Why upgrade to Firefox?

Preface

The web browser you use is pivotal to the experience you get when browsing the Internet. If you're still using an antique web browser such as Internet Explorer it's time you gave serious consideration to upgrading, like 100 million other people already have, to a more modern browser such as Firefox...

As with all our Articles, we welcome your comments and we'll be making updates to this article based on your feedback and our own ongoing research.

What is Firefox?

is a very modern web browser. Not only is it free, it has loads of other advantages over the old browsers, such as Internet Explorer. It's definately a case of you don't know what you're missing until you've tried...

We'll discuss several of these advantages in more detail later in this article, but for now here's a quick list of the main benefits of using Firefox:

• It's much, much faster - Firefox displays pages faster regardless of the speed of your computer or internet connection.
• Intuative interface - all the features of Firefox just make sense as soon as you start using them making the browser a lot easier to use.
• Tabbed browsing - this is something you have to try to truly appreciate how much it improves your Internet browsing experience. Once you've used tabbed browsing, you won't be able to imagine life without it.
• It's more secure - although every browser has security risks, Firefox is updated at a much faster rate than Internet Explorer so as new risks arise, they get dealt with much more quickly
• It's standards compliant - Firefox is far better at displaying web pages than any other browser because it does things properly. As a result, pages look cleaner and work more reliably. It's also far, far cheaper to develop websites for Firefox because everything works first time without the need for endless snagging.
• It can be extended - as we'll discuss in detail later, Firefox allows you to add all kinds of extensions from weather reports to custom themes.
• Automatic updates - not only does the browser keep itself up-to-date, but it also makes sure any plug-ins (known as extensions) and themes are kept up to date as well.

Why not install it now - it only takes a few minutes and it's really easy to do. Just click on the firefox logo below and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll then be able to read the rest of this article using Firefox so you can try out the various features for yourself. If you decide you don't like it (highly unlikely) then you can always uninstall it afterwards.

Everyone's Using Firefox!

We've recently been monitoring which web browsers are used to access our website and were amazed at the results:

Want to know why so many people are using Firefox? Read on...

Tabbed Browsing

Hopefully, you've installed Firefox already and will be able to get a feel for why tabbed browsing is so useful. So, what is this tabbed browsing that we're raving about?

With older browsers, if you want more than one web page open at once you have to have multiple browser windows open. This clutters up your desktop and makes it harder to find pages loaded in other browser windows.

Firefox, and several other modern browsers, get round this problem by usiung tabs:

Within a single browser window, you can open several web pages at once - each one being loaded in to it's own tab. Of course, you can still have multiple browser windows, each with a single web page if that's what you prefer, but once you start using tabs you'll probably never look back.

There are several ways to open web pages in new tabs - our favourites are:

• Click the "New Tab" button in the toolbar - this will create a new tab in to which you can enter a specific website location or load a bookmarked web page.
• Right-click a link on the web page and choose "Open Link in New Tab"
• Move the mouse pointer over a link on a web page and "click" the mousewheel (if you've not got a mouse with a mouse wheel in the middle, that's something else that we recommend you get)

One of the benefits of tabs is that you can load interesting links on a web page in to new tabs - that way you don't leave the web page you're reading to view them. When you're done reading the current web page, those links you were interested in are alreay loaded and waiting in tabs. Just click the tab to display the web page - no more swapping between browser windows - everything is at your fingertips!

Why not open this link in a new tab now, and you can read it later to find out some other useful features regarding tabs.

Extensions

Throughout the remainder of this article, we'll be discussing various Firefox Extensions which add additional functionality and customisation to Firefox. As such, you'll need to know how to install them so we'll quickly discuss that now...

When you try to install an extension, you'll see a warning message at the top of the web page that looks a bit like this:

This makes sure that websites can't automatically install extensions without your express permission. To allow installation of the extension, click on the "Edit Options..." link and you'll be presented with something like this:

Simply click the "Allow" button at to add the website to your list of approved sites and go back to the website and click the link to install the extension. Installation is automatic, but you'll usually have to restart the web browser (by closing it and opening it again) in order to activate the extension. You can install several extensions and only have to restart the browser once to make them all become active.

Navigation Aids

Tabbed Browsing Preferences

Tabs are great, but you can make them even better by customising them with the Tab Mix Plus extension. Once activated (you'll need to start the web browser), select "Options..." from the "Tools" menu at the top of your brwoser window, then navigate to the "Tab Mix Plus" options:

As you can see, you can define basic settings using these options that will immediately make tabbed browsing more customised to your tastes. The settings shown above are those that I prefer, but your requirements may be different.

You'll also notice the "Tab Mix Plus Options..." button at the top of that image - click it and you'll get even more options like this:

There are loads of extra options for making tabs behave exactly how you want them to, but we've highlighted one particularly useful feature in the picture above - the ability to customise what "unread" tabs look like. When set as shown above, unread tabs will show page titles in red italic text so you can quickly see which tabs you've not yet looked at.

Sidebars

With all the features of Firefox, sometimes it's difficult to find somewhere to display them all. That's where the All-In-One Sidebar can help:

The sidebar allows you to move lesser-used features such as bookmarks and favourites, etc., in to a panel at the side of the screen. The panel can be easily hidden or shown at any time, without leaving the current web page.

