kcredden
October 25th, 2006, 12:42 PM
I've been a big fan of Firefox, since Chuck alerted me to it, 3 years ago. One of the things I really enjoy is themes and add-ons. Little programs that changes the interface of Firefox, and adds functions to it, without bloating the browser.
I've used several themes, and add-ons, and here is a list of my favorates, and new favorates.
Themes:
I'm a fan of compact themes. Ones that give me the maximum amount of screen to use, while compressing the interface. Microfox, and Minifox are two I use all the time. Littlefox is by far the best. It's compact, But the icons are also stylish. You can find them here: http://www.geocities.com/alfredkayser/mozilla/index.htm
Add-ons
By far, the one thing that sets FF apart from any browser, is it's add-ons. And the one I recommend to everyone is Adblock Plus.
Adblock plus blocks ads; just like that. Nothing fancy. It especially is good at blocking Shockwave flash ads. Which are becoming more and more previlent on web sites, and of course, they're becoming far more *annoying!* You can get music, animation, and voice into those, and some sites go overboard with the ads. Well, say goodby to them, with Adblock Plus.
Adblock plus also allows you to save the list of ads blocked, or whitelisted so you can add them to other computers, or back if you need them. You can find Adblock plus here: http://adblockplus.org/en/
My stand on ads? Simply this: If they move, they get blocked. If they're static, they don't. I've white-listed the MaysvillekyBBS, and the Maysville Ledger's site but that's the only ones. Because they don't go overboard.
DownThemAll
This add-on, adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want. You can find it here: http://www.downthemall.net/
Sage
RSS is really becoming something useful to have. I've tried several RSS/Atom readers, and never liked them because they for one used the MSIE engine, (so was in danger of ActiveX malware) but also they didn't have ad-blocking capiabilities. Sage however solves all those problems.
Sage is an RSS reader, that works within Firefox. With that, there's no ActiveX malware danger, and ad-blocking works! With this, I can keep up with web pages I want, by having it check them and tell me if they're updated. Really, really a big time saver! You can find it here: http://sage.mozdev.org/
Scrapbook
One of the most desired things I've wanted for browsers, for a LONG time was off-line browser capibility. This is a tool that allows me to download web pages, store them on the harddrive, then read them when I'm off the internet. Putting this on a laptop, and you can read your web pages as though it was connected to the internet.
Sadly, every off-line browser I used was terrible. Either it was so complex to set up it'd take a Ph.d to do it. Or else it'd try to download the entire web site (ones like CNN would take *days*) and for special sites, that uses login/passwords (bank sites for example) it wouldn't work period.
Scrapbook however solves all those problems.
This is an off-line browser, that works in Firefox. If you wanted to OLB (off-line browse) a web site for example. Load it up, as you normally do, then tell scrapbook to 'capture page' Simple. It'd save all that's neeeded to render the page off-line, every picture, web page, movies, etc. Want to save several tabs at once? You can do that too. You want to download the entire web site? That's possible, but not advised :). You can set it however, to how many levels you want, which makes it far easier to use.
I just found this gem yesterday, and already fell in love with it. I'd highly recommend it, if your a mobile user like me. You can find it here: http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/
UnPlug
This one is for you, TKComer! :)
TK, and others, including me have always wanted to save movies, and other movie files to the harddrive on sites. Like 'Youtube.com' Myspace.com' etc. Well, finding ways to do so have been a royal pain in the tail. But no more. UnPlug does just that, by searching out where these files are, and giving you the ability to download them. I've just found this yesterday too, and been testing it. I was able to get stuff off CNN, and Space.com. Playing them back has been a problem, but that's not cause of this. There is other add-ons that do similar, so you may need others to get other files. But this is a start. http://www.compunach.co.nr/unplug/
FasterFox:
This is a small add-on, that really does boost the download speed and rendering speeds of Firefox. According to it's web site it:
# Prefetch Links
Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with Fasterfox's unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing.
# Tweak Network
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
# Page Load Timer
A millisecond accurate page load timer tests the effectiveness of your settings.
# Block Popups
A popup blocker for popups initiated by Flash plug-ins is also included.
I've used this for about a month, and I really noticed a major boost in speed. At the moment, this is one that's not ready for V2.0 but worth the wait! http://fasterfox.mozdev.org/
Copy Plain Text
Another tiny, but useful add-on. This basically copies all text to the clipboard, without all the formatting that sometimes is also copied. It's another that isn't ready for v2.0, but might be worth the wait. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/134/
And there you have it. Some of the add-ons I use. I'm always looking for more, but hope this gives you some idea of what's out there. The number of themes, and add-ons is growing by the day, so there may be something for you
You can find all of them here: https://addons.mozilla.org/
For Thunderbird, there is a smaller set of add-ons, and themes you can check out here: https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/
I've used several themes, and add-ons, and here is a list of my favorates, and new favorates.
