If you’re currently using the Firefox browser on your computer or tablet then you’ll know that it’s pretty nifty from the onset. There are, however, a whole range of hidden tricks available that make it faster and more effective at the click of a button.

Here are five of our favourites.

1. More screen space – Want a bigger screen display? Make your icons smaller by going to view-toolbars – customize and click on “Use small icons”.
2. Auto- complete – If you visit the same websites regularly then this one is for you. Auto-complete your favourite sites by going to the address bar and typing the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”, then press Control + Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there. For “.net” addresses, press Shift + Enter, and for “.org” addresses, press Control + Shift + Enter.
3. Speed things up – Everyone wants a faster connection. You can use something called “pipelining” to speed up Firefox. “Pipelining” allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one by one. Here’s how to do it. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them). Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”. Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”. Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
4. Clever keywords –If you tend to use a particular search regularly, keywords can help speed things up for you. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name, something easy to type and remember is best, and save it. Now, when you want to do that particular search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type in whatever you’ve named it and press return.
5. Tab navigation – Instead of using your mouse to select different tabs that you might have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts you’ll need. Ctrl + Tab (rotate forward among tabs), Ctrl + Shft + Tab (rotate to the previous tab), Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

Do have any more tips and tricks to add? Share with us in the comments below.

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