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# Navigator Preferences

This section describes how to use the Navigator preference panel. If you're not already viewing the panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Choose Navigator.

In this section:

- Navigator
- History
- Languages
- Helper Applications
- Smart Browsing
- Internet Search
- Tabbed Browsing
- Downloads

## Navigator Preferences - Navigator

This section describes how to use the main Navigator preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Navigator category.

The Navigator preferences panel allows you to customize certain aspects of the browser.

- Display on: Use the drop-down list in combination with the checkboxes to control what will be displayed at startup or when you open a new window or tab:
  1. - Select Navigator Startup to set what Navigator will display at startup.
     - Select New Window to set what will be displayed when opening a new Navigator window.
     - Select New Tab to set what will be displayed when opening a new tab.
  2. Select one of the following checkboxes:
     - Blank page: Causes Navigator to display a blank page.
     - Home page: Causes Navigator to load your home page (specified below).
     - Last page visited: Causes Navigator to load the page you were viewing right before you last exited &brandShortName;.
- Default Browser: Allows you to set &brandShortName; as the default browser or shows you that it is.
  - Set Default Browser: Unless it is greyed out, click this to set &brandShortName; as your default browser.
- Home Page: In the field, type the web page you want as your home page or do one of the following:
  - Use Current Page: Click this to use the web page currently displayed in Navigator as your home page.
  - Use Current Group: If you have two or more Navigator tabs open, click this to set them as your Home Page Group (a group of tabs that are opened as your home page). After clicking this button, the message Home Page Group is Set appears in the location field.

    Caution: If you edit the field after clicking Use Current Group, your Home Page Group will be lost.

  - Restore Default: Click this to revert to the the default home page.
  - Choose File: Click this to locate a file on disk that you want to load as your home page.
- Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbars: Select any of the available checkboxes to see them on your toolbars.

  The Go, Search, and Print buttons appear in the Navigation Toolbar near the upper-right corner of the Navigator window. All other buttons appear in the Personal Toolbar. For information about adding your own bookmarks to this toolbar, see Personal Toolbar.

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## Navigator Preferences - History

This section describes how to use the History preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Editmenu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click History. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The History preferences panel allows you to configure three history settings on Navigator.

- Browsing History:
  - Remember visited pages for the last [__] days: Type the number of days you want &brandShortName; to keep track of the web pages you have previously visited. For example, if you set this number to 10 days, pages 10 days old or less will be kept in the history list.
- Clear History: Click this to delete the list of sites visited.
- Location Bar History:
  - Clear Location Bar: Click this to clear the list of sites in the Location bar menu.

For more information about history in &brandShortName;, see Retracing Your Steps.

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## Navigator Preferences - Languages

This section describes how to use the Languages preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Languages. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Languages preferences panel allows you to choose the languages and character encoding for displaying web pages and choose if and how your typing is spell checked:

- Languages for Web Pages:
  - Move Up / Move Down: Click one of these buttons to move a selected language up or down, which sets the order of preference for the listed languages.
  - Add: Click this to add additional languages for displaying web pages.
  - Remove: Click this to remove a selected language.
- Character Encoding:
  - Default Character Encoding: Use the drop-down list to select the character encoding you want for displaying web pages.
- Spelling:
  - When typing check my spelling: Use the drop-down list to select if and how your typing is spell checked.

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## Navigator Preferences - Helper Applications

This section describes how to use the Helper Applications preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Helper Applications. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Helper Applications preferences panel allows you to control how different file types are opened by other applications in &brandShortName;:

- Specify how to handle files of each type:
  - File types: Displays the file types that &brandShortName; uses. Select one of them to show the following information:
    - Description: Displays a description of the selected file type.
    - Extension(s): Displays the file extension(s) of the selected file type.
    - When encountered: Displays what kind of action that will be taken when &brandShortName; encounters the selected file type.
  - New Type: Click this to add a new file type. You see a dialog box:
    - Mime Type: Type the Mime type of the file type you want to add.
    - Description: Type a Descrition of the file type you want to add.
    - Extension: Type the file extension of the file type you want to add.
    - When a file of this type is encountered: Select one option from the checkboxes:
      - Open it using the default application: Causes the the file to be opened by the default program in your systems settings.
      - Open it with: Causes the file to be opened by a program you specify. Use the Choose File button to locate the program on your disk
      - Save it to disk: The file will be saved to disk.
    - Always ask me when handling files of this type: Select this to make the Download Dialog box always appear when files of this type are encountered.
  - Edit: Click this to change the file-handling information of a selected file type.
  - Remove: Click this to remove a selected file type.
- Plug-in Finder Service:
  - Always use the Netscape Plug-in Finder Service (PFS) to get plug-ins: Select this to always use the Plugin Finder Service (PFS) whenever &brandShortName; needs a new plug-in. If left unselected, the PFS is only used when a plug-in location is not provided by the web page that requires the plug-in.

To learn more about how to handle different file types with &brandShortName;, see Plug-ins and Downloads.

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## Navigator Preferences - Smart Browsing

This section describes how to use the Smart Browsing preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Smart Browsing. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Smart Browsing preferences panel allows you to better browse web pages using Internet Keywords, Location Bar Autocomplete and Domain Guessing.