Themes:
I'm a fan of compact themes. Ones that give me the maximum amount of screen to use, while compressing the interface. Microfox, and Minifox are two I use all the time. Littlefox is by far the best. It's compact, But the icons are also stylish. You can find them here: http://www.geocities.com/alfredkayser/mozilla/index.htm
Add-ons
By far, the one thing that sets FF apart from any browser, is it's add-ons. And the one I recommend to everyone is Adblock Plus.
Adblock plus blocks ads; just like that. Nothing fancy. It especially is good at blocking Shockwave flash ads. Which are becoming more and more previlent on web sites, and of course, they're becoming far more *annoying!* You can get music, animation, and voice into those, and some sites go overboard with the ads. Well, say goodby to them, with Adblock Plus.
Adblock plus also allows you to save the list of ads blocked, or whitelisted so you can add them to other computers, or back if you need them. You can find Adblock plus here: http://adblockplus.org/en/
My stand on ads? Simply this: If they move, they get blocked. If they're static, they don't. I've white-listed the MaysvillekyBBS, and the Maysville Ledger's site but that's the only ones. Because they don't go overboard.
DownThemAll
This add-on, adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser.
DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want. You can find it here: http://www.downthemall.net/
Sage
RSS is really becoming something useful to have. I've tried several RSS/Atom readers, and never liked them because they for one used the MSIE engine, (so was in danger of ActiveX malware) but also they didn't have ad-blocking capiabilities. Sage however solves all those problems.
Sage is an RSS reader, that works within Firefox. With that, there's no ActiveX malware danger, and ad-blocking works! With this, I can keep up with web pages I want, by having it check them and tell me if they're updated. Really, really a big time saver! You can find it here: http://sage.mozdev.org/
Scrapbook
One of the most desired things I've wanted for browsers, for a LONG time was off-line browser capibility. This is a tool that allows me to download web pages, store them on the harddrive, then read them when I'm off the internet. Putting this on a laptop, and you can read your web pages as though it was connected to the internet.
Sadly, every off-line browser I used was terrible. Either it was so complex to set up it'd take a Ph.d to do it. Or else it'd try to download the entire web site (ones like CNN would take *days*) and for special sites, that uses login/passwords (bank sites for example) it wouldn't work period.
Scrapbook however solves all those problems.
This is an off-line browser, that works in Firefox. If you wanted to OLB (off-line browse) a web site for example. Load it up, as you normally do, then tell scrapbook to 'capture page' Simple. It'd save all that's neeeded to render the page off-line, every picture, web page, movies, etc. Want to save several tabs at once? You can do that too. You want to download the entire web site? That's possible, but not advised :). You can set it however, to how many levels you want, which makes it far easier to use.
I just found this gem yesterday, and already fell in love with it. I'd highly recommend it, if your a mobile user like me. You can find it here: http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/
UnPlug
This one is for you, TKComer! :)
TK, and others, including me have always wanted to save movies, and other movie files to the harddrive on sites. Like 'Youtube.com' Myspace.com' etc. Well, finding ways to do so have been a royal pain in the tail. But no more. UnPlug does just that, by searching out where these files are, and giving you the ability to download them. I've just found this yesterday too, and been testing it. I was able to get stuff off CNN, and Space.com. Playing them back has been a problem, but that's not cause of this. There is other add-ons that do similar, so you may need others to get other files. But this is a start. http://www.compunach.co.nr/unplug/
FasterFox:
This is a small add-on, that really does boost the download speed and rendering speeds of Firefox. According to it's web site it:
# Prefetch Links
Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with Fasterfox's unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing.
# Tweak Network
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
# Page Load Timer
A millisecond accurate page load timer tests the effectiveness of your settings.
# Block Popups
A popup blocker for popups initiated by Flash plug-ins is also included.
I've used this for about a month, and I really noticed a major boost in speed. At the moment, this is one that's not ready for V2.0 but worth the wait! http://fasterfox.mozdev.org/
Copy Plain Text
Another tiny, but useful add-on. This basically copies all text to the clipboard, without all the formatting that sometimes is also copied. It's another that isn't ready for v2.0, but might be worth the wait. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/134/
And there you have it. Some of the add-ons I use. I'm always looking for more, but hope this gives you some idea of what's out there. The number of themes, and add-ons is growing by the day, so there may be something for you
You can find all of them here: https://addons.mozilla.org/
For Thunderbird, there is a smaller set of add-ons, and themes you can check out here: https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/