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# Advanced Preferences

This section describes how to use the Advanced preferences panel. If you are not already viewing the panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Advanced category.

In this section:

- Advanced
- Scripts & Plugins
- Keyboard Navigation
- Find As You Type
- Cache
- Offline Apps
- Proxies
- HTTP Networking
- Software Installation
- Mouse Wheel
- DOM Inspector

## Advanced Preferences - Advanced

This section describes how to use the main Advanced preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Advanced category.

The main Advanced preferences panel allows you to:

- Use Preferences from System: Select this to use the already set system preferences, overriding &brandShortName;'.
- Check default application settings on startup: Select this to have &brandShortName; check whether it is the default application for tasks like browsing and mail. If &brandShortName; detects on startup that it is not the default application for any of these tasks, a dialog will appear that allows you to choose which tasks &brandShortName; should handle by default.
- Submit crash reports: Select this to enable the Mozilla Crash Reporter. If &brandShortName; crashes, you will be asked in each case whether to report the issue.

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## Advanced Preferences - Scripts & Plugins

This section describes how to use the Scripts & Plugins preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Scripts & Plugins. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Scripts & Plugins preferences panel allows you to control how JavaScript and plugins are used:

- Enable JavaScript for:
  - Browser: Select this to turn on JavaScript for web pages opened in the browser.
- Allow scripts to: Select these checkboxes to control how JavaScript can be used:
  - Move or resize existing windows: Allows open windows to be resized or moved.
  - Raise or lower windows: Allows windows to be placed under or on top of other windows.
  - Hide the status bar: Allows the status bar to be hidden.
  - Change status bar text: Allows status bar text to be changed, such as in scrolling text in the status bar.
  - Change images: Allows images to be changed or animated, such as in image rollovers (images that change when the mouse cursor is placed over them).
  - Disable or replace context menus: Allows right-click menus or, if you're using a one-button mouse, `Ctrl`-click menus to be replaced or disabled by webpages.
- Enable Plugins for: Use these checkboxes to control how plugins are used:
  - Suite: Globally enables or disables plugins.
  - Mail & Newsgroups: Allows plugins to be used in Mail & Newsgroups.
- When a page requires plugins: Select these checkboxes to control what &brandShortName; should do if a web page requires plugins:
  - Activate all plugins by default: If you select this, &brandShortName; will load and run all plugins found on the web page. Otherwise, if the page requires plugins, &brandShortName; will show a notification (plugin icon in the location bar or notification bar), plus a placeholder for every plugin instance found on the page (unless the website is whitelisted, see below). You can activate individual visible plugin instances with a left mouse click or use the notification to activate all the plugins on the page. From the notification you have the option to either temporarily activate the plugins or remember the choice for the current website. Remembered choices can be edited using the Data Manager (Permissions tab).
  - Warn me if additional plugins need to be installed: When a website requires a plugin which is not installed, a notification bar will be displayed above the website content area. From the bar you will be able to download and install the missing plugin.

For more information about plugins, see Plugins and Downloads.

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## Advanced Preferences - Keyboard Navigation

This section describes how to use the Keyboard Navigation preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Keyboard Navigation. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Keyboard Navigation preferences panel allows you to control how you use the keyboard to navigate in web pages:

- Tab Key Navigation: Select which elements should be taken into account when using the Tab key on a page:
  - Links: If checked, pressing `Tab` or `Shift`+`Tab` moves between links.
  - Buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, and selection lists: If checked, pressing `Tab` or `Shift`+`Tab` moves between buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, and selection lists.
- Browse With Caret: Select if and how caret browsing should be used:
  - Use caret browsing: If checked, caret browsing will be enabled by default when you load a web page.
  - Use the F7 shortcut to toggle caret browsing: If checked, the F7 shortcut will toggle caret browsing on or off. Otherwise &brandShortName; will not use the shortcut and the below option will have no effect.
  - Warn me before turning on caret browsing: If checked, &brandShortName; will issue a warning dialog if the caret browsing mode is about to be entered, allowing you to choose whether to proceed or not. (There is no warning when leaving caret browsing mode.)

