The Browser screen
The Browser screen is a web browser inside NeoDownloader. Use it to make a project from the page you are reading, without copying the address, and to sign in to sites before a run. A site you sign in to here stays signed in here.
Where it is
Browser is the second item in the bar on the left, under Projects. Going to another screen closes nothing: the tabs wait as you left them.
Make a project from a page
Name and folder
The World from Space
Download, to the right of the address bar, makes a project from the page in the open tab; its tooltip says New project from this page. It opens the New project wizard with the tab's address filled in. On an empty tab it is grey.
When the project is created, you stay on the page. Project created: … appears beside the address bar, with Open, which takes you to the project. It goes by itself after 12 seconds, or with its cross. Projects in the bar counts the projects you have not opened yet; see The project card.
To make a project from a link without opening it, right-click the link and choose New project from link…, the line with NeoDownloader's mark. The same wizard opens with the link's address.
On some sites Crawler shows you the page before a run. On Google Images, for one, that is so you can narrow the search. A project made with Download skips this, because you have just seen the page. If you change the address in the wizard or tick This site needs me to sign in first, the page opens as usual, and so it does for New project from link…. A run that needs you for something else, such as a sign-in, asks in a window over this screen.
Sign in to a site
Sign in to a site in a tab as you would in any browser. The sign-in is kept in NeoDownloader's own browser, and it is still there after a restart. Your other browsers do not see it, and NeoDownloader does not see theirs.
A site that signs you in through Google or another account opens that page in a window of NeoDownloader, not in your default browser. A page can open a window only after your click.
Runs share these sign-ins, by the rules in Signing in to a site. What a run downloads under your account counts as your activity: see What can happen to your account.
Tabs
A tab shows the site's icon, the page's title and a cross. While the page loads, a ring takes the icon's place.
- New tab, the + after the last tab, opens an empty tab.
- Click a tab to open it, and drag it along the row to move it.
- The cross or the middle mouse button closes a tab. The tab to its right opens in its place, or the tab to its left if it was the last in the row. Closing the only tab leaves an empty one.
- Right-click a tab for Reload, Mute site and Close tab.
A link that opens a new tab puts it right beside its page. Ctrl + click or the middle button on a link opens the tab behind the one you are reading, and several such tabs line up in the order you opened them.
When the row is full, tabs narrow down to an icon and a cross, and after that the row scrolls sideways. The list of open tabs finds a tab that is out of sight.
After a restart
When NeoDownloader starts again, after an update or a crash too, your tabs come back in the same order, with the same tab open. The open tab loads at once, and each of the others loads the first time you open it. A restored tab has its address and title, but no Back and Forward history.
The address bar
Back, Forward and Reload are to the left of the bar. While a page loads, Reload turns into Stop loading.
The bar shows the open tab's address. Click it, type and press Enter:
| What you type | What happens |
|---|---|
An address, such as example.com/gallery |
The tab goes there. An address with no https:// gets it. |
localhost, or an IP address such as 192.168.1.10 |
The tab goes there over http://. |
| Words, or one word with no dot in it | Google searches for them in this tab. |
Any other kind of address, such as file:///C:/ |
Nothing opens, and the bar says Only web addresses open here. |
The bar makes no suggestions, so what you type stays on your computer until you press Enter. The search engine cannot be changed. Esc or a click elsewhere puts the tab's address back.
The right-click menu
| Right-click on | What the menu offers |
|---|---|
| a link | Open link in new tab, New project from link…, Copy link address, Open link in default browser |
| a picture | Open image in new tab, Copy image address |
| selected text | Copy |
| a field | Cut, Copy, Paste, Select all |
| anywhere else on the page | Back, Forward, Reload, Open page in default browser |
A picture that is also a link offers both sets of lines. Open link in new tab and Open image in new tab open the tab behind the one you are reading.
A file you download from a page
When a link leads to a file, such as an archive or a PDF, NeoDownloader saves it into your download folder without asking. No project is made, and the file lands in the folder itself, with no subfolder. Which folder that is: see Where files are downloaded.
A notice beside the address bar follows the file:
- Downloading: …, with a bar when the site gave the file's size;
- Downloaded: …, with Show in folder;
- Not downloaded: …, when the file did not arrive.
The notice shows the newest file. It goes 12 seconds after the file ends, or with its cross. There is no list of downloads: what arrived is in the folder.
A file already in the folder is not overwritten: a second report.pdf becomes report (1).pdf. NeoDownloader does not start the file for you, so Show in folder is the way to it. A tab or window that a page opened only for the file closes by itself.
