%brandDTD; %platformDTD; ]>

# &brandFullName; &pref.pluralCaps;

This document explains all of the &pref.plural; available in the &pref.pluralCaps; window of &brandFullName;.

In this section:

- Main &pref.pluralCaps;
- Tabs &pref.pluralCaps;
- Content &pref.pluralCaps;
- Feeds &pref.pluralCaps;
- Privacy &pref.pluralCaps;
- Security &pref.pluralCaps;
- Advanced &pref.pluralCaps;

## Main &pref.pluralCaps;

### Startup

When you open &brandShortName;, by default your home page is displayed. Your home page might be a commonly-visited web site, a search engine, or perhaps your email account, but the choice is up to you. You can change your home page or choose to display a different page or set of pages on startup in this section.

When &brandShortName; starts
By default, when &brandShortName; starts it opens your home page (listed in the textbox immediately below), which corresponds to the Show my home page option. Alternately, you can choose to display a blank page on startup (perhaps to eliminate the time required to load that page from the Internet) by selecting the Show a blank page option.

As a final alternative, you can have &brandShortName; reopen the windows and tabs you had open the last time you ran &brandShortName;, effectively restoring you to where you were when you last stopped browsing the Internet. This can be a handy way of saving what you were doing when you close &brandShortName;, perhaps to install an operating system update. You can choose this option by selecting Show my windows and tabs from last time.

Home Page
If you've set &brandShortName; to show your home page when you start &brandShortName;, you specify your home page by typing it here. You can also click any of the buttons below the textbox to choose a special home page:

- Use Current Page sets the currently-displayed page (or pages, if you have multiple tabs open) as your home page
- Use Bookmark sets the selected bookmark (or if you select a folder, the set of bookmarks in that folder) as your home page
- Restore to Default resets your home page to the default home page

### Downloads

This section contains &pref.plural; determining how &brandShortName; downloads files.

Show the Downloads window when downloading a file
With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will open the Downloads window when you start downloading a file.

Close it when all downloads are finished
Select this &pref.singular; to have &brandShortName; close the Downloads window when all downloads currently in progress finish.

Save files to
By default downloaded files are automatically saved to the Desktop, eliminating the hassle of specifying a download location for every file you download. You can choose a different folder by clicking the Browse...Choose... button.

Always ask me where to save files
With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will ask you where you would like to save every downloaded file (instead of using the default location specified above).

### System Defaults

Always check to see if &brandShortName; is the default browser on startup
Select this option if you want &brandShortName; to check whether it is the default browser at startup. This will ensure &brandShortName; is used whenever an application tries to display a web page. You can also click the Check Now button to do a check right now.

## Tabs &pref.pluralCaps;

New pages should be opened in:
This &pref.singular; controls whether links from other applications or from web pages which request to open them in new windows are opened in a new window or a new tab in the most recent window.

Note: If you have chosen to open pages in new tabs, &brandShortName; will ignore this &pref.singular; and will open a new window from a link if the page author specified that the new window should have a specific size, because some pages can only be displayed correctly at a specific size.

Warn me when closing multiple tabs
When you close a window with multiple tabs, &brandShortName; will ask you to confirm your choice. This prevents you from accidentally closing the whole window when you intended to only close the current tab. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable this warning and have &brandShortName; automatically close the window.

Warn me when opening multiple tabs might slow down &brandShortName;
When you open a large number of tabs at once, &brandShortName; will ask you to confirm your choice. This prevents you from accidentally slowing down your system while the pages are loading. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable this warning.

Always show the tab bar
If you're only viewing one web page in a &brandShortName; window, the tab bar is not normally shown. Check this &pref.singular; to always show the tab bar, including when only the &brandShortName; window contains only one page.

When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately
When you middle-click on a Web link (or hold down &accelKey; while clicking with the left mouse button), the page will be opened in a new tab. That page will not be displayed and will load in a background tab. Check this &pref.singular; to load and display the page in a new foreground tab instead.

## Content &pref.pluralCaps;

Block Pop-up Windows
By default, &brandShortName; blocks annoying pop-up windows on web sites. Unchecking this &pref.singular; will disable pop-up blocking.

