Tricklin

Tabbed Browsing
Firefox allows you to view multiple webpages within the same window by using tabs. I had first seen these with Netscape 6 (I believe), and was immediately impressed.

In Firefox, you can right click on any link, and tell your browser to open this link in a new tab. This feature comes in very handy when you are on a search page containing multiple results. Opening links in a new tab, keeps you on the search page, and you won't lose your place.

Below, I've included some helpful keyboard shortcuts for tabbed browsing:

• Ctrl + t: Opens a new tab in an 'about:blank' page.
• Ctrl + Page Up: Goes to the tab located to the immediate left
• Ctrl + Page Down: Goes to the tab located to the immediate right
• Ctrl + (#): Goes to the tab of the corresponding number on the keyboard. For Example: If you have 3 tabs open, and you enter Ctrl + 2, you will go to the 2nd tab. This is great if you have less than 10 tabs open.

Extensions
As a web developer/designer, I've found Firefox to be the most friendly and comprehensive browser available. Especially with the inclusion of the w eb developer extension. This extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser that contains various web developer tools, such as displaying Form details, resizing your window, validating CSS/HTML, a button to immediately open the source code in a new window, a button to open the javascript console, and much, much more. I highly recommend this extension.

Other great extensions:

• Aa rdvark: Allows cleaning up a page prior to printing it
• Firefox Toolbar: Customizable search toolbar for Firefox that allows you to add/delete any search engine.
• Tabbrow ser Extensions: Add-on package for extending operations of tabbed browsing, for example tabs become reorderable by drag and drop.
• Mouse Gestures: "Mouse Gestures are a fast way to execute commands without using the keyboard, menus or toolbars. Instead, the user holds down a mouse button (usually the right one), moves the mouse in a certain way to form a gesture, then releases the mouse button."

JavaScript Console
This isn't limited to Firefox, however, this console is way more intuitive than anything IE provides. When creating/modifying JavaScript, I will never use IE to test. Internet Exploder never provides any useful information as to why my script isn't working. The JS Console specifically states errors, down to the exact page and line number where the error occurred.

View Selection Source
Highlight some text on this page, then right-click, and notice the option to "View Selection Source". Click on this, and a window will pop-up showing you the source code for only the highlighted content. This is an excellent feature when you have a page with a lot of content, but know specifically for what you are looking.

I Don't Like IE
This is a matter of opinion, but IE does nothing to make my web browsing experience more convenient. It's too bad that when you have a PC, this is the default browser available. Hopefully soon, people will learn about Firefox, and make it their default. Then Microsoft will be forced to take some drastic measures to improve their offering.

These are just a few of the main reasons why I use Firefox as my default browser. There are many more, but I'm tired of writing this post, and need to get back to doing other things. Hopefully this encourages you to at least give it a shot (if you haven't already).