Mozilla Wishlist FAQ
This FAQ (frequently asked questions) contains frequently requested information in the wishlist mailing list or newsgroup. This page is maintained by Robert Mohr. To get a wish added, post it to the mailing list/newsgroup.
If you have a wish for Mozilla Firefox, make sure to read its FAQ and Tips & Tricks pages. Mozilla Thunderbird also has an FAQ and a Tips & Tricks page.
Table of Contents
1 Make a Wish
Have any suggestion on making Mozilla better? Tell us your big idea by filing an enhancement bug or posting it to the Wishlist forum. Do check with frequently requested features listed below and the most frequently reported bug list to avoid duplications.
1.1 Replies from Mozilla developers seem to be non-existent, does my post have any relevance?
We appreciate any kind of user feedback. However, due to overwhelming volume of user posts, developers simply cannot respond to every question. Please be patient to allow people to respond to your question. If you think an issue is not getting the attention it deserves, make a comment about it; or if someone has filed a bug report on the issue at Bugzilla, vote for the bug report.
Please do not spam this or other forums or Bugzilla. See Bugzilla etiquette guidelines and forum rules.
1.2 When will my bug be fixed?
Fixes to bugs which draw a lot of attention are usually announced in status update. If there is any bug you are particularly interested in, add yourself to the bug’s CC list; you will receive e-mail notice for any comment or change to that bug report.
1.3 How about extensions?
If you are impatient about waiting for a specific feature to be implemented into Mozilla builds, you can always try out the various Mozilla add-ons in the ExtensionRoom
2 Frequently Requested Features
This is a list of Mozilla enhancements frequently requested in the Wishlist forum. If you cannot find a feature in the latest release of Mozilla, usually it is because no one is working on it! Why not get involved and help get it in Mozilla?
2.1 General
- Customizable Toolbars
-
Currently Mozilla does not have fully customizable toolbars (available in Mozilla Firefox). Requests for this are bugs 15144, 61710, 22056, 86455, 48926, and 51129.
- Quick Preferences
-
Some prefs, such as turning images and JavaScript on and off, may be changed frequently by users. However, these cannot be changed easily without the PrefBar or similar extensions. There are issues regarding similar implementations in Mozilla as a preferences toolbar, menu, or sidebar.
- Component uninstaller
-
Currently there is no easy way of removing Mozilla add-ons other than reinstalling Mozilla; bug 161508 addresses this. Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird support disabling of extensions, but they cannot be completely removed.
- Copying Images
-
Mozilla currently does not have the ability to copy images to the clipboard to be directly pasted into another application. This is covered by bug 21747.
2.2 Privacy and Security
- W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Support
-
Partial back-end support of P3P is available in Mozilla 1.4 or later. Full implementation is planned.
- Advertisement Blockers
-
An ad blocker is developed as a separate project.
However, before installing this software, you might like to consider that some Web sites rely on advertising revenue in order to keep their pages openly accessible. Losing advertisement revenue may make those sites move to a subscription-based model.
- No server hit when reading mail
-
See bug 28327
- Embedded Content Control
-
Mozilla provides some facilities for the user to control if and how embedded media (such as Flash movies, Java applets, and images) will be rendered. More comprehensive solutions are proposed and being worked on (see bug 94035, 147866, and 78104).
- Whitelists for Cookies, Images, etc.
-
See bug 75915.
- Pop-up Blocker Improvements
-
Mozilla already has a pop-up blocker. However, there are many pop-up issues open.
2.3 Profiles
- Profile Protection
-
Profile password protection and profile data encryption are bug 16489 and 19184.
- Custom Profile Location
-
Mozilla always stores profiles in the user system’s default directory for user application data, and there is no way for the user to specify a custom profile directory for sharing, roaming access, or other purposes. More flexible profile storage has been proposed (see bug 31763, 150453, and 144712).
- Profile Migration and Backup
-
Because of the way Mozilla links profile data, transporting a Mozilla profile to another machine or backing up profile data typically involves manual copying and editing of profile files. One-button solutions should be available once bug 22689, 103993, 7067, 137006, 85316, 63918, and 66259 are resolved.
Consult with the the profile FAQ on how to backup or move your profile data.
2.4 Keyboard and Mouse
- Synaptics Touchpad Scrolling
-
Mozilla supports synaptics touchpad scrolling, but it may not enabled by default with older drivers. You can upgrade your driver at the synaptics download page.
- Mouse gestures, like Opera
-
You can get mouse gestures by installing the Optimoz extension.
- Keyboard Shortcut Customization
-
It is currently not possible to customize keyboard shortcuts. The relevant bug is bug 57805.
2.5 Browser
- Turn Off
<blink> -
To turn off the <blink> tag in Mozilla, type
about:config
in the Location Bar and set browser.blink_allowed to false. - ActiveX Support
-
Mozilla currently has no ActiveX support, but it is possible to use a plugin as with Communicator 4.
- Full Zooming
-
Applying zoom to both text and images is bug 4821.
- Kiosk Mode
-
Not to be confused with fullscreen mode, a true Kiosk mode allows the user or system administrator to hide, disable, and lock browser configurations and functions to provide controlled browsing experience. Kiosk Mode is bug 3341.
- Edit Bookmarks Inline (in Menu)
-
See bug 19437.
- MHTML Support
-
Mozilla does not support viewing or exporting MHTML (RFC 2557) files (see 18764 and 40873).
