Useful Firefox Extensions

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 12 Feb 2007, 09:59

Useful Firefox extensions:-

abcTajpu - Special character inserter menu added to content-sensitive menus of forms. Very useful for users of MacOS (like myself) which doesn't have a Character Map like Windows does AFAIK.

Tabmix Plus - Expands the capabilities of tabbed browsing exponentially.

Foxytunes - Control your music media player from within Firefox. Compatible with a whole range of programs inc. WMP, Winamp, Musicmatch, Itunes (Win & MacOS versions).

BBcodeXtra - BB code inserter menu added to content-sensitive menus of forms. Also can insert HTML and XHTML codes. The former is very useful for web forum freequenters, the latter two are useful to fucktards who use Myspace.

Adblock Plus - Lets you block elements of web pages eg banner adverts. Adblock Plus is more advanced and less bloated/resource hungry than Adblock. You can subscribe to a list of adblock filters maintained on various web sites which are automatically updated periodically.

BugMeNot - Bypass compulsory web registration with the content-sensitive menu of forms. Uses bugmenot.com database.

Fetch Text URL - open selected text URLs as a new tab, in a new window, or in the same tab.

Download Statusbar - "View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar". A lot more convenient than Firefox's download manager window. Hides itself when there are no download sessions going.

IEview Lite - Opens links in an IE window.

IE Tabs - Same as the former except it opens embedded IE sessions within a Firefox tab. Far more resource hungry than former.

OpenBook - customise the Add Bookmark dialogue box. Expand its capabilities significantly.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 12 Feb 2007, 17:51

Back in the day I used a Tab bar extender, however with the recent advantages being made to Firefox I didn't see the need for it anymore... the Fox did what I was looking for...

And I'm guessing BBcodeXtra works best for those using a mouse. For me it's much quicker to just type the tag than to right click, navigate click... Then again, I'm not the biggest mouse fan around - it's too slow

OpenBook is great, and I use it with Bookmarks Synchronizer to upload my bookmarks to my DAV server, thus I have all my new bookmarks waiting for me when I get to work... (unfortunately I tend to forget to close Firefox at home, which is what triggers the up/download procedure).

I also have Bookmark Duplicate Detector, Bookmarks LinkChecker (to verify link status) and Enhanced Bookmark Search which makes it erm easier to search bookmarks... eh?

However I'd also like to mention NextPlease, which gives me a shortcut on the keyboard for automagically going through "next" and "prev" links on forums and search sites... VERY handy.

Of Course, Adblock Plus and Adblock Filterset.G Updater are necessities, and they almost work too darn well... one forum I visit began complaining about ads - and I couldn't understand what they were talking about till I remembered my Adblock'er

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2007, 19:52

And I'm guessing BBcodeXtra works best for those using a mouse. For me it's much quicker to just type the tag than to right click, navigate click... Then again, I'm not the biggest mouse fan around - it's too slow

This sounds useful for those tags you rarely use. I tend to be able to remember IMG, B, I, U, QUOTE, SPOILER. I can't think of any others I could need.

Most decent forums add URL for you.

Thanks for the heads up on IEView Lite and OpenBook. BugMeNot is good but most of the time it doesn't have a username/password in it's DB.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2007, 20:12

Okay mine:

* Adblock Plus
* BugMeNot
* IEView Lite
* CuteMenus - Add icons to menus, worthless but looks pretty
* DictionarySearch - Add a right click "Find at Dictionary.com" link
* ForecastFox - Add a weather mini-toolbar to the top right, just under close/minimise
* Paste and Go - Adds a right click Paste and Go to save you pressing Enter
* ReloadEvery - Adds a right click to automatically reload a page/tabs. I have this disabled most of the time
* Smiley Xtra - A Smiley icon with thousands of smilies to add into forums, it support BB Code
* SpellBound Development - A working version is hard to find, this was really designed for pre-2.0 FF but as FF2.0 doesn't check spellings in search boxes I use this instead. It also has a proper Spelling dialogue box (like Office) too
* Tabbrowser Preferences - The same idea as Tabmix Plus but it's integrated into the normal Options window and thus is less cluttered, not as many options as Tabmix Plus but as the ones I want

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 12 Feb 2007, 21:35

After reading this topic I've started using NextPlease and Mouse Gestures. My others are...

AdBlock Plus:
No explanation needed.

CookieCuller:
Cookie manager. Lets you delete cookies but leave ones you set it to protect.

Clear Private Data:
Lets you use the clear private data tool via the context menu or toolbar button. Because I use a cookie manager I set the tool to leave them.

OpenBook:
Much better version of the standard add bookmark dialog.

FlashGot:
Tool to interface with download managers. Very useful if you use one.

Download Statusbar:
The built in download stuff is rubbish. This gives a nice statusbar and plenty of customisation.

Flat Bookmark Editor:
A bookmark manager/editor. Very good.

Fasterfox:
Lets you tweak the browser via a GUI.

CuteMenus - Crystal SVG:
Nicer menu icons including some for extensions.

Titlebar Tweaks:
Lets you change the window title, or remove it as I do.

Colorful Tabs:
Tabs are alternating colours, adds to usability IMO.

Menu Editor:
Essential as far as I'm concerned. You can edit all the browser and context menus letting you remove stuff you don't need. Really helps to streamline things.

