Element Browser Help and Support

Getting Started

Available topics: New to Element? | Installing or uninstalling Element | Customizing settings |
Privacy and security | Keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures

New to Element?

The growth of the internet over the last decade has been phenomenal. In recent times, we find ourselves spending more and more time on the web, with our e-mails, our gaming, our YouTube videos and social networking, plus the rest. In order to cope and keep up with this demand when websites become ever more powerful and complex than they were before, you need a web browser that can stay on top of the pack, welcome to Element Browser.

Element Browser has been engineered so that it's sleek, super-fast, secure, and most importantly, more enjoyable.

Introducing the UI

Figure : Element Browser user interface

The Element Browser user interface is engineered by a team of professional UI experts, with ease of use in mind. The user interface consists of the following elements and features;

1. Element Browser Orb- The Element Browser Orb is the central location for performing tasks and changing settings. It congregates functions into a task oriented menu, which we call the stage.

Figure : Element Browser menu

All features and settings of the browser can be accessed from this main central location. From a starting point, you are presented with your user picture, account, quick links to your account preferences, and your browsing history.

Further options such as Bookmarks, downloads, widgets, macros, social networking, safety, page tools and much more can be found here. Each time an item is clicked, its tasks expand onto the stage and are kept there until you have finished with them.

Figure : Twitter social networking

In this example, we can see our tweets, right from the menu, without even having to leave the page we are viewing. Your tweets continue to be left open, even if you close the menu or switch to another view.

2. Navigation controls - You can type and search for websites straight from the address bar, and navigating to and from websites is a breeze.

3. Page tools - The page tools button allows you to perform tasks quickly in webpages instead of having to dig through menus to find what you want.

4. Personal Hub - The personal hub is a central location that helps you get started on the web. Based on your preferences, by default you have quick access to the webpages you viewed last, get the time, perform quick tasks in Element Browser, and more.

5. Shelves (tabs 2.0) - Shelves are super improved tabs, which show live thumbnails of your tabs that you have open, which allows you to simplify your workflow and switch to the tab you want easier. You can also use Tab Expose to show a full grid of all tabs that you have open. If needed, you can switch to Classic Tabs, which show tabs in textual form, without screenshots.

6. Web Applications Dock (Aka bookmarks bar 2.0)- The web applications dock allows you to pin your favourite websites and apps to the Element Browser interface, and perform quick tasks dynamically within the website you are viewing.

7. Dynamic panes - Panes such as Bookmarks, libraries and history only appear when you want them to, so you can dedicate more screen real-estate to your webpages. They can also automatically hide if you want them to if you've finished with them.

Try things out

-Download a file- When you download a file, the download manager appears. It allows you to organize and view your downloads effectively.

-Go Private - For times when you want to browse without leaving any tracks, use private browsing mode. You can fire up private browsing by selecting the Element Browser orb, Clicking new, and select new private browsing window.

Surf with encryption- Element Browser supports 256bit website encryption and anonymous surfing. Simply clicking new Encrypted session will protect your sensitive information when browsing online.

-Learn a few new shortcuts- key strokes can simplify your workflow:

CTRL + T - Open a new tab
CTRL + O - Open a file
Ctrl + B- Show your bookmarks pane
CTRL + F- find something in a page
CTRL + W - Open a new window

Learn even more

Installing or removing Element

Downloading and installing Element Browser

Element Browser is a free web browser that installs in minutes. It is currently available for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Universal), and Linux distributions based on Debian (Ubuntu, Fedora, and others.)

Due to security concerns, we install Element Browser under separate user accounts, so for each user account you wish to use Element Browser with, you will need to install it individually for each account.

Follow the steps below to install Element Browser in your account:

1. Visit www.elementbrowser.co.uk.

2. On the Quick links section, click Download. By downloading the file from this site, you can be sure that you have the latest version of Element Browser available.

