Did you know:

1. In a K-Meleon web page, press the Space Bar and your page will 'scroll down' one page . . . likewise . . . Shift - Space Bar will 'scroll up' one page.

2. If you 'modify' your prefs.js file (within about:config -- OR -- Edit -> Preferences -> Configs -> prefs.js ) with the following setting . . .

user_pref("browser.display.focus_background_color", "#36cbfc");

web pages will have a blueish background where the cursor is located . . . including any 'data entry' form.

Just a few ideas . . . and . . . looking forward to hearing from others on their Tips / Tricks.

SlideRule

SlideRule, thanks for that. The first one works just fine for me, but not the second. Maybe I have some default set differently. I vaguely recall there is a setting about whether the browser should default to your own color settings or not.

I think I'll put the most spectacularly belated of all my own discoveries here. Just very recently, was it GreyTech who pointed it out to me??--a TOTALLY basic concept of browsing is to create a new layer (right-click "New Page") and thus enable your temporarily abandoning a site such as a forum post like this, and using the new layer to quickly go somewhere perhaps to grab a URL or check a reference and bring it back to your typing in progress.

I know this is as elementary as using the stairway to get to the porch, but in years of browsing, I'd never done it. I sometimes used a second browser to do the equivalent. If there are a million tips and tricks on a computer, we might well learn 10,000 before we get around to one of the very first.

At least, that's my excuse. Of course, there IS the brain-rot factor, too.... :-)

Carson et.al.:

Please accept my apologies . . . an additional setting in prefs.js is needed to 'enable' the background colour (item number 2 in first post).

user_pref("browser.display.use_focus_colors", true);
user_pref("browser.display.focus_background_color", "#36cbfc");


Please accept my apologies :-)

SlideRule

SlideRule, thanks, I've got it now. (No apologies needed!) :-) I think I'll leave it like this, maybe try another color or two. It's pretty cool...!

I'd like to change the drab gray everyday background to these forums, but I don't think that is possible!

Anyway, thanks! :-)

(If someone is playing around with color settings, you'll see another nearby line in about:config where you can change the text color, in case you don't like white text on your pastel background. The setting for black text is #000000.)

You can also choose the text colour:

user_pref("browser.display.focus_background_color", "#f5fffa");
user_pref("browser.display.focus_text_color", "#000000");
user_pref("browser.display.use_focus_colors", true);

here is a list of colour hexes to choose from:
http://www.wackerart.de/rgbfarben.html

and about it on the
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/implementation/eval_win_mozilla6.html#selection-focus-highlight

"I think I'll put the most spectacularly belated of all my own discoveries here. Just very recently, was it GreyTech who pointed it out to me??--a TOTALLY basic concept of browsing is to create a new layer (right-click "New Page") and thus enable your temporarily abandoning a site such as a forum post like this, and using the new layer to quickly go somewhere perhaps to grab a URL or check a reference and bring it back to your typing in progress."

I don't remember mentioning that.. but that IS second nature to me.one of the reasons i NEED a portable browser with layers/tabs .

Hmm...yup, sure enough. I searched for it, and it was Coolin who put me wise:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Coolin (---.ed.shawcable.net)
Date: 01-16-05 17:53

Uh... Just have two K-Meleon windows/layers open. Type an email in one, and surf the web on the other. I do that all the time, it's what the whole concept of multitasking on Windows is for.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very embarrassing! But I don't mind. I figure if you're going to learn anything, you have to start off ignorant, for best results. :-)

I went from IE to Firebird in 2003. Firebird, if I recall, was much more a truly tabbed browser than is present-day Firefox. I loved it. But I didn't understand what was actually happening. I simply new I could go back and forth using all the nifty-keeners tabs that were opening.

I should go back and open up an old Firebird and see just what it did. I think that was September 2003, mas o menos.

2 Googles and a GMail

This is simply the standard "Groups" concept. Nothing new or fancy here, but it's extremely useful for folks who don't already know they can do this.

In this example, you end up with 3 layers opening automatically every time you start K-M. Two are identical Google home pages. The third is GMail.

-- You can then fly around all over your browser without losing work in progress. I think the best example of what might otherwise be lost is anything you're in the middle of typing, such as e-mail or here in the forums. Using a different layer, your first one is safe.

