Mozilla

Mozilla functions like any other Web browser. It has the standard navigation toolbars, buttons, and menus.

If you have previously been using Netscape as your Web browser and performed an upgrade of Red Hat Linux, the first time that you start Mozilla you will not see the main Mozilla browser as seen in Figure 5-1.

Instead, you will first see:

If you click Convert Profile, your prior Netscape bookmarks and preferences will be converted to a Mozilla profile for you.

When you next launch Mozilla, either from the panel or from Main Menu => Internet => Web Browser, you will see that your previous bookmarks are now available in Mozilla.

If you click Manage Profiles, you will have the opportunity to create one or more profiles, or user accounts, for Mozilla.

Here you can select to create a new profile or you can create a profile based on your user account. This feature helps you stay organized by creating separate user accounts for business use, personal use, multiple accounts, etc.

Clicking Create Profile will take you to a information screen explaining what this process really means. To continue, click Next.

Next, choose a name to use for this new profile. If you do not enter a name, the profile will be called Default User.

You can also click Choose Folder to select where your Mozilla settings and preferences will be stored. By default, these settings are stored in:

/home/youraccountname/.mozilla/Default User

When you click Finish, your new profile will be added.

Now that you have created a user profile, click on Start Mozilla to launch the application or click on Exit to close it.

To add new profiles or delete existing profiles later on, you will need to run the Mozilla Profile Manager again. To launch the Mozilla Profile Manager, at the shell prompt type the following command:

mozilla --ProfileManager

Mozilla Web Browser

Once you have configured your user profile, you are ready to use the browser. To access Mozilla click the Mozilla launcher on the panel or choose Main Menu => Internet => Web Browser.

Figure 5-6. Mozilla Main Browser Window

The Mozilla screen has all of the standard Web browser functions that other browsers have. There is a main menu at the top of the screen and a navigation bar below it. There is a sidebar on the left that contains additional options. And in the bottom left corner, there are four small icons: Navigator, Mail, Composer, and Address Book.

To browse the Internet, click on Search and enter a topic in the search engine that opens, type a website URL in the location bar, click on and create bookmarks, or check the What's Related sidebar tab to see pages related to the one you are viewing currently.

Tip

Mozilla allows you to browse multiple websites within one browser window using navigational tabs. Instead of using two separate windows to read web pages, you can open a tab by clicking File => New => Navigation Tab or by pressing [CTRL] and [T] at the same time. This will open the new tab and allow you to switch between tabs by clicking on them. To close a tab, right-click on the tab and choose Close Tab from the menu.

For additional information on using Mozilla, click on Help (on the top menu panel) and then on Help Content.