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## Advanced Preferences - Find As You Type

This section describes how to use the Find As You Type references panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Find As You Type. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Find As You Type preferences panel allows you to control how you use the keyboard to search for text in web pages:

- Find automatically when typing within a web page: If checked, typing text in a web page automatically activates Find As You Type and locates the text you typed (if it exists in the page). Choose whether you want typing to find any text in the page or links only. If unchecked, you must choose Find Links As You Type or Find Text As You Type from the Edit menu before typing the text you want to find.
- Play a sound when typed text isn't found: If checked, Find As You Type plays a sound when the typed text isn't found in the web page.
- Clear the current search after a few seconds of inactivity: If checked, the search will be cancelled after a few seconds of keyboard inactivity.
- Show the find toolbar during find as you type: If checked, the find toolbar will open when Find As You Type is activated and what you type will be entered into the toolbar search field. If unchecked, the find toolbar will not be opened and the search string will be displayed in the status bar. Note that international text entry will not work in this mode.

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## Advanced Preferences - Cache

This section describes how to use the Cache preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Cache preferences panel allows you to adjust the &brandShortName; memory and disk cache:

- Let &brandShortName; manage the size of my cache: Select this to let &brandShortName; apply a heuristic based on the space available on your hard disk in order to determine your cache size. (This is the default.)
- Use up to [__] MB of disk space for the cache: Type in the amount of disk cache you want to allocate for &brandShortName;. The disk cache is saved to your hard disk (drive) and can be used again, even if you have restarted your computer. (The default is 1024 MB. This preference is ignored if the above checkbox is selected.)
- Clear Cache: Click this to clear the disk cache.
- Cache Folder Location: Shows the current location of the disk cache folder
  - Choose Folder: Click this to choose a folder location for the disk cache.
- Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network:
  - Every time I view the page: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache every time you view it.
  - When the page is out of date: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache when the page is determined by the server to have expired.
  - Once per session: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to compare a web page to the cache once for each time you start &brandShortName;.
  - Never: Select this if you do not want &brandShortName; to compare cached information to the network.
- Prefetch web pages when idle, so that links in web pages designed for prefetching can load more quickly: Select this to decrease the time it takes to load web pages when you click a link in a web page that uses prefetching. For more information about Link Prefetching, see the online Link Prefetching FAQ.

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## Advanced Preferences - Offline Apps

This section describes how to use the Offline Web Applications preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Offline Apps. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Offline Web Applications panel allows you to control and monitor how websites use &brandShortName;'s offline storage. Websites can provide complex functionality beyond just the presentation of content, implementing web applications. In general, such web applications require you to stay online in order to use them, thus won't function when you are disconnected from the network (offline). If permitted, websites can store their content and any data you entered locally in &brandShortName;. In this way, web applications can be used even without a network connection.

The Offline Web Content and User Data section provides the following functions:

- Your offline storage currently uses [__] of disk space: This entry is informational and provides you with an estimate of the offline data currently used by all web applications combined.
- Clear: Immediately clears data that has been saved by all websites for use when you are offline.
- Allow all websites to store data for offline use: Select this option if you want to permit websites by default to store web content and user data locally on the disk of your computer.
- Only allow websites with explicit permissions: Select this option if you want to control whether or not a website can store web content for offline use locally. Unless explicit permission has been granted, the website's request to access the offline storage is blocked or a notification shown to give you the option to allow it.
- Notify me when websites want to store data for offline use: Check this box if you want to be notified when a website requests to store content or data in the offline storage but does not currently have any permissions set whether or not it is allowed to do so. An information bar will appear for this site offering the following options:
  - Always Allow: Permanently allow this site the use of the offline storage for this and future accesses.
  - Never for This Site: Permanently deny this site the use of the offline storage for this and future accesses.
  - Not Now: Deny this site the use of the offline storage for this request but ask again for future accesses.

  Note: The offline storage is not available in a private window. You will receive a notification if this option is checked, but all requests will be blocked.

