Firefox is the most customizable browser on the planet. Firstly, you can add additional buttons to your toolbars and arrange them as you want by going to 'View', 'Toolbars' and then 'Customise'. Also, to keep things simple, Firefox has been designed to only contain the features that most people use. Users then add the more unusual features that they want through Extensions, small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. Below you will find a selection of the best extensions that can be installed from this CD, but there are many more available on Mozilla Update (online). They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. There are extensions for almost anything imaginable and you are sure to find ones that make the Internet easier and more enjoyable for you. They can seem confusing at first but once you try out a few you will soon find them easy and useful.
To install extensions you must be viewing this webpage using Firefox. If you aren't already, double click the Mozilla Firefox icon on your desktop and copy the address of this page into Firefox. Now simply scroll down the page and click the Install button next to the extensions which sound interesting. Note that to activate extensions, you must close and then restart Firefox. If you want to see a list of the extensions you have installed, go to the Tools menu and select Extensions. There you can easily uninstall, disable or change the settings for all of your extensions. Some extensions require you to set them up. If so there is usually an entry for them in the Tools menu.
Adblock is a content filtering extension that helps you avoid
irritating ads on webpages that you visit. When first installed Adblock
needs to have filters applied to work. You can create your own but for
your convenience we have included a set of filters. If you want to use
these just click Tools
> Adblock
> Preferences
and when the window opens click Adblock
Options and select Import
filters then go to My
Computer, select the CD drive,
then choose "Filters.txt". This should reduce the most intrusive ads on
the internet.
This
powerful and addictive tool can
speed up your browsing a lot. After installing simply right click
anywhere on the webpage and holding down the mouse button, move it
slightly to the left or right then let go. This will take you back to
your last page or forward to the next without having to move your
cursor up to the buttons. You can use them for other functions such as
reload page (Up-Down) or New Tab (Up). Soon you'll be trying to use
mouse gestures in all your programs! More detailed instructions
available here
(online).
Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes allows you to
control your favorite music player right from Firefox. All you need to
do is tell Firefox what music player you are using. After installing
this plugin simply click on the red note button (as in picture) in the
status bar of your browser (the line at the bottom of the screen) then
choose Player
and Select
and tell FoxyTunes which player you want it to control.
Ever needed to close Firefox or reboot your computer but didn't want to
lose all of the websites you had open? SessionSaver ensures that every
time you start Firefox (even after a crash!) you continue browsing from
where you were the last time Firefox closed. You can also save the
current set of open websites to bring them up again later. Options
available under Tools
then Sessionsaver.
ScrapBook
is an extension which helps
you to save web pages and easily manage collections. Very useful in
research especially if webpages are changing, you want to look at pages
while offline, or you need to produce a bibliography of all the pages
you used. You can also do searches. After installing, go to 'View',
'Toolbars'
and then 'Customise'
and drag the 'Scrapbook' icon into the toolbar then click it. To save a
page, right click in it and select Capture
Page. More information
available here
(online).
This
extension is an enhancement for the basic tab controls provided in
Firefox, allowing you to customise tabs more. If you don't know what
tabs are, read about them here.
It replaces the existing user interface with a new, more visible user
interface. You can access the new options in Tools,
Options
then Tabbed Browsing.
Sick
of having to register to read articles on websites such as The New
York Times? Don't want companies knowing your personal details? With
Bug Me Not installed, you just right click in the form where you are
meant to enter your username, click BugMeNot, and the program goes to
its database of submitted usernames and passwords and uses one of them
to log in for you. If it doesn't work first time try again, or create
your own false account and submit it at www.bugmenot.com.
This
extension allows you to highlight a word, right click it and then use
it to search on any of your stored search engines. This is great for
quickly looking something up in the dictionary, or seeing if it's
available on Ebay, as in the picture.
The
Download Manager Tweak extension
streamlines the current Firefox download manager. The extension allows
the Firefox download manager to be opened in a separate window, the
sidebar, or a tab. The extension also modifies the default appearance
of the download manager to make it more concise and intuitive.
Useful
if you often download a lot of things using an external download
manager (such as FlashGet, Free Download Manager, Fresh Download or
GetRight). Download managers generally download faster and make sure
that you don't have to start the download again if you get disconnected
or close Firefox. FlashGot integrates Firefox and most download
managers so that they work together perfectly. Note that you must have
a download mananger for this extension to work. It also adds a FlashGot
All option which is useful if
you are tired of pressing "saving as..." one by one for everything you
download. This is the most downloaded extension for Firefox and even
has its own website where you can get help or find out more here
(online).
If you close a tab, the last tab you were looking at before that will
come to the front.
