Firefox Addons

Mozilla Firefox is indeed one of the best browsers available today. Firefox web browser is my favorite too. Tab browsing and pop-up blocker have won the hearts of many avid Internet surfers. Spell checking, session restore, integrated search, phishing protection and automatic updates are some of the widely used and popular features. Firefox can be immensely personalized by installing Add-ons.

I have compiled a list of Firefox Add-ons that I frequently use. It takes several days to explore all the Add-ons. Start your journey by clicking on Tools>Add-ons>Get Extensions from your Firefox browser window. Or visit the Firefox Add-ons page directly.

Password Exporter: You know how hard it is to remember thousand and one usernames and passwords. Every other website has a registration and login system. I have seen people writing down the passwords and usernames because their memories are not as much reliable. Some people even use password management software. It is very convenient to store all your website passwords and usernames in Firefox browser. Firefox remembers the form data including the usernames and passwords. When you upgrade your operating system or when you move to a different computer you can use this handy Add-on. Install this Add-on and export your passwords to a file. On the other computer, install the same Add-on and import the file. All your usernames and passwords will be magically retained.

With Tabbrowser Preferences you will never have to open another browser window. You can force all websites to open only in tabs and also control other tab browsing features.

FireFTP is a must have Add-On if you do lot of file transfers using FTP. The file comparison feature of FireFTP adds great value to dial-up or slow Internet connection users. FireFTP is an awesome FTP client.

Web Developer offers numerous tools for a professional web developer. You can validate HTML, CSS, feed, links, Section 508 and WAI. You can quickly disable cache, Java, JavaScript, meta redirects, colors, pop-up blockers, proxy and referrers. You can play around with cookies, CSS, forms, images, HTML elements and whole lot of other stuff. This is a must have add-on if you want to discover various aspects of any website.

Firebug: Want to know which CSS property is affecting what portion of your page? Want to test new properties without actually editing your CSS file? You need Firebug. This Add-on has an intuitive interface and helps you quickly identify which part of the code you would need to edit. This is an incredible Add-on. I have found FireBug very useful especially when working on themes and templates of Content Management Systems.

Speed Dial is a popular feature of the Opera web browser. Install this Add-on and you get the same functionality on Firefox. When you open a new tab or window, you can click on the listed website thumbnail pictures to visit the website. This is more user friendly than bookmarks. This Add-on works exactly like your phone speed dials.

Download Statusbar displays all the file downloads information on the status bar. Instead of switching windows to check the download progress, you can see them right on the status bar.

When you click a PDF link PDF Download gives you the options to download the file, open it with your preferred application, view the file as HTML in a separate window or let firefox handle it as does without this Add-on.

Video DownloadHelper: you don't need to worry when you can't find a download button on your favorite video site. Install this Add-on and when you are on a page containing links to images or movies, you can download some or all of them at once. For instance, if you go to a YouTube page, you'll be able to download the video directly on your file system. It also works with MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt, iFilm, DreamHost and others.

Server Spy displays the web server of the site you have opened in the current tab. Good to know who is using which web server.

ShowIP lets you know the IP address of the web site you have visited.

View Source Chart graphically displays HTML tag boundaries, defines HTML tag nesting order, structure and hierarchy. This is very useful to debug your HTML tags in your web pages. It is also a great learning tool for HTML beginners. Right click a page and click View Source Chart. You will see syntax highlighted color code with neatly structured tags.

FireColour is is a very handy Colour Picker and Converter. Just select a color from the palette and it gives you the values in Hex, RGB, XYZ and twenty other models. No more trips to websites that display these values. Make use of this convenient tool when you are working on themes and templates.