The Firefox 5.0 Beta release is now available for use. Promising faster, more stable performance than 4.0, this Beta release doesn’t on the surface appear at all different from the current release.  One of the more notable changes is channel switching (below) which enables users to switch between 4.0 (Release), 5.0 (Beta), and Aurora, which is an Alpha test release.

(In order to switch channels, go to Help/About and click the “Change” button (above). Here’s the description of 5.0 from Mozilla:

After five weeks of testing on the Firefox Aurora channel, the next version of Firefox is ready for the beta channel. This release includes the Firefox channel switcher, performance and stability enhancements and support for the new CSS Animations standard to allow developers build more amazing Web experiences. The new Firefox channel switcher lets users move between Firefox Aurora, Beta and Release channels to test features at various levels of development, quality and polish.

After using 5.0 for a few days, it appears to be a bit faster than 4.0; I’ve frankly not experienced stability issues (instability issues?) with 4.0, but your mileage may vary.  I’ve taken a quick look at Aurora (below) and no dramatic changes were apparent there either, but I’ve frankly not used it extensively.

If you’re wondering why 5.0 Beta was released so quickly after the 4.0 release, Mozilla has embraced a faster product development and rapid release cycle. In order to try out Firefox 5.0 Beta, click here.  Note that some of your Add-Ons will likely not work with the Beta release.

About 45% of Practical Hacks visitors use Firefox, so it’s clear I’m not alone in my enthusiasm for Mozilla’s versatile and feature-rich browser.

There are dozens of useful Firefox keyboard shortcuts available, but the following list captures the ten I’ve found most useful:

1. Quickly close a tab: CTRL + W (Bonus:  undo a closed tab – CTRL + SHIFT + T) (No need to use the Shift key for capital letters in any of these shortcuts, BTW.)

.
2. Scroll through open tabs: CTRL + Tab (This is one of the most useful shortcuts, in my opinion.)

3. Go to a specific tab: CTRL + 1-8 (Bonus:  go to the rightmost tab, regardless of how many are open:  CTRL + 9)

.
4. Jump to the address bar: ALT + D

.
5.  Open history in a sidebar: CTRL + H (This plus the next few are easy to remember, as the letter logically relates to the particular task.)

.
6.  Open a new tab: CTRL + T

.
7. Open a new browser: CTRL + N

.
8. Open link in a new tab: Hover cursor over a link, click middle button

.
9.  Refresh a page: CTRL + R (Or alternatively, hit F5)

.
10.  Use keywords to create address bar shortcuts to your favorite bookmarks: This one’s a bit different, but no more complicated.  Right click on one of your bookmarks, and select “Properties.”  Type a simple keyword -as simple as one letter – see below – I used “n” (no quote marks) for The New York Times.

Click “Save.”  Now, all I need to do to go to The New York Times is type the letter “n” (no quotes, of course) in the address bar, and hit “Enter.”   Simply use #4 above (Alt + D) to jump to your address bar, type n, hit enter, and (in this case) you’re instantly at the NYT home page.

A really neat variant, for Google: use “g” as your Google bookmark’s Keyword.  Then copy and paste the following line of text into the line for “Location” (instead of http://www.google.com) –

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s&btnG=Google+Search

Now all you have to do in order to conduct a quick Google search from the address bar is type “g” (again, no quotes), space, and whatever search terms you want, and hit the Enter button; for example:

A moment later, your search results appear:

I hope you enjoy these Firefox shortcuts; if you have any other favorites, please share them by commenting.

Greasemonkey is a browser Add-On which lets you customize your web browsing experience.  It’s often used to make your web experience simpler and less cluttered, but there are many ways you can improve your web experience with Greasemonkey.  But Greasemonkey’s a bit different than most Add-Ons.  To illustrate that point, let’s start with a couple of actual user reviews of the Firefox Add-on Greasemonkey:

I include these not to poke fun at anyone, but to underscore the fact that Greasemonkey is different from other Add-ons.  In and of itself, it does nothing.  The only evidence that it’s installed on your computer is a small  (what else?) monkey icon in the tool bar:

It’s no wonder, then, that megadude and Dené Elisa were a bit perplexed!

The magic power behind Greasemonkey:  User Scripts

Clicking on the Greasemonkey icon turns the Add-on on and off.  Right click on it, and you can enable, disable or uninstall user scripts.   What’s a user script?  User Scripts are tiny bits of javascript that modify how websites are displayed.  Thousands of user scripts are available to you.

The easiest way to explain Greasemonkey and scripts is to do a quick screencast:

You can find Greasemonkey here:  Greasemonkey Add-on for Firefox;  and the user scripts are available by clicking:  UserScripts.org More advanced users can create their own scripts; if you’re adept with javascript, it should be reasonably easy.

Please comment if you’re a Greasemonkey user, want to recommend specific scripts, or have questions!