productivity tips for Firefox
1. Auto-complete websites
Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there. For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.
2. Turn your bookmarks into keywords
Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.
3. Speed up your downloads
Download Manager Tweak Extension adds extra functionality to the existing Download Manager to help you download faster.
4. Search faster
To search with lightning speed just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse and drag the highlighted text into the search bar. Firefox will then automatically load up the search in a new tab, so you can stay informed faster.
5. All-in-one Sidebar
All-in-one Sidebar makes Firefox’s Sidebar more useful by displaying pretty much anything you might want: source code, downloads, add-ons, page info, entire web pages…
6. Stealther
Jealous of Safari’s Porn Mode – ahem, Private Browsing? Now you can have it, too, with Stealther.
7. Web Developer Toolbar
The name’s a clue: the Web Developer Toolbar adds a toolbar containing useful tools for web developers.
8. Instapaper
Grab Instapaper’s bookmarklet and you can store interesting things to read later. You can view pages without ads or other distractions, and it works on phones as well as PCs.
9. FireFTP
FireFTP is an excellent bit of charityware – it’s free, but donations are encouraged. It puts a fully featured FTP program right inside your browser.
10. Greasemonkey
The Swiss Army Knife of the internet, Greasemonkey enables you to bend sites to your will through the power of JavaScript.
11. Tab Mix Plus
Get complete control over Firefox’s tab handling, from the way tabs look to the way they work, with Tab Mix Plus.
12. User Agent Switcher
Browser sniffers stopping you from seeing sites? Pretend you’re using a rubbish browser by changing the user agent string with User Agent Switcher.
13. IE View
Sometimes you need to view or test a page in IE. IE View is a Windows-only extension that makes it a one-click job.
14. IE Tab
Does much the same as IE View, but opens IE within a Firefox tab. Once again IE Tab is Windows-only.
15. Sage
Firefox’s RSS support is pretty basic. Sage gives you a fully-featured RSS and Atom feed reader that’s a joy to use.
16. HideBad
Pretend you’re busy working with this excellent boss key. Not only does HideBad replace the current tabs with safe ones, but it zaps your browsing history, too.
17. Download Statusbar
Keep track of and control your file downloads without leaving the main browser window with Download Statusbar.
18. DownThemAll
Download every link or linked image from a web page in one fell swoop, filtering out unwanted file types automatically with DownThemAll.
19. FoxyTunes
FoxyTunes lets you control your music player, or take advantage of Yahoo’s online MP3 player, while you wander around the web.
20. Gmail Space
So unofficial that Google will probably kill you if it catches you using it, Gmail Space turns Gmail into an online hard disk.
21. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is the easy way to discover sites that other people liked.
22. NoScript
Eliminate annoyances and security risks by blocking scripts and other executable content from sites you don’t trust with NoScript.
23. BugMeNot
Don’t want to register to read an article? BugMeNot gives you other people’s logins.
24. Fast Video Download
Download embedded video clips with Fast Video Download so you can watch them at your leisure.
25. ScribeFire
ScribeFire is a superb in-browser blog editor that works with everything from LiveJournal to WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
26. BetterSearch
BetterSearch adds previews to search results so you don’t end up on irrelevant, malicious or obscene websites. Unless that’s what you’re looking for…
27. Stop time wasting
Serial time wasters will love LeechBlock, an add-on which lets you block access to sites which waste your time during specific periods of the day.
28. Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus eliminates invasive ads and makes some sites look very weird as a result.
29. Nuke Anything Enhanced
Before you print use Nuke Anything to strip out any objects or text you don’t want displayed to save on wasted ink, paper and time.
30. Highlight multiple text
This trick is similar to selecting different files which are not stacked together in Windows explorer using the Ctrl button. In Firefox 3 when you want to select multiple areas of text without having to repeatedly copy and paste, click on the Ctrl button and use your mouse to select multiple areas of text.