1. I set EDIT >Preferences >Display with Google as my home page. And I also set "home page" to display for both my Start as well as my New Windows. (This step is not required, though.)

2. New layer.

3. Another New Layer. Use this one to go to your GMail. Depending on the cookies you save and keep, you will or you won't be able to go beyond the GMail entrance page when this is done automatically.

4. GROUPS >Save Layers as Groups

5. Do you want to open this Group automatically when K-M starts? Yup.

Just to let you now guys how much I enjoyed the secon initial tip, complemented by Carson's suggestion of black text (for once, some customization that works right away without pesky macros or arcane commands that never work...) *<|8o)

I went "via about:config" and changed to this:

browser.display.use_focus_colors,user_pref, true;
browser.display.focus_background_color,user_pref,#f0f8ff;
browser.display.focus_text_color,user_pref,#000000;

And now I have Black text on AliceBlue (Wackerart.de dixit) background, which helps my attention disorder (just jokin'...) and is also really soothing.

Thanks guys.

My tip:

I am using KM 0.8.2+ Wechselbalg and a file named "k-meleon.exe.manifest" with the following content made the interface look a lot more like WindowsXP (i.e., in my case, rounded buttons and flat toolbars):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urnchemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="Irrelevant" type="win32" />
<description>Irrelevant</description>
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" />
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

P.S.: Please note that I introduced line breaks which are not in the original to avoid the curse of the ultra-long-thread-that-nobody-can-read-because-it-goes-on-and-on-offscreen...

To everyone:

Just another ' tip / trick " that some might find useful . . .

If you are using BOOKMARKS ( I believe this tip only applies to those using 'Netscape' style bookmarks, not IE Favourites, nor Opera Hotlist ) . . . you can 'Open' that HTML (or HTM) file in a K-Meleon Layer (Tab).

The technique is: File -> Open ( alternative Ctrl + O )and then 'browse' to the location of your ' bookmark.html ' file ( or you may have named it ' bookmarks.htm ' (or whatever).

That way, you can have in one Layer (Tab), a 'longer' list of all your bookmarks, and, open them in a 'new' Layer (Tab) . . . using the built-in searching (Find) capacities . . . including Edit -> Find and Highlight ( Ctrl + F3 ).

Hope this helps.

SlideRule

I've been using the new layer to go elsewhere for something trick since layers first appeared, one thing I love about K-M. It's a life-saver in forums. Also handy for double-Googling if you have to follow a side-trail.

Most of my K-M tricks involve using RemoteKeys. I have font up and down, switch layers, access history and cookies, up-dir, back and forward.

I have a shortcut on PK to a text URL template in the Favorites folder so I can save links where I want them. It saves having to rearrange them later, and likewise takes care of the naming problems when inconsiderate webauthors give their pages mile-long titles.

I've tried using the group opening, but it drives me nuts because the layers don't open in the order I want them in. So I gave up on it.

Ah, here's the man who came up with the one and only K-Meleon possible slogan that I really, really love:

K-MELEON: One Very Smart Lizard

Arual, what you say here intrigues me. But I'm tired out and it'll be a whole day before I can explore your second last paragraph. A very interesting idea. Thanks a lot. :-)

If you set general.smoothScroll to true , then you can have smooth scrolling like in Internet Explorer.

Smooth scrolling should be handled by the OS, anyway.

I see this forum in two shades of gray, dark blue, and white.

I'd like to change the background gray to something like #CAE1FF.
I'm fooling around with about:config, but, so far, no go.

Ideas? Thanks.

Try and see if these works.

browser.display.use_document_colors - false
browser.display.background_color - #CAE1FF

The first setting forces the document to load using the colors you specified instead of its own, second changes the background color. I think.

Angelblade, you are SO right! But TOO right! I tried it, and it works, you bet--it zapped everything into basically my own display mode, which of course isn't set up for K-M. It was pretty wild. So I set it back again. (As in, YIKES!!)

So, I guess it's all or nothing. AFAIK I would have to establish a theme-like setup that would work universally. No problem; I was just thinking the gray wuz a bit drab.