- Manage Permissions: Opens the Data Manager in a new tab or window where you can modify the Offline Web Applications permissions for each domain:
  - Use Default: Check this box to return to the default behavior, thus presenting the information bar with the next request from a site within each domain if the notification option is chosen (effectively removes the entry from this listing).
  - Allow: Select this option to allow this site the use of the offline storage for all accesses.
  - Block: Select this option to deny this site the use of the offline storage for all accesses.
- The following websites are using offline storage: Lists the domains of all websites which have stored offline data, along with the amount of data currently used by this domain.
- Clear Data: Select a website domain and click this button to delete all offline data for the specified domain. Click Remove offline data after being prompted for confirmation to do so.

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## Advanced Preferences - Proxies

This section describes how to use the Proxies preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Proxies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Proxies preferences panel allows you to set up &brandShortName; to use a proxy:

Before you start: Ask your network administrator if you have a proxy configuration file or for the names and port numbers of the proxy.

- Direct connection to the Internet: Choose this if you don't want to use a proxy.
- Automatically discover the proxy configuration: Choose this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically detect and configure the proxy settings, using the WPAD protocol.
- Automatic proxy configuration URL: Choose this if you have a proxy configuration file or URL, then enter the configuration URL.
  - Reload: Click this to reload the configuration file.

    For more information about Automatic Proxy Configuration, see the online End User Guide to Proxy AutoConfiguration.

- Manual proxy configuration: Choose this if you don't have a proxy location (URL), or the automatic proxy discovery was unable to setup the proxy settings correctly.
  - Proxy: Enter the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server.
  - Port: Enter the port number in the Port field. Click on Advanced to set Advanced Proxy Preferences
  - No Proxy for: Type the domains and/or IP addresses that you do not want to use a proxy for. Separate each entry with a comma. (Example: `.mozilla.org, .net.nz, 192.168.1.0/24`.)

### Advanced Proxy Preferences

If you want to use different proxies for different protocols or need to use a SOCKS proxy:

- HTTP Proxy, SSL Proxy, FTP Proxy: Enter the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server. Type the port in the Port fields.

  Note: If you're using the same settings for all types of proxies, click on Use HTTP Proxy settings for all protocols.

- SOCKS Proxy: Enter the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server. Enter the port number in the Port field.
  - SOCKS v4, SOCKS v5: When entering a SOCKS Proxy, select SOCKS v4 or SOCKS v5, depending on what version of SOCKS is used for the proxy.
  - Use for resolving hostnames: Select this to use the SOCKS Proxy for resolving hostnames. This is recommended for SOCKS v5 proxies.

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## Advanced Preferences - HTTP Networking

This section describes how to use the HTTP Networking preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click HTTP Networking. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The HTTP Networking preferences panel is used to configure HTTP-based networking:

- Direct Connection Options, Proxy Connection Options: Choose the HTTP version and options for direct and proxy connections.
  - Use HTTP 1.0: Choose this to use the original version of HTTP, standardized in 1996.
  - Use HTTP 1.1: Choose this to use the new version of HTTP, which offers performance enhancements, including more efficient use of HTTP connections, better support for client-side caching, multiple HTTP requests (pipelining), and more refined control over cache expiration and replacement policies.
  - Enable Pipelining: Select this to enable pipelining, which allows for more than one HTTP request to be sent to the server at once, reducing delays loading web pages.

    Note: Pipelining is only available with HTTP 1.1.

- User Agent String: The identifier sent by &brandShortName; to all websites is used for statistics about website usage but also sometimes to expose certain features only to known browsers (a practice known as "sniffing").
  - Advertise Firefox compatibility: If this is enabled, &brandShortName; will identify itself as both &brandShortName; and also compatible with Firefox. This allows websites that check for certain browsers rather than certain functionality to work with &brandShortName;.

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## Advanced Preferences - Software Installation

This section describes how to use the Software Installation preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Software Installation. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Software Installation preferences panel is used to enable add-on installation and updates. The Add-ons Manager allows you to view and manage all your installed extensions and themes.

