Chapter 21: Ten Secrets to a Foxier Web
The Firefox interface is designed to be simple and intuitive. The goal is to remove browser clutter so you can focus on the Web site, not on Firefox itself. However, underneath its simple exterior, Firefox includes a handful of little features to make your life easier, and we developers don't want you to miss them. Enjoy!
The Find Bar Can Read Your Mind
Chapter 4 introduces Firefox's innovative Find Bar for searching within a Web page. The Find Bar is built for speed: Rather than waiting until you finish typing, it searches as you type. You can also open and close the Find Bar by using keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+F to open, or 
+F on a Mac, and Esc/Escape to close on both systems), meaning you never need to reach for the mouse.
In spite of all that, searching can get even faster. What if you didn't have to worry about the Find Bar at all? If you turn on a mode called Fast Find, you can tell Firefox to start searching a page whenever you begin typing. Firefox automatically opens the Find Bar so you can keep track of what you type.
After you finish typing, Firefox automatically hides the Find Bar so it doesn't get in the way. To turn Fast Find mode on:
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Select the Advanced icon at the top of the Options window.
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On the General tab, under Accessibility, select the Begin Finding When You Begin Typing check box.
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Click OK to save your changes.
To try out the new behavior, load http://www.mozilla. org and begin typing Firefox. Firefox opens the Find Bar and highlights in green the first occurrence of the word on the page. A few seconds after you stop typing, Firefox automatically closes the Find Bar.
| REMEMBER | For this feature to work, the Web site itself — not the Location Bar, or any other part of Firefox — must be focused. (The only way to tell whether a Web site is focused is to press the up- and down-arrow keys and see if the Web site scrolls.) The focus typically isn't an issue because Firefox sets focus to the Web site when you navigate to it. However, if Firefox doesn't open the Find Bar when you begin typing, try focusing the Web page first by clicking on a dead space within the page (that is, text or empty space, but not a link). The next search you conduct begins wherever you click. |
Another nice thing about Fast Find mode is that it's optimized for links. To continue the earlier example, the first result for Firefox is actually a link to the Firefox Web site. Fast Find lets you follow this link by using only the keyboard. One side effect of this feature is that keyboard shortcuts on the Find Bar behave differently in Fast Find mode than they do in standard Find mode, and I summarize the differences in Table 21-1.
| Shortcut | Standard Find Mode | Fast Find Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Enter | Selects next occurrence. | If the highlighted result is a link, the link is loaded. Otherwise, nothing happens. |
| Shift+Enter | Selects previous occurrence. | If the highlighted result is a link, the link is loaded in a new window. Otherwise, nothing happens. |
| Ctrl+Enter ( | Highlights all occurrences. | If highlighted result is a link, the link is loaded in a new tab. Otherwise, nothing happens. |
| Ctrl+G ( | Selects next occurrence (same as Enter). | Highlights next occurrence. |
| Crtl+Shift+G ( | Selects previous occurrence (same as Shift+Enter). | Highlights previous occurrence. |
