Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Over a year ago, I informed you of the Firefox Add-ons I use and told you why you should download each one. In this guide, I’ll show you the current add-ons I use and why I recommend them. If you have an add-on to suggest, please leave it in the comments below along with the reason you suggested it for.

Recommended Firefox Add-ons

Here are the Firefox Add-ons I use (I’ve omitted some that are developer-specific, that I didn’t feel would be useful for everyone):

Adblock Plus

I’ve recommended this add-on before. Simply put, Adblock plus blocks most advertising online, which gives you a distraction-free, cleaner experience when browsing. I’ve had quite a few disgruntled website owners contact me after writing posts dedicated to blocking ads. I see nothing wrong with this practice. Block them today!

Download AdBlock Plus

DownThemAll!

This add-on is useful if you want to download media, in mass, from a website. I find this useful when I come to a page with multiple links to PDF documents or if my FTP server is not playing nicely and I need all the image files from a page on my site. With DownThemAll!, you can batch download media that is both on a page and linked to from a page.

Download DownThemAll!

Firebug

Although this is a developer tool, you may find it interesting to learn what happens on a webpage when it loads. I use this add-on, Yslow, and Google’s page timer to debug my site and make sure it’s running as efficiently as possible.

Download Firebug

Google Gears

I use this add-on for a few applications: Gmail, Google Calendar, and Wordpress. Gears downloads information to your computer so you can work with less loading time (no need to download the same data all the time) and offline (with Gmail offline mode for example.)

Google Gears can be downloaded from the Wordpress Dashboard, GMail’s Offline feature etc

Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is a userscript manager, which takes scripts and applies them to a webpage. You can use Greasmonkey to customize your favorite websites by cutting out unnecessary content, changing color schemes, and more. Get userscrips here.

Download Greasemonkey

Html Validator

This is another developer tool I decided to include because I find it very useful. With Html validator, you validate a webpage using a number of different markup checkers. Html validation is often ignored but an important part of web development that ensures, to a degree, your website works across multiple browsers.

Download Html Validator

Personal Menu

Personal menu lets you cut down the bulk on your Firefox menu. I dislike browsers that need more than one line of menu items. When I install Firefox on any machine, the first thing I do is customize the interface to make menu, bookmarks, address bar, and search fit on one line (see below.) I previously recommended Tiny Menu, but this add-on, in my opinion, is even better.

Download Personal Menu

Stumbleupon

Stumbleupon, as you may already know, is a social network, which takes your interests and lets you “stumble” to different pages related to those them. This add-on is the Stumbleupon toolbar (which, when installed, I relocate to the notification bar and make it visible only when I use it &emdash; CTRL+F11.) Sign up with Stumbleupon here.

Download Stumbleupon

Toodledo

I am a GTD fan and I use Toodledo to stay on top of my life with tasks, checklists, notes and more. This add-on lets me add a task to my list with CTRL+ALT+A when I’m browsing. This way, as an idea comes to my mind, I can add it to my list and get back to what I was doing with minimal distraction.

Download Toodledo

Xmarks

Xmarks syncs your bookmarks and passwords between browsers. This is useful because I use multiple computers and want my bookmarks on all machines. Xmarks even syncs with IE, which syncs with my phone, so I have my bookmarks on the go. You can even log in to your account at Xmarks.com and view your bookmarks there too (useful when I’m at work and want to access my links.)

Download Xmarks

Bonus Tip

If you do not need to use an add-on all the time, I recommend you disable it to speed up Firefox. Open the Add-ons screen, click on an Add-on and click Disable. This will make Firefox more responsive and also clean up context menus etc &emdash; making Firefox easier to use.

That rounds up my Firefox add-on suggestions, what add-ons do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.