Firefox 3 and Extensions You can't live without

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

downloading now. will install tomorrow, prolly.

If you are upgrading from FF2, expect incompatible extensions. Let me know which you use, and I can likely either point at updates or suggest work-arounds.
______
Dennis

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

If you are upgrading from FF2, expect incompatible extensions. Let me know which you use, and I can likely either point at updates or suggest work-arounds.
______
Dennis

oh that would be brilliant ; i really hate it when i upgrade and half my vital extensions aren't compatible. i was actually starting to hesitate about installing it right away for that reason... also to see how stable it is (i like to let other people do the beta testing ). but it looks like it has some amazing new features, so i was torn.

actually, if you happen to know the status of the ones on my list from the first page of this thread, that would be most of my pressing questions answered... i have more but i could probably get by without them, if necessary. i would have to check.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh that would be brilliant ; i really hate it when i upgrade and half my vital extensions aren't compatible. i was actually starting to hesitate about installing it right away for that reason... also to see how stable it is (i like to let other people do the beta testing ). but it looks like it has some amazing new features, so i was torn.

actually, if you happen to know the status of the ones on my list from the first page of this thread, that would be most of my pressing questions answered... i have more but i could probably get by without them, if necessary. i would have to check.

Well, some of them, at least:

- Web Developper Toolbar

Update available. Works fine here.

- ColorZilla
- MeasureIt

Don't know. Haven't used ColorZilla in a while, and MeasureIt at all.

- HTML Validator

I do that through the W3C validator links in Web Developer

- All-in-One sidebar

Update available. Works here.

- Bork Bork Bork ! (no, i really can't live without the Swedish chef. particularly when i am obliged to visit a site where the bork version is more comprehensible than the normal one, such as the taxes center).

Don't know. Don't want to know...

- Dictionnaire MySpell en français

As mentioned in an earlier post, I use Dict for that. Should be possible to find a French dict server.

- Dummy Lipsum (lorem ipsum generator)

Don't know.

- Firebug

There's a 1.20b2 beta available from the getfirebug site that works. 1.05 doesn't.

- FireFTP

I prefer the open source FileZilla application, so I looked at FireFTP but passed.

- Firesomething (it just brightens my day no end to see windows called "Mozilla Sunaardvark" and "Mozilla Junglelemur". seriously, for a while i was keeping a list.)

There's a new version out I haven't seen? I loved this, but it broke in FF2, and I haven't run it in a long time. I like the ability to define my own prefixes and suffixes.

- Greasemonkey

There's an 8.0.x version out that runs fine.

- IE View (uses less system ressources than IE tab)

Don't know. If I really need to see something using the Trident rendering engine, I use IE (or possibly Maxthon). I almost never do.

- Screen Grab
- Session Manager
- View Formatted Source
- View Source Chart

Don't know. Looked at all of them, but run none of them at the moment.

One things you should do: grab a copy of Mel Reyes Local Toolkit, which I mentioned in my own list earlier of favorite extensions. Among other things, it will let you turn off compatibility checking when you install an extension, so FF will install it regardless. There's no guarantee the extension will work correctly, but many will. As mentioned, the extension install file has minimum and maximum version fields that specify what the oldest and newst versions of FF they will work with are. New FF versions get released but the extension developer hasn't done a versionbump in the install file, so FF says "incompatible" and won't install it. Bypass the check, and things often run fine. If they don't, you can always uninstall them.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by astra

Of course I cannot argue about security or internals of the browsers.

Most folks can't. And it's hard to argue about IE's security problems: look at the number of Microsoft Critical Updates that are security patches for holes in IE.

However, I don't care how it looks like. I never use any side bars or tool bars because I hate them. They litter the screen. I like to have the most of my screen available for my web browsing.

I largely concur, and turn off most of the toolbars in FF. Easy enough to turn them on if I need them. The Sidebar in FF is a favorite feature, and where I usually display my bookmarks, but I keep it collapsed too. All-In-One Sidebar makes hide and reveal easy.

Right now I am typing in Firefox and I cannot say the its interface is any better than IE.

That will depend upon what you want from the interface. Many things I do in FF aren't available in IE.

I don't really understand why do I need this huge list of add ons if IE does just what it is supposed to do - surf the net. I have yet to find one single website IE cannot open.

You don't need a long list of add-ons. Most folks probably do fine with what FF does by default. But if you want to customize and extend FF, you can, with literally thousands of add-ons to choose from to do it.

No, there aren't any sites that won't open in IE, and that's actually part of the problem.

The web depends upon standards. There are standards that define HTML, standards that define CSS, standards that define JavaScript...and IE does a poor job of supporting them. IE tolerates web coding it should choke on, and web developers tear their hair trying to create sites that look the same in any browser, because IE doesn't support many standard constructs. The developer must put in code to attempt to detect which browser the user is running, and include kludges and work arounds to get the site to look right if it will be viewed in IE. The whole point to standards is that the developer should be able to write standards-compliant code, and have it look the same in any browser, without the kludges and work-arounds.

I suspect part of the reason for IE's tolerance is that many sites are created in Microsoft FrontPage, a GUI for site design with a "lite" version included with Windows, and FrontPage generates bad code. Microsoft Word generates worse code, but Windows suggests Word as the default HTML editor. Can't very well have IE choking on code put out by another Microsoft program...

Anyway, I am going to give it another try again. I just installed better gmail into my FF 2 and imported bookmarks from IE Favourites. We will see how it goes.

So far, I had to use IE do download the add-on because FF declined to download it even when I clicked on "allow" so ironically, I had to start IE to download add-on.

