The favorite open source browser of many, Mozilla’s Firefox contains a lot of very useful features, even if you as a user don’t know any special little things and secrets about it.

But with additional tricks and tips, you can get the most out of Firefox. Each of them will further help you in your productivity and will make it even faster, more efficient, and even more convenient to use!

# 1 Smart Search Keywords

If you often search on a certain website or certain types of websites, say, if you’re looking for casino sites, this tool could be of great help to you.

Right-click the search box, select Add a keyword for this search, give the keyword a name and a shortcut name that’s easy to type and remember, e.g., “casino site”, and save it. After that, when you want to search for casino sites, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “casino site” and the name or type of casino site – for example, Google Pay casino sites – and press Return. It will start searching immediately. You can do this with any search box.

# 2 Automatic Completion of Internet Addresses

This is another keyboard shortcut, but although it isn’t so well known, it can be very useful.

Go to the address bar (Control+L) and type the site name without the www or .com. Let’s say we want to open “Google”. Press Control and Enter at the same time, and it will automatically enter “www” and “.com” and take you to Google! For .net addresses press Shift and Enter, and for addresses containing .org tap om Control -> Shift -> Enter.

# 3 Keyboard Shortcuts for Faster Opening and Better Productivity

Keyboard shortcuts, if the user is aware of them, can make things much easier and further improve productivity. It doesn’t take much time to learn them, and once you learn them, you’ll use them in almost any situation.

Below are some of the most used keyboard shortcuts you can use within Mozilla Firefox:

  • Space (page down)
  • Shift+Spacebar (page up)
  • Ctrl+F (search)
  • Alt+N (find next)
  • Ctrl+D (mark page)
  • Ctrl+T (new tab)
  • Ctrl+K (go to search box)
  • Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
  • Ctrl+ = (increase text size)
  • Ctrl+ – (decrease text size)
  • Ctrl+W (close tab)
  • F5 (reload)
  • Alt+Home (go to the home page)

# 4 Mouse Shortcuts

These mouse shortcuts will also help you and make things easier when using Firefox. That’s why it wouldn’t hurt to learn them.

Here are the shortcuts:

  • To open in a new tab: middle-click on the link
  • To go to previous page: Shift and scroll down
  • To go to the next page: Shift and move up
  • To decrease text size: Ctrl and scroll up
  • To increase text size: Ctrl and scroll down
  • To close the tab: middle-click on the tab

# 5 Adding a Keyword for a Bookmark

You can get to bookmarks much faster if you give them some keywords.

Here’s how to do it: Right-click on the tag, then select Properties. You put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go into that tag.

# 6 Delete Items from the Address Bar’s Browsing History

Firefox’s ability to automatically display previously opened web pages or URLs you’ve visited as you type addresses into the search engine, displayed in the address bar’s history drop-down menu, can be extremely helpful. But sometimes, we may not want the addresses of some websites to appear. Every user knows why this is so (we’d put a laughing emoji here).

Go to the address bar (by clicking Ctrl and L at the same time), start typing the address, and a drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of the pages you’ve visited that already contain the letters you’ve started typing. Use the down arrow to scroll down to the address you want to delete and press the Delete key to delete that address.

  • UserCrome file: If you really want to trick your Firefox browser, you can create a UserChrome.css file to further customize and modify Firefox.
  • user.js file: Making a user.js file is another way to personalize Firefox and improve your browsing experience. Before you can make any more changes in Firefox, in your profile file, a text file dubbed user.js calls for generation.
  • about:config: A true tool for power users, about.config isn’t something you should touch, especially if you don’t know what a setting does. You can get to the main configuration screen by typing about:config in your browser’s address bar.

# 7 Limiting the Use of RAM Memory

If Firefox is consuming and using too much RAM on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM available to it.

Repeat opting for about:config, pick out browser.cache.disk.capacity as the filter for browser.cache; 50,000 is the default value, but you can change it based on your RAM capacity. If your RAM ranges from 1 and 2 GB, consider 15,000.

# 8 How to Further Speed Up Firefox

If you have a broadband connection, as most users do, you can use a pipeline to speed up page loading. This allows Firefox to load more things on a page at once instead of reading things one by one, although by default, reading is optimized for dial-up Internet connections, which we haven’t used for a long time.

Here’s how you can further speed up Firefox by enabling the use of pipelines, which will allow multiple things to be read at once:

  • Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Type network.http in the filter field and change the following settings, but also double-click them to change them
  • network.http.pipelining should be set to true
  • network.http.proxy.pipelining should be set to true
  • network.http.pipelining.maxrequests must be defined as a specific figure, say, 30. It will be able to submit up to 30 inquiries at once thanks to this.
  • Also, you can choose New -> Integer with a right-click anywhere. Give it the name nglayout.initialpaint.delay and input the zero figure for its value. This number indicates how long the browser stands before performing the data it has received.

# 9 Additional Reduction in RAM Usage When Firefox Is Minimized

By moving Firefox to your hard drive when it’s minimized, you can further reduce the amount of RAM your computer uses for the browser. The best part is that there isn’t any discernible speed difference when you bring back Firefox, so adding this feature is definitely worthwhile.

Go to about:config once more, then right-click anywhere to choose New -> Boolean. Specify config.trim_on_minimize and set its value to true. For these changes to take effect, you need to restart Firefox.

# 10 Recording the Screen or Taking a Screenshot

There are many reasons why you should switch to Firefox, including the ability to take screenshots. Firefox allows you to take a screenshot of everything in your browser in seconds. Moreover, Firefox allows you to take different types of screenshots. For example, you can capture a specific part of the page or take a screenshot of the entire page.

To take a screenshot, you need to right-click on an empty part of the page and then select Take Screenshot. Then, drag or click anywhere on the page to select the region you want to capture. Alternatively, you can also click Save Full Page or Save Visible in the top right corner. After you take a screenshot, you’ll be able to see a preview of your screenshot and you can choose to copy the screenshot or download it to save it on your computer. If you want to take screenshots faster, you can use the shortcut Command+Shift+S on macOS or Control+Shift+S on Windows.

# 11 Getting a Warning Message Before Closing All Tabs

This is very useful, especially if you often find yourself randomly closing Firefox.

Here’s how to set this option:

  • Open Firefox and click the Menu button in the upper right corner of the screen.
  • Select Settings.
  • Make sure you select General from the menu on the left.
  • In the Tabs section, click Confirm before closing with ⌘Q or Confirm before closing multiple tabs. The message you get will depend on the operating system you’re using.
  • When you’re done, you can close the settings page.