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# Browser Preferences

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

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Choose Browser.

In this section:

- Browser
- History
- Languages
- Helper Applications
- Location Bar
- Internet Search
- Tabbed Browsing
- Downloads

## Browser Preferences - Browser

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

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

The Browser preferences panel allows you to customize certain aspects of the browser.

- Display on: Use the drop-down list in combination with the checkboxes to control what will be displayed at startup or when you open a new window or tab:
  1. - Select Browser Startup to set what the browser will display at startup.
     - Select New Window to set what will be displayed when opening a new browser window.
     - Select New Tab to set what will be displayed when opening a new tab.
  2. Select one of the following checkboxes:
     - Blank page: Causes the browser to display a blank page.
     - Home page: Causes the browser to load your home page (specified below).
     - Last page visited: Causes the browser to load the page you were viewing right before you last exited &brandShortName;.
- Default Browser: Allows you to set &brandShortName; as the default browser or shows you that it is.
  - Set Default Browser: Unless it is greyed out, click this to set &brandShortName; as your default browser.
- Home Page: In the field, type the web page you want as your home page or do one of the following:
  - Use Current Page: Click this to use the web page currently displayed in the browser as your home page.
  - Use Current Group: If you have two or more browser tabs open, click this to set them as your Home Page Group (a group of tabs that are opened as your home page). After clicking this button, the message Home Page Group is Set appears in the location field.

    Caution: If you edit the field after clicking Use Current Group, your Home Page Group will be lost.

  - Restore Default: Click this to revert to the the default home page.
  - Choose File: Click this to locate a file on disk that you want to load as your home page.
- Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbars: Select any of the available checkboxes to see them on your toolbars.

  The Go, Search, and Print buttons appear in the Navigation Toolbar near the upper-right corner of the browser window. All other buttons appear in the Personal Toolbar. For information about adding your own bookmarks to this toolbar, see Personal Toolbar.

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## Browser Preferences - History

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

1. Open the &brandShortName; Editmenu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Browser category, click History. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Browser to expand the list.)

The History preferences panel allows you to configure three history settings for the browser.

- Browsing History:
  - Remember visited pages for the last [__] days: Type the number of days you want &brandShortName; to keep track of the web pages you have previously visited. For example, if you set this number to 10 days, pages 10 days old or less will be kept in the history list.
- Clear History: Click this to delete the list of sites visited.
- Location Bar History:
  - Clear Location Bar: Click this to clear the list of sites in the Location bar menu.

For more information about history in &brandShortName;, see Retracing Your Steps.

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## Browser Preferences - Languages

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

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

The Languages preferences panel allows you to choose the languages and character encoding for displaying web pages and choose if and how your typing is spell checked:

- Languages for Web Pages:
  - Move Up / Move Down: Click one of these buttons to move a selected language up or down, which sets the order of preference for the listed languages.
  - Add: Click this to add additional languages for displaying web pages. In the dialog, select a language from the list. If you want to add a language that is not in the list, type a language code (both two- and three-letter codes can be used) in the field below the list. See the online document Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages for a complete list of language codes. Click OK to close the dialog and save your changes.
  - Remove: Click this to remove a selected language.
- Character Encoding:
  - Default Character Encoding: Use the drop-down list to select the character encoding you want for displaying web pages.
- Spelling:
  - When typing check my spelling: Use the drop-down list to select if and how your typing is spell checked.

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## Browser Preferences - Helper Applications

This section describes how to use the Helper 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 Browser category, click Helper Applications. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Browser to expand the list.)

The Helper Applications preferences panel lets you choose applications and other handlers to handle different types of content (e.g. PDF documents). It shows you a list of content types and lets you select a handler for each type. To filter the list, use the search field. Text entered in there will narrow the list to entries containing that text either in the type description or the currently selected action.

You can choose a local application to handle any type. For some types, you can also choose a web application to handle the type, choose a plugin in &brandShortName; to handle the type, or save the type on your computer.

To choose a handler for a type, select the type from the list. The current handler for the type will turn into a menu. Open the menu and select the handler you want to handle the type. Depending on the actual type, you can:

- Choose an application by selecting it from the menu. If you want a local application that is not in the menu to handle the type, select Use other… from the menu and navigate to its location.
- Choose a plugin by selecting it from the menu.
- Save files of this type on your computer by selecting Save File from the menu. If you have selected the Automatically download files to specified download folder preference in the Downloads panel, &brandShortName; will save content of this type on your computer automatically. Otherwise, when you encounter this type, &brandShortName; will prompt you for a location on your computer to save it to.
- Tell &brandShortName; to always ask what to do when encountering this type. When you choose this option, a dialog will always be shown when files of this type are accessed, and you can choose how to handle that specific file from there.

Note: When a plugin is available to handle a type, and you choose another handler for that type, &brandShortName; will only use your chosen handler when you access the type directly. When the type is embedded inside a web page, &brandShortName; will continue to use the plugin to handle it. See also Plugins and Downloads.

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## Browser Preferences - Location Bar

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

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

The Location Bar Preferences panel lets you fine-tune the behavior of the Location Bar.

