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Mozilla Ubiquity Command List

Martin — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:15:15 +0000

Ubiquity is an interesting add-on for the Firefox web browser that was covered before here at Ghacks. Here is a short explanation of what Ubiquity adds to the Firefox browser. It basically provides access to a command line in Firefox that comes preinstalled with dozens of commands to make life easier for the Firefox user. It takes for examples only a few seconds to look up an address in a map, perform a search in a search engine, submit a page to social media sites, send a message to Twitter, look something up in a dictionary or start writing an email.

The main command to open the command line interface is [CTRL Space]. This opens the command line in the top left corner of the screen. Matching commands will automatically be shown once the first char has been typed into the command line. To sum it up: Ubiquity enables Firefox users to quickly access web services and features without opening them first in the web browser.

Several commands are available that can add new features to Ubiquity. It is for example possible to add new search engines with just a few keys. Any website with a search box can be added that way to Ubiquity.

The Firefox community has created hundreds of additional commands that can be added to Ubiquity. The Mozilla Ubiquity team has added them to a master command list linking to hundreds of different commands that can be added to the web browser. The contents are divided into various categories from country specific commands to web search, programming language or web 2.0 commands.

Commands are added much like Firefox add-ons are added. If Ubiquity commands are found on a website a small bar at the top of the web browser is shown that can be used to add the command to the Internet browser.

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-extension, mozilla-firefox, Ubiquity, web browser

Firefox Beer oClock extension

Martin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:36:03 +0000

Beer day is the day of the week where you go out with the guys from work. More often than not it’s Friday afternoon. The Beer oClock extension for Firefox puts a little reminder about that special time of the week in the Firefox status bar. Not the usual “x days y hours till Beer Day” but funny ones like 3500 lines of code ’til beer o’clock” or 10 ridiculous questions from clients ’til beer o’clock”.

It is even possible to add your own message to customize the add-on. The settings can be set to a specific day and time of the day until the office beer o’clock. The user can select the interval between messages that are shown and there is even a “getting close” period in which the reminders are displayed more frequently.

That’s definitely a fun way to spend the days in the office. I would probably either add dozens of new messages or change the interval to display a message to once or twice a day instead.

Tags: add on, beer, beer oclock, firefox, firefox-extension, office, work

Don’t jump to next message in Thunderbird automatically

Martin — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:42:53 +0000

The problem that Thunderbird is always selecting the next message in line after deleting or moving the previous one has bothered me for some time. It happened more than once that a spam mail was selected and read that way which I did not want to happen obviously.

Unselect Message puts an end to this. Instead of moving to the next message in line when deleting or moving a message it simply does not select a new message. This makes sure that Thunderbird does not jump to a spam or malicious message after deleting or moving the previous one.

Unselect Message is unfortunately not compatible with the latest version of Thunderbird unless you change that. It seems that the author is not developing the extension anymore but it is working fine in the latest version of Thunderbird.

Download the Thunderbird add-on from the Mozilla website. Rename the xpi extension to zip and unpack it. Now edit the file install.rdf with a text editor and change the maxVersion entry from 1.6 to 2.1. Save the file and move it into the archive once again replacing the old version of it.

Now install the Thunderbird add-on as usual and the extension should work just fine.

Tags: add on, Email, mozilla, thunderbird, thunderbird add-ons

Numbered Tabs for Firefox

Martin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:32:40 +0000

The Firefox add-on Fancy Numbered Tabs replaces the red X with numbers. Replaces is probably not the best term for this because the X is still available if you hover your mouse over the number. You might wonder why numbering the tabs could be useful, let me explain.

Did you know that it is possible to use a shortcut to switch between tabs blazingly fast ? You press CTRL + n where n is the number of the tab that you want to switch to. This is not a problem if you have three or four tabs open but it surely is one if you have 17 open tabs and want to open a tab somewhere in the middle.

Numbered Tabs visualize the shortcut for you. This makes it easier and faster to use the shortcut to switch to a new tab. The add-on is therefor useful for those who do use or intend to use this shortcut.

