click the Change Action button, and then select one of the following options in the window that appears. The first three options, although presented in a slightly different fashion, behave exactly like the Open With and Save to Disk options I discuss earlier, and the cautions apply. Open Them with the Default Application: Instructs Firefox to automatically open all files of the selected type in the program your computer typically uses, as soon as they finish downloading. For example, if you're changing the setting for document files and you have Microsoft Word installed as the default word processor, Firefox automatically opens documents you download in Word. Open Them with This Application: Instructs Firefox to automatically open files of the selected type in a program of your choosing as soon as they finish downloading. When you select this option, Firefox opens a Browse File window so you can find the program you want to use, which is a fairly advanced maneuver. For example, if you're changing the setting for document files and you would rather use WordPerfect to open downloaded documents instead of your system's default word processor, Microsoft Word, you can use, this option to locate the WordPerfect program file. Save Them on My Computer: Instructs Firefox to automatically save files of the selected type to your hard drive as soon as they finish downloading. By default, Firefox saves files to the desktop. You can change the default download location or instruct Firefox to ask you for a location each time you download a file. See the following section for more instructions. Use This Plugin: Instructs Firefox to load files of the selected type using the specified plug-ins. If a plug-in that can handle the file type is available, Firefox displays it automatically. Otherwise, this option is unavailable. See the section "Plugging along with plug-ins," for more information. 7. Click OK to save your changes. 8. Click Close to close the Download Actions window. 9. Click OK to close the Options window. Changing the default download location Firefox allows you to either open or save downloadable files. If you choose to save, you might be surprised to discover that Firefox doesn't ask you where you'd like to save. Because most people tend to save files to a single location, Firefox by passes this step to minimize distractions and save you time. By default, Firefox downloads all files to your computer desktop, where you can access them without having to search through your computer's file system. Some people prefer to disable this behavior because their desktops can quickly get crowded if they're not careful. Others turn it off because sometimes they need to specify a different download location. However, neither of these reasons justifies turning off the feature entirely; instead, you can simplytweak the feature to accommodate each. You can resolve the first problem by changing the default location to a normal folder on your computer, and the second by using the Save Link mechanism to override the default location in the exceptional cases, as I outline in "Overriding default actions with Save Link," later in this chapter. You should turn off the feature entirely only if you want Firefox to ask you where to save each and every file you download. To tweak or disable the default location behavior: 1. 2. Click the Downloads icon at the top of the window. 3. To change the default download location, click the Browse button and select the desired location, and then click OK. To turn off the default download location altogether, select the Ask Me Where to Save Every File option. 4. Click OK to save your changes. Plugging along with plug-ins