Slashdot Mirror
Firefox Secrets
Craig Maloney writes "By now most readers have probably heard about Firefox, the Open Source browser that poses a serious challenge to Internet Explorer. They've probably even installed it on a few machines, and no doubt have customized it pretty much to their liking. They're pretty comfortable with how it works in their day-to-day browsing activities. Plus, Firefox is pretty open, and about:config, extensions, and themes have many pages dedicated to their use. What more could there be to Firefox? Firefox Secrets is a collection of tips and tricks to help wring out that last kernel of performance from Firefox, with specific ways to increase users productivity with Firefox. It also contains plenty of tips for new Firefox users to guide them to learning what Firefox is, and how it can improve their browsing experience." Read on for Craig's review.
Firefox Secrets
author
Chean Chu Yeow
pages
297
publisher
Sitepoint
rating
8/10
reviewer
Craig Maloney
ISBN
0-9752402-4-2
summary
Firefox tips and techniques for new and experienced users.
Firefox Secrets presents the material in a well thought out manner. Each chapter starts with a specific task in mind, with helpful tips in performing that task listed throughout the rest of the chapter. In the chapter entitled "Revisiting Web Pages" (something we are all bound to do at some time in our lives), Firefox Secrets starts the chapter with sections on importing bookmarks from other programs, creating new bookmarks, and using the bookmark manager. (Pretty basic stuff which most Slashdot readers have no doubt mastered). The power, though, lies in the rest of the chapter, where the book lists out how to add a bookmark for a group of tabs, how to create several types of keyword bookmark, how to use the bookmarks tool bar, and how to use the bookmark manager and sidebar. It then talks about Firefox's RSS and Live bookmarks, and how to create them using the RSS icon, and create them manually. Finally the chapter finishes off with the cookie and history managers, as well as the password manager. Each section is described in detail with clear directions on how to use the feature, and clear explanations on why readers would want to use the feature.
Expert users need not worry, though, as this book has plenty for them too. One of the more powerful features of Firefox are the Extensions, which allow incredible recognizability in Firefox. The chapter on Extensions starts with an introduction to what Extensions are, and why they're so important. Next the author describes installing an extension, and uses the miniT extension (an extension that allows drag-and-drop tab placement) as a sample extension to install. The author begins by directing the browser to the extensions site, installing the extension, and configuring the extension once the browser has recognized it. From there the author discusses installing from sites other than the Mozilla Extensions site, installing from a local file, and using the extensions manager to track and configure extensions. As someone who has installed many extensions that proved less than useful, or prevented Firefox from even starting properly, the next section on uninstalling and entering Firefox's safe-mode could prove profile-saving. (I have had several occasions where knowing about safe-mode would have saved me a half-hour's work in rebuilding my profile). The author moves from this introductory material to a list of his personal favorite extensions. Unless the reader has an RSS feed tuned to the Mozilla Extensions site, there's bound to be several extensions that the reader will find useful. (I downloaded the Spellbound Spell Check, and Download Status bar extensions during the course of this review).
Of course no book on the secrets of Firefox would be complete without mentioning about:config. about:config holds a treasure-trove of configurable options for Firefox, many of which are not self-evident without a guide of some form. Firefox secrets does not provide a comprehensive look at about:config, but instead shows what about:config is, shows how to use it, and presents a few neat tips that can be set by about:config. Other somewhat hidden preference features include the .css and .js files under the user profile. Firefox Secrets quickly glosses over some key tips, such as CSS examples for marking unread tabs, and shifting the sidebar to the right. Also included are tips for customizing the user interface, and incorporating web development features which developers will no doubt find extremely handy in their daily development rituals. The book finishes off with best practices for downloading and using the Firefox nightly builds, and what sorts of issues to expect.
