I’ve been using Firefox for a couple of months, and have download a couple of extensions. I like the bugmenot extension (fills in the acount information for media sites that require registration) and I tried one that could be used to download the images from a webpage. Also, I tried Adblock, but it didn’t seem to work on Flash ads and it blocked photos as well as ads when I turned on blocking of the GIF ads on the New York Times website.
I’d like to hear recommendations for other extensions, particularly ones that will work with the new version 1.0 release. Is there a better ad blocker than Adblock? And yes, I’m aware of the Mozilla Updates extensions page.
Also, my monitor is a 20" LCD running at 1280x1024, so the text on many webpages is tiny. I’m still trying to tweak Firefox to enlarge the text on all pages consistently. Any suggestions?
My favorite new extension is Dict. Right click a word and it pops up a window with definitions from the online dictionary of your choice. It’s a nice little time-saver.
Have you tried Preferences > Fonts & Colors? On mine, can set your preferred font size, and there’s even an option to set a minumum font size. Also, you might want to check that your screen resolution is set correctly. (I’m running 1.0PR in Panther.)
The binary number of the beast is right on the money with the tab extension link. That is the tab extension to have.
Another hint on the text size: The [Ctrl][+] key combo! Easy’n’quick. And of course [Ctrl] to shrink.
Adblock is a great extension, but it does take some management. It’ll block anything, regardless of extension, up to entire web sites! Which is great for, say, doubleclick.net. But sites like the New York Times take a bit more managing. Fortunately, the NY Times arranges its contents in neat folders, so my adblock entries for that site run along the lines of: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/*
Extension called “TextZoom”. Lets you alter the default font size as a percentage (so instead of hitting cntr+ every time you visit a page, you set this setting once). You have to go to the extension mirror (sorry, don’t have the address on this computer) to get a version that’s repackaged for 1.0. It’s exactly what you want.
FlashClickToView is an extention that knocks out all flash animation on a website, likewise with the repackaged version on the extension mirror. It replaces the flash with a “play” icon, you click on it if you want the flash to play.
Thanks for the suggestions. I want to install Dict, FlashClickToView and TextZoom but none of them are compatible with Firefox 1.0. But it’s a very new release, so I’ll wait a few weeks and check for further updates.
Tabbrowser extensions and All-in-one gestures make the firefox experience. Nice additions include “View in IE,” a right click menu option for pages that haven’t loaded well in FF, and “BugMeNot” a right click menu option that searches a database of shared usernames and passwords that you can use at almost any “Register if you want to read the rest” sites.
Can’t wait to try dict.
Question on extensions when you upgrade to Firefox 1.0 from 1.0PR. It disabled my google toolbar (which I love), says it’s not compatible. There is a very small list of available extensions for 1.0.
Do the earlier 1.0PR extensions work? I’d love to install “dict” as well, but it’s not on the list.
I mean, I can download these myself and try, but I’m not in the mood to have to my browser start crashing and stuff if I can help it.
I’m stilling using firefox .93, and will continue to do so until the extensions catch up. All the older versions are still available.
I have installed:
Dict - explained above
BugMeNot - explained above
Tabbrowser Extensions - explained above
Clone Window - when you open a new window or tab, it clones the current URL into it
Configuration Mania - a bunch of hidden settings
DerBrowser Timer - a built in alarm clock
Bookmark Backup - backs up bookmarks and other settings each time you close browser
CTC - Adds “Close Tab” to the right click context menu
Download With - Adds “Download With” to the right click context menu for GetRight, download accellerator, etc…
Google Preview - puts thumbnails of your search results on the results screen
Google Bar - like the IE google toolbar
PR Google Bar - addon for googlebar that shows the Page Rank ifo
Image Toolbar - mouse hover over an image to bring up “save” icon (Like IE)
Mozilla Archive Format - save complete webpage in MHT format (Like IE)
Show Image - right click a broken image to reload it (Like IE)
Smooth Wheel - makes mouse wheel scrolling smoother (Like IE)
Paste Quote - Great for message boards, when you want to paste a quote, right click and select “paste quote” to automatically add quote tags
Whew!
Practically all of the old extensions that are compatible with 1.0, but haven’t been updated by the author/owner to reflect this compatibility, are available in repackaged form here .
Basically, an extension is a file composed of other files. One of those files has the “compatible with” field. When an extension installation package on the extension mirror is labeled as “repackaged”, it means that somebody unpacked the extension, modified the field to say that the extension supports 1.0, and then “repackaged” the extension.
The 1.0 release was primarily bug fixes, so in theory there should be very few extensions that need actual updating. All the repackaged ones I’ve tried have worked fine.
I’m still using version .8. Everytime I went to the FF forums I saw threads about “Ever since I’ve upgraded I can’t…” and others saying that later versions were slower. Is there any reason I should upgrade to 1.0?
I’m using 0.9x and 1.0PR on various PCs, and I have to say that it crashes a lot more than 0.8 ever did (which was hardly ever). Don’t think the problem is extensions, because one of those PCs doesn’t have any.