Saturday, April 25, 2009

Mac OS X Tricks And Tips: Hidden Firefox Settings

Since many of my readers use Firefox I thought it would be a good idea to post these up here. Hidden functionality works differently on Firefox. It doesn’t use the normal preference files. It uses a separate file stored within the application itself.

In a new Firefox tab type in the address bar about:config. Click past the warning message. To insert a new variable and access the hidden settings you have to type the string in the search bar at the top of the page. From there you can right click on the setting and select modify or double click the setting.You have to restart your browser to access the new settings or open a new window.

1) browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll

Every time you click on the address bar it normally selects the address. Changing this setting from true to false will stop this.

2) browser.tabs.closeButtons

This will change where the close button is positioned. 0 = Currently opened tab. 1 = All tabs (default). 2 = Remove close buttons. 3 = Far right of the tab bar.

3) browser.search.openintab

This will force any new search using the search box in the top left to open in a new window. Very useful.

4) browser.urlbar.maxRichResults

This will change the amount of result that appear in you search bar. I recommend a large number although it does produce the scrolll bar. Default is 12.

5) browser.fixup.alternate.suffix

If you are from a country that doesn’t have many “.com” domains you can change the automatic suffix to your own country code. For example you could change it from .com to .jp if you are from Japan. This might be taken into consideration though if you use a none English browser.

6) browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace

If you open a whole folder or of bookmarks it will replace every setting. If you change this to false it will only replace the one you are in and the bookmarks after it.

7) accessibility.typeaheadfind.casesensitive

Changing this to 1 will make the search case sensitive. Not really hidden since you can change this from the search bar.

8) browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

This will change the minimum width of a tab. The small value you go the smaller the tab, the larger the value the larger the tab. Useful if you have hundreds of tabs open and you want to see more on screen.

9) browser.chrome.toolbar_tips

If you change this to false it will disable the yellow box that is present when you hover over a bookmark in the bookmarks bar.

10) layout.spellcheckDefault

This should be enabled by default. If you change the value to 2 it will spell check every search box not just large text boxes.

11) general.smoothScroll

Enabling this option to true will show make the page smooth scroll. For some reason you have to enable it here an not in the preference pane.

12) View an easter egg.

If you type about:robots into the address about you get a page dedicated to robots. I for one welcome out new robot overlords.

You can also view text from the book of mozilla if you type about:mozilla. The text reads as follows.

Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.
From The Book of Mozilla, 11:9
(10th Edition)

There are hundreds of little tips and tricks you can do in Firefox. If you have anymore please leave a comment below.

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