It's a new Web Browser
It's better than IE
It has a cute dinosaur
Introduction
Mozilla is an open-source, standards
compliant, cross-platform Web browser. Anyone may help improve MoZilla whether
it be by coding, bug reports or
document writing. Mozilla strictly follows the World Wide Web Consortium’s recommendations
to display Web pages as accurately as possible. Mozilla is designed to run
on many different platforms – Windows, Apple Mac, Linux and more.
This quick guide explains how to install the Mozilla Web browser and some
common ‘must-have’ configuration settings. Whenever I install Mozilla, this
is the procedure I follow. These settings might not be to your taste but in
any case demonstrate the key areas you may wish to tweak for your own best
Web browsing experience.
Installation
There are two real choices on which version of Mozilla to install. If you
are only interested in MoZilla as a simple Web browser then download the
latest MoZilla release – Currently Mozilla 1.1
If you are interested in seeing the latest developments with Mozilla and helping
the project by testing the latest versions of the code then download the
latest nightly build - Mozilla
Nightly
After downloading the Mozilla installer for your platform, run it to launch
the setup wizard.
The wizard asks what components you want to install,
Choose: 'custom' and select everything except 'mail & news'
Enable 'QuickStart'
Rest of install…
Configuration
Block Pop-up Ads
This prevents Web sites from launching pop-up windows when you enter or leave
a web site.
Allow Scripts to: Uncheck 'Open unrequested windows'
Tabbed Browsing
Tabs appear along the top of MoZilla and act as separate browser windows,
rather than opening multiple web browsers.
Edit-->Preferences + Navigator->Tabbed Browsing:
Open tabs instead of windows for:
Check the 2 boxes below
Now you can open a new tab by either clicking a link while holding control
or by pressing control+T
Searching
Do Google searches from the Address Bar
Edit-->Preferences + Navigator->Internet Search
Default search engine: Select Google (or your favorite)
Search results: Uncheck 'Open the Search Tab....'
This stops the sidebar from opening after a search, which I find annoying.
You can search by typing into the address bar (eg/ where you normally type
http://...) then pressing Down Arrow and Enter
Privacy
MoZilla can help prevent companies tracking your movements across the Web
although be warned this is only 1 of many tricks up advertisers’ sleeves.
Edit-->Preferences + Privacy & Security-->Cookies
Select 'Enable Cookies for the Originating web site only'
This could cause problems with some sites that you have to log on to although
I have never encountered this.
Themes
Initially MoZilla looks scarily like the old Netscape. You can make it much
more slick by installing a new skin.
View-->Themes-->'Modern' or 'Get more themes'
Restart Mozilla
Modern looks OK but if you 'Get more themes' then you can browse the
themes website for something more your style
My favorites are 'Pinball' and ???? <Link>. You will need to close
and re-open Mozilla for the new skin to take effect.
Plug-ins
All the usual plugins can be installed with Mozilla to handle different media
types found on the Web
Flash
I don't tend to install Flash anymore as 99% of the time it is just used
in advertisments that I am happy to miss. Download
the installer and run. It will automatically detect Mozilla.
Real Media Player
1. Download RealPlayer
8.0
2. Start the RealPlayer installer but dont do anything.
3. Copy nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt to your Mozilla plugins folder. They
will be in a a folder with a name such as ~rnsetup in yout temporary files
folder. You can use Windows search to find them.
4. Continue with the RealPlayer install if you do not already have it installed
or close the installer if you do.
Java
1. Install Java Runtime Environment. Version 1.4.0 is recommended.
The Java plugin is automatically detected by Mozilla 1.0.
If Mozilla does not detect the plugin, copy NPOJI600.DLL (JRE 1.3.1) or NPOJI610.DLL
(JRE 1.4.0) to your Mozilla plugins folder.
