Posts Tagged ‘add-ons’

Now I Remember Why I NEVER Use Internet Explorer

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Do you feel trapped by your place of work?  Is the computer you use every day locked down tighter than the doors on a submarine?  Are Facebook and Twitter considered  “colorful metaphors” to the IT staff?  Well, there may be some relief and a way to get back to the social networking world you desire.  Firefox Add-Ons!

I recently went back to work, this time for a very large company with an IT staff dedicated to keeping things on total lock-down so we (the employees) can’t waste time or share corporate secrets via the internet or installed programs.  What this meant for me was a return to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as my one and only browser choice.  My first thought was “how bad could it be?”

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End Desktop Clutter and Get Organized with SaveLink

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

We’ve all seen this before.  A desktop with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of icons and shortcuts.  I’m sure that the owner (and maybe you are the culprit in question) of this desktop had great intentions when they first started adding these colorful little images to their workspace, but things just got out of hand.  I too used the desktop as a catch-all for some time, until I realized that anything more than about 10-15 icons was too much to handle.  Part of the blame for this icon hoarding must fall on, what I like to call “future-surfing.”   Future-surfing is the process of adding shortcuts of newly found web sites to your desktop for the purpose of returning to them later, when you “have time” or are “will be able to focus on it.”

We all find new and exciting sites as we explore the internet.  These aren’t necessarily our “favorites” or sites we want to “bookmark” but sites we just want to investigate later and now there is a way to save the links for these pages without destroying our desktop.  SaveLink is an add-on for Firefox that incorporates a new option to your File and right-click menus.  That option, shown as “save link as file” allows the user to save an entire page or an individual link as a shortcut in a folder of their choosing.  Below, we have some screen shots of this great Firefox add-on in action.

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Take Back Your Browser with JumpstartMyFirefox

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Browsing the internet should be easy!  Unfortunately, with all of the toolbars, icons, labels and preloaded bookmarks of the most used internet browsers (IE, Firefox) your viewable space can get a bit messy.  If you have found yourself a bit overwhelmed by the “clutter” that has accumulated within your browser or simply want to see more of the web pages you are browsing, we have something for you.  Welcome to JumpstartMyFirefox!  We’re going to show you how to take your browser from A to B.

Over the past few years, Firefox add-ons have grabbed my attention more and more.  Each time I found myself with a browsing need or problem, a quick Google search led me to a solution using add-ons, which are basically mini-programs that work within Firefox to customize some part of the browsing experience.  I have installed and tested many add-ons during that time and today I bring you my own collection, titled JumpstartMyFirefox, to help you take back your browser.

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Simplify Your Browser and Increase Your Internet View

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Your Browser Can Look Like This

Your Browser Can Look Like This

For the last couple of days, we’ve talked about increasing your elbow room in your workspace.  Once you’ve tackled that project, you might find yourself just motivated enough to handle some other issues in your office (home or work).  Removing clutter and reorganizing can also be applied to another important part of your daily workspace, your browser.  This might not be something you have thought about before, but once you see what is possible, you’ll realize just how crazy your browser was getting.

Remember when you first started on your new computer or new install of a browser?  It was clean, organized and ready for you to destroy.  You began browsing for work and/or personal use and quickly began collecting bookmarks, toolbars, sidebars, etc.  Reading your favorite blogs, participating in social networking, playing your favorite online games and checking your personal email quickly caused a disorganized, overloaded browser.  The more you used it, the less space you were actually left with to view web sites at all.

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