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This document is provided for your information only. It may help you take certain steps to protect the privacy and security of your personal information on the Internet. This document does not, however, address all online privacy and security issues, nor does it represent a recommendation about what constitutes adequate privacy and security protection on the Internet.

# Customizing &brandShortName;

You can customize &brandShortName; to better suit your needs using features like Sidebar, bookmarks, and Tabbed Browsing.

This section describes the customizable aspects of &brandShortName;'s browser component, Navigator.

In this section:

- Sidebar
- Tabbed Browsing
- Changing Fonts, Colors, and Themes
- Toolbars
- Bookmarks
- Specifying How &brandShortName; Starts Up
- Navigator Settings

## Sidebar

In this section:

- What is Sidebar?
- Opening, Closing and Resizing Sidebar
- Viewing Sidebar Tabs
- Adding Sidebar Tabs
- Customizing Individual Sidebar Tabs
- Reorganizing Sidebar Tabs
- Removing Sidebar Tabs

### What is Sidebar?

Sidebar is a customizable area in your browser where you can keep items that you need to use all the time—the latest news and weather, your address book, stock quotes, a calendar—and many other available options. Sidebar presents these items to you in tabs that are continually updated.

&brandShortName; comes with some Sidebar tabs already set up, but you can customize Sidebar by adding, removing, and rearranging tabs.

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### Opening, Closing and Resizing Sidebar

To open Sidebar, press `F9` or open the View menu in Navigator, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu.

Once Sidebar is opened, you can use its handle to close, open and resize Sidebar's frame. Move the mouse pointer up and down along the left edge of the &brandShortName; window. The pointer changes to a hand when it touches the handle for Sidebar, as shown in the picture.

| Sidebar Handle

- Click the handle to close/open Sidebar's frame
- Click and drag the handle to resize Sidebar's frame

To close Sidebar with its handle, do one of the following:

- Press `F9`
- Click the X in the upper-right corner of Sidebar
- Open the View menu, choose Show/Hide, and then Sidebar from the submenu

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### Viewing Sidebar Tabs

To view a tab:

- Click a tab's title; for instance, click the word Search. The Search tab opens, which allows you to search for web pages.

Tip: To reload a Sidebar tab, right-click on the tab title and choose Reload from the pop-up menu.

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### Adding Sidebar Tabs

To add a new tab:

1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar, and select Customize Sidebar from the menu
2. In the Customize Sidebar dialog box, select a tab from the list on the left. Double-click the folders to open or close folders.
3. Click Add.
4. Continue adding as many tabs as you want.
5. Click OK to finish.

Note: If you add more than eight tabs to Sidebar, &brandShortName; hides the remaining tabs to reduce clutter. To scroll through the hidden tabs, click the down arrow button at the bottom of Sidebar until you see the desired tab. Click the up arrow button to once again scroll up.

Tips:

- To preview a Sidebar tab before adding it, select a tab from the list on the left side of the Customize Sidebar dialog box and click Preview. After a few seconds, the tab displays in the Tab Preview pop-up window.
- To view an extensive and categorized list of tabs available for Sidebar, click Tabs at the top of Sidebar, and select Sidebar Directory.

You can also turn Sidebar tabs on and off.

1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar. Current tabs are listed in the lower part of the menu.
2. Select the tabs you want displayed in Sidebar. Remove the checkmark (deselect) to turn a tab off (it will still be available from the menu).

Tip: To quickly turn off a Sidebar tab, right-click on its name and choose Hide Tab.

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### Customizing Individual Sidebar Tabs

Note: Not all tabs can be customized.

1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
2. Select an available tab from the list on the right.
3. Click Customize Tab if it is enabled. A window appears with information and options for customizing the tab.

   The instructions vary depending on the source of the tab—in addition to &brandShortName;, tab providers can be any company, organization, or individual who uses the Internet.

4. After you follow the tab provider's instructions, close the customization window (or follow the provider's instructions to close it).
5. Click OK to finish.

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### Reorganizing Sidebar Tabs

1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
2. Select a tab from the list on the right.
3. Click Up and Down to change the tab's placement.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to continue reorganizing as many tabs as you like.
5. Click OK to finish.

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### Removing Sidebar Tabs

1. Click Tabs at the top of Sidebar and select Customize Sidebar from the menu.
2. Select a tab from the list on the right.
3. Click Remove.
4. Continue removing as many tabs as you like.
5. Click OK to finish.

