How to Customize the Firefox Browser (v. 15.0) for a Mac OS X (10.7.x)

You can customize some settings and features in Firefox to best suit your needs. These instructions explain how to do the following using a Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) computer running Firefox v. 15.0.:

• Import Settings and Data from a Different Browser
• Change the Home Page
• Maintain the Security of your Data
• Customize the Toolbar
• Configure the Pop-Up Blocker Feature
• Update to New Versions (and patches) of Firefox
• Back Up Your Firefox Profiles Folder

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Import Settings and Data from a Different Browser

After you install Firefox, the first time you open the application, Firefox will ask if you want to Import Preferences, Bookmarks, and other data from a different browser. You should see the Import Wizard dialog box, which looks similar to the following:

1. Click the radio button in front of the browser from which you want to import settings.
2. Click Continue. You will see the Import Wizard dialog box again, which looks similar to the following:

3. Click the radio button in front of the home page you would like to use.
4. Click Continue. After a few seconds, you should see a dialog box that indicates that the process is complete.
5. Click Done.

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Change the Home Page

1. Open Firefox as you normally do.
2. From the Firefox menu, click Preferences. You should see a dialog box that looks similar to the following:

3. Click the General tab located at the top of the dialog box (if necessary).
4. To set the home page to the University of Delaware, in the Home Page field, delete any text that is present and type the following:

http://www.udel.edu

The dialog box should now look similar to the following:

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Maintain the Security of Your Data

1. Click the Security tab at the top of the dialog box. You should see a dialog box that looks similar to the following:

2. Click in the checkbox in front of Remember passwords for sites to remove the check mark. The dialog box should now look similar to the following:

3. Click the red close button to close the dialog box.

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Customize the Toolbar

1. From the View menu, click Toolbars.
2. Click Customize. You should see the Customize Toolbar dialog box, which looks similar to the following:

To personalize the toolbar, you can drag-and-drop the toolbar icons shown in the dialog box into the toolbar at the top of the Firefox window. For example, if the toolbar looked like the following one (with two toolbar icons), you could drag-and-drop the Print icon to the toolbar to avoid using the File menu.

3. Drag-and-drop the Print icon to your toolbar in the location you would like to place it (for example between the Home and Bookmarks icons). The toolbar would now look similar to the following (with three toolbar icons):

4. When you finish adding icons to the toolbar, click Done.

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Configure the Pop-up Blocker Feature

1. From the Firefox menu, click Preferences.
2. Click the Content icon at the top of the dialog box. You should see a dialog box that looks similar to the following:

3. To the right of Block pop-up windows, click Exceptions. You will see the Allowed Sites - Popups dialog box, which should look similar to the following:

You can add sites from which you would like to allow pop-up windows. For example, you can add the University's Library site. To do so, follow these steps:

4. In the Address of web site field, type the following:

www.lib.udel.edu

The dialog box should now look similar to the following:

5. Click Allow. The dialog box should now look similar to the following:

Follow the same steps to add more sites from which you want to permit pop-up windows. For example, add chico.nss.udel.edu to be sure that you can use UD Webforms.

6. When you finish adding sites, click the red close button.

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Update to New Versions (and patches) of Firefox

By default, Firefox v. 15.0 automatically checks for updates and patches for the application.

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Back Up Your Firefox Profiles Folder

Your bookmark file and other browser settings are stored on your desktop computer in a folder called "Profiles." If your hard drive fails or your Profile folder becomes corrupted, these files may be overwritten or lost. You can prevent data loss by properly backing up your Firefox Profiles folder. Copy the Profiles folder to an external source such as a USB thumb drive.

1. Click through the following path to locate the Firefox Profiles folder:

   User's Name | Macintosh HD | Library | Application Support | Firefox | Profiles | xxxxxxxx.default

2. Copy the Profiles folder (xxxxxxxx.default) to an external device such as a USB thumb drive.

Last updated 9/6/12