Previously I have already recommened must-have Firefox addons for web developers but this time I have just complied a list of some mostly very small addons I can highly recommend.
Copy Plain Text
Sometimes you’d like to copy some contents from a website into an email or something like Word. If you have ever done that (and your editor is not set to plain text) you know what happens. All of the contents are copied with the original styles like formatting, colors etc. Sometimes you just don’t want this and need only the plain text.
Before this addon was developed the obvious solution was to copy the contents, open something like Notepad on Windows, insert the text there, copy it again and insert into the final program like your email program or word processor.
If you have installed this addon you can simply right-click after selecting any text and instead of selecting “Copy” as you would normally do you can just choose “Copy as Plain Text” and you’re done.
Download Statusbar
I’m wondering why this hasn’t been included in Firefox from the beginning. For me it’s just a must-have addon allowing easy integration of download statuses, launching downloaded programs and so much more directly from within the Firefox main window - no need to open that download window anymore.
Flashblock
After installing the Flashblock addon in Firefox all the Flash objects on a website are disabled by default and replaced with a Flashblock placeholder. By clicking on this placeholder element the Flash object is executed as usual.
The downside of this addon is that you may need to click much more depending on which sites you’re visiting. However the addon also features an exclusion list of sites where you want to allow Flash content to be enabled automatically. For many months I have been waiting for a feature in Flashblock that - as I found out just a few weeks ago - is already contained in the addon. If you wish to allow a specific website you would normally have to open the addons dialog, open the Flashblock settings and then manually enter the URL of the website you wish to always allow Flash execution on.
This tedious task can be highly optimized by right-clicking on the free space next to the menu bar on your Firefox browser, selecting “Customize” and then dragging the Flashblock element into the Firefox navigation bar. Afterwards you can easily allow access for any site by using this button.
Forecastfox
Always want to know the current weather forecast? Then install Forecastfox - it’s small, cool and customizable. Nothing more to say I think.
Link Alert
Actually nobody I know seems to know this addon. I really like it. It actually does nothing more than changing the mouse pointer when hovering over a link depending on the target URL. This way you can actually see directly without looking at the target URL if the target is an SSL URL, a ZIP file, a PDF, if the link opens in a new window automatically and much more. Just have a look at the addon page to see some screenshots. I’m sure you don’t want to miss it after you have used it for some time.
Morning Coffee
Always visiting the same URLs every day on certain times or on certain days? Highly configurable depending on the weekday. Allows you to open specific websites according to a predefined list. I’m using it nearly every morning to automatically open the weather report and the current train schedule - I just need to click on the coffee cup in the navigation bar. Cool!
PDF Download
If you have installed the Link Alert addon mentioned before you already know prior to clicking on a link if it links to a PDF file. This addon shows a dialog whenever you click on any PDF link allowing you to choose between opening it directly, saving it to disk, converting it to HTML or bypassing this selection directly which means that Firefox handles the PDF link as if you had not installed the addon.
Save Image In Folder
Are you tired of browsing to the correct directory for saving images? When I download a desktop background image I just right-click on the image and select “Save in folder” and then “Desktop Backgrounds” which I have configured before. This is quite helpful if you have different folders for different images.
Session Manager
I am actually one of those people that like to see all the tabs opened before when the browser has been closed and is restarted. This is what the Session Manager can do. And even if your Firefox crashes (as happened to me just today) on restarting Firefox it will show a box where you can select the session that has been saved automatically - normally I just need to hit ENTER and the session that was active before the browser crashed is restored automatically.
I hope you found some interesting addons in this list - I can recommend any of them.
