the point of downloading a copy of something when you could access it live on the Internet? Admittedly, downloading has its roots in the quainter era of dial-up, when it was much cheaper to save a copy of that picture or song than keep reconnecting to the Internet to access it. Even today, though there are plenty of reasons why you might want to download something: If you're a laptop user, you have access to the file when you're offline and on the road. Some types of media, such as video, play too slowly to enjoy live, even on a high-speed connection. Downloading these files first and playing them on your computer provides a less choppy and more pleasurable experience. If you want to edit a file (for example, suppose you have a team document at work that needs to be available to several coworkers), you should download it first so your changes are saved to your computer while you edit the file. You can later upload the finished version to the Internet. Starting a download How you download a file depends in part on how the Web site from which you're downloading is configured. In most cases, you can simply click a link or button - typically labeled Download. In other cases, the Web site asks you to wait while it begins the download on your behalf. Either way, Firefox displays the window shown in Figure 11-1 so you can decide how to download the file. Figure 11-1: Firefox asks you how to handle a file when you begin downloading it. The text at the top of the window indicates the name of the file you are downloading, as well as what type of file it is. For example, in this case, a family-oriented news advisory document is being downloaded, so the name of the file is NewsAdvisory.doc, and the file type is Microsoft Word Document. Firefox asks you up front what you want to do when the file is finished transferring. You have two options: Select Open with if you want to open the file as soon as it finishes transferring. If you have an application on your computer that handles files of the type you are downloading, Firefox defaults to using it. To change the application that will be used, open the drop-down list next to Open With and select another application if one is available. If one is not available, you can select Other to find one on your computer, which is a fairly advanced feature. Select Save to Disk if you want to save the file directly to your desktop. (You can change the default download location or instruct Firefox to ask you for a location each time; see "Changing the default download location" later in this chapter for instructions.) When the file finishes downloading, you can open it from the Download Manager (see the following section). However, Firefox doesn't open it automatically. When the download begins, Firefox opens the Download Manager so you can track the progress of the download. See the later section "Using the Download Manager" if you want to disable this feature. Furthermore, Windows users are treated to an animated, nonintrusive notification in the bottom-right corner of the screen whenever a download ends, as shown in Figure 11-2. You can click it to open the Download Manager, or you can ignore it, and it will slide back down. Figure 11-2: This little window slides up above the Windows clock each time a download completes. Warning Open with caution When downloading, using the Open With option has a subtle but important consequence that you should understand before selecting it Open With is the option to select when you just want to view the file as quickly as possible and