- Browse Cached Files
-
You can browse the browser cache by typing
about:cache
in the location bar (see also bug 66299 (cacheexplorer) and 157694). - Tabbed Browser
-
While a great feature, Mozilla’s tabbed browser could use some improvements such as the ability to rearrange and detach tabs and more preferences for opening Web page in new tab or window. If you are impatient about these features, you can get most of them and more by installing MultiZilla for Mozilla or Tabbrowser Extensions for either Mozilla or Mozilla Firefox.
- Error page for inaccessible pages
-
Bug 28586 is for replacing network error dialog with an error page that allows a second try to load the page.
- Check Bookmarks
-
You can use Bookmarks Manager (Ctrl+B) to regularly check for content updates for specific bookmarks. To do this, choose the bookmark you want to check, press (Ctrl+I), and set the appropriate Schedule and Notify options. Bookmark Manager does not update bookmarks if the link addresses are broken or moved. Bug 171467 is for bookmark validity check and update.
- Load/Reload Images
-
Bug 47475 is for adding the option to load or reload only the images in a page to the context menu.
- Download Manager Enhancements
-
Bug 418004 deals with adding enhanced download manager features into Mozilla, but to get more enhanced features in a current build you should see the Download Manager page at plugindoc.
2.6 Mail-News
- Use External Mail Client
-
By default, Mozilla will open all mail links in its own mail client. To force Mozilla to use the system’s default mail client, type
about:config
in the Location Bar and setnetwork.protocol-handler.external.mailto
to true (see bug 11459). - Mail Notification (biff) Icon
-
In /Windows/<18729>, new mail check starts running in the background when Mail & Newsgroups is opened and continue running until Mozilla is closed. This feature is not yet available in /other platforms/<18730,18731,18732,79127>. Some popular enhancement requests are a standalone mail check program, suppress notification for mail deleted or marked read by filters and junk mail, and other improvements. See bug 18730, 86553, 35892, 125328, 24577, and 71105.
- Standalone MailNews
A standalone mail client, code-named Mozilla Thunderbird, is under development. There is also a project for building a standalone browser (Mozilla Firefox).
- Mail Backup
-
See bug 133095 and 103993. See the Profiles section for related enhancements.
- Threaded, Sorted View
-
See bug 72493.
- Expiry date for POP messages
-
Option to leave POP messages on server for certain number of days has been implemented in Mozilla 1.6 and Mozilla Thunderbird.
- Smart Junk Mail Filtering
-
Mozilla 1.3 or later now has smart (Bayesian) junk filtering (see bugs). Read Mozilla Spam Filtering on how to use it.
- Delete attachment
-
See bug 2920.
- Common Inbox
-
Many former users of Outlook or Outlook Express have requested for a shared set of folders for all mail accounts (instead of one set of folders per account). See bug 30057.
- Composing to Multiple Addresses
-
Mozilla Mail doesn't allow multiple email addresses to be entered into the same line in the Compose window. Instead of separating email addresses by a comma or semicolon, use a return. In Mozilla Thunderbird, you can use the Contacts Sidebar (View | Contacts Sidebar) from the Compose window as an alternate method of emailing many people. See bug 94540 and bug 94676.
- Minimize Mozilla Thunderbird to the System Tray
-
Mozilla Thunderbird cannot currently be minimized to the system tray—this is bug 183323. However, there are a number of applications that will allow you to minimize any application to the system tray in Windows.
- Filter Outgoing Email Messages
-
The only current way to filter the location of your copies of outgoing messages is to BCC: yourself and then use filters with the rule that you are the sender. Look under (Edit | Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings | <account_name> | Copies & Folders) in Mozilla MailNews or (Tools | Account Settings | <account_name> | Copies & Folders) in Mozilla Thunderbird. See bugs 11038 and 177040.
- Webmail Access
-
Mozilla supports access to Web mail services that uses standard POP3 or IMAP protocols for off-site uses, such as Yahoo! Mail POP3 access (not free). Mozilla does not support the proprietary protocols used by Hotmail, AOL Mail, Netscape Webmail (support for Netscape Webmail is one of the proprietary extensions Netscape made to Mozilla—it is not code that the Mozilla Foundation has access to), or other services that use their own protocols. There are, however, services and software that allow direct access to these Web mail services from any email client. You may try those at your own risk.
2.7 Composition
- Spell Checker
-
Mozilla 1.4.1 now has a spell checker (see open issues).
2.8 Web Developer Wishes
Many of Web developer wishlist bugs are hotly debated. Please read Bugzilla etiquette guidelines and avoid flame wars.
- Page Errors Log
-
There is currently no feature in Mozilla that allows the user to receive feedback and problems with Web pages, such as bad HTML/CSS/DOM. Bug 6211 discusses this issue.
- Img Alt Attribute
-
The
altattribute is an accessibility feature intended as alternative presentation for those unable to access the image, such as blind people. For accessibility reasons, Mozilla does not render thealtattribute value as tooltip. If you want tooltip, use thetitleattribute. A more detailed explanation can be found in bug 25537 comment 153 and in the Mozilla Web Author FAQ. - Always-on Vertical Scrollbar
-
This is another issue that has been discussed in length. See bug 72540.
- DHTML
-
Two frequently requested features on DHTML are better support of the getComputedStyle method and ability to get/set element scroll position
- Ability to Block Context (right-click) Menu
-
Bug 86193 deals with the issue on suppressing context menu in a Web page.