- Internet Keywords:
  - Enable Internet Keywords: Select this to enable fast access to services such as stock quotes, search, and other information from the Location bar.
  - More Information: Click this to learn more about using Internet Keywords.
- Location Bar Autocomplete:
  - Automatically complete text typed into Location bar: Select this to automatically complete text you previously entered into the Location bar.
  - Advanced: Click this and select one or more of the following options:
    - Autocomplete best match as you type: As you type in the Location Bar, &brandShortName; will automatically complete your web address using the visited website it most closely matches.
    - Show list of matching results: As you type in the Location Bar, &brandShortName; will show a drop-down list of matching visited web addresses.
    - Show internet search engine: Shows a drop-down list item allowing you to search the default search engine for words you enter.
    - Match only website you've typed previously: Shows only websites that you've typed in the Location Bar and not sites that were opened in other ways, such as clicking a link on a web page.
- Domain Guessing: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically add `www.` and `.com` to a web page location that can't be found. For more detailed information about the Domain Guessing feature, see the online document Domain Guessing.

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## Navigator Preferences - Internet Search

This section describes how to use the Internet Search preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Internet Search. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Internet Search preferences panel allows you to configure how you search using &brandShortName;:

- Default Search Engine:
  - Search using: Use the drop-down list to select the search engine you want use for web searching.
- Search Results:
  - Open the Search tab in the Sidebar when search results are available: Select this to have &brandShortName; open the Sidebar and show your search results.
  - Open tab instead of window for a context menu web search: Select this to have &brandShortName; show your search results in a new tab rather than a new window when you search on selected words in a web page.
- Sidebar Search Tab Preference:
  - Basic: Choose this to use one search engine when searching in &brandShortName;.
  - Advanced: Choose this to select one or more search engines from a list when searching in &brandShortName;.

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## Navigator Preferences - Tabbed Browsing

This section describes how to use the Tabbed Browsing preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Tabbed Browsing. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Tabbed Browsing preferences panel allows you to set up Tabbed Browsing:

- Tab Display:
  - Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open: Select this to display the Tabbed Browsing bar only when more then one Navigator tab is open.
  - Switch to new tabs opened from links: Select this to make &brandShortName; switch to the new tab when using Open in a New Tab to open a link.
- When opening a bookmark group:
  - Add tabs: Select this if you want a bookmark group to be opened in new tabs.
  - Replace existing tabs: Select this if you want a bookmark group to replace your existing tabs.
- Open tabs instead of windows for:
  - `Cmd`+click or `Cmd`+`Return` Middle-click, `Ctrl`+click or `Ctrl`+`Enter` on links in a Web page: Select this to open Web page links in a new tab when clicking a link and holding down the `Command` key or holding down the `Command` key and pressing `Return` on links with the middle mouse button, `Ctrl`-clicking on links, and pressing `Ctrl`+`Enter` on links.

    Tip: Use Find Links as You Type to navigate to the link you want to open with the keyboard commands above.

  - `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`Return` `Enter` in the Location bar: Select this to open a Web page in a new tab when you type the URL of the page in the Location Bar and press `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`Return` `Enter`.
- Link open behavior: If a webpage is designed so that certain links open in a new window by default (either through the target attribute in HTML or through embedded JavaScript), you may want to override this:
  - The current tab/window: Open the linked page in the current tab of the active window.
  - A new tab in the current window: Open the linked page in a new tab instead of a new window.
  - A new window: Open the linked page in a new window. (This is the default and does not override the webpage design).
- Links from other applications: If &brandShortName; is called from another application with a webpage address as an argument (like a click on a link in an external email program), you can control where the page will be loaded:
  - The current tab/window: Open the linked page in the current tab of the active window.
  - A new tab in the current window: Open the linked page in a new tab instead of a new window.
  - A new window: Open the linked page in a new window. (This is the default).

To ensure that &brandShortName; opens a new window, select the Navigator option in Appearance Preferences - Appearance.

If you want &brandShortName; to open a new tab instead of a new window when you launch it and it is already running, ensure the following:

- If you launch &brandShortName; by command line, do not use command-line parameters that open windows.
- Nothing is set in the Appearance Preferences - Appearance.
- Set Links from other applications preference to A new tab in the current window.

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## Navigator Preferences - Downloads

This section describes how to use the Downloads preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, click Downloads. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Navigator to expand the list.)

The Downloads preferences panel allows you to set up how &brandShortName; handles files you download from web pages:

- When starting a download:
  - Open the download manager: Select this to display the Download Manager, which displays the status for current and previous downloads. The status of all downloads is kept in a single window.
  - Open a progress dialog: Select this to display a progress dialog box, which display the status for your current download. The status of each download is kept in a separate window.
  - Don't open anything: Select this if you want to download files invisibly. No status is given for all your downloads.

- When saving a file:
  - Prompt for download location and default to: Select this if you always want to be able to choose a folder for the file to be saved. Choose one of the following folders to be the default location for the file:
    - Last download folder: The default location will be the folder you last downloaded a file to.
    - Specified download folder: The default location will be your Current Download Folder.
  - Automatically download files to specified download folder: Select this if you want files to be saved to your Current Download Folder without &brandShortName; prompting you for the download location.

- Current Download Folder: Use the button to navigate to a folder that you want to use as your specified download folder.

- When a download completes:
  - Play a sound: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to play a custom sound (typically in WAV format) when a download is completed. Use the Browse button to select the sound file in the file locator. To listen to the sound you've chosen, click Preview.
  - Show an alert: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to show an alert on the screen when a download is completed.

For more information about downloading files from web pages, see Plug-ins and Downloads.

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Copyright © 2003-2006 The Mozilla Foundation.