Some people out there may feel that Firefox Secrets doesn't offer any tips that can't be found on the web. It's a fair assessment that some of the ideas presented in the book should be pretty routine for expert Firefox users. However, unless you have RSS feeds to every Mozilla development site, and maintain an encyclopedic knowledge of every configurable doo-dad and Extension, you'll likely find many good tips and best practices for enhancing your browsing experience. I'll admit I was skeptical this book would provide me anything of value, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how insightful this book is. Firefox Secrets balances between beginning users who have yet to install their first extension, and experts who want to take their browsing to the next level."
You can purchase Firefox Secrets from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Firefox Secrets presents the material in a well thought out manner. Each chapter starts with a specific task in mind, with helpful tips in performing that task listed throughout the rest of the chapter. In the chapter entitled "Revisiting Web Pages" (something we are all bound to do at some time in our lives), Firefox Secrets starts the chapter with sections on importing bookmarks from other programs, creating new bookmarks, and using the bookmark manager. (Pretty basic stuff which most Slashdot readers have no doubt mastered). The power, though, lies in the rest of the chapter, where the book lists out how to add a bookmark for a group of tabs, how to create several types of keyword bookmark, how to use the bookmarks tool bar, and how to use the bookmark manager and sidebar. It then talks about Firefox's RSS and Live bookmarks, and how to create them using the RSS icon, and create them manually. Finally the chapter finishes off with the cookie and history managers, as well as the password manager. Each section is described in detail with clear directions on how to use the feature, and clear explanations on why readers would want to use the feature.
Expert users need not worry, though, as this book has plenty for them too. One of the more powerful features of Firefox are the Extensions, which allow incredible recognizability in Firefox. The chapter on Extensions starts with an introduction to what Extensions are, and why they're so important. Next the author describes installing an extension, and uses the miniT extension (an extension that allows drag-and-drop tab placement) as a sample extension to install. The author begins by directing the browser to the extensions site, installing the extension, and configuring the extension once the browser has recognized it. From there the author discusses installing from sites other than the Mozilla Extensions site, installing from a local file, and using the extensions manager to track and configure extensions. As someone who has installed many extensions that proved less than useful, or prevented Firefox from even starting properly, the next section on uninstalling and entering Firefox's safe-mode could prove profile-saving. (I have had several occasions where knowing about safe-mode would have saved me a half-hour's work in rebuilding my profile). The author moves from this introductory material to a list of his personal favorite extensions. Unless the reader has an RSS feed tuned to the Mozilla Extensions site, there's bound to be several extensions that the reader will find useful. (I downloaded the Spellbound Spell Check, and Download Status bar extensions during the course of this review).
Of course no book on the secrets of Firefox would be complete without mentioning about:config. about:config holds a treasure-trove of configurable options for Firefox, many of which are not self-evident without a guide of some form. Firefox secrets does not provide a comprehensive look at about:config, but instead shows what about:config is, shows how to use it, and presents a few neat tips that can be set by about:config. Other somewhat hidden preference features include the .css and .js files under the user profile. Firefox Secrets quickly glosses over some key tips, such as CSS examples for marking unread tabs, and shifting the sidebar to the right. Also included are tips for customizing the user interface, and incorporating web development features which developers will no doubt find extremely handy in their daily development rituals. The book finishes off with best practices for downloading and using the Firefox nightly builds, and what sorts of issues to expect.
Some people out there may feel that Firefox Secrets doesn't offer any tips that can't be found on the web. It's a fair assessment that some of the ideas presented in the book should be pretty routine for expert Firefox users. However, unless you have RSS feeds to every Mozilla development site, and maintain an encyclopedic knowledge of every configurable doo-dad and Extension, you'll likely find many good tips and best practices for enhancing your browsing experience. I'll admit I was skeptical this book would provide me anything of value, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how insightful this book is. Firefox Secrets balances between beginning users who have yet to install their first extension, and experts who want to take their browsing to the next level."
You can purchase Firefox Secrets from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
While I can understand writing a book about a web browser, shouln't it be a webpage that teaches how to use it interactively?
I like Firefox, but at what point is something so extendible that it's to confusing?
I normally use Opera, and love the features it has. I've been able to make Firefox mimic Opera in functionality, but I was somewhat overwhelmed by ALL of the plugins.
