Tweaks and tips for Firefox 4

Open source web browser Firefox hit version 4 last month, introducing a slick redesign and new features aimed at making browsing easier and more enjoyable, ensuring we waste even more of our time staring at stupid web sites.

Whether you're new to Firefox or an old hand, download it from the official Firefox site (it'll update existing installations and retain your settings) then read on to find out what's up with Firefox 4 and how to tweak and tune it to suit your peculiar particular web surfing needs...

New to Firefox 4...

• New look!

FF4 has been given a makeover. The new skin is cleaner, reminiscent of Google Chrome, which will no doubt make Chrome fans feel smug(ger). The most striking change is that tabs are now positioned above the address bar.

Toolbar buttons have also been shifted. The stop and reload buttons are now integrated into the right end of the URL bar with the home button on the far right. The eagle-eyed will also notice the status bar at the bottom of the screen is missing. All this means more screen real estate for pages.

• Faster!

Firefox has sometimes been accused of being sluggish, particularly in comparison to Google Chrome. Firefox 4 is a huge improvement in this area, pages load quickly and in general usage it feels snappy even with tons of tabs open.

• Firefox button!

The Firefox button is another major UI change. It combines all the functions of the menu toolbar into one button so if you want to access the settings, switch to private browsing, save a page or do anything else that would have been done via the menu bar before, click the Firefox button.

• Improved tab management!

Firefox 4 has a few additional features for handling tabs. 'App tabs' can be created by right-clicking on a tab to create a mini version which stays on the tab bar, giving faster access to favourite sites.

Tab Groups is activated by pressing Ctrl+Alt+E and gives an overview of all open tabs, a quick way of locating a particular page. Tabs can be organised into groups here by dragging and dropping individual pages to form a new group, which is helpful if you've got many links but don't want them all visible on the browser window.

• Overhauled add-ons manager!

The add-ons manager, for handling those all-important extensions, now opens in a tab window within the browser rather than a small options dialogue. It's easier on the eye, nicer to navigate and makes finding new add-ons far simpler. 

• Firefox Sync!

Synchronise bookmarks, passwords, history, settings and even open tabs across all your computers. Most useful of all it will also synchronise with the Android version of Firefox, giving instant access to bookmarks and passwords on a mobile phone. Click Set Up Sync from the Firefox button or Tools menu to begin.

How to make Firefox 4 look like Firefox 3

While there's a lot to like in FF4 I've found a few things quite irritating. Perhaps I'm just too used to Firefox 3 but some of the interface tweaks seem like changes for the sake of it. For example: moving the home and stop buttons to the right side of the URL bar instead of the left. It's further to move the mouse. Lazy? Yes. But I've got my way of doing things and I'm sticking with it.

If you too don't feel like retraining muscle memory to adjust to new buttons here's how to make shiny new FF4 look like wonky old FF3.

1) Install Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4 to restore the old colour scheme.

2) Move the tabs back where they should be - underneath the URL bar - by right-clicking on an empty part of the toolbar and un-checking Tabs on Top.

3) Restore the menu and bookmark toolbar by selecting the relevant options from the same menu. The Firefox button will disappear when the menu toolbar is re-enabled.

4) Once again in the toolbar menu click Customize. With the Customize Toolbar menu active icons on the toolbar can be moved around, so slide home, reload and stop back to their rightful place on the left of the URL bar. Additional icons can be added, too.

5) Install the Status-4-Evar add-on to get the status bar at the bottom of the browser window.

6) Firefox 3 had a feature where typing a term into the location bar would automatically redirect you to the site with the closest keyword match, so if you wanted the Wikipedia page for The Breakfast Club typing wikipedia breakfast club would navigate to it directly. It has been disabled in FF4, install the Browse by Name add-on to fix this omission.

Firefox 4 hints and tricks

• Back and forward menu

The little drop-down back/forward menu for quickly skipping to previous pages is MIA in FF4. Instead, right-click on the back and forward buttons (left click hold and release also does the same thing).

• Open tab from URL bar

Jump to a tab via the URL bar by typing the name of any page currently open in a tab.

• Quickly search with the URL bar

Firefox's URL bar is known as the 'Awesomebar', and it's not an ironic name. Search instantly by typing anything other than a web address into the location bar.

• Quickly search within sites using the URL bar

Instantly search within a specific site by entering [sitename] [search term] into the URL bar.

• Drag tabs

Tabs can be dragged around on the tab bar by left-clicking and holding.

• Open the menu toolbar

If the Firefox button is enabled but you still need the menu bar for something just press 'Alt' to have it temporarily reappear.

• Tag pages

On the URL bar is a little star symbol. Click that once and it'll bookmark the current page. Click it again and a dialogue pops up. Enter some related words into the Tags field and when you type those same terms into the URL bar it will bring up the associated bookmark.

• Zoom zoom

Hold down Ctrl and use either the + and - keys or mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Ctrl + 0 resets it to 100%.