Read More:

Fancy Numbered Tabs
via Firefox Facts

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-add on, firefox-extensions, mozilla

Tab Mix Plus Firefox Extension

Martin — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:42:20 +0000

I’m using the Tab Mix Plus Firefox Extension for one simple purpose mainly. I don’t like the way Firefox handles if you open more sites in tabs than the width of your screen can display. The default way is that Firefox makes the tab list scrollable which is not a perfect solution. I was looking for an extension that would create an additional row and place all the new tabs in that row. Tab Mix Plus supports this feature, you can select the maximum number of rows that should be added, the default value is three rows which means that two additional rows will be added if necessary.

The extension has so many options that it is hard to focus on some that could be worth mentioning. Playing around with it revealed several ones that I did activate and like. You may specify a minimum and maximum width for all tabs, changing the default Firefox values of 100 to 250 pixels to different values. I have great success with 80 to 150 pixels which should be enough to identify most websites.

It is furthermore possible to change the erratic behavior that downloads sometimes open in blank tabs which do not disappear after the download finishes. Tab Mix Plus is able to prevent this from happening. You can select which events should open a new tab and which should not, I have selected to open all javascript popups in tabs, all links that normally open in new windows, all links from other applications and when I want to open bookmarks.

You may also set the behavior for mouse clicks. Define actions when double-clicking, middle-clicking, shift-clicking, ctrl-clicking and alt-clicking a tab and the tab bar. Actions range from closing, duplicating and reloading tabs to merging and protecting them.

Unread tabs and the current tab can be displayed in different colors and fonts to distinguish them from the rest of the open tabs. A progress meter will be displayed in tabs that are currently loaded which is a nice feature as well.

Tags: add on, browse, firefox, firefox-extensions, internet, mozilla, tab-mix-plus, tabbed-browsing

Auto Copy Firefox Extension

Martin — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 11:37:55 +0000

Auto Copy is one of those Firefox extensions that are small and add new functionalities to the Mozilla Firefox. Did you ever receive a email with a link that breaks the line and uses two lines to be displayed ? It is not possible to just left-click the link to visit the website because the link is cut off after the first line. The website can’t be displayed. This happens often in mails that require a confirmation after a forum registration for instance.

You can right-click the link with Auto Copy installed and choose to open it in a new tab. Auto Copy opens the complete link which is simply put a great time safer. This is of course just one feature of Auto Copy. Another one which is especially helpful for webmasters that run blogs is that it “auto copies” marked text to the clipboard and lets you paste it again by using the middle mouse button.

Auto Copy offers some additional features such as accessing previous clipboard entries, paste marked text to the search bar or location bar and search for an entry directly. This is one of the few extensions that every webmaster should have installed.

Tags: add on, auto-copy, browser, firefox, firefox-add on, firefox-extensions, mozilla, url

Thunderbird Birthday Reminder

Martin — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:26:09 +0000

Birthday Reminder is a sweet little add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird which does exactly what the name implies: It reminds you of upcoming birthdays of users that are in your address bock in Thunderbird. It is relatively easy to add new birthdays to the address bock which then get automatically picked up by the Birthday Reminder extension.

Birthdays can be added by opening the address bock in Thunderbird and right-clicking on an entry that you want to edit. Select Properties in the right-click menu and click on the other tab. Custom 1 is the default location for the birthdays. Add the birthday in the format 8.2.2007 (day / month / year).

The new birthday will be picked up automatically by the birthday reminder extension. Two options exist how you will be reminded of birthdays. The first reminder is send by email – you specify how many days in advance you want to be notified and an email will be send with the information about the upcoming birthday.

The second reminder is a simple popup window which opens everytime Thunderbird is opened. I do not like the second option that much because I tend to open and close Thunderbird a lot and it soon becomes annoying to close the birthday reminder popup.

Tags: add on, birthday, birthday-reminder, Email, firefox-extensions, mozilla, thunderbird

Attachement Extractor for Thunderbird

Martin — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:12:00 +0000

I had a situation recently where I had to extract about forty emails with attachments in Thunderbird. Doing this manually wastes so much time and I was looking for a way to extract all the attachments automatically. Thankfully genbeta posted a reference to the Thunderbird Attachment Extractor extension which does exactly what I was looking for.

The extension makes it easy to extract multiple attachments at once. Just select all the mails that have the attachments that you want to extract and right-click afterwards. The option to extract them either to the default Thunderbird directory or to another location can be selected from the context menu. You may want to configure the attachment extractor further. You could for instance add potentially dangerous file types to a filter, add a default save path or define which action should take place if a file name already exists.

