djst's nest

Spam via Trackbacks

So now it's possible to spam a blog using trackbacks too. I wish there was an easy way to close all comment and trackback abilities for old blog entries. Movable Type, please incorporate this!

Firefox Help is Dead -- Long Live Firefox Help!

I popped the idea a couple of weeks ago about moving Firefox Help to Mozilla.org. Since then, this has turned from just an idea to something that will actually happen very soon.

Steven Garrity helped me with the first step of converting the XHTML source code into HTML. Nothing I couldn't have done myself, since I converted it the other way around before, but definitely an effective way to get things rolling (really, Steven is just amazing -- he helps you without even being asked to!). :)

In a way, this move to Mozilla.org ends some of the spirit that made me love working on Firefox Help, which explains the irony of the title of this blog entry. After all, being able to create a web site from scratch (with help from lots of people) and to come up with a web design that I'm truly proud of was one of the most important reasons why I spent so much time on it in the first place. To some extent, that part of the fun -- the artistic freedom -- ends now.

On the other hand, this move is unquestionably the right thing to do. Mozilla.org needs to have online documentation that is their own, which means it's official. Moving my help site to Mozilla.org means web design consistency with the rest of the Mozilla content, which is good. But most important of all, other people than myself can help with updating and correcting the content. That alone is a strong reason for me to let go of the artistic freedom mentioned, especially since Real Life has taken more and more of my free time recently. (Yes Sofie, that includes you, and I love you for that!) Finally, the timing couldn't be better, considering the upcoming release of Firefox 1.0.

I'm looking forward to see what the future brings for both Firefox and my contributions to it. I'll certainly do my best in making it a bright future. :)

Spread the Fox

Firefox 1.0 Preview Release is out! Go get it!

And even more important, join the absolutely great Spread Firefox initiative and make the world aware of the safer, faster, better browser you can trust.

Ben talks about Firefox' geek factor

In the Inside Firefox weblog, Ben talks about some people perceiving Firefox as a browser for geeks. My personal opinion is that Firefox is not geeky at all. However, it has some features that can be hard for new users to understand.

The first thing that comes to mind is the new RSS icon in the status bar. I consider myself as a geek, but I don't even know what RSS stands for. (Yeah, a quick Google search will give me the answer, but you get my point.) I can assure you that my mother would never click on a button that says RSS, which makes me wonder who we are targetting with that feature (hardly the general user) and why it isn't an extension? Hovering the button gives you this description: "Add Live Bookmark for this page's feed". "What feed?", I can hear my mom wondering. :)

As for the main menu, there is one potentially confusing item there too, but it's less important than the RSS icon since a menu item is never in your face. I'm talking about the Web Search item in the Tools menu. Try hiding the search bar and see what the menu item does: Nothing. Of course, the search bar is visible by default so it's not an issue for newbies anyway, but still.

Other than those two minor issues, I'd say Firefox is as geeky as Internet Explorer, only a couple of hundred times better. If you want to see real geek-browsers in action, try Mozilla 1.7.2 or Opera. ;)

More on Firefox Toolbar: Toolbar Overflow Bug

I was going to publish my personal toolbar arrangement just to show you how different it is compared to my default proposal yesterday, but instead it became very obvious that there's a regression in recent Firefox builds that makes the toolbar overflow chevron appear when resizing the window. I'm using the latest branch build. Take a look at this screenshot:

I haven't really had time to catch up on all the filed firefox bugs so I haven't reported this in Bugzilla. Does anyone know if this one is already reported?

Update: It's bug 174390, targetted at Firefox 1.0.

Firefox Default Toolbar Proposal

I started writing a comment to Asa's default toolbar config post but felt that it would be hard to explain it all without a screenshot too, so this is my comment for you Asa, with a twist. :)

To make the transition for IE users as smooth as possible, the default toolbar set in Firefox should include the buttons Asa is suggesting. However, there are a few issues that should be resolved too, some with alternative solutions. I'm certainly not capable of telling which one is the best solution, but here are my humble suggestions:

• The Address bar should have a label, like in IE. It's not completely obvious now what the text field is for, and it's not easy to tell the difference between the two (address and search), especially not when the Google icon is there instead of the magnifying glass. See the screenshot to see what I mean.
• For consistency, the search bar should probably also be labelled. An alternative solution would be to add default text (grayed out) that disappears when you click the search field. Again, see the screenshot for an example. Even if no labels are added to the text fields, this default text in the search bar would make the difference between the address and search field more obvious.
• The address field must have the "Go" button visible to the right by default. The whole purpose of that button is to be used for so-called "computer illiterates". There's no way a user needing that button will find his/her way of customizing the toolbars to add that button, but it's very likely that geeks like myself will know how to remove it. So it should just be there by default. If not, it should be removed from the toolbar customization dialog altogether.
• The search field should probably also have a "Go" button next to it, as the address field has. It shouldn't read "Go", but rather "Search" or "Find". I didn't create a button like that in the screenshot, but I would suggest using a magnifying glass or something similar as the icon.
• Finally, the toolbars should support "Selective Text on Right". That means, some of the buttons should have a label on the right, and most of them should not. Selective Text on Right is better than labels below the icons because:
  • It takes less vertical space, saving more screen real estate for the web pages.
  • When used wisely, it also takes less horizontal space than using text labels below the icons.
  • No text labels at all can be confusing for new users.
  In the example screenshot below, the Back and Bookmarks buttons have text labels. Back is the most important button and Bookmark is arguably the least obvious.

That's about it. The actual layout of the toolbar can be discussed. For example, it could look better if the search field (along with the not yet invented "Go" button next to it) was moved up next to the toolbar buttons. But I think I covered the most important things.

Small UI Glitches in Firefox

If you're a UI freak like me, then you'll appreciate Lim Chee Aun's rundown of Firefox UI glitches. Unsignificant as they may seem for some of you, I say it's the details that make a product a success. Not that Firefox isn't already a success, but hopefully, all of these "bugs" will be fixed anyway.

Response from Mälardalen University about Firefox

I sent an e-mail to the IT gurus at MDH earlier today, and it turns out that the Head of Development already uses Firefox as his default browser. However, he mentioned the lack of roaming support as the main reason that neither Mozilla nor Firefox is installed on the computers. He referred to the bugs 31732 and 97180. I made some research and it seems that Mozilla now supports Netscape 4.x-like roaming according to bug 124026. Does this also work for Firefox?

Anyway, he said that when Firefox reaches version 1.0, he will attempt to install it at the university, provided there's an easy way to manage the profiles. That would rock! :) I will be sure to contact him again when 1.0 is out.

Let's use Mozilla Firefox on Mälardalen University!

Today I wrote an e-mail to the network administrators and IT executives at Mälardalen University, suggesting that they install Firefox on every computer on campus. This is what I wrote (in Swedish; a translation to English is provided in the Comments section by Jens Gyldenkærne Clausen):

I'm looking forward to their response.

Mozilla.org site redesign - Wow!

I just visited the Mozilla.org home page and I must say I'm impressed by the redesign. It looks very good, sleek, stylish and simple. Easy to navigate. It seems the Mozilla.org web site has made the same trip as the Mozilla software has. From a bloated mess to a sleek and powerful design. Good work!

Another thing that striked me was the similarity in design between Mozilla.org and my own help sites. Makes me feel good actually. :) Maybe it's time to integrate Firefox/Thunderbird Help with Mozilla.org?