Favorite Firefox extensions

**sleipner** · 02-13-2006, 06:25 AM

Startin a thread on my favorite firefox ::EDIT:: extensions (for now, before it said themes) ::END EDIT::, add whichever favorites you have (if they arent here already)

NOTE: Links go to the mozilla firefox extensions download page for that extension

My ESSENTIAL extensions (must... have... for... decent... browsing... experience...)
::Tab Mix Plus lots of customization options for tabs, puts an "X" (close tab) on each, a session saver (computer crash?)
::Menu X - lots of menu button improvements (new buttons, example: toggle tool bars=click it and hide the bookmarks tab (also where I put my history, downloads, search bar)
::Mouse Gestures - for people like me that occasionally feel too lazy to move the mouse all the way up to the URL bar - just make a short little right mouse drag(customize which button) in a direction (say, left=back, right=forward, up=new tab, down=new window)
::Image Zoom - right click/context menu > hover on "Zoom Image" and zoom in on that nice high rez image that they put a low size attribute on
::MeasureIt - click on the ruler down by the status bar to bring up an overlay on the webpage and drag a box to measure pixels - great for telling the overzealous gaming clan members that, no, my awesome sig does not break the size limits...

Non-essentials (but they are still great)
::Nuke Anything Enhanced - right click/context menu "Remove this object" - reparses the webpage without whatever you selected (bye-bye pesky ads that ruin printer friendly-ness, just takes time to get all the ads off, often not worth it, too bad it doesnt keep em off (refresh the page and they're back))
::Colorzilla - works the same way as MeasureIt, give you an eyedropper to find out the hex colors for pictures and page elements without having to open image programs or look at code
::FoxClocks - great for keeping track of what time it is for people you know in other time zones (shoutbox and VOIP with anyway)
::gTranslate - uses "Google translation services" to let you select text on a page > right click/context menu >> see what it is in other languages OR select language (make sure you have it in the right language you are translating to and from)
::FoxyTunes - great for when you dont feel like switching over to iTunes (or any of the (what 10?) other media players it supports)
::InFormEnter - keeps track of all those usernames (all fields actually, from user names to comment boxes)
::PDF Download - not the greatest conversion, but rather effectively lets you view non-selectable PDFs as if it were HTML formatted text (not the greatest bout alignments and spacing, but the key is it lets you select text)

I've probably got a few more extensions, but those are the useful ones I got.

**jscheuer1** · 02-13-2006, 07:09 AM

I just snagged colorzilla and measureit, two tools I've been wanting for some time. My current favorite is Web Developer with tools too numerous to mention, all very useful in developing and troubleshooting pages. Particularly handy is the live css editing tool. Of note - html and css validation, many many more.

**esteban** · 03-01-2006, 06:03 PM

Well, it looks like I'll have to try some of these extensions ( Web Developer is very tempting! ). However, I feared that using too many extensions would slow down FF (either when launching or during browsing) -- is there any validity to this notion?

**Twey** · 03-01-2006, 06:06 PM

They do, but I found you need a massive number of extensions installed to do so. Mine started slowing down noticeably at 100 (dummy extensions, obviously real extensions may be more memory-intensive). Anyway, I run about 30 real extensions with no noticeable slowdown.

**esteban** · 03-01-2006, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by Twey

They do, but I found you need a massive number of extensions installed to do so. Mine started slowing down noticeably at 100 (dummy extensions, obviously real extensions may be more memory-intensive). Anyway, I run about 30 real extensions with no noticeable slowdown.

Well, that's quite nice. Thanks for the info.

**Twey** · 03-01-2006, 06:35 PM

Tab Mix always messed up my tab layout when the tabs reached the edge of the screen. Maybe that's been fixed now, I'll give it a go.

/EDIT: Or maybe not... the extensions site seems to be broken.

**mwinter** · 03-01-2006, 07:44 PM

Web Developer from Chris Pederick.
Adblock (though one should be careful not to make the filters too general).
Tabbrowser Preferences from Bradley Chapman (aka The One KEA), and Chris Cook previously.

Mike