Installing Firefox Add-Ons

Topic: Firefox|Level: Beginner|Type: How-To & Recommendations

As mentioned previously, one of the coolest parts of Firefox is its support for 3rd party developed add-ons (a.k.a. change-arounds or extensions). Add-ons are small bits of programming script made in a particular structured way that they can fit in to Firefox's modular design. The standard Firefox interface handles installing, running, listing, and removing the add-ons. Much beyond that the add-ons can change nearly any part of how Firefox operates.

Add-ons commonly do things like add additional tools to the main Toolbar or Status Bar, they can add completely new Toolbars, or they can change the way the actual HTML of a page is processed and displayed, among many other things. Add-ons also can automatically update themselves when updates are available. Firefox will even typically prompt you with a small nofication window when updates are available and in 1 click have them all downloaded and installed.

If you haven't already tried Firefox I encourage you to go ahead and download & install it now (http://www.firefox.com)

Types of Add-ons
There's actually a few components collectively referred to as "Add-ons".
Extensions - These are the add-ons that add or customizable your web browsing experience with selective tools. Extensions are the ones that are typically thought of when speaking of "Add-ons"
Themes - These are the ones that customize your browser's colors, toolbar graphics, and appearance. Only one Theme can be enabled at a time. Themes allow you to make your browser look like other types of browsers, or reflect things that represent your personal taste (animals, places, sports teams, etc)
Plugins - These are applets that run completely in the background and allow other applications to interact in the web browser. These are components that allow your browser to use PDF Documents, Java, MS Office documents, Windows Media Player, etc. Plugins you about never need to install or manage in any way; they're automatically downloaded and installed when needed.

Getting Add-ons
So to get started customizing and enhancing your web browsing experience in Firefox click the "Tools" menu at the top, then "Add-ons". This will pull up the Add-ons window where you can review and change options of your add-ons.
From the "Get Add-ons" tab, you type an add-on name in the Search box if you're looking for a specific add-on. Or you can click the "Browse All Add-ons" link (or just go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox) to peruse the vast catalog of available add-ons.

Installing Add-ons
Installing the add-ons is incredibly easy. Unlike when installing regular applications on the computer, Firefox's modular design allows it to manage the entire install process.
Whether you searched for and found an add-on from the Add-ons window or from the Firefox Add-ons web page, simply click the "Add to Firefox..." button. The add-on will be downloaded, set up, and you'll be prompted to restart Firefox. Do so and that's it. And remember Firefox can even automatically reopen all your previous tabs when you close and restart it.
You also can install multiple add-ons all at once, and then restart Firefox when you're finished. Although, you'll typically only want to install a couple at a time and restart so that if something changes in a way you don't like you can more easily determine which add-on made the change to customize or remove it. And frequently following the browser restart the add-ons will open new windows or tabs the first time to get any necessary options set or provide usage instructions.

Recommended Add-ons
Some of my personal favorite add-ons and recommendations are:

• Adblock Plus - This one can block nearly all advertisements from site as you visit them. It places a little "Block" tab in place of the ad that you can click on to allow the ad to show in case you want to or it incorrectly blocks something you don't want it to for some reason. This one's a near essential.
• Answers - Alt-click a word or some highlighted words on a page and get a pop-up definition or description.
• Better Gmail 2 - All sorts of enhancements for Gmail if you use it.
• Cooliris - Pages that list collections of images that are set up for it (Google image search, Flickr, Myspace/Facebook people's photo pages), you can click an icon that appears in the corner of the images when you mouse-over them that will open a kind of 3D-ish wall of images that you can quickly and easily drag and slide around to view the images. Hard to describe, but work looking at.
  
• Download Statusbar - The built-in download manager for Firefox opens a small window with all downlads listed in it. The thing I don't like about it is it is a stand-alone window that will move behind your browser or other windows and you can't see the progress of the download. Download Statusbar adds a new status bar along the bottom of the main browser window that shows the progress of all downloads across it. It also allows you to pause and resume downloads from most hosts, and has various options for things like having some file types automatically disappear from the status bar when done downloading (images) while others remain until opened (application installers). Another near-essential.
  
• FaviconizeTab - This one allows you to set particular websites to have their tab reduced down to only show the page's icon (removing the full page title from the tab). This is handy for reducing the size tabs I always have open (work homepage, iGoogle homepage, gmail) to take nearly no room. It also allows you to set a hotkey like Ctrl+Click'ing a tab to reduce it down to only an icon.
• FireFTP - Very nice built-in FTP browser & manager for those that use FTP.
• FireGestures - This one allows you to set up gestures where you hold the right mouse-button down and draw something that indicates an action for the browser to take. For example right-click drag a straight line from right to left to go back a page, or left to right to go forward a page, etc. Many gestures are set up by default and you can customize all sorts of additional gestures.
• Forecastfox - Puts local weather and forecast in your bottom Status bar. And can even provide slide-in notifications and and additional icon "!" for severe weather warnings.
• FoxTab - Provides a Vista-like interface for switching between multiple open tabs.
  
• Google Toolbar for Firefox - All sorts of Google related searches and tools from a new dedicated Toolbar.
• TwitterBar - If you use Twitter, this one allows you to type a tweet in to your address bar and click a special Twitter icon to have the text you just provided there sent to your twitter page.
• Wizz RSS News Reader - This is the one I mentioned in the previous blog about RSS Readers. Opens your RSS Feed list in a new window or side-bar.
• Xmarks (previously named "Foxmarks") - This one allows you to synchronize your Bookmarks to an on-line database. That on-line database can then be synchronized to other computers (same bookmarks on work pc, home pc, and laptops) and it can be browsed from your own my.xmarks.com web page from any computer.
  Additionally Xmarks uses it's huge collection of bookmark data to extend Google search results with a special icon showing similar sites and various details of pages right from the search results page, and similar information from a pop-up window access from the Xmarks icon added to the address bar of a page.
  One more near-essential if you use Firefox on more than one computer.

Customizing Add-ons
Most add-ons have various customization options. Frequently you'll be prompted for various settings after the add-on is initially installed and the browser is restarted, but you generally have various more customization options beyond those.
Select the add-on from the "Tools" -> "Add-ons" window, and if you see an "Options" button, clicking it will pull up the add-on's options window.

Disabling / Uninstalling Add-ons
Once an add-on is installed you may want it temporarily disabled for some reason or you may decide you don't like it. Disabling or Uninstalling them is just as easy as installing them. Select the add-on in the "Tools" -> "Add-ons" window and click the "Disable" or "Uninstall" button. The "Disable" button is replaced with an "Enable" button when it's disabled.