button
297 4 Wheel up
298 5 Wheel down
299 6 Wheel up fast
300 7 Wheel down fast
301 8 Back thumb button
302 9 Forward thumb button
303 10 The one on the top
304 11 Don't know
305 </verbatim>
306
307 6 and 7 are generated if the mouse wheel is spun very quickly, and they make Mozilla move through the browse history. Also, for some reason, the USB driver seems to detect 11 buttons - maybe it's a bug in the driver (but it doesn't seem to do any harm).
308
309 Obviously, I'd like buttons 8 and 9 to make Mozilla move through the browse history, so I swapped them with buttons 6 and 7 using xmodmap:
310
311 <verbatim>
312 xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 6 7 10 11"
313 </verbatim>
314 -- Allan Black
315
316 !! Type-ahead Find Problems
317 I was having problems where somehow typeahead find would become enabled whenever I tried to type into the address bar and it was near on impossible to get out of the typeahead find mode. To disable it set
318 accessibility.typeaheadfind
319 to false.
320
321 ''This appears to be a bug in Mozilla (or X) - occasionally the focus gets stuck on the wrong object and the main page gets the focus, even if you click on the address bar on in a form field. If you are using tabs, changing to another tab and back clears the problem, but it is still an annoying bug. The point is I don't think it's the typeaheadfind's fault... I haven't seen it in moz 1.4 or later, although I still see at in 1.2.1'' -- JohnMcPherson
322
323 !! Thunderbird hangs while accessing IMAP folders from Courier-IMAP server
324 I had to set MAXPERIP=5 in /etc/courier/imapd (on a Debian 3.0 server). Otherwise Courier-IMAP defaults to allow only 4 connections per IMAP client and that causes Thunderbird (and Netscape Messenger, IIRC) to stop responding. -- ~FrEd
325 -- This is actually configured within the mail client (Thunderbird, Netscape Messenger, Mozilla Mail, etc). Go to the Account Settings, then Server Settings, press the 'Advanced' button, and there is field for 'Maximum number of server connections to cache', which is set to 5 by default. -- DanielLawson
326
78 SteveZobell 327 !! Slow File Picker
84 AristotlePagaltzis 328
329 Linux Firefox comes with a GTK2 file picker that is very slow. You may see a large delay when starting a download or using "Save Image As" or "Save Link As". The delay increases if there are many files in the target directory, and KDE users may see more delay than GNOME users. The GTK2 file picker also selects the target file name, so you cannot middle click to paste previously selected text into the name. You can recover the built-in XUL file picker. For Firefox 2 and above, type “<tt>about:config</tt>” into the URL and find the preference called “<tt>ui.allow_platform_file_picker</tt>”. Double-click on the preference to change the value to false. For more details, [see the MozillaZine KnowledgeBase | http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.allow_platform_file_picker ]. (For Firefox 1.5, you need to use [different instructions | http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1783468#1783468].)
76 SteveZobell 330
331 !!! See also
332
333 * [More ad blocking | http://www.deftone.com/blogzilla/archives/ad_blocking.html]
334 * [Other CSS ideas | http://www.squarefree.com/userstyles/]
335 * [Mozilla specific CSS | http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/properties/extensions/nsextensions.htm]
336 * [The famous Complex Spiral CSS demo | http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/complexspiral/demo.html]
337 * [The Eagle Sun Demo | http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/demos/eagle-sun.html] which uses [PNG] transparency
338 * [Bookmarklets|http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/] allow you to perform Javascript functions on web pages on the fly.
339 * [Information on porting IE centric Javascript to the W3C DOM | http://developer.netscape.com/viewsource/goodman_cross/goodman_cross.htm]

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