Mozilla Links Newsletter

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Mozilla Links - English Edition
Issue # 18 - May 3, 2004
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With last week release of Mozilla 1.7 RC1 (Release Candidate 1), the 
Mozilla Community is counting days for the upcoming release of Mozilla
1.7, Thunderbird 0.6 and, specially, Firefox 0.9 (code named One Tree
Hill).

The expectation is bigger than usual for Firefox 0.9 since, according
to the roadmap (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/roadmap.html)
it will be feature-complete. This means, that any feature Firefox 1.0
will have, will be already available by 0.9. Among other great 
improvements, a new Extension Manager/Updater should finally fill the
gap between Firefox and its extensions, allowing users to browse for
available extensions and keep them up to date.

For an early preview of this feature, check these screenshots by Ben 
Goodger (Firefox's main developer):
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/005324.html
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/005338.html

Other enhancements coming to Firefox by 0.9: changes to privacy 
options user interface, a new e-mail button to open the default e-mail
application and a selection of bundled extensions (browsing 
enhancements) you may choose during setup, similar to this draft:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/ue/installer/

Starting next issue, Mozilla Links newsletter will be released on a 
monthly basis and will be based more user oriented as some contents 
are transferred to DevLinks, our forthcoming sister newsletter.  Next
Mozilla Links #19 is coming on June 2.

Thanks for reading and please send any comments to 
newsletter-feedback@mozilla.org .

Percy Cabello
Mozilla Links

----------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue:

1. BETTER MOZILLA
      - Featured Resource: PluginDoc
      - Know Your Plugins
      - Optimize Adobe Reader Plugin Load Time

2. NEWS
      - New Thunderbird Icons Revealed
      - Mozilla Foundation Seeking Designer For Fundraising Site
      - Mozilla Foundation Holds Future Strategy Talks with GNOME 
        Foundation
      - Latest UserFriendly Comic Strip Pokes Fun at Mozilla

3. MOZILLA PROJECTS
      - Featured Project: easyGestures
      - Independent Status Reports

4. MOZILLA LINKS POLL

5. CONTACT INFO


1. BETTER MOZILLA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Featured Extension: PluginDoc
(http://plugindoc.mozdev.org)

Mozilla Plug-ins are small applications that are installed to allow
a Mozilla application to handle a new type of file within the same 
application.

Among the better known there is Adobe Reader. When you install it, it
will also make Mozilla capable of opening PDF (Portable Document 
Format) files by installing the appropriate plug-in.

The same happens for Real Player, Macromedia Flash, Java and Apple 
QuickTime. During installation a plug-in is installed to allow Mozilla
handle their respective file types.

For information on how to setup these and other plug-ins check 
PluginDoc, a mozdev.org hosted project where you will find information
about plug-ins, troubleshooting, FAQs (frequently askwed questions) 
and direct links to plulg-ins download for all supported platforms and
in several languages.

http://plugindoc.mozdev.org

****

Mozilla Links Tip: Know Your Plugins
(contributed by Percy Cabello)

To know what plug-ins and what kind of files each of them handle, 
in Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Firefox, type in the location
bar:
             about:plugins

and press Enter. A web page will open showing which plug-ins you have
installed identified but their name. For each, you will see the 
file associated with the plug-in (usually a DLL in Windows), a 
description, a list of MIME types associated with it, their 
description, extensions associated and if they are enabled or not.

****

Mozilla Links PowerTip: Optimize Adobe Reader Plug-in Load Time
(contributed by Percy Cabello)

You may have noticed that Adobe Reader for Windows takes a while to 
load when opening a PDF document from a web site. This is because it
loads several rarely used plug-ins on startup. You can improve startup
by preventing those plug-ins being loaded without losing any feature:

- Open the folder where Adobe Reader is installed (in Windows, it 
usually is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat5.x\Reader or C:\Program 
Files\Adobe\Reader).
- Here you will find "plug_ins" and "optional" subfolders.
- Open "plug_ins" subfolder and move all subfolders and .API files to
the "Optional" folder

The next time you open a PDF document in Adobe Reader or within 
Mozilla, you should notice a much faster load (up to six times 
faster!).

