Disabling Common Annoyances

• What is “annoyance blocking”?
• Blocking pop-up windows
• Blocking web advertising
• Stopping animated images
• Disabling blinking elements
• Disabling JavaScript
• Disabling Java applets
• Disabling plug-ins
• Blocking Flash animations
• Advanced Features

 

What is “annoyance blocking”?

Camino includes the ability to block or disable common “features” of web pages that many people find annoying, including pop-up windows, JavaScript window manipulation, and banner advertising.

Blocking pop-up windows

By default, Camino blocks annoying pop-up windows that interrupt your web browsing. To disable this feature, choose Preferences… from the Camino application menu and open the Web Features preference pane. Click to un-check the box next to Block pop-up windows to allow all pages to displaying pop-up windows.

When Camino blocks a pop-up window, a bar will appear at the top of the web page. The bar contains a number of options for dealing with pop-ups that a page wants to display. Allow Once shows the pop-up(s) from the page for this visit but will block the pop-ups when you visit the page again. Always Allow shows the pop-up(s) from the page and adds the site to the Pop-up Exceptions List so that pop-ups will be shown automatically the next time you visit the page. Never Allow also adds the site to the Pop-up Exceptions List, but tells Camino never to show pop-ups when visiting the website in the future. If you do not want to see the pop-up this time and wish to continue browsing, simply click on the pop-up blocker’s close button. If you change your mind about a site, you can change its setting manually in the Pop-up Exceptions List.

Camino includes an exceptions list for pop-up windows; you can use this list to automatically allow certain sites to display pop-ups or prevent certain sites from displaying pop-ups without showing the pop-up blocker bar first. To add or remove sites from the Pop-up Exceptions List or to change the settings of sites added to the exceptions list by the pop-up blocker, open the Web Features preference pane and click on the Edit Pop-up Exceptions List… button.

Blocking web advertising

Camino can also hide many banner ads and other forms of web advertising from web pages. To enable this feature, choose Preferences… from the Camino application menu and open the Web Features preference pane. Click the check-box next to Block web advertising.

Due to the way some sites are designed, this feature may break the layout of some web pages. If a page looks broken and you have this feature enabled, simply open the Web Features preference pane, un-check the box next to Block web advertising. If Camino’s web advertising blocker was the cause of the problem, the page should now appear as the author intended. When you are done visiting that site, simply re-enable the feature and Camino will once again block most ads.

If a site you visit often is broken by Camino’s web advertising blocker, or if you wish to block ads that Camino’s blocker does not catch, Camino 2.1 includes the ability to override or supplement the built-in ad-blocking rules. If you understand CSS rules, you can edit the user_ad_blocking.css file in the chrome folder of your user profile (~/Library/Application Support/Camino) to add new ad-blocking rules. Then un-check the box next to Block web advertising and check the box again to re-enable Camino’s ad-blocking with your new rules included.

Stopping animated images

Camino includes the ability to make animated images only play one time instead of displaying the animation continually. To enable this feature, click the check-box next to Play animated images only once in the Content Control section of Camino’s Web Features preference pane.

Disabling blinking elements

For instructions on disabling blinking text, see the Hidden Preferences page.

Disabling JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to dynamically generate web content, interact with the user, and manipulate browser windows and their contents. Camino provides you the ability to disable only common JavaScript annoyances or the completely disable JavaScript. To prevent web pages from changing, moving, or resizing windows, simply check the box for this preference in the Web Features pane of Camino’s preferences. If you wish to disable JavaScript entirely, remove the check mark from the box for Enable JavaScript in the Content Control section of that preference pane. Be aware that disabling JavaScript may break many websites; if a website does not work correctly, simply check the box and reload the page to try again with JavaScript enabled.

Disabling Java applets

Java is a technology used to deliver small applications (“applets”) to users via web pages; these applets can perform many functions, such as offering a “live chat” with a company’s technical support staff or uploading pictures to a website. Beginning in Camino 2.1, Java is disabled by default. (If you wish to enable support for Java in Camino, check the box for Enable Java in the Content Control section of Camino’s Web Features preference pane.)

Disabling plug-ins

Some users like to browse without plug-ins (such as QuickTime, Flash, or RealPlayer) enabled and only turn on plug-ins when wanting to see plug-in content. For instructions on disabling either all plug-ins or specific plug-ins, see the Hidden Preferences page.

Blocking Flash animations

Flash is a common animation format used on many websites, both for legitimate content and also for advertisements. Camino supports “blocking” Flash animations by preventing them from playing until a user clicks on the animation. When this feature is enabled, all Flash animations will be replaced with a placeholder image; to play a particular animation, simply click on the placeholder image.

If you wish to enable this feature, check the box for Block Flash animations in the Content Control section of Camino’s Web Features preference pane. Note: In order to block Flash animations, JavaScript must be enabled and you must not have activated the hidden preference to disable plug-ins.

Disabling Flash-blocking on certain websites

There may be certain sites you visit often that make legitimate use of Flash animations. Rather than disabling Flash-blocking in the preferences before loading those websites and turning it back on when leaving the websites, you might wish to have blocking disabled automatically whenever you vist those sites.

If you are currently on a site with a blocked Flash animation, ctrl-click on the blocked animation and choose Allow Flash From This Site from the context menu to add the site to the Flash Exceptions List and reload the page with Flash animations unblocked.

To add a site to the Flash Exceptions List manually, choose Preferences… from the Camino application menu and open the Web Features preference pane. Click on the Edit Pop-up Exceptions List… button, enter a site name (for instance, adobe.com) in the text field and then click the Add button.

Note: If you have previously used rules in userContent.css to unblock Flash animations on certain websites, you should remove those rules from userContent.css and restart Camino in order for the Flash Exceptions List to work properly.

Camino’s support for blocking Flash animations is based on code from the Flashblock project.

Advanced Features

Like other browsers based on the Gecko rendering engine, Camino also supports many advanced features which can be used to disable common annoyances on web pages.

Customizing the appearance of websites

For example, authors of web pages sometimes make color or font size choices that make it hard for users to read those pages. While you could adjust the font size through Camino’s preferences or using the items in the View menu, doing so repeatedly may be annoying. You can also hide additional web advertising that Camino’s own blocker does not catch.

Simply create a plain-text file called userContent.css in the chrome folder of your user profile (~/Library/Application Support/Camino), if you do not have one already, and add CSS rules to customize the appearance of websites. For more information on userContent.css, including sample rules, see mozilla.org’s Customizing Mozilla page.