My Firefox configuration

You can find the newest version of this text on http://www.eggdrop.ch/texts/firefox/.

Introduction

In this text I'm going to describe my Firefox configuration, especially the extensions I am using.

Contents:

• Don't waste space with big toolbars
• Search faster with Smart Keywords
• Firefox Extensions

Don't waste space with big toolbars

I put the navigation buttons into the menu bar and enabled small icons, so there's no wasted space. Here's a screenshot:

Search faster with Smart Keywords

I am using Smart Keywords to search websites right from the location bar.

To create a Smart Keyword, simply right click on the search field and choose "Add a Keyword for this Search...". Then enter the Keyword for the search (e.g. "g" for Google):

Examples for Smart Keywords

• g: Google Search
• en/fr: Look up english or french words on dict.leo.org
• es: Look up spanish words on dix.osola.com
• tp: Compare prices on toppreise.ch

Firefox Extensions

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox.

Hide ads with AdBlock Plus

AdBlock Plus is a content filtering that helps you to get rid of ads. I am also using the Adblock Filterset.G Updater to have a filterset that is up to date.

Weather forecast with Forecastfox

Forecastfox is a extension that displays weather forecasts in a toolbar or statusbar of Firefox.

Web Developer Toolbar

The Web Developer Toolbar adds a toolbar to your Firefox with various web developer tools, e.g. you can outline elements or validate your pages:

I set the Web Developer Toolbar shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+B instead of Ctrl+Shift+T, so it doesn't conflict with my Tab Sidebar.

Google Pagerank Status

The Google Pagerank extension simply displays the Google Pagerank in the status bar, so you don't have to install the official Google Toolbar, if you just need to know the Pagerank.

Tab Sidebar

The Tab Sidebar displays thumbnails of your tabs in a sidebar. You can also close and reload a tab within the sidebar. The extension requires Firefox 1.5.

ScrapBook

ScrapBook helps you to save webpages. You can save snippets in a sidebar and edit them with a highlighter and an eraser.

Read RSS with Sage

I'm reading RSS with Sage. I use the OS X Theme for Sage, because the default one looks ugly.

MeasureIt

MeasureIt is a simple extension that allows you to draw a ruler across a webpage to check width, height or alignment of page elements in pixels.

Tab Mix Plus

Tab Mix Plus offers various features related to tabbed browsing. Here are some of them I like:

• It displays a progress bar whithin the tab while loading a website
• You can undo closing a tab
• You can change e.g. the behaviour when middle-clicking on a tab

Unfortunately it uses the Ctrl+Shift+T shortcut which I need for my tab sidebar. If you don't like this, go into your profile folder, locate tabmixplus.jar, replace "T" with "X" or something you like and finally restart Firefox. Here's how I did it:

$ cd .mozilla/firefox
$ find . | grep tabmixplus.jar
./bldprl35.default/extensions/{dc572301-7619-498c-a57d-39143191b318}/chrome/tabmixplus.jar
$ cd ./bldprl35.default/extensions/{dc572301-7619-498c-a57d-39143191b318}/chrome/
$ cp tabmixplus.jar tabmixplus.jar.backup
$ vim tabmixplus.jar
:1,$s/"T"/"X"/g
:wq
$