Firefox Add-Ons I Have Known
Sep. 8th, 2009 05:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbminxThis is what I'm using right now.
Ad-Block Plus: Blocks ads, durr. Occasionally you have to disable this for a given page to function. Occasionally it's nice to disable this anyway, to support sites you like.
Dictionary Tooltip: I like to be able to bring up a link to thefreedictionary.com by clicking on a word, though I'll admit that I mostly use it as a thesaurus.
Download Helper: Especially good for nabbing videos from YouTube.
Down Them All: I save a lot of icons on LJ in various icon comms. (Then I make a total mess of sorting them.) This enables me to grab an entire post and append the maker's name to the file names.
Fab Tabs: I have this installed but disabled. Like "Colorful Tabs," it recolors your tabs. However, it chooses the color of the tab based on the dominant colors of the page the tab represents, giving you a visual cue.
Faviconize Tab: All this does is allow you to choose to make a tab show only the favicon (which allows you to have more visible tabs in the tab bar). Can be used with Permanent Tabs and the Better Gmail script pack to make a small, permanent Gmail tab in any color combination you choose.
Fission: Totally unnecessary, but I like it because a lot of my other add-ons fill the bottom bar in the browser window. This just overlays your progress bar into the navigation bar, like in some other browsers.
FlashGot: TBH, I have no earthly idea what this thing actually does, only that it's "essential." I think it enables some of the functionality of Download Helper and Down Them All. I'm not sure where they overlap. Every time I read up on it, I'm like, "Oooooh, so that's it!" -- and then I promptly forget.
Forecast Fox: I would basically implode without this customizable little tool that shows the temperature and a brief forecast in my browser. Seriously, using browsers that don't have it just bothers me.
Greasemonkey: Allows you to run scripts to change various things -- often the appearance of websites you visit. I use it to run Better Gmail and, now, Helvetical. Better Gmail is a set of scripts compiled by Lifehacker; the ones I like are the ones that allow you to put the number of emails in your inbox first in the tab, and the one that allows you to display that number on the favicon. There are a million of these. I used to use Greasemonkey several years ago, and eventually uninstalled it because I seldom used it, but the inbox favicon is golden.
gTranslate: I got this recently and haven't used it yet. It allows you to select text and translate it with Google Translate. I have another translation tool specifically for Japanese, but that one (PeraPera-Kun) is a learning tool; gTranslate deals with a number of different languages, and is only about the translation itself.
Lazarus: Form Recovery: I don't actually like this extension; its little ankh icon reads as kind of cheesy to me, because of the goth connection. However, it's better to have it than not to have it, because it saves the contents of forms. This means you won't lose LJ posts or comments if the browser crashes. It has lots of options for customization, too.
LJ Login: You usually have to get this from its website. It allows you to easily log in and out of multiple journals on various services; all you have to do is enter the username and password, then choose the name from a list to log into that account. Along with Lazarus, this is the extension most loved by play-by-post RPers on LJ and its clones.
PDF Download: I love this one! People who have been using Firefox for a while may remember that it used to be pretty easy to crash the browser by accidentally clicking on a PDF link. With this extension, clicking on a PDF brings up a prompt, asking whether you want to open it in the browser, download it, or etc. It also allows you to save any webpage as a PDF. I download a lot of craft instructions and patterns, so I appreciate the ability to convert someone's blog post to a PDF.
PermaTabs Mod: This allows you to create a permanent tab -- not your homepage, it's a tab that's always there when FF is open. Good for stuff like Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, and so on. You can also choose the color of the tab and of the text on it, in the extension options.
Remove New Tab Button: There's an irritating little "+" button in the most recent versions of FF. People used to create extensions to make that button appear; now it appears to be default, appearing after the rightmost tab. If, like me, you almost always use CTRL+T to open a new tab, you can download this extension to get rid of it.
Rikaichan/Peraperakun: This is a Japanese translation tool which, when you turn it on, will tell you the meanings of kanji and kana on mouseover. I prefer PeraPera-kun because I think it's more visually appealing; the functionality of the two is also slightly different, but PP is based on Rikai. The new Perapera-kun isn't out yet, but an interim version can be downloaded from its site. Either way, you need to install Rikai-chan's dictionaries for translation. Google them for their respective sites (Rikai's is, um, polarcloud.com, I think.)
Shareaholic: Obviates a million other toolbars and buttons for things like Digg, Kaboodle, Facebook, and so on; this just makes it easy to post to various sites, even LJ or a Wordpress blog. One of the most useful add-ons you'll find.
