Firefox 1.0.6 and some of the new features

Soon after Firefox 1.0.5 came out, version 1.0.6 followed. I guess there were some complaints that 1.0.5 broke some of the API. features, and the support for extensions got wacky. So, if Firefox didn’t already tell you to update, now is the time to do it, especially since broken extensions, in my opinion, would affect that many more people.

Go to Mozilla’s homepage to download your copy now.

Firefox’s Password Manager

Until about two weeks ago, I had real issues deleting my cookies. As far as I understood it, from a novice perspective, those small cookies were storing information like my passwords, which I have a hard time remembering. Especially since as of late, I have tried to make a point of making them harder to guess, which makes them that much harder for me to remember.

Firefox’s Password Manager is a little built is feature of the browser that will store all of your password’s, much like Robofill, or any other myriad of auto form filling softwares. Except, you don’t need a separate program, this comes with Firefox. It will auto fill the most recent password used, and if you don’t like that choice, you can then begin to type a different username, and Firefox will autofill the correct password.

Where is all of this information stored, you ask? Well that is easy. Let’s walk through how to access the password manager and how to set up a “Master Password” that will prompt on pages where you need

Step 1: Go to the Tools Menu and Select Options.

Step 2: Choose Privacy from the options, the one that looks like a little lock.

Step 3: In the middle area, you should see Saved Passwords, below Saved Form Information and above Download Manager History. Click the plus sign next to Saved Passwords and then choose View Saved Passwords.

At this point you can view your passwords. If you click the button Show Passwords, Firefox then will ask you for the Master Password in order to display then in another column to the right of Username. If you choose cancel, it just returns you to the same screen.

A Master Password, that is what we talked about before. To set that up, get back to your Saved Passwords area with the little plus button by clicking the close button. Then click the button that says Change Master Password.

This will give you a dialog box that allows you to type in your old password, and then type in a new password and confirm it. Firefox also has a little rating system that will give you a graphical rating on how good your password is, or in orders words, hard to guess.

If you don’t already have a password, I am actually not sure what happens here. I assume the button says Set Master Password. I know I only did it recently, but I have a very short memory.

From here on out, to use or display your passwords, you will only need to remember one password, your Master. Now you can surf to sites, add those passwords on your first visit, and then tell Firefox when it prompts you to “Remember the password for future use“. When you do this, it adds it to your list with some encryption and never again will you have to try to remember it.

There is talk that the next version will have support to integrate with other password security systems like Keychain on Mac OS X, and also allow you to import passwords from other programs / browsers. Good ol Mozilla, they are always thinking.

Firefox Google Search Shortcut

If you haven’t noticed, there is a little search box in the upper right of Firefox with a little G next to it. Most people know that this searches Google, and if you didn’t know, now you do.

But, countless times during the day, I would either use my quick one click button bookmarks I have setup in Firefox to visit Google’s site, or I would type it in really quick manually. It’s pretty short right? Well after typing it 20 times a day, that is a few min tues you could save with one keypress shortcut.

To get up to that search box without your mouse, all you have to press is this;

Ctrl + E or Ctrl + K

Both of these shortcuts will put your cursor in the search box, highlight any current text for deletion that is already there, and all you do is type and hit enter and you are at Google’s search results!

Now, there are other great one click searches in that box too, like Amazon and Ebay, which I will visit every once in awhile. I haven’t figured out the keypress to bring down the select menu to change which site you search, but those options are there too if you want to explore with your mouse.

But who wants to do that when we have such great keyboard shortcuts? Not me that is for sure.

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