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## Tabbed Browsing

In this section:

- What is Tabbed Browsing?
- Setting up Tabbed Browsing
- Opening Tabs
- Bookmarking Tabs
- Closing Tabs

### What is Tabbed Browsing?

Tabbed Browsing lets you open more than one web page in a single window. Each web page has its own tab across the top of a single Navigator window. Each tab appears on the Tab Bar. For example, you can visit mozilla.org, icq.com, and cnn.com within one window instead of three windows.

Click this to open a new tab. |
Tab being viewed. | Click this to close the tab being viewed.
Tab Bar

You don't need to have several windows open to visit several web pages; thus, freeing up more space on your desktop. Instead, you can open, close, and reload web pages conveniently in one place without having to switch to another window.

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### Setting up Tabbed Browsing

There are several ways to customize Tabbed Browsing. For example, you can change your preferences to open new Navigator tabs from the Location Bar. You can set up Tabbed Browsing in other ways too, such as loading new Navigator tabs in the background so the first page is kept on top while the second page is loading. To learn more about setting up Tabbed Browsing in &brandShortName;, see Navigator Preferences - Tabbed Browsing.

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### Opening Tabs

You can open a Navigator tab in the following ways:

Opening a New Blank Navigator Tab:

- From the File menu: Open the File menu, choose New, and then New Navigator Tab.
- From the Tab Bar: If visible, click the new tab icon on the left side of the Tab Bar.
- From a pop-up menu: If the Tab Bar is visible, right-click on it, and choose New Tab from the pop.

Opening a Web Page Link in a Navigator Tab:

- From a pop-up menu: Right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, `Ctrl`-click on a web page link and choose Open Link in New Tab.
- From the Location Bar: Type a web page location in the Location Bar and press `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`Return` `Enter`.

  Note: You must set your Tabbed Browsing preferences to open a Navigator tab from the Location Bar. See Navigator Preferences - Tabbed Browsing for more information.

Tips:

- To quickly open a new Navigator tab, press `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`T`.
- To reload one or all Navigator tabs, right-click or, if you have a one-button mouse, `Ctrl`-click anywhere on the Tab Bar and select Reload Tab or Reload All Tabs, respectively.

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### Bookmarking Tabs

A bookmarked group of tabs is called a Groupmark. To bookmark the group of Navigator tabs in the current window:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Bookmark This Group of Tabs.
2. Type a name for the bookmark group in the Name field.
3. Choose a folder in which to create your Groupmark, or click New Folder to create a new folder for your Groupmark.
4. Click OK to add the Groupmark.

Tip: To learn how to use a group of tabs as your home page, see Navigator Preferences - Navigator.

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### Closing Tabs

You can close Navigator tabs in several ways:

Closing the Navigator Tab Being Viewed:

- Open the File menu and choose Close Tab.
- Click the X button on the right side of the Tab Bar.

Click this to open a new tab. |
Tab being viewed. | Click this to close the tab being viewed.
Tab Bar

Tips:

- To close any Navigator tab, even if hidden, right-click on the tab and choose Close Tab from the pop-up menu.
- To keep only one Navigator tab open, while closing all other tabs, right-click on the Navigator tab and choose Close Other Tabs.

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## Changing Fonts, Colors, and Themes

In this section:

- Changing the Default Fonts
- Changing the Default Colors
- Changing the Theme

### Changing the Default Fonts

Normally, web pages are displayed in the default font set by your browser or in a font chosen by the web pages' authors.

To change the default fonts:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, choose Fonts. (If no options are visible in this category, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)
3. From the "Fonts for" drop-down list, choose a language group/script. For instance, to set default fonts for West European languages/script (Latin), choose Western.
4. Select whether proportional text should be serif (like Times Roman) or sans-serif (like Arial). Then specify the font size you want for proportional text.
5. If an appropriate font is available for your language/script, select fonts for Serif, Sans-Serif, Cursive, Fantasy, and Monospace. You can also specify what font size you want for monospace text.
6. Specify whether the default font should be serif or sans serif.
7. Select a fixed-width font and size. Certain types of text, such as equations and formulas, are displayed in a fixed-width font.

Many web page authors choose their own fonts and font sizes. To allow fonts other than the ones specified in your preferences, check Allow documents to use other fonts.

To adjust the readability of fonts, select from the drop-down list the dots per inch (dpi) for displaying web pages. Select Other to open the Calibrate Resolution dialog box, which allows you to calibrate your resolution by measuring how long a line appears on your screen. Increased screen resolution may will improve text readability on some screens.

