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# Appearance Preferences

This section describes how to use the Appearance preference panel. If you are not already viewing the panel, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Double-click Appearance to expand the list, then click the name for the preferences you want to view.

In this section:

- Appearance
- Content
- Fonts
- Colors
- Spelling

## Appearance Preferences - Appearance

This section describes how to use the Appearance preferences panels. If you're not already viewing one of these panels, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Click the Appearance category.

The Appearance preferences panel allows you to set &brandShortName; startup options and customize the user interface:

- When &brandShortName; starts up, open: Select the components you want to use when you start up &brandShortName;
- Show toolbars as:
  - Pictures and text: Select this to see text underneath each of the toolbar buttons.
  - Pictures only: Select this to show the toolbar buttons only.
  - Text only: Select this to show text buttons only.
- Show Tooltips: Select this if you want to have tooltips appear when the cursor is placed over parts of the &brandShortName; user interface and some websites.
- User Interface Language: This setting allows you to change the language used in the user interface of &brandShortName;. Additional languages can be installed from the &brandShortName; home page. Note: You must restart &brandShortName; for a new language setting to take effect.

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## Appearance Preferences - Content

This section describes how to use the Content preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, click Content. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)

The Content preferences panel allows you to change settings that influence how website and message content appears in &brandShortName;.

- Website Icons:
  - Show website icons: Select this if you want see site-specific icons, if available, in place of the bookmark icon . Website icons are shown to the left of the Location Bar and Browser tabs.
  - Aggressively look for website icons when the page does not define one: If the page itself does not define a website icon, turning on this setting makes &brandShortName; look for a "favicon" on the server and use that instead.
  - Display website icons in bookmarks menu and toolbar:
    - Never show icons for bookmarks: Select this if you only want to see the default icons but not the website's own icon in the bookmarks menu or the personal toolbar.
    - Only when website was loaded recently: Select this to show the website's own icon only if the website has been recently loaded and the icon is currently in the browser's cache.
    - Always load website icons for bookmarks: Select this to always load website icons to be displayed in the bookmarks menu or personal toolbar, even if it's not in the cache.
- Use smooth scrolling: Select this to enable smooth scrolling. Pressing the Page Down key when this is enabled will—instead of an immediate jump—smoothly scroll the content down to the next page.
- Use hardware acceleration when available: Select this to let &brandShortName; use hardware acceleration (if available) to render web sites. If you experience problems with the visual presentation of web content, disabling hardware acceleration may solve the issue.
- Resize large images to fit in the browser window: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to automatically shrink large stand-alone images so they will fit in the browser window. Clicking on the resized image will make it appear at full size.
- Zoom only text instead of full pages: Select this if you want &brandShortName; to only resize text of websites when using the "Zoom" function. If this is not selected, the whole page, including images, will be zoomed.
- Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page: Select this to let &brandShortName; block automatic meta redirection (HTTP-EQUIV=refresh) requests by default. When a redirect is supposed to be executed, a notification bar is shown instead which allows you to permit the redirect on a case-by-case basis.
- Remember zoom levels on a per-site basis: Select this if you want the system to remember the specific zoom level for each website you visit.

Note: See the separate preferences panels for colors, fonts and languages to further customize content appearance and the Privacy & Security section for privacy-related settings that also might influence how content appears to you.

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## Appearance Preferences - Fonts

This section describes how to use the Fonts preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, click Fonts. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)

The Fonts preferences panel allows you to set page font type and size.

Note: Some font styles may not be selectable because the selected language does not have fonts available for that style.

- Fonts for: Choose a language group/script. For instance, to set default fonts for West European languages/script (Latin), choose Western. For Unicode or a language/script not yet in the list, choose Unicode. For more information, including User Defined, see Selecting Character Encodings and Fonts.
  All settings below, except for the checkbox, are stored per language group; each can have its own set of font definitions.
  - Proportional: Select whether proportional text should be serif (like Times Roman) or sans-serif (like Arial). You can also specify what font size you want for proportional text. Proportional text is variable in width, so characters and letters vary in width.
  - Serif: Select a serif font you want to use for web pages.
  - Sans-serif: Select a sans-serif font you want to use for web pages.
  - Cursive: Select a cursive font you want to use for web pages.
  - Fantasy: Select a fantasy font you want to use for web pages.
  - Monospace: Select a monospace font (like Courier) and size you want to use for web pages. Monospace text is fixed in width, so each character or letter takes the same amount of space.
  - Minimum font size: Select the smallest font size you want to be shown on web pages.
- Allow documents to use other fonts: Select this checkbox to keep a web page's font and size settings instead of your own preferences.

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## Appearance Preferences - Colors

This section describes how to use the Colors preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, click Colors. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)

The Colors preferences panel allows you to set the background and text colors on web pages, mail/news messages, and feeds:

- Text and Background: Click the colored blocks to select a color for displaying text and backgrounds on web pages and messages.
  - Use system colors: Select this to use the colors defined by your system settings (usually the desktop theme) rather than choosing the colors yourself.
- Link Colors: Click the colored blocks to select a color for displaying unvisited, active, and visited links on web pages and messages.
  - Underline links: Select this to display underlined links on web pages and messages.
- When a web page provides its own colors and backgrounds:
  - Always use the colors and background specified by the web page: Allows web pages and messages to choose displayed colors and backgrounds. Your own colors will be used if no colors are defined by the content itself.
  - Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image specified: All content uses your own display colors, ignoring the web page or message colors and any background image.
  - Only ignore the page colors when using a High Contrast theme: Allows web pages and messages to choose displayed colors and backgrounds, unless an accessibility desktop theme is used, in which case your own colors will be used.

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## Appearance Preferences - Spelling

This section describes how to use the Spelling preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the &brandShortName; Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Appearance category, click Spelling. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Appearance to expand the list.)

The Spelling preferences panel allows you to determine how spelling is handled throughout &brandShortName;:

- General:
  - Language: Use the drop-down list to select the language you want to use to check the spelling in your messages or to download more dictionaries.
  - When typing, check my spelling: Use the drop-down list to select if and how your typing is spell checked.
- Mail & Newsgroups:
  - Check spelling before sending: Select this option to have Mail & Newsgroups always check the spelling of your message before you send it.
  - Check spelling as you type: Select this option to have Mail & Newsgroups always check the spelling of your message as you type it.

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