SimpleTimer: Allows you to count up or down for a length of time that you define. Mostly, I use this to remind me to check my laundry while I'm online. It's a basic alarm with a lot of versatility.
Tea Timer: (not pronounced teh-ah-TY-mur) I really shouldn't have both this and SimpleTimer installed, but I do; this one takes up slightly more real estate and isn't as broadly useful, but what it does, it does perfectly. It's a timer with pre-set intervals for various kinds of tea, as well as French press coffee; it also allows you to define the times and choose some options. If you have been known to let a cup of green tea steep for 15 minutes because something on YouTube distracted you, this is for you.
TinEye Image Search: This allows you to rightclick on a photo and choose the TinEye search from a context menu. It will then take you to a page showing you different instances of the same image uploaded to the internet. There's an image you like, but the only version you can find has text on it in a cringe-worthy font? This will help you find a clean version.
Edited to add: Just after making this list, I installed an add-on called bug489729 (Disable detach and tear off tab). I'm having a lot of problems with misbehaving tabs since I installed FF3.5; this is supposed to fix the issue, which is one of tabs randomly vanishing and appearing a few seconds later in a new window. The feature is way too sensitive, and there's no way to turn it off from about:config. We'll see how this extension works.
--
You need: AdBlock Plus, ForecastFox, Greasemonkey, PDF Download, and a timer. You'll also want to check out various Greasemonkey scripts (there are plenty on the official FF site). Better Gmail won't be useful to you if you're not a Gmail person, but there are so many scripts and packages out there that you're likely to find something or other that you love.
- If you RP a lot on LJ, you also want LJ Login and Lazarus; possibly DownThemAll, TinEye, and a few others.
- If you're a relatively "normal" internet user you'll probably love Shareaholic; it makes it easy to post to almost every popular site.
- The rest of the extensions I have, like Fission and Faviconize Tab and Remove New Tab Button, deal with things that bother me in an idiosyncratic way. They aren't extensions that are worth installing if you don't want the same specific functions.
Hall of Shame:
FoxyTunes. A lot of other people like this add-on that allows you to control a media player through a browser toolbar. However, all I've gotten from it on any of my computers is lousy, stuttering playback.
Ad-Block Plus: Blocks ads, durr. Occasionally you have to disable this for a given page to function. Occasionally it's nice to disable this anyway, to support sites you like.
Dictionary Tooltip: I like to be able to bring up a link to thefreedictionary.com by clicking on a word, though I'll admit that I mostly use it as a thesaurus.
Download Helper: Especially good for nabbing videos from YouTube.
Down Them All: I save a lot of icons on LJ in various icon comms. (Then I make a total mess of sorting them.) This enables me to grab an entire post and append the maker's name to the file names.
Fab Tabs: I have this installed but disabled. Like "Colorful Tabs," it recolors your tabs. However, it chooses the color of the tab based on the dominant colors of the page the tab represents, giving you a visual cue.
Faviconize Tab: All this does is allow you to choose to make a tab show only the favicon (which allows you to have more visible tabs in the tab bar). Can be used with Permanent Tabs and the Better Gmail script pack to make a small, permanent Gmail tab in any color combination you choose.
Fission: Totally unnecessary, but I like it because a lot of my other add-ons fill the bottom bar in the browser window. This just overlays your progress bar into the navigation bar, like in some other browsers.
FlashGot: TBH, I have no earthly idea what this thing actually does, only that it's "essential." I think it enables some of the functionality of Download Helper and Down Them All. I'm not sure where they overlap. Every time I read up on it, I'm like, "Oooooh, so that's it!" -- and then I promptly forget.
Forecast Fox: I would basically implode without this customizable little tool that shows the temperature and a brief forecast in my browser. Seriously, using browsers that don't have it just bothers me.
Greasemonkey: Allows you to run scripts to change various things -- often the appearance of websites you visit. I use it to run Better Gmail and, now, Helvetical. Better Gmail is a set of scripts compiled by Lifehacker; the ones I like are the ones that allow you to put the number of emails in your inbox first in the tab, and the one that allows you to display that number on the favicon. There are a million of these. I used to use Greasemonkey several years ago, and eventually uninstalled it because I seldom used it, but the inbox favicon is golden.
gTranslate: I got this recently and haven't used it yet. It allows you to select text and translate it with Google Translate. I have another translation tool specifically for Japanese, but that one (PeraPera-Kun) is a learning tool; gTranslate deals with a number of different languages, and is only about the translation itself.
