What's New in SeaMonkey 1.0 Alpha

This document outlines a few of the new features implemented in SeaMonkey 1.0 Alpha, important bugfixes and any new problems. See the "rough changelog" for a more comprehensive list of 1.0 alpha fixes.

New Features and Fixes

Browser
  • SVG and <canvas> are now supported in official builds (except GTK1)
  • When viewing images, tab icons now display thumbnails of the displayed image.
  • Blazingly fast back - this feature allows much faster session history navigation.
  • Users now have a simple tool for reporting websites that aren't working in SeaMonkey. If installed (Reporter is a custom install option for this release) the tool can be accessed from "Report Broken Website" on the SeaMonkey Help menu.
  • MacOS X: Mozilla Suite disk image now using embedded compression.
  • You can now be notified when a download finishes (this is off by default - to turn it on, choose "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu, go to the "Downloads" pane in the "Navigator" section, and check the box(es) at the bottom.
  • Various bookmarks menus were made middle-clickable.
  • A lot of (Japanese) IME work being done for Windows.
  • Background tabs can no longer set the status bar (part of bug 104532).
  • Drag-slider scrolling now resumes when you drag the mouse back over the slider (bug 282195).
  • [iann] Help viewer's search is now automatic (like bookmarks or about:config) (bug 281563).
  • [bsmedberg] (Windows) -edit startup flag now works if you used the installer (bug 276943).
  • You can now specify actions for mice with alternate/horizontal scrolling (bug 274179).
  • Power users can set preferences that force links that would new windows into tabs (experimental, bug 231984).
  • [CTho] (Windows) You can now set a pref to change backspace to scroll up or do nothing instead of going back (bug 219203).
  • Help viewer's external links now reuse an existing window (bug 226911).
  • [Mano] (BiDi) You can now switch the direction of a page or a text field (bug 279416).
  • Serif/Sans Serif fonts preferences are now per-language (bug 95227).
  • [bz] The JavaScript console now correctly displays long messages in last to first order (bug 126620).
  • Copy Image now copies the pixel data as well as the location (some applications require you to use Paste Special to choose the image). (bug 135300).
Mail
  • [iann] Spell as you type for mailnews (bug 291799).
  • [iann] Implement saved searches for mailnews (bugs 293679, 293682 293691 and 295542).
  • [iann] Add Phishing detection to mailnews (bugs 296758 and 304137).
  • [iann] Ability to switch off autocomplete to my domain (bug 294140).
  • [iann] Implement layout switcher from the view menu (bug 288366).
  • [bienvenu] News message can now be reloaded if it failed due to a temporary network error (bug 107776).
  • [bienvenu] Mozilla Mail can now connect securely to incoming servers that support TLS (bug 60377).
  • [shaver] You can now use one form of WPAD proxy. The advanced manual proxy settings have been moved to their own dialog. You can now use your SOCKS proxy as your DNS server.
  • You can now easily set the delay before mail messages are marked as read (bug 231428).
  • [bienvenu] You can now auto save draft messages (bug 16360/279034).
  • You can now select flagged messages (bug 72823).
  • You can set a hidden preference so that newsgroups are marked read when you finish reading them (bug 99048).
Composer
  • [glazou] You can now easily make the Return key start a new paragraph when composing HTML (bug 92686).
Chatzilla
  • The Chatzilla menu item now appears in the correct place even if you don't install Mail (bug 206803).
Under the Hood
  • Please see release notes for Deer Park here.
  • E4X
  • Bug 280711 brings a fix for displaying long blocks on Windows (excluding Windows 95, 98, ME).
  • Fix for 212034 makes printing long tables behave much better and more consistently (cross-platform).
  • [jshin] Mozilla now recognises web pages created for the Mac (bug 237712).

New Issues

These are items that have been added to the Known Issues page since the last milestone, although the bugs themselves may have existed previously.

General
  • If a tab other than the currently active tab is running Shockwave or a Java applet, navigation (e.g. clicking a link, going back or forward a page in history, or clicking a bookmark) can cause the navigation to occur in the tab that contains the Shockwave or Java instead of the current tab. (Bug 304243)
  • Performing a search with Google may cause the sidebar to be displayed. To prevent this, make sure "Open the Search tab in the Sidebar when search results are avaliable" checkbox (Edit->Preferences, Navigator->Internet Search) is unchecked. (Bug 252802)
  • Setting Mozilla as your default mail client doesn't always work.