F8 User Guide - Accessing the Web

Fedora uses Mozilla Firefox by default in Gnome and Konqueror in KDE to access the World Wide Web (Web).

Beyond being excellent, standards compliant web browsers, Firefox and Konqueror have many features. This chapter explains how to use some of the more popular features, and provides links to further information.

Using Firefox

GNOME

To start Firefox in GNOME, select Applications > Internet > Firefox Web Browser or use the menu panel icon:

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Web firefoxicon.png

KDE

To start Firefox in KDE, select KMenu > Applications > Internet > Firefox Web Browser:

File:Docs Drafts DesktopUserGuide Web firefoxicon.png

Navigating The Web

Fedora starts Firefox with a custom default home page that has links to useful Fedora-related sites. Navigate to other web pages by typing the address (URL) into the long navigation bar across the top of the Firefox screen, replacing the default "http://start.fedoraproject.org".

If the URL is not known, enter a keyword (or words) into the search bar on the right of the navigation bar, then press the [ENTER] key. The search engine used is changed by left-clicking the logo in the search box, presenting a list of pre-configured options including Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, and Creative Commons.

Like other web browsers, Firefox makes it possible to save a web page for future reference by adding a bookmark to a list of bookmarks. Use the key combination [Ctrl] [d] to bookmark a page you are viewing. To manage bookmarks, or do other actions such as bookmarking all open tabs, use the Bookmark menu from the top of the Firefox window. Create a live bookmark (a feed) that automatically checks for updates from a page with an RSS or Atom feed. When a feed is available there is an orange icon at the right hand edge of the address bar. Left click the feed icon and a preview of the feed is displayed. Select the method you would like to use to subscribe to the feed.

Use your favorite feed reader
Firefox can use a number of popular web-based options for subscribing to feeds, such as Bloglines, My Yahoo, and Google Reader, as well as Firefox's own live bookmarks. Another option is to use a desktop feed reader you have installed, such as Liferea.

Tabs

Open a new tab with [Ctrl] [t] . A blank page is presented and a new bar is available under the navigation bar showing all open tabs; to switch between them left-click the desired tab. To close a tab you can either right click to access the context menu or press the red "X" on the tab.

Navigating a large number of open tabs can be difficult. To make it easier, use the arrow icon on the right hand side of the tabs toolbar. Click this to reveal a list of all open tabs that you can switch to by clicking on the relevant item.

Extensions

Firefox is designed to be fast and lightweight. As a result some functionality found in other browsers may not be available by default. To solve this problem the Firefox team made the browser extensible, making it easy to create and integrate extensions that add new functionality to the browser.

Themes, plugins and search engines
Firefox can also be extended by adding new search engines to the search box, installing new themes to customize the look, and installing new plugins allowing the use of Java and other web technologies. All of these can be found at Mozilla's Firefox add-ons site.

To manage and install extensions, plug-ins, and themes, select the Tools > Add-ons menu entry. New extensions are found by visiting https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/. To install an extension from this site follow the Install link, and when prompted click Install Now.