I figure if someone who is fairly sophisticated technically is overwhelmed then God help someone like my wife or my co-workers (sorry, this is slashdot, my "cow-orkers"). They would be completely confused!
Open source is great, but now we need to have some time spent to "friendlyify" it for people who are between being a newbie and a power user.
Some people out there may feel that Firefox Secrets doesn't offer any tips that can't be found on the web. It's a fair assessment that some of the ideas presented in the book should be pretty routine for expert Firefox users.
This is a hardcopy book to be sold in bookstores to normal people.
It makes the information plainly available to lots of people.
to making 1.5 stop crashing and hogging 100% cpu?
Though there is a section on about:config and the .css & .js files, is there any information here that could not be found with 2 minutes of your time and google? I doubt it. And, this book, unlike the information you can find using google, will be out of date in a matter of months.
<shrugs> I'm not saying this book is bad.. I'm just saying that the author of this review doesn't seem to understand what an "expert" is. From the review, I see little here that most /.'ers won't already know.
/dev/random
The thing to keep in mind that the target audience for this book is not going to be a a power-user who reads Slashdot.org twice-daily and hooks up a webcam to watch the office coffee maker from their cubicle.
This is the sort of book that you put in your parents, relatives, or friends stocking to introduce them to Firefox and make it super-easy for them to get started.
- The Publisher.
http://sitepoint.com/books/firefox1/ (4 Free Sample Chapters Available).
P.S. The book includes a CDROM with Firefox, Thunderbird, and all the extensions mentioned in the title.
_______________
I don't see the point. Toolbar, webadres , thats it. Some people are just to verbose for me.
It's a good review, but the book seems a little misconceived. How many people are really going to spend $25-30 on a book about how to use a web-browser? The market must be very small. I could understand if the book was about how to program a browser and get in real deep but the book doesn't sound as if it might appeal to such readers. Using a web-browser is not that hard, and if it is hard then the chances are good that the browser has been poorly designed (certainly not the case with Firefox). That said, maybe the best Firefox tip is to switch over to Opera, at least until the Firefox team get the memory usage under control. It's a real drag on more modestly specced PCs.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
In the good old days Firefox wasn't crippled by the gtk file dialogs and the insane gnome ui "design".
The Farewell Tour II
This is an outrage! I say you demand your money back.
Firefox has problems. So does IE. So does Opera.
As a professional web developer, I care very much about browsers. I also deal with demanding users such as yourself who nitpick and who are on some kind of power trip or something. Think about it: is someone who is coding an application for you on their free time going to spend even ten minutes reading a badly reported problem? I sure wouldn't, not when there are ten other things I can fix that are just as important to someone else. You do the most good you can do in the shortest amount of time and move on.
You may be frustrated, but you won't get anywhere assuming you submit bug reports with this same tone. I'd venture that many Mozilla developers are professional developers who do Mozdev on their own time, and probably get enough of that crap at work. It's a web browser, not a car or a space shuttle or a nuclear power plant. Deal with it, fix it, or move on to something else. Personally, I have gripes with Firefox, but I deal with them. If something better came out, I don't know about you, but I'd be all over it. But the fact that you typed this in the first place shows that you haven't found anything better. Stop trying to rake people over the coals.
blah blah blah
That's what he's refering to likely. Many of them come out with a new edition every year, or every other year. Ok, so this is needed for, say, modern history but I am talking about calculus here. When I took freshman calc, I had to buy a new book. There were no used ones available, because it was a new edition. At the end of the year, I tried to sell my book back and was turned down, you see there was a new edition comming out next year.
Ok what the fuck? This is introductory calc, that shit hasn't changed much since Newton first unveiled it to the world, and not at all in the 20th century. NOTHING changed in teh span of one year.
Well I had a look at the new edition as compared to mine. The changes were nothing but superficial. Chapters were shuffled, questions were renumbered, with some new ones intruduced. There might have been some corrections or whatnot, but the parts I looked at the text and diagrams were the exact same.
It's a real racket, and that's on top of the already high prices.