Did you know that you could add another toolbar to Firefox without needing to install an add-on? This customization feature is often overlooked and can come in handy if you need some extra space to store your buttons or any other toolbar elements you have added to Firefox.

The first thing you will want to do is right-click on your navigation toolbar and select "Customize…". Next, click on the button that reads "Add New Toolbar".  You will then want to give your new toolbar a name.  Once you have done that – you will see a new toolbar space added to your Firefox toolbar layout.  Simply drag the icons over that you want to add to this new toolbar and hit the button labeled, "Done".

Here is the new toolbar I created with the Cut, Copy and Paste buttons added to it:

To hide your custom toolbar from within Firefox, just right-click on the navigation toolbar, and uncheck the custom toolbar you created. If you no longer want your toolbar then go in to customize your Firefox navigation layout again and drag all of the buttons you have added to that toolbar off.  This toolbar should then disappear.

Hope that helps you get a little more out of this feature of Firefox that you do not hear that much about!

If you use WordPress to run your website, you probably jump in and out of the administrator side of the blogging tool a lot.  I know I do.  So, with that said, finding a tool that makes jumping into the admin menus of WordPress is a real time saver for me.  That is where the WordPress Admin Toolbar comes into our picture today.  With a single click you can go to anywhere within your WordPress administration interface and not even break a sweat.

Once you click the bookmarklet in your Bookmarks toolbar you will see several icons come up in the upper-right hand side of your webpage.  That will take you to all the areas within your WordPress administrator interface.   If you hover over any of the icons – then you can navigate down to the sub-menus and settings too. 

You can get this browser add-on in a number of different forms too.  Not only do they have a bookmarklet version, but there is also a Firefox add-on version in the wild as well as a Greasemonkey script too.  So that is three great ways you can get your hands on the excellent WordPress time saver.

• WordPress Admin Toolbar Bookmarklet
• WordPress Admin Toolbar Add-on for Firefox
• WordPress Admin Toolbar Greasemonkey Script

No matter which version you decide to go with (all are pretty great) you will quickly learn how neat this little tool is.  It has saved me time in the past and I hope it helps you get things done quicker on your own WordPress powered websites too.

Since Facebook is the king of the hill when it comes to social networks, there have been a lot of add-ons dedicated to making it better.  Facebook is great, but is not without flaws.  Thankfully, these Firefox add-on developers have worked out some of the kinks and have masterminded some of the best add-ons for Firefox to date.

Here are my top five Facebook add-ons you can add to Firefox.

Friendbar

Facebook and Twitter are now easier than ever to use. Friendbar displays a running stream of text and photo updates right on the toolbar, and allows you to post updates, to like, comment, update, retweet, dm, and reply from the toolbar itself.

Facebook Toolbar

Facebook seems to quickly be outgrowing the other social networks by leaps and bounds.  It is hard to find a friend that hasn’t switched over to it from the other social networks like MySpace and the like.  So with that said, why not grab a toolbar that will help you get a little more out of your Facebook usage and help you stay connected with your friends even better?

Facebook Photo Album Downloader

In need of a way to download all the images you may have uploaded to your Facebook photo album?  Sure you could go through each image, click by click and download each one individually.  Why do that though, when you have FacePAD.  This extension will let you grab all the photos from any album you need on Facebook.

Facebook Video

The popular Greasemonkey Facebook video script is now a full-fledged Firefox addon that lets users download or convert Facebook videos, and embed videos outside of Facebook.

Facebook Dislike

You can “like” things on Facebook, so why can you not “dislike” things too? If you use Facebook, and you have Firefox – you can now add the feature some have really been wanting. You get the ability to dislike things that your friends have posted.

There are my top five, which one is your favorite?  I would have to say that the Facebook Photo Album Downloader is probably the most functional, so in turn – my favorite of the favorites.  What also would be the Facebook flaw you wish you could fix?  You might just be the inspiration for some Firefox add-on developer’s next creation.

Facebook seems to quickly be outgrowing the other social networks by leaps and bounds.  It is hard to find a friend that hasn’t switched over to it from the other social networks like MySpace and the like.  So with that said, why not grab a toolbar that will help you get a little more out of your Facebook usage and help you stay connected with your friends even better?

Once you have installed the Facebook Toolbar add-on, you can easily do the following:

Search Facebook from Anywhere – The Search Box allows you to easily search Facebook no matter where you are. Select a friend from the drop-down to go directly to their profile, or hit “enter” to see the search results.