Some web sites make legitimate use of pop-up windows. Therefore, you can allow these sites to open pop-ups anyway. To do so, click Exceptions..., enter the site name, and click Allow. To remove a web site from the list, select it and then click Remove Site. To clear the list completely, click Remove All Sites.

Load images automatically
&brandShortName; displays images in web pages by default. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable images in web pages.

If you enable loading images automatically, the Exceptions... button lets you select sites from which images will not automatically load. The Exceptions... button lets you specify web sites that you wish to load (or not load) regardless of the setting of this preference. In the exceptions list, enter the site from which you want to allow or block images and click Allow to allow images, or click Block to block the images.

Enable JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language commonly used to make web pages interactive. However, it also makes certain annoying behaviors much easier to perform. To disable JavaScript, uncheck this &pref.singular;. However, note that disabling JavaScript may cause some sites to not work properly. For more fine-grained control over what JavaScript can and cannot do, click Advanced....

#### Advanced JavaScript Settings

Move or resize existing windows
  Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable moving and resizing windows using scripts.
Raise or lower windows
  Uncheck this &pref.singular; to make sure scripts cannot raise (bring to the front) or lower (send to the back) windows.
Disable or replace context menus
  Uncheck this &pref.singular; to prevent web pages from disabling or changing the &brandShortName; context menu.
Hide the status bar
  Uncheck this &pref.singular; to force the status bar to be displayed in pop-up windows.
Change status bar text
  Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable changes to status bar text (such as displaying scrolling text messages or preventing the link address from being displayed while the mouse is over a link).

Enable Java
Java is a popular programming language for the Web. A single Java program can run on many different kinds of computers, thus avoiding the need for programmers to create a separate version of a program for each kind of computer. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable Java applets in &brandShortName;. Note that in order for Java applets to work, you must install the Java plugin.

### Fonts & Colors

Default font and Size
Web pages are usually displayed in the font and size specified here. However, web pages can override these choices unless you specify otherwise in the Fonts dialog. Click the Advanced... button to access the Fonts dialog and to change this and other fonts &pref.plural;.

#### Fonts Dialog

1. From the Fonts for drop-down list, choose a language group/script. For instance, to set default fonts for the West European languages/scripts (Latin), choose Western. For a language/script not in the list, choose Other Languages.
2. Select whether proportional text should be serif (like "Times New Roman") or sans-serif (like "Arial"). Then specify the font size you want for proportional text.
3. Specify the font to use for Serif, Sans-serif and Monospace fonts. You can also change the size for `Monospace fonts`.

You can also set the minimum web page font size. This is useful to prevent sites from use overly small fonts that are barely readable.

Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above
By default &brandShortName; uses the fonts specified by the web page author. Disabling this &pref.singular; will force all sites to use your default fonts instead.

Character Encoding
The character encoding selected here will be used to display pages that do not specify which encoding to use.

#### Colors Dialog

Text and Background
Here you can change the default text and background color to be used on web pages that haven't specified that information. Click on the color samples to select colors.

Use system colors
Check this &pref.singular; to use the colors defined in your operating system settings instead of the colors specified above.

Link Colors
Here you can change the default colors for Web links. Click on the color samples to select colors.

Underline links
By default, links are underlined on web pages. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable this. Note that many sites specify their own styling rules and this &pref.singular; has no effect on those sites.

Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above
By default, &brandShortName; uses the colors specified by the web page author. Disabling this &pref.singular; will force all sites to use your default colors instead.

### File Types

The Download Actions dialog, which can be opened by clicking the Manage... button, contains file types that you have downloaded. You can choose what &brandShortName; should do when clicking on a specific file type by selecting the file type you want to modify and clicking the Change Action... button.

This will display the Change Action dialog, where you can choose to have the file type opened by the default application, opened by a particular application, saved to disk, or shown with an installed plugin. For example, if you view lots of media files on web pages, you might want to specify that &brandShortName; always open media files in your media player instead of asking where you want each media file to be saved.

- Open them with the default application:
  Select this &pref.singular; to open this file type in the default application for that file type (determined by the operating system).
- Open them with this application:
  Select this &pref.singular; to specify another application that should handle this file type. You will see a dialog asking you to specify the application to use.
- Save them on my computer:
  This &pref.singular; will save the files to disk (automatically if you have selected the Save files to &pref.singular; in the Main panel).
- Use this Plugin:
  Select this &pref.singular; to let a plugin handle this file type.