31. Don’t ride your luck with automatic search
When you type a keyword into the navigation bar, Firefox will perform an I’m Feeling Lucky search and load a new web page. You can make it list the search results instead by opening the about:config, finding and double-clicking the keyword.URL entry and entering ‘http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=‘
32. Inline search smarter
Select Tools, Options. Click the Advanced icon and then the General tab. Check Search for text when I start typing, and click OK. Now you don’t have to press Ctrl-F to find a word. Just start typing and matches will be found automatically.
33. Hack Firefox to get a minimalist interface for your netbook
If you’ve a netbook then you might want to free up screen space, create a cleaner, simpler browser, or just redesign the program to better suit your needs.
34. Create your own Firefox theme
With a seemingly endless collection of add-ons, extensions and extras, Firefox is one of the most customisable browsers. But you can take your customisations even further by changing the graphics and adding your own add-ons and extensions.
35. Create a new profile
The Profile Manager is meant for advanced users who don’t want other user’s add-ons cluttering their set up. To access it, close Firefox, go to Start > Run and enter “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -profilemanager. If you’ve installed Firefox in another directory, browse to its location. In the Profile manager, click Create Profile, name it and then you’re back at the Profile Manager, where you’ll see your new profile on the list.
36. Make a desktop shortcut to your profile
Right-click the desktop and click New > Shortcut. Browse and locate
firefox.exe. C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe is the default location. Type -P yourprofilename -no-remote into the box after the file path.
37. Get the answer fast
With the Answers add-on just hold ALT and click a word, to be presented with an information bubble with the meaning or answer in seconds.
38. Get the weather
Keep an eye on weather with the help of ForecastFox. Once you’ve relaunched Firefox, you’ll be prompted for your location, and you’ll soon have little weather symbols adorning
your Firefox window.
39. I can hear music
FoxyTunes links in with most popular music players to enable you to control
your player from within Firefox itself. Once installed, the media controls appear on the bottom rim of the Firefox window.
40. Take a note
QuickNote makes it possible to select some text, right-click it and send it to QuickNote with the URL appended to the end. Perfect if those who use the web for research purposes – like us.
Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there. For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.
2. Turn your bookmarks into keywords
Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.
3. Speed up your downloads
Download Manager Tweak Extension adds extra functionality to the existing Download Manager to help you download faster.
4. Search faster
To search with lightning speed just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse and drag the highlighted text into the search bar. Firefox will then automatically load up the search in a new tab, so you can stay informed faster.
5. All-in-one Sidebar
All-in-one Sidebar makes Firefox’s Sidebar more useful by displaying pretty much anything you might want: source code, downloads, add-ons, page info, entire web pages…
6. Stealther
Jealous of Safari’s Porn Mode – ahem, Private Browsing? Now you can have it, too, with Stealther.
7. Web Developer Toolbar
The name’s a clue: the Web Developer Toolbar adds a toolbar containing useful tools for web developers.
8. Instapaper
Grab Instapaper’s bookmarklet and you can store interesting things to read later. You can view pages without ads or other distractions, and it works on phones as well as PCs.
9. FireFTP
FireFTP is an excellent bit of charityware – it’s free, but donations are encouraged. It puts a fully featured FTP program right inside your browser.
10. Greasemonkey
The Swiss Army Knife of the internet, Greasemonkey enables you to bend sites to your will through the power of JavaScript.
11. Tab Mix Plus
Get complete control over Firefox’s tab handling, from the way tabs look to the way they work, with Tab Mix Plus.
12. User Agent Switcher
Browser sniffers stopping you from seeing sites? Pretend you’re using a rubbish browser by changing the user agent string with User Agent Switcher.
13. IE View
Sometimes you need to view or test a page in IE. IE View is a Windows-only extension that makes it a one-click job.
14. IE Tab
Does much the same as IE View, but opens IE within a Firefox tab. Once again IE Tab is Windows-only.
15. Sage
Firefox’s RSS support is pretty basic. Sage gives you a fully-featured RSS and Atom feed reader that’s a joy to use.
