Applications panel - Set how Firefox handles different types of files

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  • Revision id: 10637
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  • Creator: tenbob
  • Comment: Resubmitted: (Didn't get an acknowledgement last time). Added note re corrupt entries.
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  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
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This document explains all of the optionspreferences available in the Applications panel of the OptionsPreferences window of Mozilla Firefox. To access the OptionsPreferences window, In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings. For other panels, see OptionsPreferences window.

The Applications panel lets you choose how Firefox handles different types of files, such as PDF documents or MP3 audio clips. For each content type Firefox recognizes, you may select an action: open the file in the Firefox window with a plugin, open the file with an application on your computer, or save the file to your downloads folder. Some file types, like Live Bookmark feeds also allow you to select a web application.


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To change how Firefox handles a file type in the list, click on its name to select it. The drop-down menu that appears will allow you to choose actions for that type of file:

  • Choose an application: To choose a local or web application to handle a type, select the application from the drop-down menu. If you want a local application that is not in the menu to handle the type, select Use other... from the drop-down menu and point Firefox to its location.
  • Choose a feature or plugin: If you want a feature or a plugin in Firefox to handle the type, and one is available, select it from the drop-down menu.
  • Save on your computer: Some file types can be saved to your computer. Select Save File from the menu for one of these file types to have Firefox save that type of file to the location specified in the General panel (Main panel in Firefox 3.5) of the Preferences windowOptions window.
Note: When a plugin is available to handle a type, and you choose another handler to handle that type, Firefox will only use your chosen handler when you access the type directly. When the type is embedded inside a web page, Firefox will continue to use the plugin to handle the type.
Note: The Applications panel has limited functionality for editing. You can change the action for an existing file type but you cannot add or remove file types. Entries are added automatically when you download files and select actions for them. You may get problems if you download a file that is labelled with the wrong MIME type. There is no way to identify or delete a bad entry in the list. If this happens you may need to look at the file mimeTypes.rdf  in your Firefox profile.

Adding a download action

See #Adding download actions.




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