## Feeds &pref.pluralCaps;

Feeds are specially formatted documents which summarize the content of web sites. For example, a feed might summarize the latest news headlines from a news site or the latest posts on a blog. You can view the content of feeds in &brandShortName;, create Live Bookmarks for them, or add them to a feed reader on your computer or on the Web. The &pref.plural; in this pane determine what &brandShortName; does when you view a feed.

Show me a preview and ask me which Feed Reader to use
When you view a feed within &brandShortName;, you will be shown a preview of its contents. With this &pref.singular; selected, you are always given a choice of what you would like to use to subscribe to the feed at the top of the preview page.

Subscribe to the feed using
Instead of displaying a preview of the feed when you view one, you can have the feed be opened directly in a feed reader by selecting a reader from the list of available readers. You can choose to use an application on your computer to subscribe to feeds by clicking the Choose Application... button and finding the application on your computer. Alternately, you can choose to automatically subscribe to feeds by saving them as Live Bookmarks. To choose a subscription method, simply select it from the list.

## Privacy &pref.pluralCaps;

### History

Remember visited pages for the last ... days
Here you can specify how long you want &brandShortName; to remember what pages you have visited. The default is 9 days.

Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar
When you enter information in web forms or the search bar in &brandShortName;, that information is saved so that &brandShortName; can give suggestions when you enter information in forms in the future. To stop this behavior, uncheck this &pref.singular;.

Remember what I've downloaded
This &pref.singular; controls whether or not past downloads show up in the Downloads window. The Downloads window (accessible from Tools or by pressing &accelKey;+`J`&accelKey;+`Y`) displays a list of your recent downloads. Downloads &pref.plural; are available in the Main panel.

### Cookies

A cookie is a file created by a web site that stores information on your computer, such as site-specific preferences when visiting that site.

Accept cookies from sites
By default cookies are enabled. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable the use of cookies. Note that some sites may not work properly when cookies are disabled.

Keep until:

- they expire
  This is the default &pref.singular;. When set, this allows websites to specify how long a cookie will be stored by &brandShortName;. This makes it possible for a site to remember your preferences and login information across browser sessions.
- I close &brandShortName;
  With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will remove all stored cookies when closed.
- ask me every time
  With this &pref.singular; enabled, &brandShortName; will ask you how long you would like to keep a cookie (or refuse it entirely) every time a web site attempts to set one.

To control which sites may or may not set cookies, click the Exceptions... button.

To display the Cookie Manager click Show Cookies....

Learn more about cookies, the individual &pref.plural;, and how you can gain control over what sites are allowed to store cookies on your computer by reading about Managing Cookies.

### Private Data

Always clear my private data when I close &brandShortName;
You can choose to have &brandShortName; clear your private data when you close it. To configure what data is cleared, click the Settings... button.

Ask me before clearing private data
With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will ask you before automatically clearing the data specified by clicking Settings....

If you wish to clear your private data right now, you can click the Clear Now... button to do so. To clear your private data from outside the preferences dialog, either press &accelKey;+&shiftKey;+`Del` or select Tools > Clear Private Data....

## Security &pref.pluralCaps;

Warn me when sites try to install add-ons
&brandShortName; will always ask you to confirm installations of add-ons. To prevent unrequested installation prompts which may lead to accidental installations, &brandShortName; warns you when a web site tries to install an add-on and blocks the installation prompt. To allow installations from a specific site, click Exceptions..., enter the site name, and click Allow. Uncheck this &pref.singular; to disable the warning for all sites.

Tell me if the site I'm visiting is a suspected forgery
Check this &pref.singular; if you want &brandShortName; to actively check whether the site you are visiting may be an attempt to mislead you into providing personal information (this is often referred to as phishing).

Check using a downloaded list of suspected sites
With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will check the current site against a frequently updated list stored on your computer. No data about the sites you visit is transferred to third-party anti-phishing providers during normal browsing. Since phishing techniques and sites evolve quickly, this mode of protection may not be as effective as having an anti-phishing provider check every site you visit.

