Tekzilla: Word Search on a Webpage Tip

On Episode 155, Web Browsers: Word Search on a Webpage, Veronica Belmont has a great tip that allows you to quickly find a word or phrase on a webpage so you don’t have to read the entire page to find what you’re looking for. Although this tip is very helpful, I wanted to add to it.

In the video, she says you can press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) whether you’re using Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer and a search bar or window will appear and then you can enter in what you’re looking for and the word will be highlighted in the browser. Then, press the previous or next buttons to find more instances of that word. I find that to be a little slow and prefer another way (at least when using Firefox).

In Firefox, make sure Search for text when I start typing is enabled. To enable this feature:

1. Go to Tools > Options in the menu.
2. Then select Advanced.
3. In the General tab, select the checkbox next to Search for text when I start typing.
4. Click OK.

Now when you start typing a word, each part of it will automatically be selected on the webpage where ever the first instance appears. There is no need to press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) to start searching.

If you want to find another instance of the word or phrase you’re searching for on the webpage, just press F3. F3 will go through every instance on the webpage as many times that you press it. Want to go back to a previous word or phrase? Press Shift + F3.

Getting Started With Google Reader

I talked about how it has been hard to move from Google Reader to another feed reader. This is partly because I’m so used to Google Reader now, but also because of the features Google Reader offers.

This 10-minute video is a great video if you have never used Google Reader before or maybe you want to learn how to use it better. If you’re someone who has never used a feed reader, this video helps you learn why you should use one instead of using your browser to manually visit websites to read content.

I recommend Google Reader to anyone who wants an easy to use feed reader.

Video by CaptureTheConversation.com

Make Firefox Faster

This isn’t actually about making Firefox itself faster, it is for making pages load faster. The steps are really easy to follow and it is all done via the about:config. After applying just a couple changes, I noticed a difference in how fast the pages loaded.

Fasterfox and Google Web Accelerator are also mentioned in the video. Fasterfox is an extension for Firefox which will add performance and network tweaks to it. Google Web Accelerator is meant for broadband connections to speed up page loading.

This video is by Jimmy Ruska.  Check out his other videos.

How To Set Up Gmail IMAP with Outlook Express and Thunderbird

I already talked about the new IMAP feature in Gmail that hopefully you have access to. If not, be patient, it will come. David Risley from PCMechanic has a great how-to video for setting up Gmail IMAP on both Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

The first step is to make sure you have the IMAP feature in your Gmail account and that it is enabled. If you are going to use Thunderbird, make sure to download and install it. Outlook Express should already be installed if you have Windows. I recommend using Thunderbird. In fact, even though I love Outlook (not Outlook Express), Thunderbird is much faster.

His video is very easy to understand. Follow the steps for either Outlook Express or Thunderbird and Gmail IMAP should work in either client.

Be sure that you are setting up an IMAP account and not POP. For the mail servers, they would be:

• Incoming: imap.gmail.com (port 993 with secure connection)
• Outgoing: smtp.gmail.com (port 465 with secure connection)

Something to keep in mind that David Risley did not mention in the video. Some clients will automatically set the Gmail POP server for you after you enter in your Gmail account. You do not want this. When adding a new account in any client, if you see an option to select Gmail, you want to avoid that unless you want to set up Gmail POP.

Also, if you use Gmail to receive e-mails from other POP accounts, make sure you add the outgoing servers to your client otherwise you may find yourself replying with the wrong account. Thunderbird will automatically select the correct account when replying.

Towards the end of the video, he talks about a few features that Thunderbird has. One useful feature to prevent confusion when going from Gmail to Thunderbird is that Thunderbird actually shows stars for starred e-mails. Outlook and Outlook Express display them as flags.

For me, Thunderbird may be my number one choice. I had tried it before, but didn’t like not having a calendar built in and not being able to export my mail. Now that I can use IMAP, I don’t need to worry about exporting if I ever decide to change e-mail clients. I was a huge fan of Outlook, but compared to Thunderbird, Outlook is really slow with this new IMAP feature.

How To Create a Basic Website Layout

This video shows you how to create a basic website layout using Photoshop. If you’re familiar with Photoshop, it shouldn’t be hard to follow the video. If you’re new to Photoshop, it might be a little more difficult, because the video is so small that you can’t see some of what is shown. It doesn’t go into showing you how to slice and then code it. It only shows you how to create the design.