Firefox extensions

[syntonic_comma]

One of the great things about the Firefox browser is its extensions - these can change the appearance and behavior of the browser considerably. You can make the browser be more of what you want your browser to be. I upgraded my version of Firefox recently, and it was reasonable to review the extensions I had installed. Some were no longer supported, some were no longer relevant, and some themselves had upgrades. And there were new ones since last I'd done this.

First up, a list of enhancements many people seem to want, and the extensions to provide them:

• I want a Firefox Extension to ... 200+ common problems solved

Extensions I'm using that might be of general interest:

• Clippings (copy/paste collecting)
  
• CoLT (Copy Link Text) OR Copy as HTML Link
  
• Converter (metric conversions)
  
• Deepest Sender (a LiveJournal client &ndash I'm happy with Xjournal on the Mac, but I'd like something for Solaris)
  
• Flat Bookmark Editing
  
• Gmail Notifier (got mail?)
  
• LiveJournal Hook (very useful for posting LJ comments or entries)
  
• Read Easily (disables styles; useful for hard-to-read pages)
  
• repagination (gets more search-engine results per page)
  
• Reveal (session-history thumbnails)
  
• Searchbar Autosizer (expands the search bar as you type into it)
  
• Sun Cult (sun/moon rise/set times)
  
• Tab Catalog (way cool thumbnail browser - like MacOS Exposé for tabs; there is a similar extension for browser windows, but I already have Exposé on the Mac, and I place my windows on separate virtual desktops on the Sun)
  
• Tab Mix Plus (lots of features, e.g. tab-width sizing, unread tabs in different font/color, reload closed tabs, selected events open new tabs, and a session saver - windows, tabs, tab history, etc.)
  
• TabSwitcher
  
• Unhide Passwords (see what you're typing, if no one's looking over your shoulder)

And some extensions of less general interest:

• Backgroundimage Saver (grabs images hidden under clear GIFs)
  
• Browse Images (for pages with lots of links to image files (like somebody's image directory))
  
• DOM Inspector (HTML inspection)
  
• EZNav (adds navigation shortcuts; not sure they're helpful with a 1-button mouse)
  
• FoxLingo (page translator)
  
• Go Up (go to parent directory on web server)
  
• InfoLister (lists extensions/themes to a file)
  
• Locate in Bookmark Folders
  
• MeasureIt (measures pixel dimensions on web pages)
  
• Named anchors (shows HTML anchors on page)
  
• Options Menu (shortcut to extensions options)
  
• ReloadEvery (automatically reloads pages)
  
• Server Spy (identifies web-server software in status bar)
  
• Show Image (reload failed images)
  
• Slim Extension List (sorts extensions list)
  
• Tab Search History (remember past searches by tab)
  
• Tab URL Copier
  
• Tabs Menu (tabs list for menu bar (select doesn't work on MacOSX))
  
• Translate Page
  
• View Image (Filename) (shows filename with view image)
  
• X-Ray (shows HTML tags on page)
  

There's hundreds more. These are the ones that I thought I'd use. If you're already using Firefox but you aren't using any extensions, you should see what you're missing. And if you're using Internet Explorer, you should, um, explore.


dream_anat-anatomia.jpgOne strange outcome - after changing/adding all these extensions, Firefox can no longer load this one particular image (used in one of my recent LJ entries): http://bdchivers.home.comcast.net/lj/dream_anat-anatomia.jpg. (Netscape loads it, so it's not a problem with the URL or the web server.) Rather than disable extensions hunting for the problem, I'll add them one by one on another system and see when it breaks.