Firefox in a Nutshell
Interface Overview
The basic Firefox window includes menus, buttons, toolbars, and a search box. The following image shows the basic window.
For an explanation of the main functions, see the table following the image.
| Pointer | Feature | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Menus | Provide various commands for using Firefox. |
| 2 | Browse Buttons | Used when browsing the web. These include Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, and Home buttons.
|
| 3 | Toolbars | Used for navigation and bookmarking, among many other functions.
|
| 4 | Location Bar | Text box for typing the URL of a web page. |
| 5 | Edit Bookmark Tools | Enable you to remove, name, move, or tag a bookmark. |
| 6 | Search Box | Text box for typing a search term, with a menu of search engines to select from. |
| 7 | Tabbed Pages | Allow you to open multiple web pages at the same time and switch between them by clicking on a tab. |
| 8 | Status Bar | Shows the current status of the web page, such as security alerts. |
| 9 | Main Content Pane |
Shows the currently displayed web page. |
The Location Bar: This long box ("search or enter address") is where you enter text for typing the URL of a web page.
The Orange Drop Down Menu Button at the Top Left of the page: These provide various commands for using Firefox.
Browse Buttons : The arrows at the top left are your Back and Forward buttons. The Refresh button is found to the far right actually in the Location Bar .
The Search Box : Located top right of the page. This is a Text box for typing a search term and also contains a drop down menu of search engines to select from.There is a second larger search box in the center of the page for Google searches only.
Tabbed Pages: Allow you to open multiple web pages at the same time and switch between them by clicking on a tab.Found at the very top of the page.
Bookmarks: Clicking on the Bookmarks button to the top right of the page displays your bookmarks and enables you to make, remove, name, move, or tag a bookmark.
Using the Location Bar
Going to a website in Firefox is easy. Just type a website address (also known as a "URL", for "Uniform Resource Locator") into the location bar and press Enter.
It is not necessary to type "http://" at the beginning of the address. While you are typing, Firefox looks for visited and bookmarked page titles and tags along with visited web addresses, making guesses at which sites or pages you want to visit. This way, if you don't remember the URL of a page you've visited or bookmarked, you can type some words from the title of the page, and Firefox will display some suggestions.
This powerful search feature of the Location Bar is the reason why some Firefox developers affectionately call it the Awesome Bar instead. It allows you to use the Down Arrow key or your mouse to highlight the URL of the site you want to visit. Press Enter or click your selection. The website you selected appears.
The Location Bar learns which sites you visit most frequently and optimizes the result listing to match your personal style. After a few weeks, it can require as little as typing a single letter in the location bar to get to frequently visited pages.
Web keyword searches
If you enter text into the Location Bar that is not a valid web address, Firefox tries to direct you to the location it believes you intended.
Firefox first tries to send your request to an Internet Keyword search service. This service is Google's Browse by Name (http://toolbar.google.com/bbn_help.html) service by default. For example, If you type mozilla foundation into the location bar, Firefox sends that text to the Google Browse by Name service, since it is not a valid URL address. The service directs you to its best match for your request, in this case: http://www.mozilla.org. For an entry without a clear match to a URL, Firefox displays search results for the entry.
If you enter an incomplete web address, Firefox tries to "guess" the address. For more information about key word searches and domain guessing, see the following Knowledge Base article: http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Location+bar+search.
Clearing the history
Firefox keeps a "history" of the Web sites and pages that you've visited. It uses this list to generate suggestions as you type in the location bar. However, you might not want the history of pages you've visited to be stored on your computer.
You can clear a single item or all items from location bar history.
To clear a single item:
- Click the drop-down arrow in the location bar.
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Press the Down Arrow key, or move your pointer, to "highlight" (by way of a blue outline) the entry to delete.
- Press the Delete key to delete the item.
You can clear many items from the location bar by removing Browsing History via the Clear Recent History dialog window. For more information, see the section on Privacy in Firefox.
Bookmarks and the Refresh Buttons in the Location bar
At the far right in the Location bar itself can be also be found a star shaped button.
If this button is shown in yellow it means the URL shown in the bar has been bookmarked and clicking on it will enable you to edit the bookmark entry. If it is not shown in yellow then clicking will place the URL in your list of bookmarks.
Clicking on the circular arrow in the Location bar will "refresh" the web page you are looking at, updating it and showing any changes which might have taken place since you first started to view the page.
