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General > Ext.Prefs
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GUI > Fastlink
GUI > Macro
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HTML > Fonts
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Security > CA Certificates
Security > User Certificates
Network
Network > Proxy
Preferences > URL Prefs
The preferences area of iBrowse 2 has had a complete overhaul. It is now easier to use as it is much quicker to find and get to the preferences page that contains the preference you want to check or alter. Many of the options work exactly as described in the 1.2 manual; documented below are those options which are new or have changed in some way.
- Copy text on click'n'drag
With this option enabled, when you select text by dragging the pointer over it, as soon as you let go of the mouse button the selected text is copied to the clipboard.
TOP - URL completer
The URL completer now uses your cache history to guess the site you wish to visit; it works in a very similar way to the URL completer in Netscape Navigator.
If enabled, when you start typing in the Location box, iBrowse will fill out the rest of the URL for you. For example, say one day you went to "http://www.hisoft.co.uk/" then another day you decide to go back there, as long as the URL has not expired from your cache all you need to type would be "http://www.hi" and the URL completer would guess the rest.
The URL completer is enabled by selecting Enable URL Completer on the General page of Misc preferences.
TOP - Use contact manager for bookmarks
This is a special option for users of NetConnect. See your NetConnect documentation for information about the contact manager.
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Any of the following windows may be set to open automatically when iBrowse is launched:
Info
Netstat
URL Clipboard
Global History
Cachebrowser
Hotlist
Cookies (new in 2.2)
Download log (new in 2.2)
Passwords (new in 2.2)TOP
- Ext. Viewer with Pipe
With this option selected, data is piped to the selected application as the file is downloaded.
TOP - Def Save Dir
This is the default directory in which files will be saved when selecting options like (for example) Save Image to Disk. (improved in 2.2)
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The iBrowse toolbar is now user-configurable. You may adjust the layout of the standard buttons, remove any or all of the standard buttons, add your own buttons with their own actions. The only limitation is that you may have only one row of buttons.
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- To rearrange the standard buttons simply drag and drop them in the Resulting Toolbar area.
- To delete a button, move the pointer over the button in the Resulting Toolbar area, hold down the right mouse button and select Delete Button from the pop-up menu.
- To add space between buttons, drag a Spacer or Distance icon and drop it in the Resulting Toolbar area between the buttons you want moved apart.
- To add a fastlink button, drag a Fastlink icon and drop it in the Resulting Toolbar area. Set the Label and URL.
- To add a custom button, drag a Custom icon and drop it in the Resulting Toolbar area. Set the Label, Image and Action.TOP
- Centre
Select this option if you want your fastlink buttons centred.
TOP - Number of rows
If you want a lot of fastlink buttons, enter the number rows that should be displayed. Fastlink buttons automatically resize according to the length of the Name text, so if you have very many fastlinks you may need to experiment in order to discover the correct number of rows.
TOP - Name
Type a name for the fastlink button.
TOP - Action
Here you select what will happen when the fastlink button is clicked. If the action is URL, type a location such as a web page or ftp site. If the action is Command, select the program that should be launched. If the action is ARexx, select the ARexx script that should be executed.
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This preference page has been renamed from Rexx to Macro. Functionally it is the same as the old Rexx prefs page except that you may now set macros to run commands and load URLs as well as run ARexx scripts.TOP
In keeping with the general flexibility of the iBrowse 2 GUI, you may now customise the FAB menus.TOP
Font mapping in iBrowse 2 is another area that has been given a massive overhaul. Now you can add font styles to cater for web pages that want to use various display fonts; now you can map display fonts to printer fonts for both PostScript and non-PostScript (graphical) printers.
The HTML>Fonts prefs requester has been redesigned (see screenshots below) and the three font mapping types are on three tabs in the low half of the requester.