Installation is a little bit trickier than installing extensions in Firefox. You have to download the xpi file and install it directly in Thunderbird by going to Tools > Extensions > Install. Choose the downloaded file and it will be installed automatically at the next start.

Tags: add on, attachment, extract, firefox-extensions, thunderbird

Url Fixer Extension for Firefox

Martin — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:27:43 +0000

I’m a fast typer and it occasionally happens that I make errors when entering urls. I always hate it when I have to edit the url because i typed ghacks.nez instead of ghacks.net for instance. I’m lazy and always looking for ways to keep being lazy. Url Fixer is one of those nice little extensions for Firefox that helps me a lot when I’m using Firefox.

Url Fixer is auto correcting urls that have obvious errors like a unknown extension (.cor instead of .com) but also takes a look at http and https and fixes those if an error occured. It does not however work with links that you click on websites which would be really awesome to say the least.

Url Fixer will also correct country code extensions such as .de for Germany or .co.uk for the United Kingdom. Definitely a must have add-on for Firefox.

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-extensions, fix, mozilla, typo, url, url-fixer

Firefox Searchload Extension

Martin — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:36:58 +0000

The Firefox add-on Searchload adds three useful options to those users who use the build in search. Did you notice that every search string that you enter stays in the search field and that you have to clear it manually when you want to enter a new search ? Searchload’s first option is to reset the field after a specified amount of time. The second option resets the search engine to the default one after x seconds and the last one controls whether the search results are opened in the same window, a new window or new tab.

The searchload extension is useful but needs some minor tweaking. You can only enter two digits which is not enough for some users. It would be nice to enter three digits for the seconds instead. Searchload works with Tab Mix Plus and Search Autoresizer.

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-extensions, mozilla, searchload

Use Splitlink for Firefox to check for Redirects

Martin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:36:21 +0000

It is sometimes really difficulty to figure out the real url of a link. Parameters and Javascript can obscure links and mislead the user. Advanced users will know the methods to figure this out really quickly while inexperienced users will have troubles doing so. The extension Splitlink for Firefox aids the inexperienced in finding out about the links that they intend to click.

It does not make sense to check each and every link that you encounter on the internet. It makes much more sense to manually check a link if you are suspicious about it or want to find out the real url. Using Splitlink is pretty easy. Right-click a link and select the Splitlink entry from the menu that pops up.

A new window will open showing the original link and the reformatted one. Clicking on the reformatted link will open the page in the parent window. Splitlink offers a basic way of finding out where a certain link would redirect you to.

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-extensions, mozilla, redirect, splitlink

Translator Add-on for Firefox

Martin — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 08:32:24 +0000

It was only a matter of time until someone implemented a translator add-on for Mozilla Firefox. The add-on currently supports the following languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Arabic. You may not translate between all languages though, for example you may only translate from Simplified Chinese to English but not to other languages.

The add-on is configured to use Google Translation as the default Translation service. You may change this behavior if you prefer Yahoo Babelfish, PROMPT, Altavista, FreeTranslation or IM Translator. The add-on places an icon in the status bar. Right-Clicking that icon opens a menu with all the available translation options and a link to the preferences.

The add-on can be configured to translate the website in the current tab, a new window, a new tab or the sidebar. You may also select to add a quick translation option when the icon in the status bar is left clicked. You have to select the languages for quick translation by yourself.

The translator add-on is an excellent time saver if you have been using translation services before. Sure, you do not necessarily need the add-on to translate the websites. You could also do it manually by visiting the translation service and pasting the url to translate into the form field.

Tags: add on, babelfish, firefox, language, mozilla, site, translate, translator, website

Firefox add-on to discover media links

Martin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:02:14 +0000

I’m currently using the Video Downloader add-on for firefox to download videos from websites such as youtube or google video. It is working perfectly on those websites but has limitations when it comes to different type of websites that use MMS or RealMedia links for their movies for example.

Unplug steps in providing the technology to discover media links for mms and real media videos as well. It is also working for flv files that youtube and google video use but not that comfortable as the video downloader add-on. Once the extension is installed you can use the add-on by selecting Tools / UnPlug to scan the website automatically for media links.

A better option would be to add the unplug icon to one of your toolbars for faster access. To do that right-click a toolbar and select customize from the menu. Scroll down until you see the unplug fish and drag it to the toolbar of your choice.

