Everybody seems to be raving about how great Firefox 4 will be, but have you seen it yet? By installing a portable version of Firefox 4 on a USB thumb drive, you too can test it out and see if you like this latest innovation from Mozilla.
Here is a step by step guide on how to install Firefox 4 on a USB thumb drive.
Adblock Plus is a terrific add-on for Firefox that does an excellent job at blocking advertisements on websites. In the past, I’ve even interviewed the developer of the script, and I would say this is a must-have extension for Firefox too. While protecting yourself from malware ads is a good thing that Adblock Plus does very well, what should you do about websites you wish to support? Today, I’ll share with you the steps to take if you want to whitelist advertisements on one website, while still blocking ads on other websites.
Want to export your bookmarks to a .html file? You can in Firefox with just a few clicks of the mouse. This can come in handy when it comes to syncing your bookmarks with another browser, backing up or moving from PC to PC. Mozilla has made the import and backup options in Firefox brain dead simple.
Firefox Personas, the lightweight themes for the Firefox browser, are still pretty new to the Mozilla user base our there.
With that in mind, I thought it might be handy to guide you through the process when it comes to adding a new Persona theme to your browser, removing a Persona theme from your browser, and how to chance through Persona themes – once you have several saved to your system.
All in all, 2009 was a great year for Firefox. It grew by leaps and bounds, and continues to be the best alternative browser out there. Firefox Facts did pretty well in it’s own right too – surpassing the 7,000+ RSS subscriber mark. So with today being the last day of 2009, let us all sit back and revisit some of the best posts of the year.
Here are 10 of the most read stories, tips, tutorials and reviews I have posted here in 2009. Hope you check out some classics you might have missed, or revisit a favorite post or two.
#10 – Love (or Disable) the New Tab Button in Firefox
Love it, or hate it – Firefox got one more addition to it’s browser that seems to have gotten a mixed reaction from the fans. The open new tab button rests at the end of your tab bar in Firefox 3.5 giving you an easier user interface to open a new tab.
In a nutshell, Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to customize a web site’s look and function. Now you don’t have to be a coder to use it though, because there are already hundreds of scripts out there available for free that you can use to help you do a number of different things.
How Do You Use Greasemonkey?
Once you have installed Greasemonkey, you will see the little monkey’s head come up in your status bar. From here you can create a new user script of your own or you can edit the ones you have already installed. You also have the ability to enable and disable scripts or Greasemonkey all together, if you need to.
Where Can I Find Greasemonkey User Scripts?
Finding Greasemonkey scripts is easy. For that, let me point you in the direction of Userscripts.org. This is a great depository of user scripts people have created to get more out of various web sites. You can browse through all of the scripts, or search for the web site you want to modify.
Greasefire, another extension for Firefox can also help. It will let you know in the status bar how many user scripts are available for that specific URL you are visiting. Here are a few more of my favorite Greasemonkey script collections:
How Can I Make My Own User Scripts for Greasemonkey?
Making your own Greasemonkey user scripts might be a ‘bit of a challenge, unless you are an old JavaScript coding pro. It does take some learning, however there are several resources on the Web that will help you teach yourself. One of the best is the Dive into Greasemonkey eBook. Here are a few more resources to help you create your own user script:
Once you have made a successful Greasemonkey userscript, you might even look into creating it into a stand alone Firefox add-on.
If you like the tweak the Web, and make it your own, then Greasemonkey is well worth picking up as a Firefox extension. The add-on, plus some user scripting can lead to helping you get more out of your favorite web sites, and then share that help with others. When push comes to shove, isn’t that what the Internet should be all about?
There are a number of different ways you can reload or refresh a window in Firefox. For such a simple task, you would have never imagined that people have put so much work into making it easier. The truth of the matter though is they have, and I want to share with you all the tab reloading secrets that I know of (and hopefully you can share your own favorites with me).
Here are the add-ons to help you with your page loading and re-loading.