One click downloads one file. A page may also start one file by itself, as file hosts do a few seconds after they open. Anything more without a click is refused, and the notice says The page tried to download more files.
Shortcuts on a new tab
An empty tab shows shortcuts to sites. At first they are sites NeoDownloader downloads from, such as Google Images, Instagram, Reddit and Pinterest.
- Click a shortcut to open the site in this tab. Ctrl + click or the middle button opens it in a tab behind.
- Add shortcut asks for a Name and a URL. Without a name, the tile shows the site's address. Done waits for a web address, and anything else in the field gets Type a web address.
- Point at a shortcut for its ⋮ menu, or right-click it: Edit shortcut and Remove. After Remove, Shortcut removed offers Undo for 10 seconds.
- Drag a shortcut to put it in another place.
A shortcut you removed does not come back by itself. A site that gives no icon gets its first letter.
Find in the page
Ctrl + F opens a bar over the page. So does Find in page in the ⋮ menu at the end of the row, which for now holds that one line. Type, and the bar counts the matches: 3 of 12, or No matches.
- Enter or F3 goes to the next match, and the same key with Shift to the one before. The arrows in the bar do the same.
- Ctrl + Enter closes the bar and follows the link under the match.
- Esc closes the bar and leaves the match selected.
The bar also closes when you open another tab or a new page opens in this one. It keeps your text for the next time.
Why a page did not open
When a page cannot be shown, a strip over it says why:
| The strip says | What it means |
|---|---|
| … was not found. Check the address. | No site answers to that name. Look for a typing mistake. |
| No internet connection. | Check your connection. |
| Could not connect to …. | The site is there, but the connection failed. |
| … took too long to answer. | The site did not respond in time. |
| … was not opened: its security certificate is not valid. | NeoDownloader offers no way past this. If you trust the site, Open in default browser opens the address in your usual browser. |
| A secure connection to … could not be made. | The encrypted connection failed. |
| The page could not be loaded. | Something else went wrong. |
| This page stopped working. | The page crashed. |
| This page is not responding. | The page hangs. |
Try again loads the address again. The last two offer Reload, which does the same for a page that stopped. Beside most of the sentences, in small type, is the error's own name, such as ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED, for looking it up or for telling support. The strip goes when the tab starts loading a new page.
The list of open tabs
The ⌄ button before the first tab, or Ctrl + Shift + A, opens Search tabs. The list under Open tabs starts with the open tab, then the others by when you last looked at them, then the restored tabs you have not opened yet. Each line has the tab's name, its address in short and how long ago you looked at it.
Type to narrow the list by name or address; No tabs found means nothing matches. The arrow keys move through the list, and Enter or a click opens a tab. The cross on a line closes that tab and leaves the list open. Esc closes the list.
Sound
A tab that plays sound shows a speaker between its title and its cross; on a narrow tab the speaker takes the icon's place. The speaker is only a sign. Its tooltip says Audio playing.
To silence a site, right-click its tab and choose Mute site. All the site's tabs go quiet, and so does any tab that goes to it later. NeoDownloader remembers this after a restart. A page that keeps playing shows a crossed-out speaker and Audio muted. Unmute site brings the sound back. On an empty tab the line is grey.
A tab opened behind another one and a restored tab make no sound until you click on the page.
Where addresses open
Open in browser in a project's ⋯ menu and in a file's menu, and the globe beside an address on the Properties tab, open the address in a new tab at the end of the row and take you to this screen. Projects in the bar takes you back to where you were.
To send these addresses to your default browser instead, turn off Open web addresses in the program's browser in Settings… → Program → General.
Open in default browser, the button before the ⋮ at the end of the row, opens the page you are reading in your default browser. It knows only the sign-ins of that browser.
Help, Upgrade to Premium and NeoDownloader's other links to our site always open in your default browser.
A page that asks before you leave
A page where you started filling in a form can ask to be kept. NeoDownloader then asks Leave site?, or Reload site? on a reload, and says Changes you made may not be saved. Cancel keeps the page, and Leave or Reload goes on. Closing such a tab asks too.
Keys
The keys of this screen are listed in Keyboard shortcuts. On a Mac, press Cmd wherever this page says Ctrl.
What it does not have
The screen keeps no history and no passwords, and it takes no extensions. A closed tab cannot be brought back. A site that asks for your camera, your microphone or your location is refused. A video player's own full-screen button works, and Esc leaves full screen.