Firefox

If you've ever closed a Firefox tab but wish you hadn't, here's an easy way to bring it back:

1. Right-click on any open tab

2. Clilck "Undo Close Tab"

3. Repeat if necessary, to bring back the tab you're looking for.

And if you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can also use the Ctrl + Shift + T key combination to bring back a closed tab.

In last month's Ides I talked about downloading Firefox 3 on Firefox 3 Download Day.  If you've done so, you might find the Field Guide to Firefox 3 useful. 

Here’s a list of the features covered; just click on each link to go right to that section of the Guide:

• Add-on manager
• Bookmarks
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Color profile support
• Download manager
• Font and text rendering
• Full page zoom
• History
• HTML Canvas
• Location bar UTF-8 support
• Malware protection
• Microformats API
• Offline web application support
• Password manager
• Performance improvements
• Phishing protection
• Plugins
• Site Identification button
• Smart Location Bar
• Tabs
• Themes
• Video and audio feeds
• Vista parental controls support
• Web application protocol handlers
• Conclusion

P.S.  Yep, Mozilla set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help, they reached 8,002,530 downloads on Firefox 3 Download Day!

How often do you get to part of a team who's setting a Guinness World Record? Now's your chance!

On Tuesday June 17th Mozilla will release Firefox 3, and today you can pledge to download your copy on Firefox 3 Download Day 2008. Mozilla wants your help to set the record fo most software downloads in 24 hours. What a deal -- get the updated version of a great web browser, and be part of a world-wide community effort to set a Gunness World Record!

Pledge now at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord.

Update: Firefox 3 will be available at Noon CST on June 17th; download yours at getfirefox.com or http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?p=downloadday.

New features in Firefox 3 include:

• One-click bookmarking
• Smarter address bar: just start typing in the Location Bar to search your bookmarks and history; it adapts and learns as you use it.
  
• Phishing and malware protection
• Pause and resume downloads, and search through your download history by file or web site name using the new Download Manager
• Firefox 3 is 2-3 times faster handling complex web apps like Gmail and Google Docs

And if you download your copy from Download Day Headquarters, you'll received a customized certificate of thanks.

If been using the pre-release beta version of Firefox 3, and can attest to how fast it handles Gmail -- it's great!

Source: Mozilla Developer Center http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/11/coming-tuesday-june-17th-firefox-3/

If you like to visit the same web pages at the start of each day (like the Winnefox Extranet, your newsfeeds in Bloglines, LISNews, etc.) you can set Firefox so every time you start it, those same web pages open in tabs and act as your “home” page.

Watch this tiny (it's only 13 seconds!) screencast that shows how to do it: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cjfoDVVYI

Here's a text description of how to do it:

1. Click "Tools" on the Firefox menu bar
2. Click "Options" on the "Tools" dropdown menu
3. Click the "Use Current Pages" button on the "Options" window
4. Click the "OK" button
5. And you're done! The next time you open Firefox, the same web pages will open up in tabs.