Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox and extensions

Firefox extension that lets me open links by dragging them?

anthropomorphic — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:05:57 -0800

i'm looking for a firefox extension that, when i highlight an in-text link (ex: http://www.google.com - one that is not hyper-linked) and drag it to the side, the link opens in a new tab. i don't want to have to drag it to the tab bar or a new tab button. i used to have an extension that allowed me to do this several versions of firefox ago, but i just can't seem to find it anymore. any thoughts?

How should I go about moving to Firefox?

mr_felix_t_cat — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:38:03 -0800

Where is the best place/what is the best way to download Firefox and appropriate extensions? I am ready to make the switch, but am so far behind the times. Whereat is the best way to download, get extensions (in a group one would assume), etc.

What other advice would you offer regarding changing over and/or re-starting up?

Thank you for your input.

Invasion of the browser snatchers!

Rhaomi — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:07:07 -0800

I've been running Firefox 3 since Download Day. I'd like to update it with some settings from Firefox 2 that didn't automatically carry over during the installation process. Is there any way to (temporarily) revive my old copy of Firefox 2? I had Firefox 2 set up with a buttload of extensions and tweaked out the wazoo to behave just the way I wanted it. And while the Firefox 3 installation wizard copied over most of my add-ons and settings, there was quite a lot that didn't take. For instance, while it did copy my Menu Editor extension (which lets you resort the toolbar and context menus to get rid of unwanted cruft), it did not copy the order of all those items, so now I face the daunting task of having to resort everything myself.

I didn't think this would be a problem because I was under the impression that Firefox 3 would install alongside Firefox 2, not replace it, and that I could open them side-by-side (or at least go back and forth) to give the new browser the look and feel of the old one. But apparently Firefox 3 overwrites all the old files by default.

I tried using System Restore to get back to my old copy of Firefox long enough to take note of what settings and tweaks I needed to copy over, but the process restores Firefox imperfectly, reviving some old files while leaving some of the new ones there, with the upshot being that Firefox won't even start up until I undo the restore.

So, short of buying a time machine, is there any relatively hassle-free way to temporarily access my original Firefox set-up? Ideally I'd like to do it without removing Firefox 3, but I will if I have to. I'm running Windows XP SP3 if it matters.

Side note: To keep my theoretically incompatible extensions, I installed the Nightly Tester Tools add-on to Firefox 3 to bypass the extension incompatibility check/restriction. I thought I'd be able to enable the problem extensions one by one, to identify the truly incompatible ones and get rid of them, but the add-on enabled them all at once while also disappearing the incompatibility warning. And there's no way to undo this change in the add-on. Uninstalling the Nightly Tester Tools didn't undo it, either. Is there some about:config tweak I could make to re-scan the extensions and re-identify the incompatible ones?

Is there a Firefox extension for copying the details of the page I am on?

chorltonmeateater — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:06:24 -0800

Is there a Firefox (3) extension that will copy to the clipboard a HTML formatted link of the page I am currently on? The Copy Link Text will copy a link to another page, but not for the page itself. I would like to be on the website I want to link to, and have a link copied to the clipboard in the format <a href="PAGE URL" title="PAGE TITLE">Link</a>. Thanks.

Firefox extension for web development servers?

roll truck roll — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:47:25 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension for switching between the same page on different domains? At the company where I work, we have two separate development servers for testing edits to the website before uploading them to the real site.

When I look at the same page in all three environments in a web browser, the URLs might look like this:

http://www.myawesomecompany.com/home/blahblah.html
http://devserver1/home/blahblah.html
http://devserver2/home/blahblah.html

Comparing one page in the various environments is a huge part of my job, so I type the domains into the URL boxes hundreds of times per day.

A few days ago, it hit me that someone, somewhere must have made a firefox extension for switching between different environments. Ideally, it would let you browse to an alternative version of the same page, or instantly open multiple versions in tabs.

This isn't that uncommon of a need, is it? Other places where I've worked have had similar setups. It would save only a few seconds each time I used it, but I would use it a lot.

I've searched on Google and in the Firefox extensions page, and can't seem to find what I'm looking for. If anyone has any ideas of where I could find something like this, it would be much appreciated.

