Fast Dial FAQs

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FD FAQ's [ Page v0.9 ]

1. I open a new tab and see a blank page instead of Fast Dial.
- Probably you're using a TabMixPlus or a similar addon. Set it to open "about:newtab" page in new tabs and Fast Dial would open.

2. There was a folders submenu under context menu "Add to Fast Dial". Where has it gone?
- Open Fast Dial preferences, look at the bottom, there's "Add to Fast Dial" option with values "Home", "Folders" and "None". Select "Folders" if you like to be asked for a folder when adding a new site through the context menu.

3. My Fast Dial data is lost. How to recover it?
- This might have happened if you're using a Nightly Firefox version. It's known to reset profile data (along with Fast Dial bookmarks) sometimes.
- You can try to restore bookmarks, by going to Firefox menu Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks. A Library window opens. Then use the menu Import and Backup there.

4. How to remove rounded corners on a thumbnail?
- Go to Fast Dial Preferences, choose Appearance tab, then choose Thumbnail tab.
- Set Round value to zero.

5. How to assign a logo to a dial?
- Go to http://www.userlogos.org/logos, type something into the Search textbox and click Search.
- Choose the logo you like and click on it to open.
- Once logo is displayed in full size, right-click on it and choose "Copy image location..." from the context menu.
- Go to Fast Dial page, right-click on a dial and choose "Properties" from the context menu. Properties dialog opens.
- Select "Advanced" tab and paste copied link into the Logo textbox. Click OK to close Properties dialog and save your changes.

6. What is Preview checkbox for?
- In Properties dialog on Advanced tab there's a Preview checkbox. Check it if you want to peek to a site the chosen thumbnail links to.
- Once you have done this, a Preview menu item appears in the dial's context menu. Choose the item to peek. Click when you're done.

7. How to synchronize Fast Dial data?
- Unfortunately, there's no synchronizer to synchronize Fast Dial data. Fast Dial keeps its data (thumbnail order, logo, etc.) as custom annotations to bookmarks, however currently synchronizers just ignore it. So if you arranged to synchronize your bookmarks, you'll have to copy-paste logo URLs manually.

8. How can I hide thumbnail titles completely?
- You might have noticed, that if you set thumbnail titles to hide in Fast Dial, titles still occupy some space on the screen, though being invisible.
- You can solve this problem using Stylish addon. Install the addon from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/stylish/.
- Go to the Styles tab.
- Click to create a new style.
- Set style name to be "Fast Dial: no titles".
- set content of the style to be:

@-moz-document url-prefix(chrome://fastdial/content/fastdial.html) {
.title {
display: none;
}
.body, .background {
bottom: 0px;
}
}

- save the style and open Fast Dial page to test. You're done.

9. Can't find a solution in the FAQ. Something isn't working.
- Check browser console for errors. Open Firefox menu > Developer > Browser console. Then perform the action you were trying to do (for example, open Fast Dial page), and then go back to console to see what errors appear there. Report these errors here on forum, or write email to telega at gmail.com.

Using an older version of FD?

All FD Documentation pertaining to older versions are available in the Archive.

Advanced Configurations FAQ - n/a

Frequently Asked Questions about Advanced Configurations of Fast Dial.

Basic Functions FAQ (in progress)

This item is in an early stage of development

Will be completed when Basic Functions Items are all done.

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From Telega's home page
To integrate into list

You can change thumbnail's position by drag-n-dropping it. (Hold Ctrl while dragging to move thumbnail into a group.)
Left click on a thumbnail title opens "Properties" dialog. Middle click on thumbnail title runs thumbnail refresh.
Alt+number keyboard shortcut opens assigned site.
If you move mouse over thumbnail's top, a panel of graphic buttons appears.
To view zoomed image press left mouse button and hold it for a moment.
You can customize Fast Dial page colors & font in Preferences.
You can create nested pages of thumbnails by checking "Group" checkbox in thumbnail properties.
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From Telega's FAQ
To integrate into list where appropriate.

FAQ

1. Thumbnails quality is too low.

Open Fast Dial preferences: right-click any thumb and choose "Fast Dial > Preferences" from the context menu. See that thumbnail "Scale method" is set to "default", which is known to produce low quality thumbs on FF 2.x. Set scale method either to Java (if you have Java plugin installed), or to Userlogos.org (in that case page snapshots will be uploaded to server for scaling) - any of these methods produces good results. Also on FF 2.x thumbnails look better if "Fixed" thumbnail size is specified in preferences. Or you can switch to FF 3.x (or SeaMonkey 2.x) which produces good quality thumbs using default scale method.
2. I have installed Fast Dial, but can't find it. Where is it?

