1.4: Learn and Customize Settings

You can customize Flock's basic browser settings and learn handy tricks to save you time and hassle. Once you've covered these off, you'll also want to explore ways of customizing Flock's unique toolbars and special features in Personalize Flock and My World.

In this section:

• Important: How to Change All Settings
• Change your Home Page
• Specify Flock as Your Default Browser
• Open New Tabs or Windows
• Change the Look of Web Pages
• Block or Allow Popup Windows
• Block or Allow Images
• Enable or Disable Java or Javascript
• Adjust Automatic Update

Important: How to Change All Settings

1. To change a wide variety of settings in Flock, open the Options or Preferences dialog. How you access the dialog depends upon your operating system:
   • If you are using Windows, open the Tools menu and select Options.
   • If you are using Linux, open the Edit menu and select Preferences.
   • If you are using Mac OS, open the Flock menu and select Preferences.
   
2. Click on any of the tabs to access many options for changing Content, Feeds, Privacy or other settings. Detailed help regarding specific settings can be found below and throughout this Reference Guide. Since Flock is built on the Mozilla Firefox browser, you'll also find helpful information at Firefox Help.

Change your Home Page

1. Go to the web page you want opened when you start Flock. For multiple start pages, open all the starting pages you want in tabs.
2. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above).
3. Select the Main tab.
4. Click Use Current Page or Use Current Pages.
5. Now when you start Flock or click the Home button on the Navigation Toolbar, this chosen website opens.
6. To change your home page back to the way it was before, choose Restore to Default or about:myworld and then click OK.

Specify Flock as Your Default Browser

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above) and choose Main.
2. Click to put a checkmark next to Always check to see if Flock is the default browser on startup.

3. Click OK.
4. If you also use other browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, you may need to tell them to stop checking to see if they are the default browser. Consult that browser's help files for information on how to do that.

Open New Tabs or Windows

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above).
2. Click the Tabs tab.

3. Under New pages should be opened in, choose either a new window or a new tab.
4. You may wish to check or uncheck the other options for controlling tab behaviors.
5. Click OK.

Change the Look of Web Pages

1. With Flock open, press the Ctrl and Shift and + (plus) keys together to enlarge or shrink the size of the text you're seeing. Switch the plus sign to a minus sign to shrink the font size. On Mac, press Cmd (Apple key), Shift, and the plus or minus sign together.
2. For a wider array of options for changing the look of content, open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above), and select Content.

3. Click on the arrows to the right of the Default Font field, and choose which font and font size will be used to display web content.
4. Click the Advanced button to open the Fonts dialog where you can set additional font preferences.

5. Once you've created your settings, you may want put a checkmark next to Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above. This means that when a web page's author has made choices about how the page should look, those choices will be preserved. If you un-check this box, all pages will be forced to your font settings.
6. Click the Colors button on the Content dialog to change default color options.

7. Click on the color rectangles to choose from different colors for the various options.

Block or Allow Popup Windows

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above), and select Content.
2. Uncheck the box beside Block popup windows to allow all popup windows. Check the box to block all popup windows.
3. To specify which sites can or cannot launch popup windows in your browser, check the box and click Exceptions to the right of it.

4. In the Exceptions box, enter the web site's address.
5. Click Allow.
6. To remove a web site from the list of allowed sites, highlight it and click Remove Site.
7. To clear the list completely, click Remove All Sites.
8. When you're done, click Close.

Block or Allow Images

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above), and select Content.
2. Check or uncheck the box beside Load Images Automatically.
3. To specify which sites can or cannot load images, click Exceptions.
4. In the Exceptions field, enter the web site's address.
5. Click the particular button to choose whether you want to Block or Allow images from that site.
6. To remove a web site from the list of excepted sites, highlight it and click Remove Site.
7. To clear the list completely, click Remove All Sites.
8. When you are done, click Close.

Enable or Disable Java and Javascript

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above), and select Content.
2. Check or uncheck the box beside Enable Javascript and/or Enable Java. Be cautious when setting these options. Some sites require certain Java or JavaScript functions to be enabled to work properly.
3. To allow or block specific Java or JavaScript functions, click the Advanced button.

4. Check or uncheck the specific features to block.

Adjust Automatic Update

1. Open the Options or Preferences dialog (see above).
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Update tab.
4. Put a checkmark next to the items you want Flock to check for updates. (Most people keep all three checked.)
5. Tell Flock what to do when updates to Flock are found.
   • Ask me what I want to do: Flock asks for your approval before updating something.
   • Automatically download and install the update: Flock updates items without asking you first.
   • Warn me if this will disable extensions or themes: sometimes an update to one extension can disable another. This warning lets you reconsider and postpone such an update.

Continue on to Ensure Your Privacy and Security.

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