Firefox & Delicious Extension Oddity

WCityMike — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:59:12 -0800

A keystroke is misbehaving on Firefox with the del.icio.us Complete extension, and I'm at a loss as to how to debug the problem. I use Firefox and del.icio.us Complete, an extension that allows you to post to del.icio.us using a very pleasant interface. It manages its keystrokes via Keyconfig. I assigned Alt-Shift-1 to make the extension appear. However, on some sites, such as Fast Company or Chicagoist, hitting that key takes me to the root directory -- for example, hitting that keystroke on the linked-to FastCompany page takes me to "http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html". I use both Portable Firefox (for Windows) on a thumb drive and Firefox for Mac. I know it happens on the Windows version, but I can't recall off the top of my head if I've run into the problem on the Mac — I think I have. To the best of my knowledge, I have no extension, Greasemonkey script, etc. that in any way provides the "upward to root directory" functionality.

Lost my Windows machine, but all I miss are my Firefox extensions

Emperor SnooKloze — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:31:54 -0800

I'm trying to recover a session manager extension to Firefox. Problem is, I don't remember what it was called. Ugly BSOD on my laptop was the first indicator that the boot sector of my HDD had gone belly-up. I had a session manager/storer/recovery extension in Firefox that I liked quite a bit. It saved sessions, and restored tabs after a crash or restart. All I remember is that it had a button that lived in the upper right hand part of my toolbars. It had a blue-green logo... aaaand I'm feeling pretty stupid here.

Tabbing, not tabbed browsing, in Firefox

limeonaire — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:51:01 -0800

How can I tab through fields only (rather than fields and links both) in Firefox on XP SP2 like I do in Firefox on OS X? (This is a question about using the tab key on the keyboard to navigate within a webpage, not tabbed browsing.)

I use Firefox on OS X primarily, and on there, I can hit tab to quickly move through fields on a page, without hitting any links along the way. For instance, on a Google search page, the only things I'll hit on the page if I select the URL field and then hit tab are the search box at the top of the page, the search box at the bottom of the page, and then the URL field at the top again.

This is very convenient if I want to, say, do a quick Google search via search bookmark by typing google searchitem into the URL field, then, when Google loads, tabbing down to the first search field to see what the search result was, then hitting tab twice more to get back to the URL field to visit a different site. All keyboard navigation, which is much better for my wrists.

Unfortunately, when I go to do this in Firefox on XP, it doesn't work—when I hit tab, it takes me to whatever's next, be it a link or a field. So I have to use the mouse to manually select the next field, rather than tabbing through what may be dozens of tiny links. It sucks.

It seems to me there was once a way to fix this in the Options under the Advanced tab, General subtab, Accessibility category. On OS X, if you go to that tab and deselect both checkboxes in the Accessibility category, hitting tab will only select fields. But unfortunately, that quick fix doesn't make it happen in XP.

Any ideas? Any extensions I can install that will make Firefox in XP not select links when I hit tab? Thanks!

Firefox 2.0.0.6 is Making Me Cranky!

abbyladybug — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:52:35 -0800

Firefox 2.0.0.6 doesn't work with most of the extensions I'm using, including Greasemonkey. What can I do? Two nights ago, my Firefox automatically updated itself to 2.0.0.6. Now many of my extensions don't work, including the all-important Greasemonkey. Does anyone know what, if anything, Firefox is doing about this? Is there a way to go bak to the version I was using before that actually worked with all my preferred bells and whistles? Does anyone know where there is a centralized discussion about this issue? I'm sure I'm not the only one having this kind of trouble. Right now, there's no mention of this on the FF blog.

Why can't I make Firefox look the way I want it to look?

peacecorn — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:11:30 -0800

In Firefox 1.5.0.12, I want my Bookmarks Toolbar in a very specific place in my window, displayed in a very specific way. Is there a way to move the toolbar to the lower right corner, have the favicons stack up in columns, and have it share/truncate the space of my tab column? I used an extension called "Tab Mix Plus" to move my tabs to a column that runs vertically in a 150px wide area down the width of my screen. Lots of grey area below the tabs, was hoping I could stack 30 or 40 favicons in (say) rows of three across in the grey area below the tabs.

I'm not interested in alternate solutions (e.g., put them in folders, have them share space on the menu bar / make better use of ctrl+b). If I can't do this, I'll stick with what I'm doing now, but I'd upgrade Firefox to 2.0 if I had to in order to implement the solution.

Is this redesign possible? I spent hours on Sunday searching for a solution. Am I out of luck?