Most of the time you receive a choice of possibilities that could contain the actual movie. It looks more complicated. Unplug tries to help the user by suggesting one or two of the links that it thinks are the most possible correct links to the movie. I would use this plugin for the sites that the video downloader is not able to process.

Tags: add on, download, firefox, firefox-extensions, links, media, movie, mozilla, mss, rstp, unplug, video

Paste and Go in Firefox

Martin — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:56:36 +0000

Among other features that Opera has is the right-click Paste and Go option when you paste a link into the address bar. Firefox does not have this feature and I missed it dearly. I’m lazy and I think it’s to much work to paste the link into the address bar and hit enter or push a button afterwards to load the new site.

Paste and Go is a simple Firefox add-on which adds the functionality know from Opera to Firefox. It adds the paste and go function to the right-click menu when your mouse hovers above the address bar. It adds similar functionality to the search bar where the right-click menu entry is called paste and search.

Last but not least you can use a keyboard shortcut for the same effect. In Windows and Unix it is Control + SHIFT + V, on Mac COMMAND + SHIFT + V.

Some users are reporting that the newest version of the plugin caused errors while using the keyboard navigation. This is no problem for me because I’m not using keyboard navigation at all but it might be for some of you who do. You better don’t install the extension if you use or need the feature.

Tags: add on, addon, firefox, firefox-extensions, mozilla, opera, paste-go, web

Change the way Thunderbird handles quotes

Martin — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:16:33 +0000

Thunderbird changed the way quotes are handled. If you have been using a different email program before you may found the way Thunderbird handles quotes irritating. Take a look at the screenshots below and you know what I mean. The first shows the general way most email programs handle quotes. The second shows the way Thunderbird handles quotes usually.

The Thunderbird add-on Quote Colors is able to change the way Thunderbird handles quotes. You can change the way back to the default way quotes are handled or change it into the way that the picture below shows.

So, if you do not like the way Thunderbird handles the way quotes are displayed you can change it easily by installing the Quote Colors add-on.

Tags: add on, e mail, Email, firefox-extensions, mail, mozilla, quotes, thunderbird

Hide Menus in Fullscreen with Autohide for Firefox

Martin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 07:39:06 +0000

I was reading about Autohide yesterday over at lifehacker and had the plan to try it today to see if it was a useful add-on for mozilla firefox. Autohide manipulates the interface of firefox when entering fullscreen mode (F11) – you can select to (auto) hide certain bars and menu entries to have more space for the website itself. The following settings can be changed:

You may choose to always show the status bar or only on activity, you may hide all toolbars that are currently installed including the google and stumbleupon toolbar if they are installed on your system. The same can be done for the tab bar and the windows taskbar. Now, whenever you move your mouse over an hidden item (such as the menu bar) it becomes visible and you can interact with it normally.

The direct opposite of hidding certain items can also be configured which would be show always. If you can’t live without the tab bar and status bar you can select to have them always on. They never hide when you press F11 and go into fullscreen mode.

This application can benefit users with older displays and users who like to have all the information present on the screen.

Tags: add on, addon, autohide, browser, firefox, firefox-extensions, freeware, lifehacker, mozilla, tip

Check out your surfing habits with page addict

Martin — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:05:16 +0000

If you are interested in stats about your general surfing habits then page addict might come in handy. This firefox extension records the time that you visited a website and displays some nice graphs showing the dates, the minutes you have been on those sites and the total amount of minutes that you were using firefox on that day. That is of course not everything: You may tag a site or more than one site and check the stats of those tags as well. If you visit cnn, bbc and yahoo for work you could tag them “work” and receive the exact amount of time that you visited those sites.

The stats are displayed at the homepage of pageaddict, urls are automatically added to the list once you visited them. Tags can be applied by creating a new tag first and then applying it to one of the urls that is already displayed. You may restrict access to a certain url by selecting that option and choosing an amount of minutes that the user is allowed to visit that site. If the limit is reached the page will not load and page addict will display the message “get back to work!”.

Not really a security feature but one that could work as a reminder that you should get back to work and stop reading a certain website..

Tags: add on, firefox, firefox-extensions, mozilla, mozilla-firefox, page-addict, record-time, tag, tag-websites, usage, websites, work

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