Get Notified – Icons on the toolbar tell you how many new pokes, friend requests, and messages you have. A pop-up will notify you when your friends update their statuses, write a new note or interact with you on Facebook.

Connect with Friends – Click the icon to open the Facebook friends sidebar. You can sort your friends by name or status and easily interact with them and their profiles.

Share Content – The share button lets you share the page that you are currently browsing by sending it to friends or posting it to your profile.

Upload Photos – The upload photos button lets you find photos on your computer, caption and tag them, and upload them to Facebook.

The Facebook Toolbar extension simply put, makes it much easier to integrate all the fun of Facebook into your favorite browser.  You can pick up the add-on via the Firefox Add-ons web site.

One thing is for sure, with the correctly equipped Firefox browser, you too can become a better web designer or developer. How so? Well, Firefox has some really great tools for both of these jobs. Finding the one that doe the best job, is another job all on it’s own.

Firefox has a lot of web development add-ons you can use, however these are the best of the best at what they do.

• Console² – Console² (pronounced Console Squared or Console Two) replaces the JavaScript Console with what could be the next generation Error Console. From v0.5 includes the Console Filter extension previously available separately from the Console² website.
• User Agent Switcher – The User Agent Switcher extension adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser.
• Firebug – Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
• MeasureIt – Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
• FoxyProxy – FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s limited proxying capabilities. It offers more features than SwitchProxy, ProxyButton, QuickProxy, xyzproxy, ProxyTex, TorButton, etc.
• FirePHP – FirePHP enables you to log to your Firebug Console using a simple PHP method call. You must have Firebug installed and the “Net” panel enabled to use this extension.
• ColorZilla – Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies. Perfect color picker tool for Firefox.
• Stylish – Perfect for testing those tiny CSS tweaks, you can also restyle the rest of the web too with this unique user styles manager.
• View Source Chart – Graphically displays HTML tag boundaries, nesting tag orders, structure and hierarchy. In other words, it makes it all pretty looking.
• Web Developer – The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

Disagree or have your own suggestion for the perfect web designer or web development add-on that should be on this list? Drop in a comment and let us know. We’d love to hear your feedback!

Here are all the Google services you can quickly show or hide via the extension.

You can customize how much space you want to save with the options across the bottom (by making the menu a toolbar or a drop down menu).  You also have the option of a horizontal or vertical menu.  You can then right-click on your toolbar, go to “Customize” and then drag and drop the GButts Toolbar you created on to your toolbar layout – anywhere you might need it.

If you are a heavy Google user – the GButts add-on should be right up your alley.

This simple change adds functionality back to the toolbar.  The extension also works with mouse gestures and and by configuring the back button on your mouse (if you have one) to the Alt + Left Arrow keyboard combination.  Users can also decide whether to show the toolbar icon via the options button in the add-on manager.

You can pick up Back to Close on the Firefox Add-ons site or check out more about the development behind it on it’s official web site. 

Google has ported one of Chrome’s most popular features to Firefox, the personalized new tab screen.  The only catch is that you have to use the Google Toolbar to get it.  Your new tab page looks exactly like Chrome’s after the install of the Google Toolbar 5 Beta. 

When do you get this fantastic new edition?  This happens when you launch a new tab( hit Ctrl+T, or you double click on the empty space to the right of your tabs).  You can check out all the other features of the Google Toolbar Beta 5 on the official web site:

• Google Toolbar Beta 5 Features

I stopped using Google Toolbar myself once the search box was added to most browsers.  I mean, why do I need two search boxes in one browser window?  That is a post for another day though.  However if you want to check out this new ported over feature – be sure to pick up the beta off Google’s web site.

Tired of the way your Firefox bookmarks toolbar looks?  Here are some easy tweaks you can make, as long as you have the Stylish add-on installed.

Gradient Background for the Bookmarks Bar

Hide the Bookmarks Toolbar, Forever!

Hide only the Folder Icons on the Bookmarks Toolbar

Hide ALL Icons on the Bookmarks Toolbar

Auto-Hide the Bookmarks Toolbar

Icons Only (text on hover) via the Bookmarks Toolbar)

Save on Space! Compress Bookmarks Toolbar Items

To make use of any of these changes, go download and check out the Stylish extension for Firefox.  It makes customization a pretty easy task, if you can find some jewels like the links above or you know a little CSS.

It shrinks your bookmarks down to only the favicons.  So what?  Well, the magic happens when you hover over one of the bookmarks.  Bookmark names will be displayed when you mouse over them.  Pretty nifty, right?

You can pick up the Smart Bookmarks Bar on the Firefox Add-ons web site.