16. HideBad
Pretend you’re busy working with this excellent boss key. Not only does HideBad replace the current tabs with safe ones, but it zaps your browsing history, too.
17. Download Statusbar
Keep track of and control your file downloads without leaving the main browser window with Download Statusbar.
18. DownThemAll
Download every link or linked image from a web page in one fell swoop, filtering out unwanted file types automatically with DownThemAll.
19. FoxyTunes
FoxyTunes lets you control your music player, or take advantage of Yahoo’s online MP3 player, while you wander around the web.
20. Gmail Space
So unofficial that Google will probably kill you if it catches you using it, Gmail Space turns Gmail into an online hard disk.
21. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is the easy way to discover sites that other people liked.
22. NoScript
Eliminate annoyances and security risks by blocking scripts and other executable content from sites you don’t trust with NoScript.
23. BugMeNot
Don’t want to register to read an article? BugMeNot gives you other people’s logins.
24. Fast Video Download
Download embedded video clips with Fast Video Download so you can watch them at your leisure.
25. ScribeFire
ScribeFire is a superb in-browser blog editor that works with everything from LiveJournal to WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
26. BetterSearch
BetterSearch adds previews to search results so you don’t end up on irrelevant, malicious or obscene websites. Unless that’s what you’re looking for…
27. Stop time wasting
Serial time wasters will love LeechBlock, an add-on which lets you block access to sites which waste your time during specific periods of the day.
28. Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus eliminates invasive ads and makes some sites look very weird as a result.
29. Nuke Anything Enhanced
Before you print use Nuke Anything to strip out any objects or text you don’t want displayed to save on wasted ink, paper and time.
30. Highlight multiple text
This trick is similar to selecting different files which are not stacked together in Windows explorer using the Ctrl button. In Firefox 3 when you want to select multiple areas of text without having to repeatedly copy and paste, click on the Ctrl button and use your mouse to select multiple areas of text.
31. Don’t ride your luck with automatic search
When you type a keyword into the navigation bar, Firefox will perform an I’m Feeling Lucky search and load a new web page. You can make it list the search results instead by opening the about:config, finding and double-clicking the keyword.URL entry and entering ‘http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=‘
32. Inline search smarter
Select Tools, Options. Click the Advanced icon and then the General tab. Check Search for text when I start typing, and click OK. Now you don’t have to press Ctrl-F to find a word. Just start typing and matches will be found automatically.
33. Hack Firefox to get a minimalist interface for your netbook
If you’ve a netbook then you might want to free up screen space, create a cleaner, simpler browser, or just redesign the program to better suit your needs.
34. Create your own Firefox theme
With a seemingly endless collection of add-ons, extensions and extras, Firefox is one of the most customisable browsers. But you can take your customisations even further by changing the graphics and adding your own add-ons and extensions.
35. Create a new profile
The Profile Manager is meant for advanced users who don’t want other user’s add-ons cluttering their set up. To access it, close Firefox, go to Start > Run and enter “C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe” -profilemanager. If you’ve installed Firefox in another directory, browse to its location. In the Profile manager, click Create Profile, name it and then you’re back at the Profile Manager, where you’ll see your new profile on the list.
36. Make a desktop shortcut to your profile
Right-click the desktop and click New > Shortcut. Browse and locate
firefox.exe. C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe is the default location. Type -P yourprofilename -no-remote into the box after the file path.
37. Get the answer fast
With the Answers add-on just hold ALT and click a word, to be presented with an information bubble with the meaning or answer in seconds.
38. Get the weather
Keep an eye on weather with the help of ForecastFox. Once you’ve relaunched Firefox, you’ll be prompted for your location, and you’ll soon have little weather symbols adorning
your Firefox window.
39. I can hear music
FoxyTunes links in with most popular music players to enable you to control
your player from within Firefox itself. Once installed, the media controls appear on the bottom rim of the Firefox window.
40. Take a note
QuickNote makes it possible to select some text, right-click it and send it to QuickNote with the URL appended to the end. Perfect if those who use the web for research purposes – like us.
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