Helpful Firefox Install Action

I decided to put up a page with instructions on how to install Firefox and some of the better (in my opinon) extensions out there.

So here you go. If you want to get Firefox working as teh awesome, follow these instructions.

Installing Firefox

First step is to actually get the program on your computer. You can download the installer at https://www.mozilla.org/firefox. Once you have downloaded it, run the installer program. If you seriously can’t do this, please return your computer to Sam’s Club.

Configuring Firefox

Now that you have the browser installed, it’s time to make it be cool. First time that you start it up, it will prompt you to import your bookmarks and settings from Internet Explorer. If you are on a Mac, don’t bother trying this; it doesn’t work. But if you are on a Mac, why aren’t you using Safari anyway?

So now you have Firefox up and running. Here are the things that I, personally, do to make it great. Your milage may vary:

1) Get rid of as much stuff taking up room on the screen as possible.To do this, go to View | Toolbars | Customize. Then I like to select “Use Small Icons” and manipulate the toolbar to make it more the way I like it. I also disable the “Bookmarks Toolbar”, but if you like having big buttons to clicky clicky on, then go ahead and leave it.

2) Install cool extensions. Here are the extensions that I think are neat:

Adblock Plus – blocks ads on websites. Must have this! The “plus” version has a lot more features than the old one, including auto-updating block lists. Really helpful.
BBCode – if you use various web forums and want to be able to do formatting, this is helpful. You can also turn on the HTML buttons, which is useful when wanting to format LJ comments.
SwitchProxy Tool – for people like me, who use one proxy server at work, but another at home, this makes switching back and forth really easy.
WeatherFox – puts weather forcasts in the status bar. I dig it. Some people don’t. Some people also enjoy the comedic stylings of Gallagher.
BugMeNot – allows you to easily bypass compulsory registration for free websites like the NY Times, etc.
Popup ALT Attribute – pops up alternate texts given as ALT attributes (they are not descriptions, but authors often use the attribute only for popups), like NC4, IE, and other browsers.
Deepest Sender – this is a LiveJournal client for Firefox. Kind of neat.
del.icio.us – bookmark manager.
SwiftTabs – lets you navigate between tabs by using F1 and F2 keys. Simple, but elegant.
IE Tab – let’s you open links in IE from Firefox in a tab. Doesn’t seem necessary until you try it.
Webmail Compose – makes mailto: links open in webmail (such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail) instead of Outlook or Notes or whatnot.
Fasterfox [I decided to put up a page with instructions on how to install Firefox and some of the better (in my opinon) extensions out there.

So here you go. If you want to get Firefox working as teh awesome, follow these instructions.

Installing Firefox

Configuring Firefox

So now you have Firefox up and running. Here are the things that I, personally, do to make it great. Your milage may vary:

2) Install cool extensions. Here are the extensions that I think are neat:

Adblock Plus – blocks ads on websites. Must have this! The “plus” version has a lot more features than the old one, including auto-updating block lists. Really helpful.
BBCode – if you use various web forums and want to be able to do formatting, this is helpful. You can also turn on the HTML buttons, which is useful when wanting to format LJ comments.
SwitchProxy Tool – for people like me, who use one proxy server at work, but another at home, this makes switching back and forth really easy.
WeatherFox – puts weather forcasts in the status bar. I dig it. Some people don’t. Some people also enjoy the comedic stylings of Gallagher.
BugMeNot – allows you to easily bypass compulsory registration for free websites like the NY Times, etc.
Popup ALT Attribute – pops up alternate texts given as ALT attributes (they are not descriptions, but authors often use the attribute only for popups), like NC4, IE, and other browsers.
Deepest Sender – this is a LiveJournal client for Firefox. Kind of neat.
del.icio.us – bookmark manager.
SwiftTabs – lets you navigate between tabs by using F1 and F2 keys. Simple, but elegant.
IE Tab – let’s you open links in IE from Firefox in a tab. Doesn’t seem necessary until you try it.
Webmail Compose – makes mailto: links open in webmail (such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail) instead of Outlook or Notes or whatnot.
Fasterfox]11
****Google Browser Sync – lets you sync bookmarks, cookies, passwords, all sorts of stuff between different computers. Neat.
Greasemonkey – lets you install some neat user scripts (listed below) to modify the way certain webpages work. Makes MySpace tolerable!

Here are some Greasemonkey scripts I like:

3) Learn the magic of tabs. Firefox (like most modern, non-IE web browsers) supports the concept of tabbed browsing. It’s hard to explain, but pretty useful once you get it. Press “control-T” (or “command-T” on the Mac) to open a new tab. Make sense now?

4) Customize your search bar. See that little text box with the Google “G” in the upper right corner? Let’s you search Google immediately. Cool. But what’s cooler? Click on the G and see the other things you can search. And you can add more as well. I have added the IMDB. Essential!

5) Bookmark keywords. A simple thing, but useful. If you get the properties on a bookmark, you can assign it a keyword. For example, when I type in “lj” into the address bar of my Firefox, it takes me to https://mugsy1274.livejournal.com/friends{.linkification-ext}. A boon for the lazy!

Please comment on this post with any cool Firefox tips you might have. I will add to this as I think of it. Feel free to point your friends over here who want to try Firefox the Mugsy way.