Now, I know a lot of people will say, “How hard is it to hit the refresh button in your browser?” So with that in mind, here are a few additional ways to reload that web page in question.
Reloading Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows/Linux: F5 or Ctrl + R = Reload a Page
Apple: F5 or Cmd + R = Reload a Page
Extra Tip: Another way to reload that tab you are on is to left-click on the tab, drag it into the browser window and the release. That will give it a quick refresh too.
How do you reload your browser window?
Have you ever looked at a web page and thought to yourself, “it would look better if I could only move this over there, or change the color of that or..” well, there are a lot of things you could change about a lot of the Web’s most popular web sites. One tool for Firefox lets you customize the look and feel of Firefox and the Web, Stylish.
Using what is called “user styles” the Stylish add-on for Firefox can empower your browsing experience by letting you personalize or fix the features of Firefox or the Web in general that bug you the most.
How do I get started with Stylish?
Once installed, all you have to do is right-click the status bar icon, select “Write Style” and then choose if you want to write a style for the URL you are on right now, or create an empty style not related to any web site, for now at least. You can also tag your style, giving it a few descriptive words.
Now how do you know what to put into the window, to customize Firefox (as I have done in the screenshot above) or your favorite web site? I suggest checking out userstyles.org.
Where can I find and learn to create user styles?
Not only is userstyles.org a great repository of scripts others have written that you can use, it is also a place where you can view the code they used, so you can try it out when you create your own user style.
Here are a few resources to get you started finding the user style that you need or want to use:
There is also a user styles blog and set of forums for you to follow too. If I had a top 10 list of my favorite Firefox add-ons, Stylish would be in the top 5, at least. Anything that helps the users of Firefox customize the Web or Firefox to meet their needs better is a winner in my book.
I have not spent much time with the NASA Night Launch theme for Firefox, but I did always wonder, why is it the most popular and downloaded theme for Firefox? Sure, it is a dark (and very nice looking theme), but what else is there to it? Well, if you do a little digging – you can find several guides on how to modify the NASA Night Launch theme to fit your own needs.
Here are a few example tips and tricks:
To use these tweaks and tips for yourself, all you need to do is download the NASA Night Launch theme from the Firefox Add-ons site – and get started.
Time to hand out a few more awards to those who have made using Firefox just a little ‘bit better over the past 12 months. Congratulations to all, and yes – I am sure a few more awards might be on the way…
Best Firefox related project award?
iPox Remix – In TwisterMC’s own words, “iPox Remix is my way of letting the user customize the iPox Firefox theme to their liking.” Never have I seen a better guide on how to get a good looking theme going with a lot of hand holding along the way. By far – this multi-stepped article series deserves to be the best as far as the non-Mozilla owned projects go.
Best alternative guide to Firefox award?
Learn Firefox – It is a visual guide to help you learn more about the Firefox browser. With an original look and feel to the entire web site and project, Learn Firefox leaps above the rest when it comes to giving you a new and exciting way to learn more about everybody’s new favorite browser. Major props for Chris, Ryan and Ashley for putting this one together.
Mitch’s favorite Mozilla Firefox awareness program?
Operation Firefox – Sharing the Firefox love by placing huge stickers all over the place. Point to me where the part not to love is, because I ain’t seeing it. Winners were also recently announced, so might be time to take look back at this Mozilla project if you haven’t been there in a while.
Best Firefox Blog?
MozillaLinks.org – This is a good blog that even I like to subscribe to so I can stay ahead of the game with some really cool news and information coming out of Mozilla about Firefox. Percy does a great job and hopefully will keep up the great work. Two thumbs up from one blog to another.
Want more? Ok, here are a few quickies:
Favorite Mozilla Personality? Asa Dotzler
Best Use of the Firefox Community? Spread Firefox
Biggest Waste of Time? Why Firefox is Blocked
Have any other awards you’d like to see me hand out? It is your turn! Give me your choices and awards in comment form.