- Autocomplete:
  - Autocomplete from your browsing history as you type: Select this to let &brandShortName; automatically show suggestions from your browsing history when you type in the Location Bar.
    - Match only website's you've typed previously: Shows only websites that you've typed in the Location Bar and not sites that were opened in other ways, such as clicking a link on a web page.
    - Automatically prefill the best match: As you type in the Location Bar, &brandShortName; will automatically complete your web address using the visited website it most closely matches. Note: Having this option on will prefill local addresses (like paths to files on your hard drive) even if you have turned off Autocomplete from your browsing history as you type.
    - Show list of matching results: As you type in the Location Bar, &brandShortName; will show a drop-down list of matching visited web addresses. Note: If you have turned off Autocomplete from your browsing history as you type matching results from locations on your hard drive will still be shown in the drop-down list.
- Internet Search Engine:
  - Show default search engine: Shows a drop-down list item, allowing you to search with the default search engine for words you enter.
- Unknown Locations
  - Add www. and .com to the location if a web page is not found: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically add `www.` to the beginning and `.com` to the end of a web page location that can't be found. For more detailed information about this feature, see the online document Domain Guessing.
  - Perform a web search when entered text is not a web location: Select this to let &brandShortName; automatically search the web for text entered in the Location Bar. If the text you've typed is not a web location, &brandShortName; will do a web search when you press `Enter` `Return` in the Location Bar. See the online document Internet Keywords for a more technical description about this feature. Note: The search engine used can not be changed by the Internet Search Preferences.

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## Browser Preferences - Internet Search

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

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

The Internet Search preferences panel allows you to configure how you search using &brandShortName;:

- Default Search Engine:
  - Search using: Use the drop-down list to select the search engine you want use for web searching.
- Search Results:
  - Open the Search tab in the Sidebar when search results are available: Select this to have &brandShortName; open the Sidebar and show your search results.
  - Open tab instead of window for a context menu web search: Select this to have &brandShortName; show your search results in a new tab rather than a new window when you search on selected words in a web page.
- Sidebar Search Tab Preference:
  - Basic: Choose this to use one search engine when searching in &brandShortName;.
  - Advanced: Choose this to select one or more search engines from a list when searching in &brandShortName;.

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## Browser Preferences - Tabbed Browsing

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

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

The Tabbed Browsing preferences panel allows you to set up Tabbed Browsing:

- Tab Display:
  - Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open: Select this to display the Tabbed Browsing bar only when more then one browser tab is open.
  - Switch to new tabs opened from links: Select this to make &brandShortName; switch to the new tab when using Open in a New Tab to open a link.
- When opening a bookmark group:
  - Add tabs: Select this if you want a bookmark group to be opened in new tabs.
  - Replace existing tabs: Select this if you want a bookmark group to replace your existing tabs.
- Open tabs instead of windows for:
  - `Cmd`+click or `Cmd`+`Return` Middle-click, `Ctrl`+click or `Ctrl`+`Enter` on links in a Web page: Select this to open Web page links in a new tab when clicking a link and holding down the `Command` key or holding down the `Command` key and pressing `Return` on links with the middle mouse button, `Ctrl`-clicking on links, and pressing `Ctrl`+`Enter` on links.

    Tip: Use Find Links as You Type to navigate to the link you want to open with the keyboard commands above.

  - `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`Return` `Enter` in the Location bar: Select this to open a Web page in a new tab when you type the URL of the page in the Location Bar and press `Cmd` `Ctrl`+`Return` `Enter`.
- Link open behavior: If a webpage is designed so that certain links open in a new window by default (either through the target attribute in HTML or through embedded JavaScript), you may want to override this:
  - The current tab/window: Open the linked page in the current tab of the active window.
  - A new tab in the current window: Open the linked page in a new tab instead of a new window.
  - A new window: Open the linked page in a new window. (This is the default and does not override the webpage design).
- Links from other applications: If &brandShortName; is called from another application with a webpage address as an argument (like a click on a link in an external email program), you can control where the page will be loaded:
  - The current tab/window: Open the linked page in the current tab of the active window.
  - A new tab in the current window: Open the linked page in a new tab instead of a new window.
  - A new window: Open the linked page in a new window. (This is the default).

To ensure that &brandShortName; opens a new window, select the Browser option in Appearance Preferences - Appearance.

If you want &brandShortName; to open a new tab instead of a new window when you launch it and it is already running, ensure the following:

- If you launch &brandShortName; by command line, do not use command-line parameters that open windows.
- Nothing is set in the Appearance Preferences - Appearance.
- Set Links from other applications preference to A new tab in the current window.

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## Browser Preferences - Downloads

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

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

The Downloads preferences panel allows you to set up how &brandShortName; handles files you download from web pages:

- When starting a download:
  - Open the download manager: Select this to display the Download Manager, which displays the status for current and previous downloads. The status of all downloads is kept in a single window.
  - Open a progress dialog: Select this to display a progress dialog box, which display the status for your current download. The status of each download is kept in a separate window.
  - Don't open anything: Select this if you want to download files invisibly. No status is given for all your downloads.

- When saving a file:
  - Prompt for download location and default to: Select this if you always want to be able to choose a folder for the file to be saved. Choose one of the following folders to be the default location for the file:
    - Last download folder: The default location will be the folder you last downloaded a file to.
    - Specified download folder: The default location will be your Current Download Folder.
  - Automatically download files to specified download folder: Select this if you want files to be saved to your Current Download Folder without &brandShortName; prompting you for the download location.

- Current Download Folder: Use the button to navigate to a folder that you want to use as your specified download folder.

- When a download completes:
  - Play a sound: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to play a custom sound (typically in WAV format) when a download is completed. Use the Browse button to select the sound file in the file locator. To listen to the sound you've chosen, click Preview.
  - Show an alert: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to show an alert on the screen when a download is completed.

For more information about downloading files from web pages, see Plugins and Downloads.

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