Firefox: Tips and Shortcuts to Speed Up Your Browsing

From bookmarking and downloading to tweaking configuration settings, here are five of the quickest ways to increase browsing speed and decrease frustration.

 

Every time you download something in Firefox, an annoying download window appears asking you where you want to save the file. If you want it to save files to the same location and eliminate that box, go to Tools>Options>Main. Under the downloads area, you can tell Firefox where to save every download. Then uncheck the box that says "Show Downloads window when downloading a file."

 

When you click on a link, Firefox automatically opens the new link in a tab. If you prefer it to open a new window instead, go to Tools>Options>Tabs and select the option for pages to be opened in "a new window."

 

Those cool icons and graphics next to Web sites--called favicons--aren't just pretty; they can also help you get to your favorite sites faster. If you see a site with a favicon that you want to bookmark, just grab it and drag it to the bookmark area of your Firefox toolbar. You'll be able to click on the image and go to your favorite sites instantly.

 

By default, if you enter a search term in the address field and press Enter, a Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" search is performed, and you're taken to the first result of that search directly. Never point your browser to google.com again.

 

If you really want to tweak Firefox, this tip will make you feel like you've stumbled upon a secret passage. Enter about:config in your address bar. A list of editable configuration preferences will appear. As we learned from lifehacker.com, setting the browser.startup.page value to 3 will enable you to restore browsing sessions with form entries, blog posts, and e-mails intact. You can also customize whether the tab-close buttons show up by changing the browser.tabls.closeButtons value to 3. 

Alt-D: Jumps to the insertion point in the address bar so you don't have to use your mouse (F6 will do the same thing).

Ctrl-Enter: Hitting these two keys will type "www...com" quickly. For example, all you need to enter in your address bar is laptopmag. When you press CTRL-Enter, you'll be taken to www.laptopmag.com.

Ctrl-mouse-wheel spin: This will enlarge or shrink a page's font size. (CTRL + or - will do the same thing). 

Ctrl-D: Will bookmark your current page.

Ctrl-F: Launches a Find bar in the bottom of your window. Type a word you're looking for on the page, and Firefox will highlight it.

Ctrl-click: When clicking on a link, this action will open the page you want in a separate tab rather than just overwriting the page you're browsing in.

Shift-click: This action will launch Firefox and the link you want in a new window.