I'll save us both some time by getting right to the descriptions of three Firefox add-ons that shave minutes off my workday. Hey, they add up!
Navigate Web pages using only your keyboard.
When it comes to speed, I'll take a keyboard over a mouse any day of the week. A post from April 2008 explains how to create a keyboard-shortcut list you can access quickly. I also wrote about using your keyboard to move and resize windows and shortcuts for Word and Excel.
Now I can park the mouse when I surf. Instead of clicking, I enter the number Rudolf Noe's Mouseless Browsing add-on places next to each link. If I want to put the cursor in the address bar, I enter 0, while pressing 00 puts the cursor in the search field. Each open tab gets a number, each text box on the page gets a number, each drop-down menu gets a number. (I just wish the bookmark toolbar options and the reload, stop, and home buttons did.)
The Mouseless Browsing Firefox add-on assigns a number to each link and option on a Web page so you get there from the keyboard.
(Credit: Rudolf Noe)The program is loaded with options, including the ability to use only the numeric keypad to enter the numbers, so the top-row number keys aren't used to enter shortcuts. You can also require pressing the Enter key before the action occurs or change the delay between entering the numbers and taking the action.
Granted, the numbers can play havoc with a page's layout, but I can't count the number of times I've struggled to get the mouse pointer over just the right tiny link in a sea of tiny links. Being able to enter a number instead of clicking is a joy for this keyboard aficionado. (Warning: the add-on also slows your page-load speeds a bit.)
Finally! Copy Web text without the formatting.
I know how to create a keyboard shortcut that pastes plain text, but I didn't have the ability to copy and paste text from Web pages without the formatting until I downloaded Jeremy Gillick's aptly named Copy Plain Text add-on for Firefox. Just download the extension, restart Firefox, and when you copy text from a page, you'll see a Copy as Plain Text option just under the Edit menu's regular Copy option.
Copy Plain Text lets you do just that from Web pages in Firefox.
(Credit: Jeremy Gillick)You also get the Ctrl-Shift-C keyboard shortcut to copy the text without formatting. You can say what you want about one-trick ponies, but I only wish all software was this straightforward. Of course, Firefox could have this feature built in, but I'm not complaining.
The latest scores are a right-click away.
OK, I admit it. If I'm working late and missing a big game, I visit a sports site to check the scores. Now I save myself time by right-clicking Vinny 2020's SportsFox add-on, choose the sport, and see that yes, the Tigers dropped another one to the Bosox, and even worse, the Red Wings lost their second game of the Stanley Cup finals the the Penguins. (Might as well keep on working.)
Get up-to-the-minute sports scores inside your browser with the SportsFox add-on.
(Credit: Vinny 2020)Now I'm going to enjoy some of the time these add-ons have saved me. Go Wings!
I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for so long that Internet Explorer looks strange to me on those odd occasions when Windows Update or some other automatic Windows setting opens it. There are lots of reasons Firefox is my browser of choice, not the least of which are the great free add-ons for the program that neither IE nor any other browser can match.
Topping my list of Firefox extensions is NoScript from InformAction and Giorgio Maone. The fact is, I'm so accustomed to NoScript that Firefox wouldn't be Firefox without the little blue "S" in the bottom-right corner (sometimes with a red slashed circle, indicating that a script on the current page has been blocked). The extension lets you control which scripts run on the page, so you can allow those from the hosting site, but block those from ad networks, for example. NoScript is free to download and install, but it's donationware, so if you try it and like it, consider contributing a few ducats to the author to show your appreciation.
The NoScript extension for Firefox gives you more control over the type of content web sites can run automatically.
Get a look at that link before you click
It's always perilous to click a link to an unknown site: You never know what kind of popups or other dirty Web tricks await. The Cooliris Previews extension shows you the destination of a link when you hover the mouse over the small blue-and-green Cooliris icon that appears to the right of the link when you highlight it. You can also use the extension to prefetch Web sites, and you can change the preview action from mouseover icon to mouseover link, clicking link, clicking icon, or pressing Ctrl as you mouse over. The options dialog (which opens when you right-click the blue checkmark icon in the bottom-right corner of the Firefox window and choose User options) also lets you customize the options that appear when you right-click selected text in Firefox, allowing fast searches via the service of your choice, and sending links via e-mail, among other options. Another nice feature of the latest version 2.6 of the extension is the ability to view Google and Yahoo image-search results as a slideshow.
Preview links in Firefox by seeing them in a pop-up window when you mouse over them via the Cooliris Preview add-on.
Maximize your PDF-download options
More and more Web searches return PDFs, but downloading the files and opening them in a separate application can interrupt your browser workflow. Nitro PDF's PDF Download add-on lets you decide whether you want to download the file, view it in your Firefox window, or view it as HTML (as long as it isn't copy-protected). After you install the extension, you see a pop-up menu whenever you click a PDF, giving you the option to download it as normal, view it in Adobe Reader or the FoxIt PDF plug-in, or open the HTML version of the file.
Get more options when you click a PDF file with the PDF Download extension for Firefox.
Shift Firefox into high gear with Fasterfox
No matter how fast your Internet connection, the Web still makes you wait. You can cut the time it takes web pages to load with the Fasterfox add-on that automatically tweaks Firefox's settings to retrieve data from Web servers more quickly. Or right-click the program's muscled-fox icon in the bottom-right corner of the window and click Options to tweak your browser settings manually (choose Custom under the Presets tab to show tabs for resetting the extension's Cache, Connection, Pipelining, Rendering, and Popups options). The add-in also displays the load time for the current page.
Click the Custom option under the Presets tab in Fasterfox's Options dialog to view more tweakable performance settings.
Among the performance settings you can adjust with the program are memory cache capacity, disk cache capacity, DNS cache entries, DNS cache expiration, the maximum number of connections (total and per server), the max number of persistent connections, the max number of pipelining requests, the number of pages stored in memory (for faster Back and Forward page loads), and initial and submenu paint delays (for faster initial page loads, and submenu loads). Fasterfox also lets you disable those sneaky pop-ups that use a Flash plug-in exploit to get around standard pop-up blockers.
Tomorrow: Is free remote-PC access too good to be true?
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