Posts Tagged ‘Firefox’

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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Convert Your Gmail Ad Space to a Contact Info Sidebar

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a product that just makes life easier.  Rapportive, defined as a social CRM tool for Gmail, is the most recent add-on to find it’s way onto my PC.  Rapportive (available for Firefox and Chrome users) replaces the advertising space in individual emails with up-to-date social networking contact information on the people you correspond with.

My first thought was “this looks like XOBNI for Gmail” and, according to the comments and feedback I have read on this product, I am not alone. XOBNI is another fantastic tool, but unfortunately is only available for Outlook users, and a product that I have missed terribly since switching from Outlook to Gmail.  Both of these products make it very easy to see what social networking services your friends, family and even customers are using.

Once installed, the social networking information on the person/company that emailed you appears out to the right of an open email.  Icons (with links) are provided for services like Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc.  Simply click on any of these to open the profile page of that individual in a new tab.  Below the links you will find a comment area that you can use for keeping track of customers, but I am sure individuals will find some other creative and unique ideas for this space.

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Printing From the Web Without All the Waste – PrintWhatYouLike

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Printing information from web pages has always been a hassle.  You find a web page with some information you want to print out so you click on the printer icon in your browser.  Instead of the page or two that you expected to come out of the printer, you get 14 pages of complete randomness with your information sprinkled in.  12 pages go in the trash, your wallet gets a little lighter from the paper and toner that just went down the drain, and a few trees scream somewhere off in the distance.  If you are like me, you avoid printing from the web so you can escape this hassle and waste.  That was, until the introduction of PrintWhatYouLike.com!

PrintWhatYouLike.com was created by two developers who shared our frustrations with printing from the web and decided to do something about it.  The PrintWhatYouLike tool comes in several forms (listed below) and provides users the ability to choose what elements of a web page they want to print before the information is transmitted to their printer.  Print a single paragraph, an article, an image or several pages of information.  It is entirely up to you.  This truly amazing service is provided to you for FREE, so there is no reason not to start using it today.

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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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Firefox Add-on BarTap – How Did I Live Without It?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Windows Update in the middle of the night = Firefox restart.  Find a great new Add-on for your browser = Firefox restart.  Browser crashes = Firefox restart.  There are so many reasons why you might find yourself in the middle of a waiting game with Firefox, but so few tools to help your browser through the process of reloading all of those tabs.  If you have ever sat and watched as Firefox attempts to “restore your previous session” then you know what I am talking about.  All of your tabs appear, but it could take a minute or five, depending on how many tabs you had open before the restart was needed.

Firefox Reloading Tabs after Restart

I am a tab person.  If I see a link that I want to check out later, I right-click and “open in a new tab.”  My thought process are arranged by windows and each tab is a work in progress.  I jump around from tab to tab and use them as reminders of what I was researching, working on or playing.  To me, they are kind of like post-it-notes.  Thankfully, Firefox added the ability to restore sessions a few years back.  Until then, my thoughts and projects would vanish.  Until this morning, I would just have to wait patiently as all of those “dot circles” finally turned into real icons.  I assumed that this was just part of life and something that I was gong to have to deal with on a regular basis.

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Site Launcher – Like Having a Remote Control for Firefox

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

launcherJust like television viewing, surfing the internet quickly becomes a repetitive, addictive activity.  You stare at a screen and before you know it, you find yourself on the same channels (sites) day-in and day-out.  The only problem is, there are no on-screen guides or remote controls in the world of web browsing.  Well, at least until now.  Today, we take a look at yet another add-on for Firefox, called Site Launcher (Sorry all you Internet Explorer users).

Site Launcher is a “simple Firefox add-on that gives a highly convenient and clutter-free method to quickly open websites that you need often. One keyboard hotkey makes the ‘Launcher’ panel instantly appear, followed by a single key press to jump to the site you wish to open.” (quote taken from donesmart.com web site) I took a few minutes yesterday to install and test this great new FREE feature and I have to say I love it!  The only trick now is remembering that it is there.

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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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Which Browser Should You be Using?

Monday, September 21st, 2009
Browser Wars - from informationmadness.com

Image taken from informationmadness.com

Which browser is better?  An ongoing debate in the computer world and one that you and your friends or co-workers may have already had.  Internet Explorer was the only game in town for a long time, but other choices have emerged to give the end user both a choice and a reason for debate.  The list of browsers goes on and on, but the most widely used are Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari (for Macs) and Opera.

I initially set out to research and then provide you with some cold, hard facts about why one browser is better than the other, but that proved to be rather difficult.  It seems that most of the online information I could find was strictly personal preference.  Since that is the case, I am going to provide you with my own preference and experiences.  That said, I am married to Firefox, with a Google Chrome mistress.  Let me explain further.

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