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Firefox Tips, Extensions, and Fixes
By greg | October 6, 2008
I’m here to share some simple and useful tips, keyboard shortcuts, and Extensions to help you get the most of your Firefox 3 web browser (and perhaps, in turn, convince some of you to “convert” 
).
Keyboard Shortcuts
Alright, so first and foremost, you want to be able to quickly/efficiently navigate internet cyberspace and find what you’re looking for. That’s what the web browser’s main functionality is, right? Keyboard shortcuts are key (pun not intended) here. I guarantee that using keyboard shortcuts to navigate the Firefox browser will save you time in the long run and make your browsing experience much more enjoyable. Click here for the Top Ten Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts.
Notes: The ⌘ + shift + t shortcut has become one of my favorites (opens the most recent closed tab). The Delicious Extension bookmark shortcut was different for me. Mine is set as ⌘ + Shift + L.
Quicksilver Fix
I use the free Mac program Quicksilver to open my bookmarks almost 100% of the time. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you definitely need to Google “Quicksilver Mac.” It’s a must-have program (I feel somewhat “shackled” when I use a Mac without it). Anyways… there is a little tweak you have to make in Firefox 3 in order to have Quicksilver recognize/index your bookmarks. Read the following walkthrough to fix this problem.
Open about:config in Firefox Location bar, agree that you won’t mess
anything up.Search for “browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML”
Double click it to enable it (Or right click it and hit toggle)
Restart Firefox & Quicksilver…
“browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML” makes firefox generate a new
bookmarks.html at a certain point (don’t know when).
Plug-Ins/Add-Ons
One of the main perks of Firefox is the diverse number of Extensions. Some of my favorites are the following:
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer – “Synchronizes your bookmarks across machines.” Perfect solution for those of you who work on multiple computers!
- Google Gears – Speed of certain web-browser components
- Tab Mix Plus – Tab browsing with an added boost
- TwitterBar – Post links and messages directly to Twitter from the address bar!
- StumbleUpon – Simple way to “Stumble” pages and “StumbleUpon” new sites. Great for when you’re bored…
- Greasemonkey – “A User Script Manager for Firefox.” A bit complicated at first (but don’t give up on it!). Adds custom scripts to modify different websites’ functions.
- Delicious Bookmarks – Simple Delicious integration. Check into Delicious if you haven’t. It’s an awesome complement/alternative to bookmark syncing (1st plug-in listed). Great way to organize favorites AND not forget those sites you read and want to come back to later.
Topics: Apple, Applications, Mac, Mac tips | No Comments »