FireFox-How To Add New Tools and Features to FireFox

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 Posted by Aman Jain


Find out how to add new tools and features to FireFox that make it easier to manage your online life

Built into the FireFox is a way to download and add other tools and enhancements to the browser that make surfing the web more productive and fun .They are called Extensions .In the latest version of Firefox these enhancements are managed on the firefox tools menu by clicking add ons .When the Add ons dialogue box opens you can add and remove individual enhancements ;and permanenetly remove any that you no longer need.
Ad Ons are categorised as themes which change the way FireFox looks or extensions .Its this last group that can actually change the way the browser works by grating new features to it .Click on the Get Extensions link in the bottom handed corner of the Ad –ons dialogue box .Alternatively go directly to the FireFox extensions webpage at http://adons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions. Here are some of the favorite extensions .

Adblock Plus
It blocks the advertisements so you don’t have to waste time waiting for graphics to download when you open a new page in the browser.Click the install now button at http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox /1865.
After restarting FireFox the welcome to Adblock Plus dialogue box appears in which you’re invited to subscribe to one of the four filter lists.The one we recommend is called dutchblock,whih despite its name covers ,covers sites from all around the world.This will prevent the majority of ads from being displayed ,but for those ads that are’nt blocked all you need to do is to banish them from that site is right click the offending advertisement and select Adblock image.

Cooliris Previews
This handy extension enables you to preview a site ,just by hovering your mouse pointer over a link.After you ‘ve installed Cooliris Previews from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2207 ,whenever you hover a mouse pointer over a link ,you will see a cooliris button appear next to it .Point to this button and the relevant page is previwewed in a Pop up window without leaving the site.

If you double click a word on a webpage or highlight a phrase ,you can then right click and select Cooliris Search to look for the selection in Google ,Wikipedia,Google images or www.thefreedictionary.com .

Foxy Tunes
If you play music on your PC this is a must have extension .It adds toolbar which by default is located in the status bar at the bottom of the fireFox screen although you can drag it to most other parts of the Firefox window .The toolbar contains the name of the track being played ,a full track selection controls and a volume slider .These are linked to whatever media player you normally use.
All the usual suspects are supported ,including Windows Media Player Winamp,itunes and RealPlayer.FoxyTunes can be downloaded from http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/219.

BBC Bar
Click the install now button at http://addons .mozilla.org/firefox/3757.This creates a new Firefox toolbar with a search facility ,scrolling news headlines ,three RSS news feeds ,world and sports news ,localized weather and a radio player with three pre-defined stations .The toolbar is so packed with features that it won’t display fully unless the screen resolution is set to 1280 x 1024.If your computer can’t do it ,click the BBC logo on the left of the toolbar and select the Shrink toolbar option.When you first click on the radio you will be taken to the BBC bar homepage where you will be asked to run an ActiveX Pluin .At the time of writing the radio player was unreliable and won’t work on all PC’s ,but its worth a try.

Google Browser Sync
Using this tool ,two or more computers can share the same Firefox bookmarks ,histories ,cookies and saved passwords .Google browser Sync differs from most other extensions in that it stores information on the internet and not on your PC.It can be downloaded from www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync .
All the relevant information from a computer registered for the service is uploaded to Google’s servers and is automatically retrieved using the same google account information .The privacy of your data is protected by a PIN of your own choosing .

FasterFox
FasterFox is an extension that fetches all the links on a webpage.In other words when you are looking at a site ,FasterFox is invicibly following the links on the page and storing data in a cache.When you click on a link if its already ina cache it will open instantaneously.Click the install now button at http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1269 ,then open the Tool Menu and select .
Add Ons .Click the Firefox options button and you ll see the turbo charged option on the Presets tab is selected .For the maximum effect you must also go to the faster Fox teb and tick Enable Enhanced Prefetching.

Tab Mix Plus
With Tab Mix Plus ,you can make more than a hundred changes to the way the tabs work.For rxample it is possible to have more than one tab on the screen ,at the same time ,display the progress of each web page as it is downloaded ,or have Firefox remember the Tabs that you had opened the last time it was closed down.You can also reopen the window closed in error nd tweak many more options .Download it from http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122.After installation you ‘ll find a ta mix plus item has been added to the Tools menu.

Forecast fox
Forecast takes over part of the status bar at the bottom of the screen and displays information about the current and future weather..There is also a globe icon ,which when clicked displays the satellite picture of you part of the world.Go to https://addons.mozila .org/firefox/398to download it.

Once installed a dialogue box will appear with a number of options; the essential one being your home locaton..To set it click find code ,then enter your home town details .

FireFTP
How about free FTP client software ?FireFTP is a free FTP client addon to the browser which provides easy and intuitive interface to access FTP servers .You can download the extension from https://addons .mozilla.org/firefox/684/.

DownThemAll
Another Mozilla Firefox extension that offers advance download capabilities to firefox .In case idf you need to download all the links or images from a webpage .DownthemAll can do it in a click .It also features an advanced accelerator that claims to increase the speed upto 400%.It also supports resume and pause downloads .Integrate it to your Firefox by visiting http://www.downthemall.net

Gspace
So you have got a broadband connection and have a Gmail account .This extension will allow you to use your Gmail storage space as a free online storage .Making files online means that you can share and acces files from all over the world.
GSpace supports unlimited Gmail accounts and you can store all types of files .The interface is easy to use and setup.So upload your movies ,pictures and music and access it from anywhere.Gspace can be added to Firefox by visiting https://addons .mozilla.org/firefox/1593
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