Question: Whats your favorite firefox extension

My home.. ^ | 2005-11-30 | N3WBI3

[N3WBI3]

Given that the mozilla corporation released FireFox 1.5 today I thought I would ask freepers:

What is your favorite firefox entension and how does it help your experience on FreeRepublic or elsewhere on the internet.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Tough choice, as I use about 11 of them.

But if I had to pick one, it'd have to be RIP (remove it Permanently). With it, I can remove most of the annoying ads and iFrames (though I can't remove all the flash elements unless they're in an iFrame)

Adblock, TabX, IETab (render pages that require IE in FF), and ShowIP also are all useful tools.

[Egon]

Ad Block and ForecastFox.

I agree.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

My new favorite is "BBCode extra".

It makes Freepin' so cool.

[JoJo Gunn]

It's tough to choose between the ad blocker and the Flash blocker.

God, how I loathe Flash.

[RckyRaCoCo]

2 i've been using not available yet for 1.5(as far as I know) are googlebar and spoofstick, but ReloadEvery is(favorite)

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

As a professional web developer, I really love Firefox's WEB DEVELOPER extension.

It adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. In trying to solve the cross-platform delima that web designers face, I found that with so many browsers in popular use today, it's just no longer possible to satisfy them all. So I have decided that "standards based" Web design is the only answer. I am striving to make all my client's sites comply strictly with the standards, thinking that the more we designers do that, the more browsers will have to comply with the WC3 standards, thus solving our cross-platform issues.

This extension helps tremendously as it quickly validates the code on my pages or points out the non-standard errors so I can fix them. I could not do without it!

[Nita Nupress]

Very aggravating though.. I love my precious bookmarks :)

"Aggravating" is the understatement of the year for me. I just lost over a year's worth of bookmarks and, like you, found out this was a known issue with FF. If I'd only known, I would have prevented it.

I tried everything I could find on the Net to get them back, but they'd been overwritten. My computer had gotten the Blue Screen of Death and crashed, but I didn't notice my bookmarks were gone until after I'd defragged my system and done other maintenance. I lost important work links, genealogy links, research-related links, etc., etc.

Extremely irritating. Someone with more time than I needs to start a thread to warn people!

[Nita Nupress]

ping to 27

[Nita Nupress]

ping to 27, just so you know. :-)

[Nita Nupress]

BTW, do you know of an extension that lets you put often-used bookmarks up in your toolbar? I had them set up just like I liked it on my old FF toolbar, but now I can't figure out how I did that. I'm thinking maybe it was from an extension I downloaded.

Do you know if FF lets you do that as a regular feature? If so, I could save a lot of time by stopping my search for an extension.

[Senator Bedfellow]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your request, you don't really need an extension to do that. To get them to show up on your toolbar, just save (or move) the bookmark to the folder labeled "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder". Or you can just drag a link straight from a webpage to the toolbar to bookmark that link - try it :)

[evilC]

Extensions I find useful are:

1. Adblock (as mentioned by many others). When using a non-adblocked browser, I am always surprised at how cluttered some pages are.
   
   
2. Conquery Adds a right click that allows you search on the highlighted text in any of a number of places. I have searches that look for the highlighted acronym, the word in a dictionary, the book on Amazon, or film on IMDB etc. Very useful for when you see something referenced and want to look it up.
   
   
3. Tab Mix Plus For pre 1.5 adds things like tab re-ordering and undo tab close.
   
   
4. Add Bookmark Here Navigate your bookmarks menu to where you would like to add the bookmark and right-click and select Add bookmark here. I find it quicker than the standard method, especially if the bookmark location is deeper in the menu tree.
   
   
5. IE View Right-click and open the current page in Internet Explorer.
   
   
6. Fetch Text URL For web addresses that show up as text and are not a clickable link. Right-click and select "Fetch.."

<disclaimer print-size=small mode=lawyer>
These all relate to 1.07. I am not sure if they work with 1.5. The versions I use may not be the latest and so there might be changes to these extensions that I am not aware of. </disclaimer>

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Bookmarking for later.

[Nita Nupress]

To get them to show up on your toolbar, just save (or move) the bookmark to the folder labeled "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder".

I've tried that over and over but it's not working for some reason.

I'm out of time, but I'll try to come back tonight. If not, it may be a few days. Thanks for your help!!

[Senator Bedfellow]

Oooh, that's interesting - obviously, it should work. Well, it's probably not so much "interesting" as "frustrating" to you, but there you go :)

Are you using the default theme? If not, you might try switching back and restarting the browser.

[Eagle9]

My favorite extensions are AdBlock, NoScript, FasterFox, Image Zoom 0.2.1, Dict 0.6.13, and Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.8.7.

__________________________________________________________

BTW, do you know of an extension that lets you put often-used bookmarks up in your toolbar? I had them set up just like I liked it on my old FF toolbar, but now I can't figure out how I did that. I'm thinking maybe it was from an extension I downloaded.

Thanks for the ping, Nita.

I also like to have my most often-used bookmarks in my toolbar with Copy, Paste, Cut, Print Preview, New Window, and New Tab. I managed to squeeze 18 bookmarks into the uppermost toolbar by putting them in the Bookmarks Toolbar folder and renaming them using only initials that I can recognize. I've done the same for two friends of mine after they had asked how to do it to theirs and I couldn't remember how I had done it the first time. I just do it ... stumble through. I did get theirs arranged the same way, except both wanted a third toolbar for other reasons. I don't know of an extension that goes as far as my arrangement but I do know that I could not do this in the default theme. Instead, I used the Nautipolis 1.0.28 theme, which I've used since the last version of Firebird. Even though the default theme won't allow this particular customization (for me), it will still carry over from Nautipolis to default. Right now, I'm using the Default theme because Nautipolis hasn't been updated for Firefox 1.5. You can see how it carried over to the default theme in the image that I hope will sow up below. It's my first attempt using ImageShack.

