VicLovan.com – Firefox Add-ons! (original page)

Firefox Add-ons!

This page will be just for all of the add-ons that make Firefox the customizable wonder that it is. “Add-ons are small pieces of software that can add new features or tiny tweaks to your Firefox. They can add new search engines or dictionaries in other languages, change the look of Firefox with a new theme, or much more”. I’ve already listed several that I use on every Firefox browser that I install on the “How To” page. And the ones that are going to be listed here are more of the advanced variety. I will give a word of caution that the more you do add on, the slower Firefox will be to start up, because it checks for updates for all of them before it opens, and the greater risk that some of them won’t ‘play well together’. That being said, if some of them aren’t compatible, then you can just uninstall or disable them. For instance, you can’t use both, Mouse Gestures and All-In-One Gestures at the same time. In that case which ever one is installed last will take over, For the most part, I’ll focus on the Extensions, but there are a couple of Themes that may make the switch from IE to Firefox a little less traumatic for some of you and your clients and users.

Please feel free to email to let me know of the Add-ons that you can’t live without.

There are several types of add-ons. The following is from the Firefox website.

Extensions Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox, from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow you to customize Firefox to fit your own needs and preferences, while letting us keep Firefox itself light and lean.

Themes Themes are like new clothes for your Firefox. A theme can change only a few colors, or every piece of Firefox’s appearance. It’s another great way to personalize Firefox to your tastes.

Dictionaries These dictionaries work with the spell-checking feature in Firefox.

Search Engines Add these search engines to the Search Bar in the upper-right corner of Firefox, for quick access to your favorite search sites.

Plugins Plugins help your browser perform specific tasks like viewing special graphic formats or playing multimedia files. Plugins are slightly different from extensions, which modify or add to existing functionality.

Download Statusbar – This is one of my favorites and takes a couple of downloads to figure out. It’s not hard, it’s just different since the download manager won’t open automatically. I also think it helps start the download quicker.

View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

Despite its compact size, Download Statusbar packs in more useful features than the standard download window. The fully customizable interface auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.

ChatZilla – This one is particularly useful if you are using a flavor of Linux and don’t want to fool around with installing an IRC chat client. It works just fine in Windows too, but for my own Windows chatting I use Pidgin(again, see the How To page).

Firefox Companion for eBay – eBay users this one is just for you.

DownThemAll! – This is another one of my favorites.

The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!

DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time!

DownThemAll is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want!

DownThemAll is absolutely freeware and open-source. No Adware, no Spyware.

For more information,
http://www.downthemall.net/howto/features/

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) – Backup Firefox with this one. FEBE backs up your extensions, themes, and (optionally) your bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and just about everything else Firefox offers (it can even backup/restore your entire profile).

Gmail Manager – Here’s another one that takes some playing around with. This is a very handy tool if you’ve got multiple Gmail accounts (and who doesn’t?), and you aren’t having one main account retrieve the mail from the others or have the others forward all their mail to that main one (like I do). Here’s the first clue, it shows up in the lower right corner of Firefox, right click once to see the status of all your accounts. Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.

ReloadEvery – ReloadEvery reloads web pages every so many seconds or minutes. The function is accessible via the context menu (menu you get when you right click on a web page) or via a drop down menu on the reload button. This is helpful if you are on a message board and watching a thread and posts are coming in very fast. With this extension, the pages reload and you won’t miss a post. Some of the IMDB message boards go very fast during a couple of the TV shows I watch and it’s almost like a chat room with this enabled. You could also use it to try to log on to a page like when the Cardinals are selling only a few tickets at a special time. The problems with that would be that you need to stop the ReloadEvery once you see the link you are looking for.

IE View – Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain sites to *always* load in IE. Useful for incompatible pages, or cross-browser testing. This will seem similar to IE Tab but this one will actually go ahead and open IE. I don’t usually install this one on client computers because I don’t want them getting used to using Internet Explorer. At least if they use IE Tab it has the illusion of running with Firefox.

meebo – Don’t want to install any IM client on your computer? That’s just fine, you can use meebo. This is almost as much service as it is program. It works with Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk{Google}, ICQ and Jabber.

Instant messaging across all major IM networks built right into Firefox.

Get a sidebar with all of your buddies visible while you’re browsing. Get visual notifications when your friends IM you. Drag and drop links and images from web pages right onto your friends! There is much more about meebo from their site.

Html Validator – Work Web sites? This one will check for W3C to make sure it’s compliant.

FireShot – Adds the ability to take a screenshot of web page (entire of visible part), edit it, add annotations and save (PNG, JPEG, BMP), copy to clipboard, send to external editor or e-mail it. This one has some reviews that say it crashes the browser (2008.02.06) so if you experience crashes you should disable or uninstall it. If it doesn’t crash, it’s VERY cool for making screen shots. The coolest thing I think it does, is to be able to capture a web page, even the parts that aren’t showing.

Theme – Vista-aero – The most IE7-like theme with Vista Aero style! This theme will ease those IE users out there that are looking for something familiar. This theme is so close in appearance to IE that you’ll probably do a double take just to be sure it isn’t IE.

Flashblock – Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won’t get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on…

Place holder for the next great Add-on!