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### Changing the Default Colors

Normally, the background and text colors on web pages are determined by the default colors set by your browser or by the pages' authors.

To change the default colors:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, choose Colors. (If no options are visible in this category, click to expand the list.)
3. Click the colored blocks next to Text, Background, Unvisited Links, and Visited Links. Choose a color for each from the color chart. You can also specify that links should be underlined.

Most web page authors choose their own colors. You can override the authors' intentions by selecting Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors specified.

When viewing the source of a web page, you can see the HTML syntax of the source of a web page highlighted in specific colors by selecting Enable syntax highlighting.

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### Changing the Theme

You can change the look and feel of &brandShortName; by changing themes.

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, choose Themes.
3. Click to select the theme you want to use.
4. Click OK to confirm your choice.

   Note: You need to quit and restart &brandShortName; after you apply a new theme in order for the change to take effect.

Shortcut: You can also change themes by opening the View menu, choosing Apply Theme, and then choosing the theme you want to use.

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## Toolbars

In this section:

- Navigation Toolbar
- Personal Toolbar
- Status Bar
- Component Bar
- Hiding a Toolbar

### Navigation Toolbar

The Navigation Toolbar, pictured here, helps you move around the Web.

Back | Forward | Reload | Stop

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### Personal Toolbar

The Personal Toolbar is completely customizable—you decide what you want to keep there.

Personal Toolbar

You can easily add, delete, and rearrange items in the Personal Toolbar.

#### Turning Buttons On and Off

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click Navigator.
3. Under Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbars, choose the buttons that you want on your toolbar.
4. Click OK.

#### Adding Personal Toolbar Bookmarks

You can add buttons for your favorite bookmarks, or folders containing groups of bookmarks. To create a new bookmark to add to the Personal Toolbar:

1. Open a web page you want to bookmark.
2. Drag the bookmark icon (located to the left of URL in the Location Bar) to a desired place on the Personal Toolbar. You can drag the icon directly to the Personal Toolbar, or to a folder on the Personal Toolbar. For more information, see Adding Bookmark Folders to the Personal Toolbar.

Note: The bookmark icon may appear as another page-specific icon if you have checked Show Website Icons in preferences. See Appearance Preferences - Appearance for more information on changing this preferences.

Each item in the Personal Toolbar folder appears as a toolbar button. You may need to enlarge the browser window to see them all.

Adding Bookmark Folders to the Personal Toolbar

You can add bookmark folders to the Personal Toolbar to sort your favorite bookmarks into categories. For example, you can have one folder on the Personal Toolbar for hobby-related bookmarks and another folder for work-related bookmarks. To add a new bookmark to the Personal Toolbar:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. Select your designated Personal Toolbar Folder.
3. Click New Folder on the toolbar.
4. Type a name for your new bookmark folder. By default, the name is New Folder.
5. Click OK to confirm your new bookmark folder name.

The new bookmark folder will appear at the end of the Personal Toolbar.

#### Designating a Bookmark Folder as Your Personal Toolbar Folder

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. Select the bookmark folder whose items you want to appear on the toolbar.
3. From the View menu, choose Set as Personal Toolbar Folder.

The buttons in your Personal Toolbar now correspond to the bookmarks in the folder you designated.

#### Removing Bookmarks from the Personal Toolbar

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. Click the Personal Toolbar Folder.
3. Select the bookmark or folder you want to delete.
4. Press Delete on your keyboard.
5. Close the Manage Bookmarks window.

Tip: To quickly remove a bookmark placed on the Personal Toolbar (not in a folder), right-click on the bookmark and select Delete.

#### Rearranging the Personal Toolbar

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, click the Personal Toolbar Folder.
3. Select a bookmark or folder and drag it to a new location.
4. When you are finished rearranging items, close your Bookmarks window.

Note: Standard buttons on the Personal Toolbar such as Bookmarks, Search, Go, Print and Home cannot be rearranged, but they can be turned off and on.

Tip: To move a bookmark placed on the Personal Toolbar quickly, click and drag the bookmark to another location on the Personal Toolbar or to a folder.

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### Status Bar

The Status Bar is located at the bottom of any &brandShortName; window. It includes the following:

- Component Bar: Allows you to switch between components. For more information, see Component Bar.
- Status information: Displays information like the web-page URL and load status information.
- Cookie notification icon : Appears when a website has used a cookie in a way that requires you to be notified. For more information, see Cookie Notification.
- Work Offline or Work Online icon: Click the icon to toggle working offline or online. Working offline prevents &brandShortName; from attempting to connect to the Internet, for example to load images on web pages or automatically check email.
- Lock icon (Example: ): Indicates whether the entire contents of the page was encrypted while it was being received by your computer. For more information, see Checking Security for a Web Page.