I know it sounds ridiculous not knowing how after having successfully customized three toolbars, but it didn't seem that important and I thought I could always stumble through it again when needed. I can't tell you how to do the same, until Nautipolis is updated. It carried over to other themes besides the Default theme and more bookmarks will fit using fewer initials or leaving out Copy, Paste, etc. I'll let you know ...

Now you see why I post tech threads ... to learn by reading replies ...

[Eagle9]

"Aggravating" is the understatement of the year for me. I just lost over a year's worth of bookmarks and, like you, found out this was a known issue with FF. If I'd only known, I would have prevented it.

Did you try running a search in Find: All Files, Named *bookmarks.html in your C drive? Just a shot in the dark. Maybe, after your crash and defrag, the file was somehow jumbled into a different, unrelated Folder. Highly doubtful, if even possible ... but after a crash in Windows ......

[Eagle9]

I was wrong. You can customize the toolbars on the default theme, probably any theme, so that bookmarks are displayed where you want them. The key is to leave the "Customize Toolbar" box open, even if you aren't going to drag and drop anything from it or to it. Like when you right click on the toolbar and choose "Customize", a box with unused Separators, Space, and other buttons or icons opens just below the toolbars. Leave it open and then you can move anything in the toolbars to a different location by dragging and dropping. If you want your address bar in the uppermost toolbar to the right of "Help", move the mouse glove to the left corner of the address bar and drag to where you want and drop. If you miss your target, do the same until you drop it where you want it. This is only an example but it applies to anything in the toolbars. That's how I moved the bookmarks.

You've had problems getting new bookmarks into the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder". I use my existing bookmark to go to that web page, then go to Bookmarks and choose "Bookmark This Page", then "Create in" and choose "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder". Afterwards, go to "Manage Bookmarks", highlight a bookmark and right click, choose "Properties" and then "Rename", using one or two initials. I move the bookmarks that are already in that folder to the "Firefox and Mozilla Links" folder. Then right click in a toolbar and choose "Customize" and leave that box open, even though you don't need it to move the Bookmarks Toolbar. Put the mouse glove on the bookmark that is in the far left corner of the "Bookmarks Toolbar" and drag/drop it where you want it. You must then click "Done" in the bottom right corner of the "Customize Toolbar" box, then the bookmarks will appear where they were dropped. That leaves an empty toolbar, which is the "Bookmarks Toolbar". Right click in it and remove the check-mark from "Bookmarks Toolbar".

Try moving other things around in the toolbars and you'll probably come up with a combination that you like better than what you've had before now.

There's a handy extension that allows you to Resize It ... make it longer or shorter. Oh! That's for the Address Bar or the built-in Google Search Bar.

There's also an extension called Compact Menu that puts all or some of File, Edit, View, Bookmarks, Tools, and Help buttons under one button named "Menu" or a little Shark icon. This gives more room for customizing. I use it now but leave the Bookmarks button out on the toolbar and not in the pull down "Menu".

Regarding your lost Firefox bookmarks, I've always backed mine up by copying that file from my profile and saving it onto a floppy disc. You're right, backing up your bookmarks should have been emphasized more often while Firefox was in the developmental stages. Hopefully it won't be nearly as big of a problem now. I've been lucky and haven't lost mine, even back when it was Firebird.

I hope all this is understandable .........

[Tribune7]

bump

[Nita Nupress]

I hope all this is understandable .........

Are you kidding? It was wonderful! I'm sorry it took so long to get back with you. Last night was the first spare time I've had to visit FR (except to peek at Breaking News), but I was way too tired to concentrate on this.

I just got through spending a couple of hours getting my bookmarks customized again, thanks to all your help. I couldn't have done it without your directions. I've saved the new bookmarks to my desktop and to a jump drive so it won't happen again, I guarantee you! The thing that was so bad about losing them was all the genealogy links I'd collected. Last summer I spent a few weeks on it and had loads of relevant web pages bookmarked. Stupid me; I hadn't saved them anywhere except in the bookmarks, so I'll have to do it all over again one day. I don't even want to think about it anymore, as I'm just getting p.o.'d all over again. (GRRRR..!)

I have a question about those extensions you linked.  Really, it's just about extensions in general. What happens when FF updates their software? Do the extensions still work, or do you have to remember where to go to update the extensions separately? (assuming the creators of the extensions have updated, too). Has this ever been a problem on your end?

Also, just to address some other things you said earlier...

Did you try running a search in Find: All Files, Named *bookmarks.html in your C drive? Just a shot in the dark. Maybe, after your crash and defrag, the file was somehow jumbled into a different, unrelated Folder. Highly doubtful, if even possible ... but after a crash in Windows ......

Yes, I had done that several times. I spent hours and hours trying to do all the things I could find on Google that other people had done, but the was file gone, no doubt about it. I don't even think the defragging had anything to do with it, either.  The best I can figure out is that my original bookmarks.html file was written over once I started Firefox again after the crash. I found several Googled conversations where people said that's what happens if you don't immediately save your bookmarks.html file before restarting the FF browser. And since I had no idea this would happen when I restarted FF after the crash, it was completely written over with the new default FF bookmarks. html file.

What I did end up doing was bringing my bookmarks.html file home from my work computer, which helped out a lot.  At least some of my work places and resources were salvaged.  But again, all the genealogy stuff was gone. (Grrrrr...!)

Another thing: I cannot believe you got 18 bookmarks squeezed in! I'm working with 10 or so right now and I thought that was a lot. LOL!

Thanks again for all your help.