357349 - /support/firefox/edit should have about:config tutorial

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Something that is long overdue. Support content, that instructs users to put lines in their user.js, should instead tell users to use about:config. The first step is to include about:config info in edit.html.

Comment 1

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Attachment: screenshot to be uploaded to /support/firefox/images/

Comment 2

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Attachment: patch for html

I haven't created a patch, that adds a new file to a different directory, as well as edit the html page; so I created a patch just for the html, and attached the image to this bug.
To see the result, go to <http://ilias.ca/bugs/edit.htm>.

David, what do you think of where I placed the about:config section? I figured anywhere under "Many of the tips and tricks mentioned on this site require you to edit configuration files for Firefox. There are three files that you should know about:" would not be appropriate, because about:config is not a file.

The screenshot, itself, is of Fx2 RC3. I figured a Fx1.5 screenshot would only be outdated in a couple weeks; and I assumed a screenshot of the final Fx2 would look exactly the same.

Comment 3

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Just skimming through the patch, I think it looks a bit weird that the first paragraph of the new section says:

"<p>Many of the tips and tricks mentioned on this site require you to use about:config."

And then the first paragraph of the original section below starts with:

<p>Many of the tips and tricks mentioned on this site require you to edit configuration files for Firefox."

These are really just two alternative ways to apply the tips & tricks, but this info gives the  impression that some tips require about:config and some require editing of files.

By the way, do you plan to switch the instructions for the actual tips & tricks to use about:config where appropriate? I would have no objection to that, of course. :)

About the screenshot, just send it to me via e-mail and I'll upload it, or do it yourself. No need to file a bug for that.

Comment 4

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> These are really just two alternative ways to apply the tips & tricks, but this
> info gives the  impression that some tips require about:config and some require
> editing of files.

I was thinking about the best way to address this. What do you think about simply removing the section about the user.js? (userChome.css and userContent.css sections stay)

> By the way, do you plan to switch the instructions for the actual tips & tricks
> to use about:config where appropriate? I would have no objection to that, of
> course. :)

Yup. I've got a todo list of the changes we discussed via email a while back. Now, that you asked, I think I should publicize that list.
<http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Cilias/ToDo>

> About the screenshot, just send it to me via e-mail and I'll upload it, or do
> it yourself. No need to file a bug for that.

I'll do it myself, when a patch is approved. I was just wondering if it could/should be included in the patch file.

Comment 5

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I was thinking about the best way to address this. What do you think about
> simply removing the section about the user.js? (userChome.css and
> userContent.css sections stay)

The only problem I see with this approach is that some of the tips & tricks (e.g. http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips#beh_taf) are really time-consuming to do with about:config. Also, editing user.js allows you to keep the code comments included in the tips. Is this something we should just ditch altogether?

Comment 6

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I think so. The above example could say:
<QUOTE>
Find As You Type has a few hidden preferences that can be changed to better fit your needs. Use <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/edit#aboutconfig">about:config</a> to change any of the following:

accessibility.typeaheadfind
  Set this pref to false to disable Find As You Type

accessibility.typeaheadfind.autostart
  If you set this pref to true, typing can automatically start Find As You Type.
  If false (default), you must hit / (find text) or ' (find links) before your search.

accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly
  Set this pref to false if you want Find As You Type to search normal text too

accessibility.typeaheadfind.startlinksonly
  Set this pref to true if you require that the link starts with the entered text

accessibility.typeaheadfind.timeout
  This is the time in milliseconds for the Find As You Type to stop watching for keystrokes
<UNQUOTE>

The comments are just pref descriptions. If a user knows enough to go to the support site, and pick up these prefs, then they know where to go for pref descriptions. Plus, this way they don't have to copy prefs they aren't interested in.

In terms of time-consumption, I don't think it matters how many prefs there are to edit. Entering about:config in the address bar, searching for a pref, and double-clicking on it, then repeating steps 2 and 3, is a Godsend compared to having to navigate to the profile folder, possibly have to create a text file, open a file in a text editor, paste text, then have to restart Firefox, just for those prefs to be copied over to the prefs.js.

My reasoning may sound a little bullheaded; but yeah, user.js references should be ditched. That's my vote. :-)

Comment 7

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Any decision yet?

Comment 8

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Attachment: html patch draft 2

I changed
"Many of the tips and tricks mentioned on this site require you to edit configuration files for Firefox."

to
"You can also edit configuration files for Firefox to apply the tips and tricks mentioned on this site."

I'd still like to get rid of the section on user.js, and change the line to "Other tips and tricks mentioned on this site may require you to edit configuration files for Firefox" after having switched all user.js tips to about:config; but this should work in the interim.

I updated preview can be seen at <http://ilias.ca/bugs/357349/edit.htm>.

Comment 9

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Comment on attachment 246371 [details] [diff] [review]
html patch draft 2

Looks good. And I agree with you that the user.js section should be ditched altogether as soon as all tips are updated for about:config.

Comment 10

[David Tenser [:djst]]

One note though: the alt properties on the images are a bit useless, since they don't describe anything about the picture. It's better that they're empty (alt="") than containing e.g. "aboutconfig-addressbar (20K)".

Comment 11

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

RCS file: /cvsroot/mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/images/aboutconfig-addressbar.png,v
done
Checking in aboutconfig-addressbar.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/images/aboutconfig-addressbar.png,v  <--  aboutconfig-addressbar.png
initial revision: 1.1
done

Screenshot uploaded.

Comment 12

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Checking in edit.html;
/cvsroot/mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/edit.html,v  <--  edit.html
new revision: 1.14; previous revision: 1.13
done

A couple of minor changes to the attached patch:
- changed alt="aboutconfig-addressbar (20K)" to alt=""
- changed src="aboutconfig-addressbar.png" to src="images/aboutconfig-addressbar.png"

Comment 13

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

In the Thunderbird version of this bug (bug 362621) there were some further changes to the wording, and the user.js was moved to the bottom of the page; so I applied those changes to the Firefox page as well.

Checking in edit.html;
/cvsroot/mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/edit.html,v  <--  edit.html
new revision: 1.15; previous revision: 1.14
done