Something is odd there. Where did you get Better Gmail? From the homepage link in the list I posted?

Firefox attempts to prevent possible problems by downloading add-ons only from known-good sites. When you click "Allow", you are adding the site to the whitelist. You have to click the download link a second time to actually do the download - just adding the site to the whitelist doesn't make it happen.

The canonical add-on source is http://add-ons.mozilla.com, and it's in the whitelist by default. All add-ons there are tested and approved by Mozilla, and it's the first place to look. That doesn't mean add-ons shouldn't be installed from other places. Add-ons can take a while to get through Mozilla's screening and get posted on the add-ons site, and there are often newer versions (like betas that work in FF3) available from the author's site that haven't been posted on Mozilla's site yet.

P.S. I also find IE interface a lot more intuitive than FF.

"Intuitive" translating as "What you are used to". I feel the same about Firefox, but that's familiarity, pure and simple.
______
Dennis

[Donnageddon]

I DOWNLOADED FF 3.0!!

I AM PART OF THE DOWNLOAD HEARD ROUND THE WORLD!!!

But I lost the nifty NASA theme.

Actually, I do like it. Especially the... hard to describe... not <back><forward> but the <back><everywhere> navigation.

Donn

P.S. I am sure NASA will come up with an FF 3.0 compatible theme. Hell, they put 12 men on the moon!

P.P.S. I only sign my name when I want to add a P.S. Is that wrong?

P.P.P.S Mars! You have been warned!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

I DOWNLOADED FF 3.0!!

I AM PART OF THE DOWNLOAD HEARD ROUND THE WORLD!!!

But I lost the nifty NASA theme.

How about NASA Night Launch?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4908

Actually, I do like it. Especially the... hard to describe... not <back><forward> but the <back><everywhere> navigation.

I also like combining the stop and reload buttons, ala Opera. Context sensitive, so what the button does depends on the browser state. there an addon that does it, but I prefer the Stylish extension and custom CSS rules:
http://userstyles.org/styles/10

Donn

P.S. I am sure NASA will come up with an FF 3.0 compatible theme. Hell, they put 12 men on the moon!

Actually, a user named mcdavis941 made it, inspired by NASA:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/10257

P.P.S. I only sign my name when I want to add a P.S. Is that wrong?

A matter of personal preference.

P.P.P.S Mars! You have been warned!

Er, of what? The earthmen are coming? Oh, crap. There goes the neighborhood...
______
Dennis

[Donnageddon]

DMcCunney, I doff my hat to you.

I have never had a post sliced, diced, and filleted in a more competent manner.

I am honored!

[RCR]

Oh, all right, you convinced me to try it.
I downloaded FF3 and installed it and it does in fact seem slightly slicker than version 2.

FF3 didn't like Key Scrambler Professional V1.3.3 but I went to the Key Scrambler site where they had what appears to be a free upgrade. That seems to work just fine.

Nothing warms the heart of a paranoid like watching his key strokes scramble onscreen.

[astra]

DMcCunney

I don't remember were I got the add-on, but when I logged in to gmail I got a message that I might experience some problems with my add-on and they gave me a "fix" link. When I followed the link I think I got to the home page of the add-on? Not sure. After pressing "allow", I clicked on download button at least 3-4 times before giving up
I am not a complete noob as a user. I am IT technician myself (Although I know nothing about codding/webdeisgn and such, I am more network tech)

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by astra

DMcCunney
I don't remember were I got the add-on, but when I logged in to gmail I got a message that I might experience some problems with my add-on and they gave me a "fix" link. When I followed the link I think I got to the home page of the add-on? Not sure.

Probably. Better GMail is a mash-up of several other extensions to combine their functionality, created by Gina Trapani, the editor at LifeHacker.com. I suspect you got sent there.

As mentioned, addons.mozilla.com is allowed by default, and the first place to look.

After pressing "allow", I clicked on download button at least 3-4 times before giving up

You didn't give up -- you just tried an alternate method to get it.

I am not a complete noob as a user. I am IT technician myself (Although I know nothing about codding/webdeisgn and such, I am more network tech)

I didn't suggest you were. But regardless of experience, there are silly things that can trip up the best of us. It happens to me regularly, and I think I have a dent in my forehead from impact with my desk.
_____
Dennis

[astra]

Another annoying issue. Each time I press ctrl+t to open a new tab, it opens a blank page. I want to o open my home page instead. Is it possible? I didn't find any options in the settings.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by astra

Another annoying issue. Each time I press ctrl+t to open a new tab, it opens a blank page. I want to o open my home page instead. Is it possible? I didn't find any options in the settings.

Good question. That's not something I want to do, so I've never tried to do it. I prefer FF to open a new blank tab.

Poking around a little, it appears that's not a built-in option. I can do it with the Tab Mix Plus extension, which provides more control over how FF deals with tabs. Tab Mix Plus is one of my standard installs on any new FF instance I create. I especially like being able to add "Close Left Tabs" and "Close Right Tabs" to the context menu for tabs, because I use those functions all the time.

A version of TMP that works in FF3 is here: http://tmp.garyr.net/tab_mix_plus-dev-build.xpi

It may also be possible to do it by changing a preference in about:config, but that would take some investigation.
______
Dennis

[astra]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Tab Mix Plus extension

Is it an add-on?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by astra

Is it an add-on?

Yes, it is.

FF3 now calls all such things Add-ons, to create a category than can include things that aren't extensions, like themes.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

DMcCunney, I doff my hat to you.

I have never had a post sliced, diced, and filleted in a more competent manner.

I've been at this a while, but I normally only do it to posts...

I am honored!

Awww, gawrsh, Ma'am...
______
Dennis