3. The download will automatically appear, based on your file download preferences.

4. Click run or save. Once the download finishes, run the installation package.

5. Follow the on screen instructions provided and Element Browser will install within minutes.

6. Once the installation has finished, double click the Element Browser icon on your desktop or start menu to begin. You will be presented with the Getting Started Prompt. Review settings, and click Finish.

7. Element Browser is now installed on your computer.

System Requirements

For optimal performance, we recommend the following system requirements:

	Windows requirements	Mac requirements	Linux requirements
Operating system	Windows XP Service Pack 3+ Windows Vista Windows 7	Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later	Ubuntu 10.04, Debian 5 or later
Processor	Intel Pentium 4 or later	Universal (Intel or PPC)	Intel Pentium 3 / Athlon 64 or later
Free disk space	60 MB
RAM	128 MB
Graphics Card	128MB WDDM spec (Vista or Windows 7)

Updating Element Browser

Installing updates for Element Browser is easy. When a new update is ready, it will automatically be installed for your depending on your choice. However, if you have turned automatic updates off, use Orb > Safety > Check for updates to download the latest software.

Uninstalling

L We will be sorry to see you go, but if you wish to uninstall, here's how to do it:

1. Click Start.

2. Click Control Panel.

3. Click Add / Remove Programs (Vista users will need to Select Programs > Install or remove)

4. Select Element Browser

5. Click remove. Follow the onscreen instructions provided to uninstall Element Browser.

Customizing Settings

Basics
Accounts and social networking | Theme | Personal hub | Homepage and startup | Search engine

Safety

Content | SafeSurf | Dynamic malware protection | Anti-Phishing | Running a scan | Clearing private data

Advanced

Performance | Tabs | Mouse Gestures | Extensions | Bookmark Sync | Widgets

Basics

Accounts and social networking- Element Browser integrates with your social networking accounts, such as Twitter and MSN. It also has built in support for our Element One Service. To set up your accounts, do the following:

1.Click the Element Browser Orb.
2. Click Settings under your account picture.
3. If you wish to change your account picture, you can do so by clicking the selection of pictures, or choose your own
4. Enter your Twitter account and passwords under the accounts tab
5. Enter your Element one account and password under the account tab
6. Enter your MSN account and password under the account tab.
7. If you are happy with the changes you have made, Click Close.

Theme - Element Browser supports Element Software created themes or user created themes. To install a theme, download its zip file from http://www.elementsoftware.co.uk/elementbrowser/extensions/themes/ to your desktop. Once the zip file is on your desktop, Click Account Settings, Select the theme tab, and click Choose zip. You must enter the name of the Theme in the prompt provided before clicking install. Once you have selected OK, the theme will now be applied.

You can switch back to the default theme by clicking set to default.

Personal hub- You can change what appears on your personal hub by selecting Orb > Settings > Personal Hub.

Homepage and startup - You can change your homepage (Default is Google), from Orb > Settings > and enter the website you wish to set as your homepage. You can also set the personal hub to appear, and you can set Element Browser to restore your last session on startup.

Search Engine- Once you have installed a new Search Engine from the Element Browser extensions gallery, you can change it through Orb > Settings > Search Engine.

Safety

Content- You can define what content you want to appear on webpages, such as Flash, HTML 5 video, JavaScript or Java Applets and more, by simply going to Orb > Settings > Content and checking / unchecking.

SafeSurf- SafeSurf can protect your family from stumbling across unwanted material, or blocking inappropriate websites, using sophisticated filtering technology. To change SafeSurf settings, simply click the Element Browser orb, click Safety, and click SafeSurf settings.

Enable SafeSurf by clicking Enable SafeSurf. Before Closing the settings window, you should set a password. To do this, click Set password, and enter your new password. Keep this password in a safe place, since you won't be able to recover it later. Setting a password will stop other users of Element Browser from turning off SafeSurf if they learn how to, hence restricted sites will stay restricted.

