Turning of mac completely

[#1]

I started using a mac about 1 year ago although I still use a windows PC as well.  I leave the mac on 24hrs per day (obviously I have it so it powers down when not in use)  I switch it off completely if I go away for a few days etc but am wondering whether it might be better to completely shut it down at the end of each day to conserve energy.  I know that when I do close it down completely I have to reinstall firefox and thunderbird from the installation progs which are on my desktop so if the answer is yes close it down every night is there someway of leaving firefox and thunderbird still available or not.
Gordon

[#2]

I leave my Mac Mini on 24/7 so probably not the best person to respond regarding power downs
Have you installed the applications or are you running them from the desktop?
Best way I can think of to check is do they appear in your applications folder which can be found in the left hand nav bar in finder?
I have firefox installed and never have to reinstall it.

[#3]

Regarding the question of whether to keep it on all the time or not, the best place to look for advice about this is actually the little user guide that comes with a Mac. There'll be a couple of sentences about when to leave it on and when to turn it off. For example, the instructions for my MacBook Pro state:

Quote

If you’ll be away from your MacBook Pro for only a short time, put it to sleep. [...] If you aren’t going to use your MacBook Pro for a couple of days or longer, it’s best to shut it down.

[#4]

Thank you both that was very helpful
best wishes
Gordon

[#5]

It sounds as though you're running Firefox and thunderbird from the disk image (.dmg file) that you downloaded from the internet. You need to actually copy the applications across from the disk image and put them in your "Applications" folder and run them from there, not from the disk image. When you shut down a Mac, any mounted disk images will be unmounted, so this suggests that's what you're doing.
Most Mac software is distributed as .dmg files, they're disk images which when double-clicked will open a volume on the desktop. In most cases, you simply need to drag and drop the application over to your Mac's "Applications" folder to install them. Sometimes, a disk image can contain an installer (.pkg) file, but the vast majority of stuff is just drag and drop (unless it needs to install stuff into the system folders).

[#6]

If you are going to switch off regularly, you can have Firefox (and any other programmes) open automatically when you start up.
Open System Preferences > Accounts > YourName Admin, and then click on Login Items. Click the + button and add any programme from the Applications folder.
To save worrying about times, you can set the computer to come on before you get up and go off when you like, to save energy.
System Preferences > Energy Saver, Options.

[#7]

Thank you very much that was very helpful sorry for late reply but i have been very busy