One of the coolest features of the Firefox Web browser is its support for extensions -- little programs that enhance Firefox's abilities. This article looks at eight must-have extensions for Firefox
The Firefox Web browser has become a popular alternative to Internet
Explorer. And with good reason. It's fast, secure, highly configurable,
and packs a number of features that Internet Explorer is lacking.
But what makes makes Firefox really stand out is its extensions.
Extensions are little programs that add new features to Firefox, or
that extend existing features. With extensions, you can customize your
Web browser to suit your needs and Web surfing habits.
This article looks at eight extensions that most Firefox users will
definitely find handy. The extensions are small, but they're also
incredibly useful.
The Extensions
Most of these extensions work with the Windows, Linux, and MacOS versions of Firefox. However, some of them require you to have the latest version of Firefox installed.
FoxyTunes
Most people I know like to listen to music while browsing the Web.
But, like me, they find that switching between their media player to
change tracks and their browser can be a real pain. FoxyTunes eases
that pain. FoxyTunes enables you to control your media player using
buttons added to Firefox's status bar. The buttons allow you to play
and change tracks, hide your media player, display information about a
song that's playing, and change the volume.
FoxyTunes works with a number of popular Windows, Linux, and Mac players including iTunes, Real Player, WinAmp, XMMS, and Windows Media Player. Chances are, your favorite audio player is supported.
BlogThis and JustBlogIt
It's amazing how quickly blogging (posting personal or professional
journal entries on the Web) has become popular. Just as personal Web pages exploded in
1996 and 1997, blogs have become medium of choice for Web publishers of
all stripes. While many blog hosting services are online, it can
sometimes be a chore to log into the service and post an entry about
some new Web site that you've found. But BlogThis and JustBlogIt make
the process of blogging easier.
BlogThis works with the popular Blogger hosting service. When you
find a Web site, or item on the Web, that you want to blog about, you
just right click on the page and select BlogThis from the menu that
appears. From there, a small window appears and you log into your
Blogger account. Once logged in, you're presented with the Blogger
editor. You just type your entry, and click Publish.
The concept behind JustBlogIt is the same as for BlogThis. The only
difference is that JustBlogIt works with several blogging services, including
Blogger, LiveJournal, Radio Userland, Movable Type, WordPress, and
TypePad. If you have blogs on more than one service, you can configure
JustBlogIt to allow you to choose the blog that you want to post to.
GoogleBar
Not much needs to be said about Google. It's arguably the most
popular search engine on the Web. While Firefox has a built-in
interface to several search engines, the GoogleBar extension really
expands a Firefox user's range of options for a Google search.
How? In addition to the basic search, you can do several specialty
searches (like news, academic, image, and dictionary searches), and get
instant access to various Google services. Using the navigation buttons
on the GoogleBar, you can move back and forth between search results
without having to return to the Google page containing the results. And
a whole lot more, too.
Copy Plain Text
Have you ever copied some text from a Web page into your word
processor or e-mail client, only to find that the text kept its
original formatting? And, as you quickly discovered, getting rid of
that formatting is a chore. That's where the Copy Plain Text extension
comes in.
As the name suggests, Copy Plain Text strips any formatting from Web
page text. You can even set up the extension so that it removes and
extra space around the text that you've copied. If you do any research
on the Web, then you'll find Copy Plain Text to be a useful and
time-saving extension.
Flash Block
Flash has become a popular way to do Web animation. It's used in
ads, Web site splash pages, and more. But Flash content can also be
really annoying. It can take a while to load, and can be distracting.
Flash Block lets you choose whether or not to view Flash on the Web.
The Flash content is replaced with a button. If you want to see the
Flash animation, just click the button.
Calendar
As you can tell from the name of this extension, it's a calendar that integrates with Firefox. But Calendar doesn't just display a the days of the month in a set of little boxes. Calendar is also great for reminding you of events, or for keeping track of various tasks that you need to do.
Say you have to meet a friend for lunch on a particular Thursday. You can set up an event that contains the time and date in Calendar, and add a note about where you'll be meeting. You can also set an alarm to remind you about the meeting. When you have one or more tasks to carry out, you can track them in Calendar. You set the tasks up in the same way as you would an event. You can also specify how much of the task has been done, and give it a priority.
Sage
Most news Web sites and many blogs have one thing in common: they
have feeds which shoot out the latest headlines and updates. To read
those feeds, you'd normally use a piece of software called an RSS
reader. Not anymore. The Sage extension adds an RSS reader to Firefox.
Sage is pretty much a list of the feeds that you've bookmarked. In fact, the links associated with your feeds appears in your list of Firefox bookmarks. You open and close the list by pressing ALT-S, and you just click Sage's refresh button to get the latest updates to your feeds. Just click on a feed, and the headlines appear in a Firefox window.
FireFTP
If you build Web pages, then you know that you need to use an FTP (file transfer protocol) app to get your files on to your server. Instead of using a separate FTP program, why not try the FireFTP extension?
FireFTP is a great FTP client that opens in its own Firefox window. And it's easy to use. You enter the name of the FTP site you want to access, along with a login name and password. Then, click the Connect button. If all goes well, you're connected to the FTP server.
FireFTP consists of three panes. The two panes on the left side of the window list the folders on your computer, and the contents of the folder you're currently in. The pane on the right list the files and folders on the FTP server to which you're connected. Just select the files you want to transfer, and then click the upload or download button. The buttons are green arrows that point either to your computer or to the FTP server.
Honorable Mention
While the Firefox extensions I've listed above are the ones I most recommend and use, there are a few others which warrant some mention.
PDF Download
The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a popular way to distribute documents. PDFs retain the formatting of the original document, and print quite nicely. But one of the problems with PDFs on the Web is that they an take a long time to open in your browser window, and it can take just as long to get back to the originating page by clicking the Back button.
That's where the PDF Download extension comes in. When you click on the link for a PDF, this extension asks you whether you want to download the file, open it in a new Firefox tab, or have the extension convert the PDF to HTML, and open the resulting file in a new tab.
Cute Menus
In most software, Firefox included, the menus are pretty dull. You click, say, File and all you see is the text of the menu items. Cute Menus, though, brightens up Firefox's menus by adding Windows XP-style icons beside each menu item.
While Cute Menus doesn't do anything that make your Web browsing better, it does make the Firefox interface just that much more attractive. This extension is subtle, but it quickly grows on you.
Quick Note
If you use the Web for research, or if you find that you're frequently jotting down information from Web sites, then Quick Note is for you. It's a little note pad that you can pop up beside Firefox to take down information. And using Quick Notes beats having to flip between Firefox and a word processor or an editor like Notepad. On top of that, you can save your notes as a text file for future use.