A couple of Firefox add-ons things that are cool

[masraum]

I just learned/found a couple of things tonight that are pretty cool, so I thought I'd share. Some of this stuff will help you folks using a monitor at low res (like 1280x1024 or lower). I think all of it would benefit folks using bigger monitors and higher res.

Two of the changes (the add-ons) actually come from the fact that pretty much all pages on the internet are vertically (portrait) oriented, but all monitors are horizontally (landscape) oriented, especially when pretty much all monitors these days are "widescreen" (don't even get me started on why that's bad). So, you page data is vertical, but at the top of firefox, there are 4 "lines" of stuff (toolbars) commonly displayed eating up the space used to display web pages with maybe a fifth line if you have the status bar displayed (I always do). To top it all off, because of the widescreen monitor, you probably have some free space on the side of your screen that's mostly unused. Well, you can move some stuff around and make better use of some of your space.

1 Firefox's full screen mode rocks. It goes edge to edge on your monitor and you can only see the webpage. All of the buttons, menus, and boarders are gone. The only thing that you can still see is the scroll bar. Run your mouse to the top of the page and some of the other stuff comes back.

2 If you don't like or want to use full screen, but you think it would be nice to get rid of one of the lines at the top of the program, you can install an add-on called Tiny Menu

With Tiny menu, you can basically turn all of the menus (File, edit, view...) into one menu and move it to the same line as the forward and backwards buttons.



3 If you use tabs (and why wouldn't you, they're awesome), they take up another line across the top of your "page". Not only that, but if you end up with several tabs open, you may not be able to see them all without scrolling through them. If you could use an inch down the side of your screen, you could probably see 30 or more tabs all at once without having to scroll. Well, with another Firefox add-on, tab kit,, you can put the tab bar down the side, either side, or at the bottom if you want, plus a ton of other tweaks (like custom colors for certain tabs) that aren't possible otherwise.



Hopefully some of you find at least some of this info useful.

If you have any of your own favorite add-ons or mods for Firefox, post them.

[masraum]

Here's a shot that shows how much vertical space can be eaten up with firefox in it's original state, 6 lines. I've got mine down to 3 (I've gotten rid of the bookmark bar since I took the above screen shots).

1 the name of the app
2 the menu toolbar
3 the navigation toolbar
4 google toolbar -- in my case I didn't have this, but I did have the bookmark toolbar
5 the tab toolbar
6 and down at the bottom the status bar

[masraum]

One more thing that I really love in Firefox that lots of folks don't often know.

You can add create "abbreviations" or "keywords" for your bookmarked sites, so you don't have to sort through a myriad of bookmarks to get to your link, you can just type your abbreviation into the address bar and hit enter and be on your way. For instance, for me to get to Pelican if I don't already have it up, I can type "pp" into the address bar and hit enter, and the page loads. To do this you have to have the page bookmarked. Go to the bookmark and right-click and then click on "properties". When you do you'll get a box similar to this one.



If you notice, the keyword field has "wus" listed. That's the keyword/abbrev for the site. I can't imagine trying to assign a keyword to every bookmarked site, but for the 10-20 that I most commonly use, it speeds things up quite a bit.

[masraum]

I got a new 24" Samsung monitor today. These changes also help at 1920x1200.

[SlowToady]

One of the best FF add-ons is IEtab, which lets you open web pages using the IE rendering engine. Very slick. Why is it useful? Certain sites require the IE rendering engine to operate correctly (or at all). You can use IEtab to fool them. Yay!

My second favorite is Mouse Gestures, which lets you control your browsing experience, such as moving between tabs, creating/deleting tabs, which a series of mouse gestures that are user-definable. For instance, to go back I right click and twitch my hand to the left in a straight line. New tab? Right click, vertical, right. Awesome.

[masraum]

I had completely forgotten about IE Tab. I have it installed at home and at work. I never think about it any more since the few pages that need it autoload using IE Tab.

I've never tried mouse gestures. I'm not sure how well they'd work for me since I use a Logitech track ball, but I need to try them.

I've also just found that there's a portable version of Firefox that will run from a flash drive you can take it with you to any computer that's got a USB port.
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

[J1NX3D]

i highly recommend cooliris. perfect 3d gallery for viewing online photo albums, facebook/bebo/myspace albums, google images, etc. A++

[RWebb]

thanks!

"pretty much all monitors these days are "widescreen""
- the Xerox Star had a nice page mode monitor in it...

[ZOA NOM]

One of my favorite addons is ForecastBar Enhanced. It's a great weather utility that gives you a great look at the weather including fully animated drop-down radar screens.

[LakeCleElum]

But, the latest version of Firefox dropped the "add-on" of having an icon to make your web text larger and smaller. Have to go back to the Crtl _ + or use something like "mousezoom"....

[J1NX3D]

is mouse zoom ctrl + mouse wheel? i use that all the time.

[Dave L]

I always liked foxytunes, a must if you use Itunes while surfing the web
http://www.foxytunes.com/firefox/download/