# Can an amateur coder do this to Mozilla?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 29, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414 "2006-03-29T16:16:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/1 "2006-03-29T16:16:25Z")

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I have a decent working knowledge of programming…nothing anyone would want to hire me for, but enough that I have fun with it. I’d like to add two features to my copy of Mozilla: an option on the right-click menu that would “go to address \<highlighted text\>” and one that would “search Google for \<highlighted text\>”. My question is, could someone of my level of knowledge make additions to the Mozilla source code for features like this, or would I have to be a professional-grade programmer? Do I need UNIX? Has anyone ever edited their Mozilla source code before?

Adam

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**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/2 "2006-03-29T16:31:20Z")

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> [@Agent Foxtrot](#):
>
> I have a decent working knowledge of programming…nothing anyone would want to hire me for, but enough that I have fun with it. I’d like to add two features to my copy of Mozilla: an option on the right-click menu that would “go to address \<highlighted text\>” and one that would “search Google for \<highlighted text\>”. My question is, could someone of my level of knowledge make additions to the Mozilla source code for features like this, or would I have to be a professional-grade programmer? Do I need UNIX? Has anyone ever edited their Mozilla source code before?
> 
> Adam

And, of course, by “anyone”, I mean “any doper”. 😉

Adam

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/3 "2006-03-29T16:34:27Z")

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Well, i don’t know about your first modification, but my version of Firefox (1.5.0.1) already has your second feature.

I can highlight text, then right-click it, and the context menu will contain a selection that says “Seach Web for [text].” Selecting this sends the text to Google search and the results page opens.

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**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/4 "2006-03-29T16:55:05Z")

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> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Well, i don’t know about your first modification, but my version of Firefox (1.5.0.1) already has your second feature.
> 
> I can highlight text, then right-click it, and the context menu will contain a selection that says “Seach Web for [text].” Selecting this sends the text to Google search and the results page opens.

Hey cool!

You are the winner in today’s version of “What I learned today”.

Now back to work. 😛

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**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/5 "2006-03-29T17:00:05Z")

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I haven’t created one myself, but it sounds like you want to make an extension.  
[Here’s](http://www.rietta.com/~frank/firefox/Tutorial/overview.html) a page that seems to show the basics.

There are also things called [Bookmarklets](http://www.bookmarklets.com/tools/navigation/index.phtml) that use javascript in bookmarks to accomplish stuff.  
There’s one here that can do almost what you want.

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**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-amateur-coder-do-this-to-mozilla/350414/6 "2006-03-29T17:06:01Z")

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[Here](https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=403&application=firefox) is an extension that should do what you want it to for question one.