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If you have you ever tried setting up the mailto function within Firefox for Google apps, then you know what a pain it could be. This article will walk you through how to setup the mailto shortcut for your Google Apps domain within FireFox 3.6.8 on Windows 7. This means that by clicking on any "mailto" links it will automatically open and compose a new email in your Gmail account.

1. Open up FireFox 3.6.8 and paste in the following into the address bar:

about:config

2. Click "I'll be careful, I promise" when the warning appears

3. Copy and paste the following three values into the "Filter" field, one at a time and make sure they are set to “true”. If not, double click the value to change it:

• gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost
• network.protocol-handler.expose.mailto
• network.protocol-handler.external.mailto

4. Update the following script to have your domain within the URL and on the label for the new “mailto” application handler. Paste it into the address bar within FireFox, hit Enter and then click the “Add Application” button when the small notification appears:

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler('mailto','https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s','Google Apps - Your Domain')

5. Next get into the Applications settings section within the options menu item by going to Tools -> Options:

6. Navigate to the Applications tab, scroll down to the “mailto” entry, select you’re the “Google Apps – Your Domain” entry you created and then click “OK”.

 

JVF Consulting believes in social networking and uses it as a tool to receive feedback from our customers. In order for us to share links with our Twitter followers and Facebook fans we use a web service tool called Bit.ly. Bit.ly is URL shortener which reduces the URL length and allows us to track the amount of clicks each link has received in order us to calculate our analytics and conversation rates. As of recently bit.ly has not been displaying the number of clicks in Firefox browsers on Windows computers. Apple computers running Firefox render the page just fine and the amount of clicks are visible.

With Firefox being the choice and default browser for JVF it makes us rather frustrated that bit.ly has not corrected this issue. In the screenshots below you can see the number of clicks is missing for each link. We have tested this several Windows machines running the latest Firefox 3.6 and we get the same results, Bi.ly does not work with Firefox!

 After installing the new Google toolbar for Firefox we noticed that when opening a new tab the page which was once blank, now displays your web history as tiled web pages for you and everyone to see. The thumb nailed sites will list up to nine, and also shows recently closed and bookmarked pages based on your browser history. For most people this may come in handy, either for instant access to your most visited site, or to spy on whoever used your computer last. As for us here at JVF Consulting, we think the splash page is pretty annoying, the 1 second lag time is too slow for us. So for those of you who also think the toolbar is annoying, here are the correct steps on how to remove it.

1) On the Google Toolbar, right click, and then select “Google Toolbar Options”  or click on the wrench icon and select Options.

2) Under the “Search” tab remove the check next to “Enable the Google new tab page.”

 

3) Now click “Save” and then restart your browser.

From now on you will no longer have the annoying Google toolbar tab page appear when opening a new tab.

 

On computers running Windows Vista and Windows XP, ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. The goal of ClearType was to improve the readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as laptops and flat panel displays.

Recently I changed desks within the office, which also meant a switching out computers. My new computer is much faster, but after downloading Mozilla Firefox 3.0 I noticed that web pages did not have the same clean effect as the other computer I was using. After much frustration my co-worker showed me a trick that fixed everything! Now, I'm going to share the same tip with you.


1. Right click on your desktop and select "Properties".

2. Now click the "Appearance" Tab , and then click the "Effects" button.

3. Now select the "ClearType" effect in the second drop down menu box and make sure there is a check in the checkbox.

4. Click Ok 2 times, and you're done!

Now open Firefox and browse to any website, you will see an immediate effect in the font rendered in your web browser.

To dial in the ClearType font on your computer to its maximum , visit the ClearType Tuner located on the Microsoft typology page and follow the on screen instructions.

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearType/tuner/tune.aspx

Things Are Getting Interesting In The Browser Universe.

If you have not heard yet, Google just released an open source browser by the name of Chrome. The question around the office lately is how does it compare, and does it support the JVF Consulting Amass content management system (CMS)? Well, to make sure JVF is up to par we downloaded the beta version and gave it a spin. So... should JVF and other web designers be freaking out? The answer is: No.

Thankfully the wheel was not reinvented here, it turns out Chrome uses the same rendering engine that Safari, Adobe AIR, iPhone, and Android use. Something called 'Web Kit'. So as web designers, we don't have to worry about another browser rendering our code crazy. Chrome was also designed to improve on the way it handles JavaScript, one of the technologies used to make Web pages more interactive. The focus on JavaScript makes sense. JavaScript can eat up computer processor power, and if poorly used by a website, can crash the browser. One of the things Chrome promises is that if one browser tab crashes, it won't take down the whole program.

Chrome does puts together usability, stability, and performance under one open source roof. By keeping this open source and giving away the code, Google is practically begging other browser makers to take pieces from their browser and incorporate them into their own. Expect Chrome to be a platform for experimentation, since its only being used by a small percentage of the population don't expect this browser to be perfected anytime soon.

Unless you're a web developer, or like living on the technological edge, I don't recommend installing Chrome. But if you're daring enough and want a glimpse of what Chrome looks like, you can download it here.