Check by asking ... about each site I visit
With this &pref.singular; selected, &brandShortName; will send the address of the current page over an encrypted connection to the selected third-party anti-phishing provider in order to verify its identity. This method offers the greatest protection, but information such as your IP address and browser version may be transfered and stored by the selected provider. You will be prompted to review and agree to the selected data provider's privacy policy after selecting this &pref.singular;.

### Passwords

Remember passwords for sites
&brandShortName; can securely save passwords you enter in web forms to make it easier to log on to web sites. Clear this checkbox to prevent &brandShortName; from remembering your passwords.

Even with this &pref.singular; checked, however, you'll still be asked whether to save passwords for a site when you first visit it. If you select Never for This Site, that site will be added to an exceptions list. To access that list or to remove sites from it, click the Exceptions... button.

Use a master password
&brandShortName; can protect sensitive information such as saved passwords and certificates by encrypting them using a master password. If you create a master password, each time you start &brandShortName;, it will ask you to enter the password the first time it needs to access a certificate or stored password. You can set, change, or remove the master password by by checking or unchecking this &pref.singular; or by clicking the Change Master Password... button. If a master password is already set, you will need to enter it in order to change or remove the master password.

Show Passwords...
You can manage saved passwords and delete individual passwords by clicking the View Saved Passwords button.

### Warning Messages

Click the Settings... button to configure the security warnings &brandShortName; displays while you browse the web.

#### Security Warnings Dialog

I am about to view an encrypted page
  When this &pref.singular; is enabled, &brandShortName; will notify you every time you are about to view an encrypted page.
I am about to view a page that uses low-grade encryption
  With this &pref.singular; enabled, &brandShortName; will warn you when you visit a page which uses low-grade encryption.
I leave an encrypted page for one that isn't encrypted
  With this &pref.singular; enabled, &brandShortName; will warn you every time you move from an encrypted page to an unencrypted page either by selecting a link on the page, selecting a bookmark or typing a new address into the location bar.
I submit information that's not encrypted
  When this &pref.singular; is enabled, &brandShortName; will warn you when you submit data via a form that's not encrypted.
I'm about to view an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information
  With this &pref.singular; enabled, &brandShortName; will warn you when the page you're viewing contains a mixture of encrypted and unencrypted content. If an encrypted page contains unencrypted data, you should verify the identity of the page you're viewing prior to entering sensitive data.

## Advanced &pref.pluralCaps;

The advanced panel contains many &pref.plural; that are less likely to be used by most people but are useful and sometimes critical &pref.plural; for some people.

### General tab

#### Accessibility

Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages
When this &pref.singular; is enabled, &brandShortName; will display a movable cursor in web pages, allowing you to select text with the keyboard. You can toggle this mode by pressing `F7`.

Search for text when I start typing
When this &pref.singular; is enabled, &brandShortName; will find within the current web page what you type as you type it. While you are finding typed text in the page, the Find Toolbar will automatically display at the bottom of the window to show information about what you've found.

#### Browsing

Use autoscrolling
Autoscrolling is a useful feature which allows you to scroll the page by clicking the middle mouse button (usually the scroll wheel) and moving the mouse up or down. Some people find this annoying, so autoscrolling can be disabled with this &pref.singular;.

Use smooth scrolling
Smooth scrolling can be very useful if you read a lot of long pages. Normally, when you press `Page Down`, the view jumps directly down one page. With smooth scrolling, it slides down smoothly, so you can see how much it scrolls. This makes it easier to resume reading from where you were before.

Check my spelling as I type
When this preference is enabled, &brandShortName; will check your spelling and offer possible corrections as you type in web forms. Note that you may need to download a dictionary; to do so, right-click press &ctrlKey; and click on any text field, enable spellchecking if necessary, and then use the provided Languages menu to download a dictionary.

#### Languages

Some web pages are offered in more than one language. Click the Choose... button to specify your preferred language or languages.

Languages Dialog
To add a language, click Select a language to add..., choose the language, and click the Add button. Remove a language by selecting it in the list of active languages and clicking the Remove button. You can also reorder languages using the Move Up and Move Down buttons to determine the most preferred one in case a page is provided in multiple languages .

