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Accessibar – Make the Web Usable

Aug/02 in Add-ons Reviews, Usability

AccessibarAt no fault of the user, the designer doesn’t always think of usability when designing a web site. Sometimes fonts can be to small, web pages can be the wrong color – and text can be seven different shades of wonky. The Accessibar extension for Firefox looks to change all of that for you.

This toolbar provides the following features:

+ Web page fonts, links and background colors can be changed from a selection of 70 colors on current session

+ Icons with configurable shortcut keys to increase and decrease Font size

+ Line spacing can be increased or decreased to five different spacing settings incrementally

+ All images (including Flash) displayed on a web page can be selected as being hidden or shown

As you can see for such a tiny footprint in your Firefox’s browsing space, Accessibar does a lot of work. Does this toolbar do the job for you?

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What is the Firefox Search Box?

May/30 in Firefox Support

The search box in Firefox is that box for searching (boy, definitions don’t get any better than that) usually located in the upper right of your browser window. By default you see it set to Google, but did you know you can use others that are listed there or install more of your own?

To use the search box, all you need to do is type in a phrase you’d like to search for into the box, and then hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard. From there you’ll be taken to a Web page with search results as you would see by going to the search engine’s Web site and doing it directly.

If you want to choose one of the other search engines you have installed, just click on the little square logo next to the search engine icon and you should get a drop down box with all the search engines you have installed. Pick the one you want to use, and then its icons should be shown beside the search box. To switch back, follow the same steps.

If there is a search engine that you need that doesn’t come with Firefox by default you can install it yourself to use. You can find a list of popular search plugins here. For even more choices, check out the Mycroft Project. If you want to make your own – this Web page is a good place to start learning how to do just that.

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How Can I Manage My Firefox Bookmarks?

May/28 in Bookmark Help, Firefox Support

After you have been on the Web for a while, you collect a ton of bookmarks from Web sites you have visited and want to visit again. Now organizing these and putting them in places where it is easier for you to find them is another task that some might hate to do. So how do you manage your Firefox bookmarks?

To get to the Bookmarks manager click on “Bookmarks” in the menu bar and then click on “Manage Bookmarks…”. A new window should come up with your Bookmarks Manager loaded inside.

Now this is where all the magic happens as far as bookmarks go. You can add new bookmarks from here. You can organize them into new folders. You can drag and drop them around to where you need them to be.

In the Bookmarks Manager, if you click File and then “Import” you can import your bookmarks from another browser or from a file. If you want to export your bookmarks to back them up or take them to another browser, all you need to do is go to File and then hit “Export”. You can then save them anywhere you wish as a “.html” file.

One more neat feature that people don’t pay much attention to is the “View” option in the Bookmark Manager’s menu bar. Clicking on that will allow you to sort your bookmarks in any number of ways. If you are looking for a specific one – this would be the way to find it.

How do you add things to the Bookmarks Toolbar? All you need to do is drag and drop bookmarks or folders into the folder called “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder”. If this name is a little too long for you – you can also rename it and you shouldn’t be hurting anything. I renamed mine to “Links”.

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View Javascript Via Firefox

Jan/24 in Settings

Need a quick and painless way to view javascript in Firefox? Check out JSView!

Well now there’s a much easier way. You can use the JSView extension to solve the problem. You can access it from the context menu, from the toolbar, from the view menu, or from the status bar. If the website you are viewing contains any external js/css files, an icon will appear that says “CSS”, “JS”, or both. Each individual file can then be viewed by clicking on the filename. The file will be opened in a new window. You can also choose to open all external files by clicking on “View All”.

+ Download and Install the JSView Extension for Firefox!

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Edit Your Cookies

Jan/16 in Settings

Don’t toss your cookies – edit them!

This is a neat extension for Firefox. It allows you to edit your cookies that are stored in your Web browser to allow you to add or delete information from them. Cookie setting set in preferences/options take priority over the changes applied by this cookie editor.

For example, if you set an option to have your cookies to expire at the end of session, you won’t be able to change the expiration date on cookies using the editor. Feed your cookie editing needs!

+ Download and Install the Add N Edit Cookies Extension for Firefox!

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Organize Your Tools Menu

Nov/29 in Usability

After installing a dozen or so extensions, you menus inside of Firefox might start to look a little cluttered. How can you fix this problem? You can either start getting rid of extensions, or you can add one more. Personally I love all my extensions equally – so I am going to pick the second choice and get the Tools Menu Organizer. This will at least help you get the tools menu under control.

+ Learn More About the Tools Menu Organizer!

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Stop Automatic Image Resizing

Nov/21 in Hacks and Tweaks

Alright, so it is not the biggest Firefox annoyance, I will give you that. Sometimes though I don’t want to have my photos resized to fit inside of the browser window. Call me crazy, but I think it distorts the picture in most cases and I still have to end up resizing it to full view to fully enjoy it. Well here is how you can get rid of that auto resizing “feature” in Firefox.

First thing you need to do is type in about:config inside of your address bar. Once you have made it there, you need to look for:

browser.enable_automatic_image_resizing

If you can’t find it, just enter that into your filter box and you should be good to go. Now here is where the magic happens! Double click that entry in about:config to set it to false. Now every time you see a picture on the Web you will be enjoying it in full view. No more resizing for you!

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Remove McAfee Text From SiteAdvisor Button

Nov/13 in Hacks and Tweaks, Usability

Wasted space is a real pain in the butt for me. I really like the SiteAdvisor extension for Firefox. The only problem that I have with it is that it takes up too much space on the bottom of the browser window.

Now before McAfee took them over I could live with the icon.

+ Read More About Removing the McAfee Text From the SiteAdvisor Button!

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Modify Any Web Site

Nov/01 in Greasemonkey

Modifying the Web is one of those things you always dreamed would happen, but always seems to fall a little short. The Platypus Firefox extension is one of those tools that gives you the ability to modify any Web site from your browser. You can then turn around and save those changes for the next time you visit.

+ Learn More About Platypus!

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