Coordinating Firefox extensions across installs

Inkslinger — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:21:05 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension that will help me coordinate added extensions across multiple installs of Firefox? I have Firefox installed on my machine at work, and on my laptop. As I find good new extensions (some thanks to AskMe), I tend to add them on whichever machine I'm using at the time. Most of the time I remember to install the winners on the other machine. Sometimes I don't. I'd love it if there a way I could set the installs to monitor each other (or better, to be able to initiate a check, rather than have it passively monitoring), and to let me know what add-ons are missing.

Firefox Plugin to add Address Field to Stripped Pop-Up Windows

peacay — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:45:01 -0800

Firefox plugin: I'm after the name/link of the extension that will add the URL of a pop-up window as an additional header field, when the rest of the 'normal' window architecture/controls have been stripped out.

Forcing an extension

FunkyHelix — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:23:13 -0800

How do I trick Firefox 2 into using an extension from a previous build? So, I updated to Firefox 2 and one of the extensions I use every day stopped working - LJlogin. It tels you which Livejournal account your logged in with, and lets you switch between them without even visiting the site.

There's a way to trick a firefox into using an extension from a previous build. How? I'm horrible at this stuff, but I loved that extension so much, I'll rip out firefox's guts to fix it.

Anyone have a link to such a thing?

Help me switch.

myeviltwin — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 09:28:01 -0800

Which Firefox extensions should I install? The imminent release of Firefox 2.0 has made me think seriously about switching from Safari. However, it seems that installing the right extensions is key to getting the most out of Firefox. What are the extensions that you can't live without, and why?

(I know there's an older thread on this, but it's now over a year old, and, you know, things change fast!)

Nuke Duplicate Firefox Extensions

SansPoint — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:32:40 -0800

How do I remove duplicate extensions from Firefox 1.5 Mac? I installed a couple extensions, FlashGot and Download Status Bar, but somehow, there's duplicate entries in the extensions window. I managed to remove the originals, but the dupes remain. Oddly, the dupes show the generic extension icon, and when I select them, the Uninstall button greys out. How can I get rid of them?

FirefoxFilter: Browsing within the sidebar?

mattwatson — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 08:08:20 -0800

Is it possible to view and browse a site within the Firefox sidebar without having links open into the regular tabs? I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.1 (XP Home, if it matters), and I'd like to browse within the sidebar. I know how to set a bookmark to open within the sidebar, but doing it the standard way makes it so that any links clicked on in the sidebar open up in the main window. Obviously that's the ideal setting for using the sidebar as a bookmark manager, but what if I want to actually browse within the sidebar while viewing other pages in my tabs?

Maybe using the sidebar isn't the best way for it -- is it possible to somehow have two panes open within a single Firefox window? I don't care about having tabs in my "extra" pane -- I'm basically just looking for a way to keep a certain site and open and in view -- while being able to navigate within that site -- all of the time while viewing other pages in my other tabs.

It sounds more confusing than it should -- basically it's an online form I want to always stay visible and contained within the sidebar/"extra pane", and I'm inputting data from other sites which I want to see in my regular tabs. I'm currently just using two windows, which is fine, just not ideal. If the answer is too complicated (or non-existent), I'll stick with what I've been doing, but I thought I'd ask on the off-chance someone has seen something like what I'm describing.

I'm almost certain this would require some type of extension -- has anyone seen such a thing before?

Bookmark monitoring Firefox extensions?

cacophony — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:28:01 -0800

I'm looking for a Firefox extension/behavior that will light up my bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar when the pages they represent change. I have a couple of rows of Firefox bookmark toolbars (nifty trick, see here) and I want an easy way to know when they've updated. Yes, I could and do use RSS, but I want to know at a glance which pages have changed.

I'd love to have an extension or customization that changes the color of the text, or puts a little glow effect on the icon at regular intervals so I can cut down on my mindless clicking.

Not too worried about false positives or anything; it doesn't have to be an exact science. I'm a fairly seasoned extensions user (I use about 20 extensions on a regular basis) but have never come across something like this. Any ideas?

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts For Navigating Between Tabs (OS X)

jack_mo — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:03:04 -0800

The keyboard shortcuts for moving between open tabs in Firefox 1.5 on OS 10.4.3 don't work - any ideas on how to fix this, possibly using the Keyconfig extension? On the relevant Firefox help page, the keyboard shortcuts for 'Next Tab' are listed as Command+Tab and Command+Page Down. The former won't work as that combination is reserved for the OS X Application Switcher, and disabling that would appear to involve replacing the Dock entirely with an app like Dragthing, or using a haxie, neither of which I want to do (though Liteswitch X overrides this somehow), the latter combination just doesn't do anything.