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### Component Bar

Use the Component Bar at the bottom left of any &brandShortName; window to switch between tasks (such as browsing or mail).

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### Hiding a Toolbar

There are two ways to hide the toolbars.

To minimize a toolbar:

- Click the small triangle at the left of the toolbar. To show the toolbar, click the triangle again. (Note: You cannot hide the Component Bar using this method.)

To completely hide a toolbar, including its triangle:

1. Open the View menu.
2. Choose Show/Hide and uncheck the toolbars you want to hide.

To reverse this action, open the View menu, choose Show, and then select the toolbars you want to show.

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## Bookmarks

In this section:

- What Are Bookmarks?
- Using Bookmarks
- Creating New Bookmarks
- Organizing Your Bookmarks
- Changing Individual Bookmarks
- Searching Your Bookmarks
- Exporting or Importing a Bookmark List

### What Are Bookmarks?

Bookmarks are shortcuts to your favorite and most-visited web pages. Rather than typing in long URLs (web addresses), you can create bookmarks that take you directly to the pages you want to see.

You access your bookmarks through the Bookmarks menu, the Bookmarks tab on Sidebar, and the Manage Bookmarks window. You can control what's listed in the Bookmarks menu by adding bookmarks for your favorite web pages and organizing your list of bookmarks any way you want.

### Using Bookmarks

&brandShortName; comes with some bookmarks already available. To use a bookmark:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu.
2. Choose a bookmark from the list or from a folder in the list.

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### Creating New Bookmarks

You can bookmark your favorite websites to make it easy to return to them.

To bookmark the current page, perform one of these steps:

- To add a bookmark to the Bookmarks menu, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Bookmark This Page.
- To add a bookmark to a specific folder on the Bookmarks menu, or to provide a specific name or URL for your bookmark:
  1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose File Bookmark. Choose from any of these options:
     - Name: Enter a name for the bookmark if you want a different name.
     - Location: Enter a URL for the bookmark if you want a different URL.
     - Keyword: Enter a keyword for the bookmark if you want to be able to open the bookmarked page from the Location Bar (see Using Custom Bookmark Keywords).
     - Destination: Choose a folder in which to create your bookmark.
     - New Folder: Click this to create a new folder in which to create your bookmark.
  2. Click OK to add the bookmark.

  Tip: If you have multiple Navigator tabs open in a window, you can select Bookmark this groups of tabs to add a single bookmark that will open all of the open tabs in the current window.

- To add a bookmark to the Personal Toolbar, drag the bookmark icon next to the Location Bar to a place on the Personal Toolbar. You can drag a bookmark to the following places:
  - In the Bookmarks folder on the Personal Toolbar.
  - In a bookmarks folder you've created on the Personal Toolbar.
  - To the Personal Toolbar itself, on the right side of all bookmarks folders.

    For more information about adding bookmarks to the Personal Toolbar, see Adding Personal Toolbar bookmarks.

Personal Toolbar

- To add a bookmark to the Bookmarks tab in Sidebar, open Sidebar, select the Bookmarks tab, and drag the bookmark icon next to the Location Bar to a place on the bookmark list in the Bookmarks tab.

Notes:

- The bookmark icon may appear as another page-specific icon if you have checked Show Website Icons in preferences. See Appearance Preferences - Appearance for more information on changing this preferences.
- After adding a bookmark using any of the methods listed above, it can be accessed using the Sidebar Bookmarks tab, the Manage Bookmarks window, and the Bookmarks menu.

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### Organizing Your Bookmarks

To organize your bookmarks, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks. Perform any of the following tasks in your Manage Bookmarks window.

Tip: You can open the Manage Bookmarks window from the Bookmarks tab in Sidebar. Click on Manage at the top of the Bookmarks tab.

To view bookmarks inside of folders:

- Double-click a folder to view its contents.

To move a bookmark or a folder to another location in the list:

- Drag the bookmark or folder that you want to move to the new location. To put a bookmark in a folder, drag it to the folder.

To create a new folder or separator:

- Click New Folder or New Separator at the top of the Bookmarks window. The new folder or separator appears below the current selection.