- Mapping display fonts
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- Mapping non-PostScript printer fonts
When viewed on a Windows or Mac OS machine, web pages appear very different to how they appear in an Amiga browser. This is because most modern web pages use fonts other than Times and Helvetica. Within an HTML document (i.e. the source code of the web page) typefaces are specified by a tag that looks something like this:
<font face="Arial,Geneva">
This tag is telling the browser to use a font named Arial, and if it can't find a font named Arial then it should use a font named Geneva. (This is a very common request as all Windows machines come with Arial and all Mac OS machines come with Geneva - they are roughly equivalent fonts.) Previously, iBrowse ignored such requests. Now, however, if you set up a new display font style and name it Arial, you can tell iBrowse what Amiga fonts it should use when it comes across a request to use the Arial font.
The Amiga doesn't come with very many fonts as standard, so if you are not a font collector you may prefer not to add to the default font mapping. But if you have collected lots of fonts and you know that particular web pages want to use particular fonts (view the source and look for "face=" commands), you can now map to similar Amiga fonts that you have in your collection.TOP
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- Mapping PostScript printer fonts
Bitmapped fonts look awful when printed at their standard screen resolution, so iBrowse enables you to specify which font should be used to print any particular display font. The most useful application of this is to map bitmapped display fonts to scalable Compugraphic fonts for much higher quality printing.
Note that graphical printing on the Amiga is a time-intensive and memory-intensive thing. The speed at which a web page prints will depend on many things, among them the complexity of the web page, the number of fonts it has to load, the speed of your CPU and how much graphics memory is available. It is entirely possible for a web page that is very long and heavy with graphics and fonts to not print correctly, to cause an out of memory message to appear, or even to abruptly crash or hang your Amiga. Such are the vagaries of printing to modern high resolution printers on the Amiga.
If printing a web page presents problems, do everything you can to reduce the amount of memory required to print the page. Remove all graphical printer font mapping, for example, and print in fewer colours.TOP
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If you have a PostScript printer, iBrowse can now use its built-in fonts for printing. To map a display font to a PostScript printer font, select the style name and then select the printer font from the pop-up menu.
The Font Files gadget is for specifying where on your system you have your PostScript AFM (metrics) files stored. (This isn't required in order to print to a PostScript printer, but text will print better if the correct metrics information is used.)TOP
- Swap for JPEG decoder
Select which directory that the JPEG decoder will use for temporary images.
TOP - Memory limit for JPEG decoder
Select the maximum amount of memory that the JPEG decoder will use for each image while decoding.
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- Enable JavaScript
JavaScript is considered a security risk - while it is active it can in theory open up your system for abuse. If this concerns you, or if for any other reason you wish to disable JavaScript, then deselect this option
TOP - Enable JavaScript error requesters (new in 2.2)
Display JavaScript errors in popup windows
TOP - Log JavaScript errors (new in 2.2)
Log JavaScript errors to a file. The JavaScript errors will be appended to the file. If you enter a CON: IBrowse will output all errors to the same window
TOP - Cache secure documents
Select this option if you want iBrowse to cache documents which have been loaded from secure servers. Be warned that some secure pages may display sensitive personal information like credit card numbers; if you share your computer, you may want to disable this option.
TOP - Cache secure images
Select this option if you want iBrowse to cache images which have been loaded from secure servers. Be warned that some secure images may display sensitive personal information; if you share your computer, you may want to disable this option.
TOP - Enable SSL2 / Enable SSL3
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 2.0 and 3.0 enable you to send information to secure sites with safety and confidence. Secure sites are equipped to prevent unauthorized people from seeing the data sent to and from those sites.
TOP - Use email for anonymous ftp login
Select this option if you would like iBrowse to use your email address as the password whenever an "anonymous" ftp login is required. If you don't select this option, then you may be prompted for a password or the ftp login may simply fail, it depends on how the particular ftp site is configured.
TOP - Accept cookies
Select whether you would like iBrowse to automatically accept cookies, ask whether to accept a cookie, or never accept cookies.
You should not become paranoid about cookies, they are 100% helpful and 0% intrusive. However, sometimes it can be useful to know when a cookie is being delivered to you, sometimes it can be useful to prevent a cookie from being delivered.
Be warned that if you refuse delivery of a cookie, functions of the website that tried to send it to you may not work correctly. Most e-commerce sites will require you to accept the cookies they send.
TOP - Save cookies on exit
During an iBrowse session cookies are stored in memory. If you would like iBrowse to save cookies to disk, so that (for example) when you return to a site it can automatically know who you are and thus automatically display a certain page or certain option, then you must have this option enabled.