I've tried installing the Keyconfig extension, but 'Next Tab' doesn't appear in its list of keyboard shortcuts. There is, however, an option in Keyconfig to 'Add a new key', which is a bit mysterious, and seemingly undocumented: it provides a field asking for 'code', but I can't find anywhere which would tell me what sort of code it's after. The closest I've come is this page, but adding the 'Next Tab' snippet listed there to Keyconfig and assigning a keyboard shortcut has no effect.

Alternatively, does anyone knows how to disable the Application Switcher's use of Command+Tab so I can use that combination in Firefox as intended?

(Also, I'm aware of other extensions like Foxposé and Tab Sidebar which let me navigate around my open tabs in various groovy ways, and the possibility of using one of the mouse gestures extensions, but none of these options let me quickly zip back and forth via the keyboard.)

So, I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Firefox extension for page searching

apple scruff — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:54:57 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension available that will allow me to highlight a word/phrase in a page, then right click to open the "Find" bar with the highlighted text automatically in it?

Cool stuff I want Firefox to do

Nikolai — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:53:24 -0800

Are Firefox and its extensions advanced enough yet to do the cool stuff I want to do? Some things that would make my browsing easier:

Smarter Google-I'm-Feeling-Lucky-from-the-Address-Bar. If I type "meta filter", it sees two words and immediately goes to the first site on Google for that search. But if I type "metafilter", I have to wait for it to check if "metafilter" is a real address before it goes to the site. Can't it just not bother checking if it doesn't see a "." in the query?

Put Search Bar functionality in the Address Bar. The only engine I use from the Search Bar is Google, so I'd rather just be able to type my search into the Address Bar and hit some-modifier-key+Enter to make it search. (I know I can set up a keyword shortcut, but I just like modifier keys better.)

Middle click to open links in a new foreground tab, but Ctrl-click to open links in a new background tab. Right now I'm using the Open Link in... extension, which only puts the option in a right-click menu.

Google search results in the sidebar.

Rename menus. There must be some way to do this in userChrome.css.

What are your favorite extensions in Firefox?

Edible Energy — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 20:22:31 -0800

What are your favorite extensions for Firefox? I've got my favorites, but I'm always looking for more.
My list:
Aardvark Webdev tool, remove elements, view source of elements etc.
Adblock: Oh I forgot what this one does.
GreaseMonkey: Customize indivual pages (favorite: GMaps Extras, a latitude/longitude Calculator).
EditCSS Webdev tool: Live preview your edits to the stylesheet.
All-In-One Gestures Use simple mouse gestures to do things like back and forward, open in new tab, bookmark, etc.

Character count in firefox text area

corpse — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 11:39:08 -0800

Does anyone know of an extension or greasemonkey script that will count the number of characters in a text area, in firefox? I ask because I just had a ton of notes truncated because firefox limits the field to 4096 characters......! I've found some word counts, but no character counts.

Firefox extension to inspect fonts?

frenetic — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 07:04:55 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension that will let me mouseover some text on a webpage and tell me what font is being used, plus all its properties (size, line-height, padding, color, etc)?

Firefox extension problems

stupidsexyFlanders — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:12:10 -0800

All my firefox extensions in the Extensions window are greyed out, none of them work, and right clicking doesn't give me any workable options that are not greyed out. What's up? They used to work.

Firefox Extension and Themes Don't Show Up Post-Install

fenriq — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 11:07:15 -0800

FireFoxExtension/Theme Filter
I have been using FireFox for a while now and prefer it to other browser offerings but am having a recurring issue that I can't seem to find any help on. Everytime I try to download and install a new theme or extension, it downloads, FireFox asks me if I want to install it, it appears to install it but the extension or theme never shows up in the relevant window. Did I change some setting to break the extensions? (MI) Somehow, some of the extensions actually seem to be usable, like the BugMeNot one. But it still doesn't show up in the window. And none of the themes show up at all ever.

Also, somehow, FireFox is no longer digesting Java properly even with all the requisite check boxes checked. I've tried reinstalling it but it doesn't make any difference.