Thanks for the suggestion. :-)

I just found a workaround for autocomplete in the location bar
in an old forum thread.
Open history by Ctrl+H and start typing.
The first matching folder or URL will be highlighted.
F3 jumps to the first (or next) matching URL, then to the second
matching URL and so on.
Hit the Enter key and the browser goes to the highlighted URL .
Folders are not URLs . They must open the links first.
For a new search in the opened window cancel the letters using backspace.
I didn't know that up to now.
By the way: The same procedure works in the bookmark window.
People should be told about these possibilities, as everybody seems to
want autocomplete as in Firefox.

If you set kmeleon.plugins.layers.confirmClose to false, then it doesn't remind you that layers are open when you go to close K-Meleon.

Can be done in an easier way via View | Layers | Close Options, and unchecking Confirm closing multi-layered window.

Fred - thanks a ton for the History / autocomplete tip. It's not perfect, but it just made K-Meleon a whole lot more useable for me.

ihug,

Thanks very much for the tip on layers.confirmClose. I was getting tired of being reminded that layers were open when closing K-Meleon. I think the default should be false not true whenever a new version is released.

<g>


N

ndebord,

All through the beta phase you never noticed View-Layers-Close Options?

I think it is easily possible for any level of expert to miss a few basics. In fact, the more complex the subject, the more people who know a tremendous amount will still be missing some really elementary stuff. At least, that's what I always tell myself when I discover something everybody else already seemed to know!

But a lot of it is because experts get shy about asking. I've done a lot of carpentry, but when I once asked about the right nails and why, in a lumberyard, I discovered no one really knew--they all just did it the way the other guy did. Most people would never have dared ask the question, but it turned out I had to research the answer somewhere else.

jsnj,

I noticed the options, but didn't play with them. Didn't realize what the close option offered in terms of actual every day use.

<sigh>

N

Oh man! I get stuff with options and I've just got to play! but that me of course! And like Carson has said---even an old seasoned salt like me has missed things at that. jsnj had to tell me how to make the middle mouse button work in 0.9 as I added it and it wouldn't work and I couldn't figure out WHY? So I asked and he said, "At the top of the accelerator file in "Tools/Advanced Preferences"... and sure enough! Where do you think I'd added MY preference? Right underneath it! LOL! Had it been an ugly guard dog it would've bitten me! (Note: And jsnj even has it in big bold print!) Oh well. Can I fall back on the fact that where I have MS my vision is severely curtailed? I can't? C'est la vie...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, when I get a new beta build, or even a new anything, I see all these options and preferences and they call out to me, "jimmymac! Change us!" And many is the beta, or programme, I've either broken, caused a conflict, or found out that something just plain didn't work.

That's why I used to love downloading and testing software and then writing reviews on it. I used to put them up on my website afterwards in a software section. Did it for years before the injury happened. I miss those days...

How about some more KM tips? Here's mine: In Aston Shell we're allowed to place "Hot Spots" on the desktop (there are no desktop icons as in Windows---those are moved to a GUI). I've placed an apple, since I've made an Apple-styled theme, and clicking on it starts my browser and brings me right to the forum. Shouldn't be too hard to do the same thing with an icon in Windows?

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
http://eyesonly.no-ip.info/jimmymac/

As everyone who has read my posts about KM for the past few years knows, I am a fan, not an expert by any means. I do think we need to work on the FAQs or help file. KM 0.9 is such an impressive improvement in so many ways that a lot of what it does is just not well known...yet!

N

Well, eventually I'll be happy to help out with the writing, if help is needed. But if you read my questions right now--and, unfortunately, even some of my answers--you can easily tell I need to know a lot more myself before I start telling other folks what to do.

Must be nice to be like jsnj and know all the intricacies that make the thing tick....

I meant to include this:

-- In user.JS, I've changed my format around now that my prefs are getting numerous. I used to use the default layout with the notations about each series of prefs: "This is for such-and-such," and then a few lines; "This speeds up whatever," and then a few lines more.

I noticed in about:config that it was pretty easy to scroll up and down in alphabetical order, so I in user.JS I got rid of all my headings and notations, and I gathered the whole schmeer together into one long series of prefs.

Then, becuz I'm familiar with WORD, I took it there for sorting into alphabetical order, and then I transported it back into my files. Now my userJS looks very much like about:config. And there is less chance of duplication. :-)