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To download and install the latest version of Firefox click here.
If you are impatient or don't want the tutorial, scroll down to the end of the post for a list of the most useful add-ons. Otherwise keep reading.
The most important add-ons in my opinion are the following:
Toolbar Buttons add many extra button options to Firefox (too many to list). All these extras are labeled so it's clear what they all are.
They can be accessed by right-clicking just under the URL address bar. Click on "Customize" and a window will pop up. Once this window is open any icon can be dragged from here to the top left corner of the browser where the existing icons are. Also icons can be dragged INTO this window. A good example of why this is useful is the following:
I never use the "home icon" and I would rather not have valuable space taken up with an icon I never use. You can simply drag the icon into the open additional buttons window and it won't appear as a functioning icon in the browser. Because it is stored in the buttons window you can drag it (or any other icon in or out at will)
NB all additional buttons which you download will be found in this toolbar buttons window - usually at the end.
If you maximize the window you won't be able to drag and drop, so just make sure it doesn't take up the whole screen and that the browser toolbar is in view before doing any dragging and dropping.
IE tab plus - allows you to open Internet Explorer INSIDE Firefox for any sites (often those with video or foreign languages) which don't work fully in Firefox. With this add-on you never have to open IE directly even when you need it.
Quick Restart restarts the browser much faster than the re-start button available in the Toolbar Buttons add-on. It's recognizable by the darker blue and the more angular arrows.
Like the "Save and Exit" button it saves all open tab(s) when re-starting. It's useful when you download add-ons which require a restart to install.
Showcase allows you to see all open tabs and gives you the option of closing them while in the show all view. I find it really useful whenever I have enough tabs open so that I can't read their labels/when they go beyond the end of the visible part of the tabs strip in the browser.
* FOXTAB has a slicker interface and more viewing options than Showcase.
If you install Tabs Open Relative (Doesn't seem to work with 3.6.8) any new tab will always appear right next to the tab you have open now. I have found this very handy. (Obviously this is not a button but an enhanced function so you don't click on anything it just works)
This doesn't seem to work in the latest version of Firefox - try TabKit instead - it does all this and more.
Another really useful add-on is Undo Closed Tabs. This tab, as its name suggests either opens the most recently closed tab (if you simply press on the icon) or, if you press the arrow to the side of the icon - if you have closed more than one tab - you will see a list of your most recently closed icons. Click on any one listed and it will re-open.
TabMixPlus - needed for the "Duplicate tab" right-click option. This add-on also enables close by clicking the pinwheel (center button).
BarTab - so that only the last open tabs opens and all the others are waiting in the background for faster start-up time.
DoubleClick to close tab - really useful
More useful that Colorful Tabs is FabTabs which take a screenshot of the site and makes the tab the color of the predominant or most distinctive color on the site, so all tabs from the same site will be the same color. I find it more helpful than Colorful Tabs. Actually CHROMA TABS PLUS seems to do this even better.
Black Canvas - Automatically inserts HTML signatures into Gmail messages based on which address you are sending from - can manage up to four signatures per address.
Resizeable TextArea extension. It lets you re-size most text areas on pop-ups
Advanced Search - more tools to narrow search (from Addictive Tips)
Vacuum Places defragments (vacuum) the Places database
Jason
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Here are some others:
Firefox "noscript"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
Firefox "print preview" toolbar button
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1778
Firefox "save session"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4199
Firefox "session manager"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324
Firefox "cooliris preview"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2207
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** "Why Firefox?"
First of all it's free and open source - good reasons to support it. But Internet Explorer (IE) is also free and so that on its own doesn't explain why an ordinary user should use Firefox.
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** A number of websites explain why Firefox is better. Here is one and here is another.
Apart from the inherent advantages, a huge plus with Firefox - because it is open source and anyone can make add-ons and enhancements - is that thousands of developers have made add-ons for the browser. I plan in the next coupe of posts to take you though the most essential add-ons which, the cumulative effect of which is to make Firefox not just better but to put it in a class of its own.
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Older comment about "Duplicate Tab" MixTabPlus's right click has a duplicate tab option which performs the following function as well:
Doesn't work with 3.6.x - Duplicate tab is a really useful tab which duplicates the whole history of the selected tab into a new tab. This is really useful when you want, say, to visit the last and second last site you visited and may want to go back further in the browsing history of that tab. If you simply press "Control" + "T" or hit the "new tab" icon, firstly you will have to manually enter the address. But more importantly the new tab won't have any of the browsing history you might want to access.
But with the Duplicate Tab button you just click the button and the tab you're in duplicates itself with all its history.
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Another older comment:
Can now simply select option to start with tabs from last time so don't need this. The "Save and Exit" button saves the session and will reopen all the same window(s) next time you open the browser.
(If you use Sandboxie the browser won't remember your opened tab(s) if you terminate the programs it's running or empty the relevant sandbox)
