Thursday, June 7, 2012

New Firefox and Turn Off The Smoothscrolling

I love Firefox.

Well no, Pee Wee I don't want to marry it.

On the other hand, I'm so very used to the way it works and its quirks that I can't conceive of using anything else.

It works on all the computers I use - Linux, Windows, and Mac.   It does things well.  It can be extended so that I block advertisements and "nasty" websites.  It does not spy on me (Hear that Chrome?).  It's not Bloated (I'm talking to you Internet Explorer).  It isn't forced on me (I don't want to go on a Safari to check into a website).

So yesterday I updated my Firefox.  If you click on the link, it will tell you if you are up to date.

After loading up my normal 150 web pages and muddling through most of the routine, I see only one problem.

Smoothscroll was turned on "accidentally" by the upgrade to Firefox 13.

I'm not the kind of person who likes Smoothscroll.   It reminds me of when I was a kid sitting on a swivel chair and spinning around faster and faster so that when I stopped the world kept moving.

On this particular laptop (2 year old Core2Duo with Windows 7 and 8 Gigs of Memory), Smoothscroll doesn't smoothly scroll it fidgets to the next page.   In a spastic wretching and lurching forward, you get the next page of data instead of a quick "Snap!" to the next page.

I know Smoothscrolling is supposed to look like you are skimming down a written page but to me it is annoying.   Not nausea inducing, just annoys me while I sit there thinking why isn't it there yet?

I don't want to be that kid in the back seat saying "Are We There Yet" when I'm looking at pictures of cats or puppies, nor do I want to be wondering why it's taking so long to scan to the bottom of a page of 100 jobs in a job search website.

Do the job.  Do it quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of that eye candy nonsense.  You're just slowing me down.

Ok, enough of the rant.  If you want to turn on or turn off Firefox's "feature" of smooth scrolling down your pages - which doesn't work, here are the basic instructions.

  1. Launch Firefox.
  2. Click on Tools.
  3. Click on Options.
  4. Click on the Advanced icon that looks like a gear.
  5. Click on the General Tab (No, not the one that looks like a light switch, the tab below that.  I'll wait.  Good.)
  6. Look down to the middle of the panel in the browsing section and click the box to the left of "Use Smooth Scrolling".
  7. Enjoy.
Now that you have finished, here's your treat.  A short video about an adorable little girl being taught by a friendly Boxer dog how to drink from the hose.

Repeat after me... Awwwww.




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