Adds "View in Firefox"
menu items to the right click menu in Internet Explorer. Useful when
you have started your browsing session in Internet Explorer by mistake
;-)
A
version of the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Access everything Google
offers from the toolbar. Once installed, the Google Toolbar will be
automatically visible in Firefox.
Because
of the way Hotmail (online email service) is set up, it's not normally
possible to open your messages in new tabs. That's a big irritation
sometimes! After you install this extension, you will be able to right
click and select open in New Tab.
Adds the View page in
Internet Explorer menu item to
the right click menu. Simply right-click on a link and tell Firefox you
want to open that particular link in Internet Explorer. Handy for
previewing pages in IE or loading up IE-only pages when you run across
them, although those are very rare these days.
Useful
if you often fill out your name, phone number and address on webpages.
InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a
web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted —
no typing required. You must first configure it to display your
frequently used information such as name, email, address and whatever
else you want to be available from the form menu. After installing and
restarting Firefox, click the small blue icon that will appear in the
bottom right hand corner of Firefox. Select InFormEnter
Options. Replace the words
First Name with your first name and City with the city that you live
in, etc. Then continue adding entries for all of the other things you
normally type into forms. Now, whenever a form comes up, press the blue
icon next to the form and select want you want to add.
If you hate copying and pasting links when they are not clickable, this
extension is for you. It will turn any non-clickable web addresses into
true links. Just click on the web address.
When
you paste a web address into the Location Bar, you want to visit it
immediately, right? Normally you have to paste in the address then
select it and then press enter. With this extension you just select Paste
and Go (or Paste
and Search) and the page loads
straight away.
Usually to open a link in a new tab you would just middle-click the
link or right-click then Open
in New Tab. But if you don't
have a middle mouse button, you can use this extension. Simply click on
a link and drag it to open it in a new tab. Useful for opening many
links at once, for example after a search on Google.
StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web.
It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing
great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting
webpages you wouldn't think to search for as well as people with
similar interests. You need to sign up to use it. More information
available at www.stumbleupon.com.
Makes email links in webpages load in your webmail's (Gmail, Yahoo,
Hotmail, etc.) compose page and adds a Compose
option to the right-click menu so you can choose which email service to
open it in.
Ever wanted to
reopen a tab that you just closed? You could find the page in your
History, or by using the Go
menu. Alternatively, you can use the 'Tab Bin'! After installing this
extension, go to 'View',
'Toolbars'
and then 'Customise'
and drag the 'Tab Bin' icon into the toolbar. When clicked it lists the
last five closed tabs as in the picture. Because it keeps those tabs in
'memory', those hidden tabs can continue playing sounds or music,
continue loading pages and may use extra memory. Because of these
problems, this extension is still very much 'in development', but we
thought we'd include it anyway!
If
you have read all the way to this point hopefully you're feeling
adventurous! Firstly, Firetune is not technically an extension. Rather
it is a tiny free-ware program that will speed up Firefox's page
loading time significantly. When you first install it, Firefox's
settings are one-size-fits-all style. This very popular little program
tweaks Firefox's settings so that they suit your connection and
computer speed and can make pages load in around 20-30% less time. To
use it, click install and save the exe file wherever you want. Run that
file and follow the instructions to install. Afterwards, start the
program (Start, Programs,
Firetune for Firefox, Firetune for Firefox).
Create a backup of your current settings by pressing "Create
Backup of Configuration".
Select whether your computer is faster (1.5Ghz+) or slower, and whether
your connection is dialup modem or fast broadband. Close Firefox
completely . Then press "Tune
It!". Hopefully you will notice
pages now load
faster!
BackupFox
This
is also not an extension and is slightly more difficult to use. Your
Firefox profile stores all of your settings, bookmarks, saved password,
extensions, saved pages and more. Sometimes if your computer breaks or
files get corrupted you can lose all of that data and will need to
start with a new profile. This is inconvenient, so BackupFox was
created. This little program is useful if you use a large number of
extensions or want to backup your bookmarks. Click on install, save the
.zip file anywhere you want, open it, and extract it to anywhere you
want. Once the files are extracted, go to them and run the
BackupFox.exe file. Tell BackupFox where you want it to create the
single file that backs up all of your data and press next. The file
will be created. If ever Firefox breaks or you lose your profile,
simply load BackupFox again, select Restore Profile and point it
towards that file.
This CD was compiled by the Firemonger project. The creators of this CD are developing this value-added distribution of Mozilla Firefox as an independent community run project. Official versions of Mozilla Firefox are available from the Mozilla Foundation at http://www.mozilla.org. Mozilla, Firefox, and the Mozilla and Firefox Logos are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation in the United States, EU and other countries. Used with permission.