To remove a bookmark or a folder from the list:

1. Click to highlight the bookmark or folder that you want to remove.
2. Press the Delete key on your keyboard, or click Delete in the Bookmarks window.

To sort your bookmarks in the Manage Bookmarks window:

- Open the View menu and select how you want the list sorted (such as Sort by Name or Sort by Location).

  Tip: To add more columns, open the View menu, open Show columns, and select a column header in the list.

#### Designating a New Bookmark Folder

When you create a new bookmark, &brandShortName; normally adds it to the bottom of your bookmarks list. If you prefer to file your bookmarks in a folder, you can designate a new bookmarks folder.

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, select a folder to hold new bookmarks.
3. Open the View menu and choose Set as New Bookmark Folder.

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### Changing Individual Bookmarks

You can change the information for any individual bookmark.

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, click a bookmark.
3. Click Properties.
4. In the bookmark Properties dialog box window, click the Info tab.

You can rename the bookmark (the name appears in your bookmark list), add descriptive information, or set a keyword.

You can also set &brandShortName; to check bookmarked websites for changes.

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, click a bookmark.
3. Click Properties.
4. In the bookmark Properties dialog box, click the Schedule tab.
5. Use the pull down lists to specify how frequently you want &brandShortName; to check the bookmarked page for changes.
6. If you want to be notified when the bookmarked page changes, click the Notify tab and choose a notification option.

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### Searching Your Bookmarks

To search the bookmarks list:

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu and choose Search Bookmarks. You see the Find Bookmarks dialog box.
3. In the drop-down lists, choose options to define your search, and then click Find. Bookmarks that match your search criteria are displayed. Choose from the following Search options:
   - Choose "contains," "starts with," or "ends with" if you know only part of the word or phrase for which you're searching.
   - Choose "is" if you know exactly what you're searching for.
   - Choose "is not" or "doesn't contain" to exclude pages.
   - Click the fill-in field and type all or part of name or URL (web address) for the bookmarks or history listings that you want to find or exclude.
   - Select Save query in bookmarks to save this search for later use.
4. Double-click a bookmark in the list to go to that page.

Tip: If the list is hard to read, try expanding the search results window.

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### Exporting or Importing a Bookmark List

Your bookmarks are stored in a file named bookmarks.html. You can export a copy of this file and save it in a folder of your choosing. You can then edit it and treat it as you would any HTML file.

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu, and choose Export.
3. In the Export Bookmarks File dialog box, choose a folder. Your bookmarks.html file will be copied into the folder you designate.
4. Click Save.

Your &brandShortName; bookmarks are not altered by this procedure.

You can also import bookmarks files from other sources. For example, you can import bookmarks files from earlier &brandShortName; versions, other browsers, or from bookmarks files that your friends send you.

Before you start, make sure that the bookmarks file you want to import is an HTML file.

1. Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In your Bookmarks window, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. In the Import Bookmarks File dialog box, locate and select the bookmarks file you want to import.
4. Click Open.

The imported bookmarks file is treated as a group of new bookmarks and added to the bottom of your bookmarks list. If you have designated a new bookmark folder, the imported bookmarks are added to that folder.

Note: Importing a bookmarks file imports the bookmarks and folders from that file. It does not create two bookmarks files.

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## Specifying How &brandShortName; Starts Up

In this section:

- Specifying a Starting Page
- Changing Your Home Page
- Specifying Which Components Open at Launch

### Specifying a Starting Page

You can specify the page that loads when the browser starts:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under "When Navigator, starts up display," choose whether you want a blank page, your home page, or the last web page visited to open automatically when you launch your browser.

   Note: If you selected Home Page, type the URL in the Location Bar.

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### Changing Your Home Page

Your home page is the page that opens when you click the Home button in the Personal Toolbar. Depending on how your preferences are set, it may also be the page that opens automatically when you launch &brandShortName;.

To specify your home page:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Navigator category.
3. In the Home page section, perform one of the following:
   - Type your home page's URL (web address) in the Location field.
   - Click Use Current Page to make the page currently displayed in the browser window your home page.
   - Click Choose File to select a file from your computer's hard drive.

Tip: To specify your home page quickly, drag the bookmark icon from the Location Bar to the Home Page button on the Personal Toolbar.

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### Specifying Which Components Open at Launch

You can choose components (such as Mail & Newsgroups and Composer) to launch when you start &brandShortName;:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Appearance category.
3. Select the components you want opened automatically each time you start &brandShortName;.

[Return to beginning of section]

Copyright © 2003-2005 The Mozilla Foundation.