Downloads

Firefox comes with it's own download manager that allows you to easily manage multiple downloads at the same time. Should a download fail, you can usually resume from the point at which it stopped.

If you want a more dynamic display of downloads, install the Download Statusbar extension which displays progress bars for all downloads in a status bar at the bottom of the screen. Move the mouse over any download and additional details will be displayed as shown above.

Internet Explorer Compatibility

Because Internet Explorer has been around for a long time, there are still some sites on the Internet that will not work with any other browser. Although these are few and far between, it can be annoying having to seperately start Internet Explorer and retype the website address - that's where the IE Tab extension comes in very handy indeed.

Simply click the buttom on the status bar and the current tab will suddenly become Internet Explorer! You don't even need to leave Firefox. If there's a site you regularly visit, you can configure IE Tab to automatically load that site in to an Internet Explorer tab for all future visits.

Searching

Firefox comes with it's own inbuilt search bar that allows you to quickly search the Internet. However, if you want something a bit more powerful you can install the Google Bar extension:

The Google bar allows you to quickly search for web pages, images and all kinds of other things. There are even tools for translating web pages and highligting text on the current web page.

You might also like to try out the Better Search extension which improves the display of search results (such as adding page previews, etc).

It should also be noted that you can search for things on the current web page by pressing "Ctrl" + "F" keys together or choosing "Find in This Page..." from the "Edit" menu.

Media Player Control

When your computer screen is packed full of applications (Firefox, email, word processor, etc), the last thing you need is to go searching for your media player - especially when the phone is ringing and you urgently need to turn off any music you're listening to.

The FoxyTunes extension comes to the rescue by adding a tiny media controller to your web browser so you can get to the controls instantly.

Pop-ups and Advert Blocking

Firefox comes with it's own built-in pop-up blocker to stop all those annoying advert windows appearing when you browse websites, but you can rip out even more adverts using the AdBlocker extension it automatically removes large numbers of adverts from websites to make browsing pages even faster.

Information and Productivity

Weather Forecasts

I can't really explian why, but I just love seeing a 5 day weather forecast (which gets automatically updated all the time) in my browser toolbar:

The ForecastFox extension allows you to define several locations (such as home, work and wherever it is you plan to go on holiday) and then easily display weather for those locations in Firefox. Moving the mouse over the various icons provides additional information.

World Clocks

We've got clients all over the world so the FoxClocks extension comes in really handy when we urgently need to know the time in various parts of the world:

Simply select which cities to display and then move the mouse over the status bar icon to get the current times in those cities.

Live Bookmarks and News

Firefox comes with a useful feature called Live Bookmarks. You can add live bookmarks for any website that offers a news feed and have the latest news and information automatically appear in your bookmarks folder.

Personally, I prefer the Info RSS extension which does the same sort of thing, only it displays the latest news in a news ticker bar at the bottom of the web browser window:

As new news is made available, the headlines are added to the news ticker which scrolls at the bottom of your browser window. Move the mouse over any item to display a summary and if you want to read the full article just click and you'll be taken to the corresponding web page.

Note: It's not just news stories that get published by websties - you can usually get update notifications about any type of content on websites, especially those that offer RSS Feeds.

Scrap Book

Web pages contain lots of information - wouldn't it be nice if you could have a scrap book where you could paste all those bits of useful information you find while you are browsing the Internet? Well, that's exactly what the ScrapBook extension allows you to do.

The scrap book opens in a side bar and you can drag any part of a web page on to it to keep a copy on your computer. Whether you're just grabbing a picture or the "contact us" page from your companies website (if, like me, you can never remember the fax number), the scrap book makes it easy to gather all kinds of information and then easily retrieve it at a later date.

Calculator

Windows Calculator is fine, but how often do you use it? And when you do, doesn't it annoy you that you usually have to search through your "Start" menu for a few minutes trying to find it?

Well, that's where the Calculator extension saves the day. After installing it, configure a toolbar to add the calculator button and then you can display a very nice calculator in your web browser at any time. You can even load it in to a side-bar.

The calculator has a handy "History" feature that shows recent calculations and you can click any line to either re-use a calculator or re-use the result of a calculation.

Reminders and To-Do Lists

Supprising as it may seem, your web browser is one of the most intuative places to store reminders and to-do lists. That's exactly what the ReminderFox extension allows you to do:

You can add as many reminders and to-do notes as desired and it'll display pop-up windows to remind you of things that need doing.

Themes

Finally, we'll look at a feature that allows you to completely change the way the browser looks, customising it to your own personal taste: Themes.

Themes rarely add any functionality and in some cases even reduce functionality. However, there's something special about having your browser customised to your own tastes that makes browsing the Internet all the more enjoyable.

Most of the pictures in this tutorial were made while using the Brushed theme:

Other notable themes are iFox and iFox Smooth. You can get lots more themes on the Mozilla Updates site.

Summary

Firefox is a truly next-generation web browser. When it's first installed, it's faster, more secure, more reliable and easier to use than older browsers such as Internet Explorer.

If you've longed for extra features in your web browser, that just work from the moment they are installed, you can extend Firefox to do just about anything. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of extensions and a growing number of themes - all of which allow you to customise your web browser to your exact needs.