You've Got Firefox 3, Now Don't Forget the Add-ons
by Lisa Hoover - Jun. 27, 2008Comments (0)- Related Blog Posts
- 10 Of OStatic's Most Popular Open Source Educational Resources
- Firefox 3.5, Portable Edition Arrives
- Getting Used to Firefox 3.5? Try These Resources
- Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.5
- Mozilla Japan Uses Firefox to Promote Nature Conservancy
Even though Firefox 3 is fantastic in its own right, tossing a few add-ons in the mix makes it that much more fabulous. In fact, so many people use add-ons, Firefox now features a way to get new ones right from the Add-ons Manager. Now that the dust has settled following Firefox's latest release, many of the most beloved add-ons have been tweaked to work with it. Everyone has their favorites, but let's take a look at a few of the most popular.
I'm a huge fan of Tab Mix Plus. This add-on lets you micro-manage your tabs and tab bar down to the last fine detail. Use this to change the width of tabs to fit to the text, change the way they open and close, and also to add a ton of options to the tab and main context menus that appear when you right-click. If I could only have one Firefox add-on, this would be it.
Since Firefox 3's tabs are fixed width by default, having several open at a time often chops off the text, making it pretty well useless (for instance, OStatic and The Open Source Application Foundation's tabs begin with the same text). Favicons are great way to tell the difference between tabs at a glance, so use FaviconizeTab to get rid of the text all together and save real estate on your tab bar.
There are a million calendar, to-do list, and task manager applications out there, but what if you just want a simple reminder to pay a bill or buy a birthday card? Try ReminderFox, a neat little add-on that remembers your important dates and reminds you with an alert or alarm.
Fast Dial serves up a page full of thumbnail images of your favorite Web sites in place of the "about:blank" page. You can customize the appearance of the page by dragging and dropping the thumbnails right where you want them, zoom in closer to view images, and use keyboard shortcuts to open pages. Fast Dial even lets you create groups of nested thumbnails, and quickly add sites with a right-click.
If this list of add-ons leaves you wanting more, then have a look at the lists of favorites other people have put together, too. What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