In the future, if you want to have a Reader plug-in loaded from 
startup just move it back to the "plug_ins" folder.

For more information on Adobe Reader plug-ins check "About Adobe 
Reader Plug-ins" in the "Help" menu in Adobe Reader. 

****

Need more tips? Try the TipBar Extension to get the Tip of the Day in
Mozilla Firefox. Grab it at http://tipbar.mozdev.org

You can also visit http://www.mozillatips.com for more fun tips for 
your favorite browser.

Have a Tip or a PowerTip? Let other users know about it by sending it 
to newsletter-feedback@mozilla.org .

2. NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(contributed by MozillaZine, your source for Mozilla news and 
advocacy. http://www.mozillazine.org )

New Thunderbird Icons Revealed
------------------------------

Jon Hicks has revealed the new Thunderbird icons for the first time. 
Living up to the high standard set by his Firefox icons, they will be
available shortly in Windows builds. OS X will follow soon."

Full article: http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=4645

Mozilla Foundation Seeking Designer For Fundraising Site
--------------------------------------------------------

The Mozilla Foundation is looking for a graphic designer to design its
new online donations site, with the aim of raising US$1,000,000 over
the next year. So far almost US$100,000 has been donated online and the
Foundation is keen to build on this success with its Mozillion campaign,
which borrows from the recent Internet fundraising efforts of several 
US presidential candidates. Interested designers must submit a 
Mozillion logo, homepage mockup and a design for one internal page of 
the campaign site by midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, May 7.

Full article: http://www.mozillazine.org/articles/article4677.html

Mozilla Foundation Holds Future Strategy Talks with GNOME Foundation
--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Mozilla Foundation has held talks with the GNOME Foundation 
(project creating a user interface for Linux) to discuss future 
collaboration. The minutes of the meeting, which took place via 
teleconference last Wednesday, reveal that the discussions covered 
the integration of Mozilla with GNOME, duplication of technology 
between the two projects and the default Linux browser. The meeting 
follows Brendan Eich's earlier comments about how the Mozilla project
can move forward with GNOME. Exactly how closely the two projects will
work together is still being debated. The Mozilla Foundation is keen
to form an official alliance with GNOME, while founder of the Galeon
and Epiphany GNOME browser projects Marco Pesenti Gritti is pushing
for a full merger.

Full article: http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=4671

Latest UserFriendly Comic Strip Pokes Fun at Mozilla
----------------------------------------------------

Mozilla was the subject of April 22nd, 23rd and 24th's UserFriendly 
comic strip. The cartoon was apparently produced as a result of an 
email Alex Vincent (a community member) sent to UserFriendly creator
JD "Illiad" Frazer asking why hasn't he taken on Mozilla. According
to the strip, it seems the only funny thing about Mozilla is that it's
hard to find a flaw to take on. 

http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=4655

3. MOZILLA PROJECTS 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(contributed by Brian King)

Featured Project: easyGestures

easyGestures is a popup pie menu that lets you perform simple straight 
mouse gestures within a circular UI. It's greatly customizable as it 
lets you place any action in any direction, change the size of the pie
menu (use of small icons and/or use of large pie with more actions) 
and change the parameters of special actions like searching the web, 
running a locale file or loading a specific web page (or script). 
easyGestures requires a short period of adaptation but in return, 
gives to both novice or expert users a better comfort and a real boost
of speed in the interaction with Firefox. It's an original and a very 
addictive experience.

http://www.mozdev.org/featured/index.html

****

Independent Status Reports

The independent status reports include news and updates from Mozilla
application and extension projects hosted on mozdev.org and elsewhere
in the Mozilla community.

