Firefox add-ons for productivity
17
Sep
2007
Here is a list of productivity add-ons for Firefox. These are NOT just for programmers. These are split up into 4 groups: Keyboard, Mouse, Upgrade Firefox features, and Google. Did I miss any? What do you use to make you more productive?
Enhance your keyboard (mouse-less browsing)
- Hit-A-Hint - This add-on allows you to click links to interact with form inputs as seen in the screenshot. Just hit “H” and then the letters that correspond to the object you want to click
- Keyconfig - Configure keyboard shortcuts for pretty much everything all in one place. A staple of mouse-less browsing
- functions for keyconfig - This adds additional shortcuts for things such as Tab Focusing, Frame Focusing, Copy URL, and a lot more
- Surfkeys - Make surfing super easy with a keyboard. Sets shortcuts keys for many common browsing tasks (Back, Scrolling, Stop…). Using keyconfig is a must so you can configure these keys, but it is soooo worth it :)
Enhance your mouse
- Drag de Go - Allows you to perform different actions depending on which way you drag an object on the page. It is kind of like adding extra mouse gestures for dragging and fully customizable!
- Mouse Gestures - Insert your own mouse gestures add-on here. I personally use Mouse Gestures but there are a bunch out there and most are very useful
Enhance Firefox features
- All-in-one Sidebar - A sidebar control inspired by Opera. You can open add-ons, downloads, and much more (I also open Google Notebook and Google Talk in mine). Super customizable and very useful.
- del.icio.us Bookmarks - Integrates your browser with del.icio.us, it integrates seamlessly with Firefox’s bookmark system and you can easily search, tag, import and share your bookmarks.
- FEBE - Quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions (and other personalizations such as userChrome.css) which allows you to sync multiple computers by exporting your saved profile. I use this to sync my work and home Firefox setup.
- XUL/Migemo - This extension adds 3 major features to Firefox’s Find toolbar: More customizations, Safari-like highlight feature, and a “dictionary assisted find”
for the language of your choice. Ultra helpful and just slick looking.
Enhance Google services
- Better GMail - Adds a ridiculous amount of new features to Gmail (Filter Assistant, bunch of skins, HTML Sigs, GCal in folder list… and 23 more). If you use Gmail, you need this extension!
- Better GCal - Enhance Google Calendar with collapsible header and sidebar, extra skins, text wrap those
long event names, and a bunch more. As with Better GMail, once you try this you probably will be spoiled. - Better GReader - This extension optimizes the skin and adds a smart subscribe feature to
the top-right of every page so you know if you are subscribed to the feed on the page or not. - CustomizeGoogle - Enhances many google services with a TON of custom options. It also supports, ajax-y loading of search results if you scroll to the bottom of the results it loads the next 10 or so on the fly so there is no refreshing. You can also remove ads from basically all services and force secure connections when possible.
I hope you find some add-ons that you didn’t know about and I hope they are useful to you. Please share your productivity-enhancing ‘fox extensions in the comments!
A 24 year-old programmer for
Very informative list. Thanks.
PermaTabs is my favorite. It locks specific tabs down permanently in your browser. Useful for apps like gmail, googlereader, etc, that I need every 10 minutes.
Hello!
I think this try.
For “Enhance your keyboard (mouse-less browsing)” there is also Enso: http://www.humanized.com
I’ve been using it for a while now and its awesome!
@Predrag:
Wow that looks useful! Unfortunately(?) it is only for Windows it seems…
Thanks for the tip!