Favicon Picker:
Allows the changing/erasing of favicons.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2007, 22:24

Fasterfox:
Lets you tweak the browser via a GUI.

This caused havoc with my web browsing at work, the pre-fetch option made pages display REALLY erratically.

That Menu Editor one sounds useful.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 12 Feb 2007, 23:07

Pfffffffffffffffff.... so many add-ons... just get AVANT Browser.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2007, 23:19

Yi-Long wrote:Pfffffffffffffffff.... so many add-ons... just get AVANT Browser.

And miss out on all these extensions?

Avant doesn't support extensions so can do a lot less.

Besides it's IE with a bit thrown on top.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 16 Feb 2007, 04:24

I needed to transfer my Firefox profile (extensions and all) onto my new PC and found a useful little utility (not an extension).

MozBackup - can be used with Firefox, Thunderbird (Really, who needs mail clients? POP3 is such old hat; web-based is SO much better.), Netscape, etc.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Feb 2007, 23:35

That sounds useful, however for me:

Personally I just backup my FF profile and FF program folder. I know where to put extensions, bookmarks, search plugins for FF to see them. It's not like I'll be doing it more than once or twice.

I know some people using some kind of toolbar to get the same bookmarks list. My bookmarks rarely change dramatically so I don't bother. When I'm away I upload the bookmarks.htm (it's an HTML file after all) to my web space.

Extensions, I only have 6-8 so just put them on manually on each.

EvaUnit02 wrote:Really, who needs mail clients? POP3 is such old hat; web-based is SO much better

Yeah I love wasting time firing my browser up, logging in, messing around with silly interfaces just to read my e-mail. I open Outlook, click Send/Receive and job done.

You can even configure it to download automatically and as it's in the system tray it's out of the way when I'm not using it.

I use Yahoo and on the move of course I use the browser but at home it's POP3 into Outlook 2003 all the way. The interface for Outlook cannot be compared to Yahoo's attempt. I also use Outlook's calender, which in turns syncs with my "Windows Mobile" Smartphone.

So nice and integrated. Really web browser e-mail and offline program are for two different needs, they're not mutually exclusive.

In short I think offline proper dedicated program, with proper e-mail formatting, storage, address book etc.... is SO much better. AFAIK you can't even set Yahoo e-mails as "High Priority" or tick "Ask for read receipt", that's rubbish.

I've yet to get stuck when an e-mail I want is on my hard disk. I backup my PST regularly.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 17 Feb 2007, 08:33

EvaUnit02 wrote:I needed to transfer my Firefox profile (extensions and all) onto my new PC and found a useful little utility (not an extension).

MozBackup - can be used with Firefox, Thunderbird (Really, who needs mail clients? POP3 is such old hat; web-based is SO much better.), Netscape, etc.

Copy/paste is just as good.

bradavon wrote:AFAIK you can't even set Yahoo e-mails as "High Priority" or tick "Ask for read receipt", that's rubbish.

No it's good. Nobody uses either properly.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 17 Feb 2007, 17:12

Lourdes wrote:No it's good. Nobody uses either properly.

I know I said it was but it doesn't come close to a proper offline e-mail client. I use both and I'm sure many do.

What do you mean by properly? They have a purpose which Yahoo online cannot handle, nor can Hotmail btw.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 20 Jun 2008, 10:57

Oldbar - If you're unhappy with the new visuals of FF3.0's address bar then here's a cosmetic extension that "changes it back" to the classic appearance. This doesn't change its behaviour.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 Jun 2008, 15:18

The new address bar is much better. Why would anyone want to go back?

I cannot believe how quick FF3 loads then renders pages. It's ridiculously fast. It feels like I've upgraded my BB for free

.

My FF3 Extensions:

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/774/59219469xr0.jpg

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 21 Jun 2008, 16:55

bradavon wrote:The new address bar is much better. Why would anyone want to go back?

That's only your opinion, I'm sorry to bruise your ego, but that is not a fact. A lot of people are displeased with the appearance of the Awesome Bar, hence why such an extension like Oldbar exists.

Please remove that image from your post, I'd rather not have visual pollution in my thread. Thanks.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 Jun 2008, 17:15

EvaUnit02 wrote:Please remove that image from your post, I'd rather not have visual pollution in my thread. Thanks.

No, especially when you persist in being so bloody rude. Don't talk such bollocks. I wanted to post an updated list and it's quicker than posting a list.

EvaUnit02 wrote:I'm sorry to bruise your ego, but that it's not a fact.

You really are a condensing git at times. It was only my opinion too

.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 09 Jul 2008, 21:21

The IEView Lite extension is broken in FF3.

When using the "Always open in IE" option whereby a link automatically opens an IE window (instead of pressing the button) it closes the active Firefox tab whether you want to or not and if you only have no tabs open, it close Firefox completely (most annoying).

I e-mailed the author to let him know and he said it's a workaround to hide an even bigger bug. To quote the author:

"That's used to cover an even bigger bug that I've been trying to fix since the day I wrote the thing. If the tab stays open, for some reason, it will launch multiple (sometimes hundreds of) IE windows. Sorry about that."

Thankfully the original IE View (70Kb vs 7Kb, still very small) works perfectly fine and has been updated to support Firefox 3.0:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/35

Sure I'd prefer IE View Lite but frankly 70Kb is still small and I do use the option.

If you only ever click on the "Open in IE" link/button then it won't affect you.