Lesson 34 Firefox
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Here is a look at making your browsing more enjoyable with Firefox Is there a better way to accompany your web surfing with some of your favorite tunes playing in the background without running two applications? Instead of having two separate applications open to accomplish this task--Firefox and WinAmp, for instance--wouldn't it be cool if you could somehow combine the two?
Well, if you use Firefox to browse the web, there's a neat little plug-in that can mould Firefox with your favorite media player, creating a synergistic milieu perfect for web surfing and listening to your cherished music. Firefox ExtensionsEver since Firefox hit the web scene, more and more users have been making the switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's flagship browser, Firefox. Firefox was the very first browser to bring the concept of tabbed browsing to the masses which swayed the public, along with fortified security measures, into making the switch. Aside from the tabbed browsing and improved security, Firefox also introduced the popular concept of "extensions" or "plug-ins" to the novice computer user. Simply put, a Firefox extension is a little piece of code that can be "injected" into your browser, thus enhancing Firefox's capabilities. There's a multitude of plug-ins you can find on the web that will
greatly extend the Installing FoxyTunesThe beauty of Firefox is that it makes it so easy to install extensions. You don't need to download a separate installation program, run it, and reboot your PC! Surf on over to Https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/219 and tap on the Install Now link; follow the simple directions, and let Firefox restart itself for the extension to take effect. Once Firefox has restarted, take a gander at Firefox's status bar at the bottom of the browser window.
If you don't have the status bar enabled, navigate to the View menu and make sure that the status bar item is checked. With the FoxyTunes extension installed, you'll have a little embedded music player inside of your status bar. If you're familiar with Windows Media Player or WinAmp, the controls should look strikingly familiar. You've got your standard Play, Pause, Stop, Next Track, Previous Track buttons, along with others. To load a music file, select over the Play File button--the button with the underscored triangle icon on it. Quick tip: if you hover your mouse's pointer over each button, a tooltip popup window will display the function of each button. One option I like to set is the track title scroll window. To make FoxyTunes scroll the current playing track's title, tap on the little black arrow at the far left of FoxyTunes. This option will also display a little scroll bar so you can seek forward and backward in your tracks.
Configuring your Player of ChoiceFoxyTunes is not a full-fledged media player per se; that would be overkill! FoxyTunes is just an interface to your already installed media players. The default media player that FoxyTunes communicates with is Windows Media Player; this makes sense, as you may not have WinAmp or FooBar2000 installed, but every Windows system has some version of Media Player installed. Suppose you want to change the player that FoxyTunes uses? Maybe you like the sound quality of WinAmp better than WMP. Here's how to change the default player. To change the default player select on the button with the musical note on it; it's the very first button on FoxyTunes. Clicking this button will pop up FoxTunes' main menu; navigate to the Player slide out menu and select your player of choice. As you can see, you've many player options to choose from; the first time I viewed the list there were even several players I'd not heard of, such as the popular FooBar2000 player!
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