extensions

This free, open-source word-processor strikes us as a worthy alternative to pricey, big-name products. AbiWord has a quick learning curve, since the interface is very similar to other word processors. You'll find just about all the features you need, including the ability to cut and paste, to highlight, as well a bevy of common formatting tools.

Although we did miss a grammar-checking utility, AbiWord can check your spelling in many languages--you'll need to choose the appropriate foreign language dictionaries during installation. A huge plus is the ability to open and save Microsoft Word documents, though the program also … Read more

If you're one of the millions of people who does some occasional Web browsing while at work, chances are sooner or later you're going to click on something you probably shouldn't. In most cases, you don't know what you're getting into until it's too late--a situation developer Pratham Kumar (maker of the now defunct 2View) has solved with a small and simple Firefox extension called No-NSFW (download).

Once installed it will give you the heads-up every time you mouse over a link. You'll get a small warning in the lower right hand corner … Read more

Stylish, a Firefox extension that lets you make big changes to other people's Web sites with minimal effort, enables one of the cooler Gmail re-skin jobs I've seen. For people who like drumsticks, instead of Gmail's boring, yet supple thigh meat, installing a Stylish plug-in named simply "Gmail Redesigned" lets you turn Gmail's exterior into a gradient and plastic button-filled playground. The best part is that it retains its speed, button placement, and all around "Gmailness" you're grown to love.

Besides your in-box, the add-on skins the compose page, the Google Talk … Read more

Here at CNET Download.com central, we love Tab Mix Plus. It's so close to perfect, but the one thing it lacks is a decent method for restoring lost multi-tab sessions. Crashes can often lead to important tabs being irrevocably lost. Lucky for us all there's the Session Manager plug-in, a stand-alone extension that, when used with Tab Mix Plus, bestows the power of resurrecting dead multi-tab sessions to all us hapless tab abusers.

The easiest way to run Session Manager with Tab Mix Plus is to disable TMP's session recovery. It can only save two sessions, … Read more

Power Downloader always keeps his eye out for little tweaks and tricks that make using his computer simpler, easier, or faster, and today he's got a Firefox plug-in that does all three. When uploading a file to the Web, it's always annoying to have to navigate your files through the Web site's "Browse" option before locating the correct file path. Dragdropupload, while possessing a name bereft of certain punctuation complexities such as spaces, delivers the easiest way Power's ever seen for adding files to those pesky text fields.

With the extension installed, you can … Read more

Remember ListPic, the service that used to scrape Craigslist for photos in listings and present them in a wonderfully simple visual browser? Well it's still around, albeit with listings from Oodle instead of Craigslist proper. If you're still jonesing for that visual Craigslist experience, there's a Firefox extension aptly named Craigslist image preview that you're going to enjoy. It will automatically pull up photo thumbnails from each posting and put them into the search results so you can eyeball each item before spending the extra click to see the photos.

This works for everything, not just … Read more

Apple's Safari browser took a big step toward cross-platform competitiveness last year when it introduced a beta version for Windows, but there are legitimate questions as to whether it can really hold its own against Mozilla's Firefox. Safari dropped the beta from its name earlier this week, but is there anything more to it other than a developer's tool with a Mac interface?

If you're looking for features, the answer is a resounding no. Firefox's open source code and ever-growing army of extensions and themes make it the leader when it comes to customization. Also, … Read more

Remember gDocsBar (download), that handy Firefox extension we checked out a few months back? It got a pretty neat update today that lets you do things that might not have been originally intended for Google's Documents and Spreadsheets service. The first is called Webclips, which is a fancy way of saying automatic copy and paste. If you find a big chunk of content you like, you can simple copy it, then drag it into the toolbar. gDocsBar will create a new document out of whatever you've highlighted, and preserve, as much as possible, the formatting and links.

The … Read more

The big news today in the software world is a new beta version for Mozilla Firefox. The world has been sitting on Version 2 for almost a year and a half now, but the open-source foundation is making sure that Version 3 is fully baked before releasing a final version.

The latest beta release promises "more than 900 enhancements from the previous beta," but a large number of those improvements are back end and mostly invisible. Two significant features in the fourth beta that I appreciate are: an improved password manager toolbar that replaces the old semifunctional dialog; … Read more