Lazarus: Form Recovery: I don't actually like this extension; its little ankh icon reads as kind of cheesy to me, because of the goth connection. However, it's better to have it than not to have it, because it saves the contents of forms. This means you won't lose LJ posts or comments if the browser crashes. It has lots of options for customization, too.
LJ Login: You usually have to get this from its website. It allows you to easily log in and out of multiple journals on various services; all you have to do is enter the username and password, then choose the name from a list to log into that account. Along with Lazarus, this is the extension most loved by play-by-post RPers on LJ and its clones.
PDF Download: I love this one! People who have been using Firefox for a while may remember that it used to be pretty easy to crash the browser by accidentally clicking on a PDF link. With this extension, clicking on a PDF brings up a prompt, asking whether you want to open it in the browser, download it, or etc. It also allows you to save any webpage as a PDF. I download a lot of craft instructions and patterns, so I appreciate the ability to convert someone's blog post to a PDF.
PermaTabs Mod: This allows you to create a permanent tab -- not your homepage, it's a tab that's always there when FF is open. Good for stuff like Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, and so on. You can also choose the color of the tab and of the text on it, in the extension options.
Remove New Tab Button: There's an irritating little "+" button in the most recent versions of FF. People used to create extensions to make that button appear; now it appears to be default, appearing after the rightmost tab. If, like me, you almost always use CTRL+T to open a new tab, you can download this extension to get rid of it.
Rikaichan/Peraperakun: This is a Japanese translation tool which, when you turn it on, will tell you the meanings of kanji and kana on mouseover. I prefer PeraPera-kun because I think it's more visually appealing; the functionality of the two is also slightly different, but PP is based on Rikai. The new Perapera-kun isn't out yet, but an interim version can be downloaded from its site. Either way, you need to install Rikai-chan's dictionaries for translation. Google them for their respective sites (Rikai's is, um, polarcloud.com, I think.)
Shareaholic: Obviates a million other toolbars and buttons for things like Digg, Kaboodle, Facebook, and so on; this just makes it easy to post to various sites, even LJ or a Wordpress blog. One of the most useful add-ons you'll find.
SimpleTimer: Allows you to count up or down for a length of time that you define. Mostly, I use this to remind me to check my laundry while I'm online. It's a basic alarm with a lot of versatility.
Tea Timer: (not pronounced teh-ah-TY-mur) I really shouldn't have both this and SimpleTimer installed, but I do; this one takes up slightly more real estate and isn't as broadly useful, but what it does, it does perfectly. It's a timer with pre-set intervals for various kinds of tea, as well as French press coffee; it also allows you to define the times and choose some options. If you have been known to let a cup of green tea steep for 15 minutes because something on YouTube distracted you, this is for you.
TinEye Image Search: This allows you to rightclick on a photo and choose the TinEye search from a context menu. It will then take you to a page showing you different instances of the same image uploaded to the internet. There's an image you like, but the only version you can find has text on it in a cringe-worthy font? This will help you find a clean version.
Edited to add: Just after making this list, I installed an add-on called bug489729 (Disable detach and tear off tab). I'm having a lot of problems with misbehaving tabs since I installed FF3.5; this is supposed to fix the issue, which is one of tabs randomly vanishing and appearing a few seconds later in a new window. The feature is way too sensitive, and there's no way to turn it off from about:config. We'll see how this extension works.
--
You need: AdBlock Plus, ForecastFox, Greasemonkey, PDF Download, and a timer. You'll also want to check out various Greasemonkey scripts (there are plenty on the official FF site). Better Gmail won't be useful to you if you're not a Gmail person, but there are so many scripts and packages out there that you're likely to find something or other that you love.
- If you RP a lot on LJ, you also want LJ Login and Lazarus; possibly DownThemAll, TinEye, and a few others.
- If you're a relatively "normal" internet user you'll probably love Shareaholic; it makes it easy to post to almost every popular site.
- The rest of the extensions I have, like Fission and Faviconize Tab and Remove New Tab Button, deal with things that bother me in an idiosyncratic way. They aren't extensions that are worth installing if you don't want the same specific functions.
Hall of Shame:
FoxyTunes. A lot of other people like this add-on that allows you to control a media player through a browser toolbar. However, all I've gotten from it on any of my computers is lousy, stuttering playback.
