My Favorite Firefox Add-Ons

May 22, 2007 ·
Filed in Browsers ·
2 Comments

Being a PC user, I’m for the most part limited to three web browsers, which are Internet Explorer, Opera, and Firefox. I realize there are others, but I think these are the big three. Before Firefox, I was an Internet Explorer (IE) user, but this was before I knew better and before I learned that IE was mostly just one big bug. Since I first downloaded Firefox I fell in love with it and have never looked back. Shortly after downloading Firefox, I discovered that it had all kinds of add-ons available for download to increase the user experience while using Firefox to browse the web and that’s what this post is about. I’ll give you a rundown of my favorite add-ons for Firefox. Maybe someone out there will find them useful.

#1

Gmail Manager

Gmail Manager is probably my favorite add-on. It allows me manage multiple Gmail accounts, receive new mail notifications, One-click access for loading your Gmail account in the browser. If you have Gmail, this add-on is a must have!

#2

Web Developer

The Web Developer add-on is definitely a must have for the serious web designer. The add-on adds a menu and a toolbar to Firefox with various web developer tools. This add-on has so much to offer, but here are a few of the main tools that I use on a regular basis: view/edit CSS, view/edit HTML, window resize to view what your site looks like at different resolutions, quickly validate HTML/CSS, and a whole slew of other tools. If you don’t have it, GET IT NOW!

#3

IE Tab

The IE Tab is another valuable tool for web designers. Web designers should know that all browsers have their quirks, but Internet Explorer has more than average. With that said, designers constantly have to check their sites in different browsers as they are developed to ensure they don’t look completely different from one browser to the next. The IE Tab allows you to check both Firefox and Internet Explorer instantly. I have an IE Tab button added right beside my browser navigation tool bar, so when I want to view a site in IE, all I need to do is middle click on the button (with my scroll wheel) and this will open a new tab in Firefox showing you how your site will look in IE. From there, I can quickly switch back and forth between what my site looks like in Firefox and what it looks like in IE to ensure it looks the same across both browsers.

#4

Tabinta

Tabinta, or better known as “Tab in Textarea” is another add-on that I use constantly. With Expression Engine (my CMS of choice), when editing HTML and CSS in the administration area I had no way to use the tab button to make my code look all nice and neat by indenting lines. Of course I could use the space bar, but who wants to do that? In comes Tabinta. Tabinta allows you to use the tab button to indent text inside of textarea fields. Whether I’m making a new post at a forum, or doing a quick edit of some code, I can indent text in any textarea. This one really comes in handy!

#5

Classic Compact

This one is not really considered an add-on, but a theme. Either way, it’s a favorite of mine. The Classic Compact is a theme by Ken Barbalace and it basically does just what it says, it’s the classic Firefox look with the menu, tool, tab, find and status bars minimized vertically to consume space and give you a bigger browsing window.