I use ftp a lot to transfer files to my own blog and when I really get into writing I can close and open it several times. I use Fire FTP, a Firefox extension that lets you transfer files via FTP protocol right there in your browser. This is an immensely useful tool, but to access it you need to go to the tools menu and select it from the list.

Luckily you can install the Fire FTP button that will let you access it from any toolbar. Remember, you won’t see it after you install, you need to right-click a toolbar, click on customize, find the button and drag it to any toolbar. I placed it just to the left of my URL bar , so it’s quite accessible.

My other favorite is the clear cache button. Since I make modifications to my blog a lot, it won’t always show up, since the blog is being loaded from the cache. This can only be helped if go to tools, click on clear private data (or press ctr+shift+del), uncheck all boxes except the cache and click ok. To be able to do this in less than five minutes, you can download the button, and install it in the same way as the FTP button. It’s not as pretty, but very useful.

This online service let’s you create shiny buttons to look just the way it’s “cool” now. Each part of the button is customizable, including the size, background, all colors and roundness of your unique piece. It’s good to set rendering speed to “zippy” for preview and “wicked slow” for the final rendering. At the end you simply download the result as a zip that includes jpg, png and gif files. When putting the button on a website it looks best along with a hover effect achieved by using CSS.

The example button on their site doesn’t show the best of this service in my opinion, for another example take a look at the button I’ve made for a friends website.