### Network tab

#### Connection

Your organization or Internet service provider may offer or require you to use a proxy. A proxy acts as an intermediary between your computer and the Internet. It intercepts all requests to the Internet to see if it can fulfill the request using its cache. Proxies are used to improve performance, filter requests, and hide your computer from the Internet to improve security. Proxies are often part of corporate firewalls.

#### Connection Settings Dialog

Direct connection to the Internet
  This is the default &pref.singular;. Choose this if you don't want to use a proxy.
Auto-detect proxy settings for this network
  Choose this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically detect the proxy settings for your network.
Manual proxy configuration
  Choose this if you don't have a proxy location (URL). Ask your system administrator for the names and port numbers of the servers running proxy software for each network service and enter the information in the appropriate fields.
Automatic proxy configuration URL
  If your workplace has a proxy configuration file, ask the system administrator for its URL and enter it here. Click Reload to load the settings.

#### Cache

Pages you view are normally stored in a special cache folder for quicker viewing the next time you visit the same page. You can specify the amount of disk space the cache can use here. You can also immediately clear the contents of the cache.

Use up to ... MB of space for the cache
Allows you to specify the maximum size, in megabytes, of the cache on your computer.

Clear Now
Immediately clears the current contents of the cache, freeing the disk space used by the cache.

### Update tab

&brandShortName; can check whether updates to installed add-ons or to &brandShortName; itself are available.

Automatically check for updates to:
By default &brandShortName; automatically checks for updates to itself, to add-ons, and to search engines so you'll always know you have the most up-to-date version. You can change this behavior by changing the appropriate checkboxes here.

When updates to &brandShortName; are found,

Ask me what I want to do
  Updates to &brandShortName; are installed automatically by default. Select this &pref.singular; to manually control how and when updates are installed.
Automatically download and install the update
  When this &pref.singular; is selected, &brandShortName; updates will be automatically downloaded and will be installed the next time &brandShortName; is restarted. The Warn me if this will disable any of my add-ons &pref.singular; determines whether you will be warned before the installation of an update which would require an incompatible add-on to be disabled because no newer, compatible version exists. The warning will allow you to postpone installation of the update, though at the expense of improvements included in it.
  If all extensions and themes are compatible or can be updated to be compatible, the &brandShortName; update will be installed. Upon restart you will be asked to install any needed add-on updates so that you can continue to use them.

Show Update History
&brandShortName; automatically records the updates you have installed. You can view information about these updates by clicking this button.

Note: You must be running &brandShortName; as an administrator root or as the user who originally installed &brandShortName; to install &brandShortName; updates.

### Encryption tab

#### Protocols

Use SSL 3.0
Specifies whether you want to send and receive secured information through SSL3 (Secure Sockets Layer, Level 3), a standard protocol for communicating securely with web sites. Disabling it will prevent you from visiting some sites.

Use TLS 1.0
Specifies whether you want to send and receive secured information through TLS (Transport Layer Security), a security standard similar to SSL3 (Secure Sockets Layer). Disabling it will prevent you from visiting some sites.

#### Certificates

Certificates help perform encryption and decryption of connections to secure sites.

When a web site requires a certificate:
When a web site requests a secure connection, &brandShortName; will by default automatically use an appropriate certificate. If you wish to manually choose a certificate (for example, if you wish to use a certain type of encryption instead of what is automatically selected), select the &pref.singular; Ask me every time and you'll be in complete control of what certificates you use while browsing.

View Certificates
Click this button to view stored certificates, import new certificates, and back up or delete old certificates in &brandShortName;.

Revocation Lists
&brandShortName; can use Certificate Revocation Lists (also known as CRLs) to ensure that your certificates are always valid. Click the Revocation Lists button to manage the CRLs installed on your computer.

Verification
&brandShortName; can verify the validity of your certificates using OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) every time they are viewed or used. &brandShortName; does not use OCSP by default, but if you want to enable it, you can do so here. You will most likely only need to change this if your Internet environment requires it.

Security Devices
Security devices can encrypt and decrypt connections and store certificates and passwords. If you need to use a security device other than the one in &brandShortName;, click the Security Devices button.

12 September 2006

Copyright © 2003-2007 Contributors to the Mozilla Help Viewer Project.