Fast Dial (FD) is automatically shown in blank ("about:blank") pages, so you can open it in one of the following ways:
* Press Ctrl+T to open FD in a new tab
* Place FD toolbal button on the toolbar. Left click the button to open FD in a current tab, middle click to open FD in a new tab.
* Close all tabs. FD will be displayed in the last tab standing.
* Make "about:blank" your home page, thus FD will be displayed on browser startup

3. I'm changing Font in FD preferences, but the font of the thumbnail titles doesn't change. Why?

Open FireFox "Tools > Options" menu, select "Content" tab, click "Advanced" button in the "Fonts & Colors" groupbox - a "Fonts" window will appear. Check "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above" checkbox.
4. Something isn't working, what should I do?

Please collect information about browser error messages:
* Enter "about:config" in the browser's address bar. A page with a "Filter" input field and a list of preferences appears. Enter "javascript.options.showInConsole" into the "Filter" field, single line will be displayed. If column "Value" contains "false" then right-click the line and choose "Toggle" from the context menu, so that value becomes "true".
* Open FF Tools > Error console menu. An error console window appears. Click "Clear" button there.
* Now do what you were doing to reproduce the error.
* Go back to Error console window and see if there're new messages.

Send these messages along with the problem description to the author through forum, blog or email. This will help to solve the problem.

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n1)How can I set up Fast dial so that it opens when I start Firefox

n2)Can I make Fast Dial my Home Page

3) I have set Fast Dial as my home page but I cannot see it when starting FF

Basic Questions
Q1) I see a Fast Dial Icon on the toolbar in your picture, I have loaded FastDial, but I can not see the Icon. What should I do ?
A1) If you right click on the Toolbar, you will see the option "Customise". Click on Customise and then drag and drop the FastDial Icon which you will find there to the Toolbar.

Q2)What is the purpose of the FastDial Icon ?
A2)The FastDial Icon is very useful if you find that the FastDial Tab has been overwritten. Click on the Icon and you will have again a FastDial Tab.

Q3)How do I move a cell on a page ?
A3)You can move a cell by dragging it with the mouse. If you move a cell to where there is already another cell, the two cells will swap places.
If you wish to move a cell to a group which is one the same page, then hold down CTRL on the keyboard and with the cursor drop the cell onto the Group cell.
If you wish to move a cell "backwards" towards the parent page of the page you are onl, then simply drag the cell to the top left cell on the page (where there is white arrow) and drop it. It will disappear from the page you are on, but will be found on the parent page.

Q4) How do I set a background ?
A4)There are two forms of background. You can have a color which can set in the Preferences page (right click) by altering the color for the Page, by right clicking on the color box and choosing a color. This will give you the same coloured background for all pages of FastDial.
If you wish to have an image as a background instead of a color, go to the Preferences/Appearance page (right click), go to the Background option and then browse for a suitable image. The image will the overwrite the background color.

Q5) How do I make a group ?
A5)There are two answers to this.
a) If you have a blank cell that you can see, then right click on it, go to Properties and then click the cell marked Group. That will make the cell into a group. You do not need to fill the Custom Image line if you do not want an image on the cell, but the option is there if you want it.
b)If the page you are working on has no visible cells, then right click on the page and select Add. This will open the Properties page and you can proceed as above.

Q6)How do I delete a cell ?
A6)Right click on the cell and go to clear. Be careful with this command, for if the cell has a group attached to it, the group will also be deleted.

Q7) Is there a way that I can remove from view any cells that I am not using ?
A7) Yes go to Preferences/General Page and unclick the Show/Empty Cells box.
Then only used cells will be visble.
Conversely if you want to see all the empty cells on a page click the Show/Empty Cells box.

Q8) How do I alter the colours of a cell?
A8) Got the Preferences/Appearance page and there you can chose different colours by right clicking on the colour box and choosing a color for the different parts of the cell. This is a global setting and will affect every cell in FastDial.

Q9) Is there a way I can make any part of the cell transparent ?
A9) Yes instead of clicking on the color box and choosing a color, you will need to write in the word "transparent" into the small box to the left of the color box. This can be done for the different parts of the cell.

Q10) Is there any way I can alter the display of the Title of a cell which I have entered in the Properties setting.
A10) Yes go to the Preferences/Appearance page and there you can edit both the Font type, the Font size and the Font color.

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xx)How do I make a new Profile in Firefox

xx)How do I move the Fast Dial from one Profile to another

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Troubleshooting FAQ - n/a

Frequently Asked Questions when troubleshooting Fast Dial.