Everyone's favorite open-source browser, Firefox, is pretty good right out of the box. But there are some cool things you can do to customize it's usage and make it even better. Here is a small list of recommendations:


1. If you use a particular search on a regular basis, but something that's not a search engine in the top-right corner, like a product search on your favorite retailer's site, go to that site and right-click in the search box. In the context menu, click on "Add a keyword for this search...". In the dialog that appears, type a keyword. From this point forward, you can simply enter the keyword followed by the search criteria into the address bar and it will take you to the search results.


2. Some useful keyboard shortcuts include Ctrl-L to take you to the address bar, Ctrl-A to Select All, Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn to scroll through open tabs, Ctrl-T to open a new tab, slash to begin finding text on the current page, F3 to find next, and F5 to reload.


3. Auto-complete is an oldy but goody. If accessing a site that ends in .com, you can simply type in the unique part of the host name then press Ctrl-Enter. For instance, typing in "google" then pressing Ctrl-Enter will automatically fill in the "www." and the ".com" for you. This also works with Shift-Enter for .net, and Ctrl-Shift-Enter for .org.


4. If you really want to customize the look of Firefox, create a userchrome.css file. Doing this will require some CSS and HTML knowledge.


5. The ultimate in Firefox customization is with the hidden about:config page. By entering about:config in the address bar, you can customize virtually every aspect of how Firefox behaves, including the low-level networking and memory usage. You can decrease the amount of RAM Firefox uses if you want to limit it on your system. You can force it to swap out of RAM altogether when you minimize it. You can disable IPv6 for routers and firewalls that don't support it. There are literally hundreds of options. But be careful, because this is also where you can break Firefox if you use the wrong options.


Most people will never delve into these areas of customization. But then again, those people aren't listening to this segment.

Nick Coons