About This Book

This book is meant to be an introduction to the many features of Firefox and Thunderbird. You first learn about the open source concept and how it provides strong, secure software. You are then introduced to Firefox: what makes it unique and how to install it on your system, whether it's Windows, Linux, or Mac. As part of the installation process, you'll see how to import your settings and bookmarks from other browsers to make the process as seamless as possible. This book continues with information on security and privacy: how to surf the web and be safe while doing so. Along the way, you'll learn about making the trip less annoying by cutting out popups and advertisements.

From there, this book continues with information on the many ways in which you can search the web from within Firefox to find just the thing you're looking for. When you've found the right website, you need to keep track of it, so the book discusses bookmarks and history. Next, you'll learn about one of the most popular features of Firefox: tabbed browsing, which allows most Internet users to multi-task in a whole new way. If you're still looking for ways to enhance Firefox, you'll see how to download and install extensions, plug-ins, and themes to customize the way Firefox does things to better suit your needs. The Firefox portion of the book concludes with information about downloading and customizing toolbars.

The Thunderbird section of this book picks up with information on installing and configuring Thunderbird. You'll learn how to navigate Thunderbird and you'll also see how to get help with the product. This book continues with information on setting up your mail accounts, with a particular eye toward migrating from an existing email program to minimize the time and effort you need to spend. You'll next see how to avoid spamthe bane of email everywhere!and avoid viruses and trojan horses that may come in via email. There's extensive information on setting up mail folders and filtering your mail to them automatically. Finally, you'll see how to customize Thunderbird using extensions and themes, similar to what you saw earlier for Firefox. Specific technical information is contained in a variety of appendices.

TOOL KIT: To Linux and Mac Users

There are some necessary differences in the Firefox and Thunderbird keyboard commands and menu options between the Windows, Linux, and Mac versions. For example, where Windows keyboard commands frequently incorporate the Ctrl key, Mac commands use the Cmd key. And while Windows and Linux keyboard commands and menu options are usually the same (or very similar), it's not always true... and Mac menus can be different from both. In some cases, we've added the Linux and Mac commands to the text, but not always, simply because it would've complicated some otherwise straightforward procedures too much to no good effect. The book tends to use Windows commands only because the majority of our readers are likely to be using Firefox and Thunderbird on Windows and not because we're trying to express a personal preference for one operating system over another. The appendices have a comprehensive list of keyboard commands, mouse commands, and menu options for Windows, Linux, and Mac versions. If you're using a Linux or Mac system, you'll quickly pick up the few differences, and you'll be zipping along before you know it.