- Add-ons:
  - Allow websites to install add-ons and updates: Select this if you want to allow websites to install add-ons and updates to be used with &brandShortName;. You will be prompted before each installation.
    - Allowed Websites: Click this link to open the Data Manager tab, where you can view and edit the list of websites that you want to allow to install software
    - Automatically check for updates:Select this to be notified when a new version of one of your installed add-ons is available. Choose whether you want &brandShortName; to do a daily or a weekly check for new versions.
    - Automatically download and install the update: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically download and install updates for you when they become available. The download will happen in the background, with low priority. After the download has finished the update to the add-on will be installed automatically the next time you start &brandShortName;.
  - Personalize Add-on recommendations: Select this to be offered suggestions for add-ons in the "Get Add-ons" tab of the manager:
    - Note that this function involves sending a list of your currently installed add-ons to the add-on website.
    - Disabling this option will also suppress contacting the add-on site periodically for any new information about installed add-ons, but won't affect automated updates.
  - Manage Add-ons: Click this link to open the Add-ons Manager in a new browser tab.
- &brandShortName;:
  - Automatically check for updates:Select this to be notified when a new version of &brandShortName; is available. Choose whether you want &brandShortName; to do a daily or a weekly check for new versions.
    - Automatically download and install the update: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically download and install updates for you when they become available. The download will happen in the background, with low priority. After the download has finished the update to &brandShortName; will be installed automatically the next time you start it.

    Note: You can use Check for Updates from the &brandShortName;Help menu to manually initiate the search for a &brandShortName; update. The label of the menu item will change when an update is being downloaded or ready to be applied.

  - Show Update History...: Click this to open the Update History dialog box which shows a list of &brandShortName; updates that have been installed, including the update type (e.g. Security Update), time of installation and installation status. The Details link next to each update takes you to a web page that contains further information regarding the update.

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## Advanced Preferences - Mouse Wheel

This section describes how to use the Mouse Wheel preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Mouse Wheel. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

The Mouse Wheel preferences panel allows you to control how the mouse wheel on your mouse (in between your mouse buttons) is used in &brandShortName;. Modern mice may have two wheels or a button that can be used to switch the scroll direction of the wheel. The behaviour for the vertical wheel function is set in the upper panel Vertical scrolling while the horizontal mode is controlled by the lower panel Horizontal scrolling.

- Select No modifier key or select a key that you want to use along with the mouse wheel. Use the checkboxes below to configure mouse wheel behavior:
  - Same as vertical scrolling: Choose this when your mouse has a single control that provides both vertical and horizontal scrolling. If your mouse has a separate horizontal scrolling control then you can choose to assign a different function to it.
  - Do nothing: Choose this to disable the scroll wheel when used with the specified modifier key.
  - Scroll the document: Choose this to scroll the document by the system default number of lines or characters.
  - Move back and forward in the browsing history: Choose this to use the mouse wheel to navigate back or forward to previous pages you've visited.
  - Zoom the page in or out: Choose this to use the mouse wheel to increase or decrease the size of a web page. This setting can help you better read a page, or make text fit on the screen.

  Use the Mouse wheel speed option to adjust the responsiveness of the wheel. To reverse the scroll direction, use negative numbers or select Reverse direction.

  Note: Each modifier key can be assigned to a different function.

- If your mouse does not have a mode for horizontal scrolling, any setting in the lower panel Horizontal scrolling will be ignored.

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## Advanced Preferences - DOM Inspector

DOM Inspector is an optional Web development component. This section describes how to use its preferences panel. If you are not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click DOM Inspector. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)

When you select an element, DOM Inspector can automatically highlight it by flashing it or its border:

- Blink Selected Element: Check this option to enable the highlighting of an element that you select. By default, a flashing border will appear around the element.
  - Border Color: Select the color of the border around the element.
  - Border Width: Enter the width of the border around the element.
  - Blink Duration: Enter the length of time (in milliseconds) for which you want the flashing to occur.
  - Blink Speed: Enter the time interval (in milliseconds) between the flashes.
  - Invert Color: Check this option to paint the selected element with the inverted border color. This will cause the whole element—including its border—to flash.