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A website certificate is a statement guaranteeing the security of a website, it verifies that a specific website is secure and genuine. It ensures that no other website can assume the identity of the original secure site. Website certificates are also dated when issued.
When you go to a secure website, iBrowse verifies that the address stored in the certificate is correct and that the current date precedes the expiration date. It also verifies that the address of the web site matches the certificate, that the current date is within the certificate's valid date range and that the issuing certificate authority is on the CA list. If any information in a certificate turns out to be false, iBrowse displays a security alert.
For security purposes, iBrowse does not allow you to add certificates.TOP
Security > User Certificates (new in 2.2)
Here you will see a list of all user certificates that you have installedTOP
- Max simultanious downloads (new in 2.2)
This setting limits that amount of simultanious downloads. If this number is exceeded, IBrowse well delay file downloads until more slots are available. NB this only applies if you download binaries, ie not regular pages with images.
TOP - Don't select Download window (new in 2.2)
If this setting is selected, then IBrowse will not activate the download window if an URL is added to it.
TOP - Auto close download log (new in 2.2)
If this setting is active, the download window will close as soon as the last download is finished (unless you are viewing one of the other info pages in the download window).
TOP - Log downloads (new in 2.2)
Log all downloads to the file 'Downloads'.
TOP - Log failed downloads (new in 2.2)
Log the downloads that are aborted for abnormal reasons. This will give you an opportunity to retry the download at a later time.
TOP - Log completed downloads (new in 2.2)
Log successful downloads. This is very useful when you wonder where you put that special file or if you deleted it and want to download it again.
TOP - Use proxy when resuming downloads (new in 2.2)
Some proxies have problems resuming downloads and this option lets you bypass the proxy if that is possible with your ISP.
TOP - Leave failed downloads (new in 2.2)
Leaves the failed downloads in the main download list with a red marking.
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- Auto
If you have a proxy configuration file, type the file's URL into the box and click Refresh When Closing Prefs.
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URL Prefs is a major new addition to iBrowse 2. It enables you to select particular preferences for certain websites or even certain web pages. For example, if you want to have JavaScript enabled generally but you regularly visit a site or page that contains some buggy JavaScript that keeps producing errors or crashes, you can disable JavaScript just for that site or page.
- To add a URL to the list
Click the Add button then type the URL into the URL Pattern box. The URL may contain Amiga wildcard characters.
For example "http://www.hisoft.co.uk/beos/#?" would specify all pages in the beos directory on the HiSOFT website. Another example of using wildcards cleverly would be "#?hisoft.co.uk/#?". This example would specify not only all pages on the standard HiSOFT website but also all pages on the secure and cgi HiSOFT sites.
Alternatively, "http://www.hisoft.co.uk/index.html" would specify just that one web page on the HiSOFT site.
TOP - The Setting gadgets
After adding a URL and ensuring that it is selected (so that it is highlighted) all the Setting gadgets for that URL are initially ghosted. A ghosted Setting gadget means that the global setting (selected elsewhere in the prefs requester) is currently the active setting.
TOP - The Active gadgets
When an Active gadget is checkmarked it means that this setting will be used for the currently selected URL or URL group (see Add Sub below), overriding the global preference setting for that option.
TOP - To make a unique setting for the selected URL
Click the Active gadget for the setting you want to make. This will unghost the associated Setting gadget. Where a Setting gadget is a checkbox, a checkmark means the option is switched on, no checkmark means the option is switched off. Where a Setting gadget is a cycle button, select an option from those available.
TOP - About the Add Sub button
It may be that you want a particular group of settings to be active for more than one site, or for a number of unique pages on a single site. The Add Sub button enables you to create groups of URLs so that when you make or alter a setting for one of the group, then that setting or alteration affects the entire group.
To add URLs to a group, select (or Add) the URL for the group leader, then click Add Sub and type the URL for this member of the group. Group members will appear in the list underneath the group leader, slightly indented and in italicised type. When you make or change a setting for any member of a group (including the group leader) then that setting will be the same for all members of the group. As with Add, you may use Amiga wildcards with Add Sub.
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