Tip : As a preventative measure, you should also uninstall all other browsers, and set a software restriction policy on Internet Explorer. Do do all this easily, try Element TotalProtect today from Element Software

Dynamic malware protection- Element Browser's unique dynamic malware protection can block malware from running on your computer if it slips through. To turn it on, click Orb > Settings > Enable dynamic protection.

Note : Element Browser blocks spyware only, which does not include Viruses, trojans or rootkits. To get protection against other prevalent malware, download Element TotalProtect today.

Anti-Phishing - Protection against scams is available at all times , subject to service availability and uptime. You can not turn off anti-phishing protection for safety measures.

Running a scan - You can run a scan for spyware at any time by Clicking Orb > Safety > Scan for malware. NOTE: Element Browser does not scan for trojans or rootkits. To get this ability, download Element TotalProtect.

Clearing private data- You can clear your history, cookies and typed addresses by Clicking Orb > Safety > Clear sensitive information.

Advanced

Performance - Element Browser supports hardware accelerated rendering of webpages by utilizing the OpenGL and AniCore graphics frameworks. Hardware acceleration utilizes your graphics card processing power in order to perform this speed up. By default, hardware acceleration is turned off. To enable it, follow these steps

1. Click Element Browser Orb.
2. Click Settings.
3. Under performance, check Enable hardware acceleration.
4. Restart Element Browser for the changes to take effect.

Note : Improvements seen in webpages can only be seen if the graphics card has sufficient power to render the webpages with its processor and memory. You should check that you have at least a 128MB dedicated graphics card with appropriate hardware driver that supports OpenGL 2.0.

Tabs- If you wish to switch to classic tab mode, Click orb > Settings > Tabs > and check Enable Classic Tabs.
If you wish to enable live thumbnails, click Shelf rendering options, and click Enable Live Tabs (this feature requires Windows Vista or Windows 7 with Windows Aero enabled)

Mouse Gestures - You can turn mouse gestures on or off by clicking Orb > Settings > Mouse Gestures > Enable mouse gestures.

Extensions - Extensions installed on Element Browser are managed through the Add/Remove programs in the Windows Control panel. To get more extensions, visit www.elementsoftware.co.uk/elementbrowser/extensions.

Bookmark Sync- You can synchronize your bookmarks between Element One and Element Browser through Orb > Settings > personal > Accounts > Bookmark Sync.

Widgets- Widgets are mini apps that run alongside your Element Browser session. To remove widgets or view information, click Orb > Widgets > Manage widgets. To get more widgets, click Widgets, get more. To run a widget, click on the widget name. Widgets can be obtained from www.elementsoftware.co.uk/elementbrowser/widgets.

Keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures

Complete list of keyboard shortcuts

New Tab- CTRL+T
-New Window - CTRL+W
-New Private Browsing Window- Ctrl+Shift+P
-New Encrypted Browsing Window - CTRL+Shift+E
-View Bookmarks Pane - CTRL + B
-Print- CTRL+P
-Tweet - CTRL+Shift+T
-Show / hide shelfs pane - CTRL + SHIFT + C
-Clear private data - CTRL + SHIFT + W
-Scan for malware - CTRL + SHIFT + S
-Update software - CTRL + SHIFT + U
-Show all open tabs (Tab Expose) - CTRL + R
-Cut - CTRL + X
-Copy - CTRL + C
-Paste - CTRL + V
-Find - CTRL + F
-Save page - CTRL + S
-Full Screen - F11
-Help- F1
Personal Hub- CTRL + SHIFT + H
Open file - CTRL + O

Complete list of mouse gestures

Up - Stop
- Left- Go Back
- Right - Go Forward
- Up Right- New window
-Up Down- Save Page
- Up Left - Print Page
- Down - Refresh Page
- Down Up - Home
- Down Right - New Tab
- Down Left - Minimize Window

Perform mouse gestures by holding down right mouse button, perform gesture in direction then release.

You can also perform quick tasks from Windows 7 Jumplists.

Copyright (C) 2010 Element Software. All Rights Reserved.