The latest report was posted on April 23, 2004 and includes:

LookAhead - v0.1, which uses Google web service to fetch URLs in 
multiple tabs. This first release adds the Google Toolbar. As 
development ramps up, future features will include context menu 
selection a la Dictionary Search and Web Search, configuration for how
many pages to return, and adult content handling.
http://lookahead.mozdev.org/

Dictionary Search - v0.5.1, looks up or translates words in a Web page
or an email using an online dictionary. Dictionary Search 0.5.1 has 
been released on the 17th of March. It fixes the fact that the help
dialog wasn't showing in version 0.5.

http://dictionarysearch.mozdev.org/

OneClick Sidebar, the "many applications in one" bar!  The content of
the sidebar has been updated as well as a few bug fixes. A new version
of the built-in HTML editor is also expected with some new features.
There are many different programs in one sidebar. It works on any OS 
or Mozilla browser and can be accessed remotely without install.
We are also looking for articles for the sidebar. If you can 
contribute, are interested in translating the sidebar or have a 
project you think deserves credit, get in touch.

http://oneclick.mozdev.org/

Mouse Gestures - v0.4preview, elegantly control your browser by 
drawing gestures.  The Optimoz team has released a new nightly build
of its popular Mouse Gestures extension for Mozilla 1.x/Firefox. 
Changes include: Improved "Gesture Guide" Sidebar with a context menu
to change the sort order or view a history of issued gestures, sidebar
support for Firefox (drag the MozGest button to your toolbar, or use 
View->Sidebar) and horizontal scrolling gestures and new arrow-shaped
gestures for vertical scrolling. Our gesture sharing page continues to
grow. Browse Gesture Exchange to import gesture mappings other users 
provided, or post your own custom functions there.

http://optimoz.mozdev.org/gestures/
http://optimoz.mozdev.org/gestures/redirect/gesture-exchange/

DownloadWith - v0.0.7, download files with external programs.
It support 17 differents downloaders, more than one at a time. 
Download sample configurations for many popular download managers, 
including Download Accelerator Plus, Leechget, Getright, Star 
Downloader, and more, or manually configure any download manager that
supports command line parameters. New sample configs are being added
all the time. Check out these and many other great features.

http://downloadwith.mozdev.org/

QuickReply - v0.5.3, an extension for Thunderbird to reply fast to a
message. QuickReply has been revived! It now works on Thunderbird 
(builds from 20040322 on), and v.0.5.3 was released on April 11, 2004.
Changes include: Resizable input box (with persistence), 'Stay open' 
preference, encoding support, line wrap support, Progess bar support 
(as opposed to incrementing numbers for progress). 

http://quickreply.mozdev.org/

launchy - v2.3.0, open links and mailto's with external applications.
Support for the following applications has been added: Avant Browser,
Crazy Browser, GetRight, LeechGet, Mass Downloader, Star Downloader,
Internet Download Manager, ReGet Deluxe, BitTorrent, FlashGet, Total
Commander, UltraFXP, WS_FTP Pro, SmartFTP and BulletProof FTP.

http://gemal.dk/mozilla/launchy.html

Read more about each of these projects in the full report at
http://www.mozdev.org/status/2004-04-23-status.html

4. MOZILLA LINKS POLL
----------------------------------------------------------------------

In our last issue we asked if you use themes. Here are the results:

No, I use the default for      44% |]]]]]]]]]
my product/platform
Yes, I use my favorite         38% |]]]]]]]]
them all the time
Yes, and I change themes       18% |]]]]
frequently	 

Note: Results may not sum up to 100% due to rounding.

This issue's poll: Which plug-in do you find the most important?

- Macromedia Flash
- Adobe Reader
- Apple QuickTime
- Real Player
- Java
- Other plug-in

Let your voice be counted at http://newsletter.mozdev.org

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****

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****

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for more details on how to reach our 6500 worldwide subscribers!

5. CONTACT INFO
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Copyright 2004 by the Mozilla Links Contributors. 
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