Note: This is still the same version as SC.

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I thought I would create a centralised place for folk to get information on the most useful Firefox & Thunderbird Extensions, instead of having the information littered in my own and other peoples posts throughout the forum. Since Firefox is gaining popularity (along with other browsers such as Opera and Safari) I thought I would help out any SCers who wanted to make the switch.

Also, this probably makes for the most useful landmark-post (my 4,000th in SC) that I’ve ever written.

Please note: I will only include Extensions that have been updated to work with Firefox 1.0PR and Thunderbird 0.8.

So, in no particular order:

Firefox Extensions

Adblock
So great an extension it is almost a reason in itself to use Firefox. A very powerful web-advertisment blocking extension means you can browse without being visually assaulted by banners, Flash, and even JavaScript-based adverts. Also useful for blocking images that come from certain well-known “shock” sites.

downTHEMall!
“downTHEMall! (or just dTa!) is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds a lot of new useful downloading capabilities to your browser. dTa lets you download in just one click all the links contained in a webpage; to refine your preferences you can use fully customizable filters, and select just the kind of files you really want to download.”

IEView
What with so many great browsers doing the rounds, the reliance on IE to view certain pages is fast dwindling. But sometimes you need to fire the old girl up, and this extension makes it easy by adding a “View this page in IE” shortcut to your right-click menu.

ChromEdit
Makes the Firefox configuration files userChrome.css, userContent.css, user.js & prefs.js easily accessible from the Tools menu, allowing you to do tricks like the ones listed below in the How-To section.

Single Window
“A simple extension that allows Mozilla to fully utilize the built-in tabbed browsing behavior, compatible with Mozilla, Netscape, and Firefox.” It can even load JavaScript links into tabs for you.

TinyURL Creator
Integrates the popular TinyURL service with the Firefox browser. Create TinyURLs with a single-click.

Paste And Go
Anyone who has used Opera should know about this feature. It allows you to paste a URL into the address-bar and navigate directly to it in a single-click. Simple, but perhaps my most frequently used extension.

OpenBook
Another simple but useful extension that expands the Bookmark This Page folder-tree for you automatically. The new version includes a few options to customise this action.

FoxyTunes
Integrates a wide-range of media-players into the Firefox status-bar. Supports Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media 8, 9 & 10, Sonique 1.96, Musicmatch Jukebox 8, Media Player Classic, Real Player 10, and more.

GMail Notifier
Does exactly what it says on the tin: Sits in the status-bar alerting you of new GMail-messages.

Cute Menus
This extension is entirely cosmetic, but can improve your browsing experience. All it does is add fancy graphics to the Firefox menus.

Digger
Adds right-click functionality to the Go button, allowing you to traverse URLs in a hierarchical manner. (It’s more useful than it sounds. )

Web Developer Toolbar
Invaluable extension for debugging web-pages. You can live-edit CSS, disable images, page-colours, cookies, styles. Convert GETs to POSTs and vice-versa. Outline TABLEs and deprecated elements, and there are handy links to validation services. All this and more.

UserAgentSwitcher
Firefox can fake it, baby. Pretend you are another browser, or pretend you are the Googlebot (see below on how) and gain access to some login-only web-pages without needing to register.

GoogleBar
NEW Emulates the Google Toolbar for IE, with added functionality.

Disable Targets For Downloads
NEW Thanks Omega. Prevents sites spawning blank windows when clicking binary downloads.

fireFTP
NEW Thanks Omega. Add integrated FTP support to Firefox.

Something Awful Forums Enhancement
NEW SA forums addict? This extension integrates their forums with Firefox in a very cool and functional way.

PrintIt!
NEW Thanks Omega. Adds the Print command to the right-click menu. This new version also allows you to print selections.

Thunderbird Extensions

QuoteColours
Allows you to colourise quotes in email-messages. Different levels can even have different colours, and is fully-configurable.

No New Window On Double-Click
The man who named this extension doesn’t know much about brevity, which saves me a bit of time when typing out a descript... Oh bugger.

Folder Pane Tools
“This extension allows for customization of the folder pane. Accounts can be rearranged and the startup folder can be chosen.”

Delete Junk Context Menu
Adds a “Delete Junk Mail” shortcut to your right-click menu. For folk too lazy to go to Tools > Delete Mail Marked as Junk. :p

Contacts Sidebar
NEW Thanks Omega. “Contacts Sidebar displays all available address books in a sidebar in the 3-pane-window of Thunderbird. It makes all your contacts easy accessible from the main window to quickly write messages, or to edit the properties of a contact card.”

Hints, Tips, and How-Tos

Before applying any of the hacks here you would do well to install the ChromEdit extension (listed above.) It makes editing your userXXXXXX files a piece of cake by adding an editor to the Tools menu in Firefox.

Importing your IE Favorites or Opera Bookmarks
Step 1: Export your Faves/Bookmarks as an HTML file. For IE, do File > Import and Export... and follow the Wizard instructions. For Opera, go to File > Export > Bookmarks as HTML.... Step 2: To import them into Firefox, open the Bookmarks Manager from Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks..., then choose File > Import... and select From File in the Wizard. Choose the file that you previously exported.

Make the Tab-bar always visible
Tools > Options... > Advanced > Browsing, then de-select Hide the tab bar when only one web site is open. This is useful because you can open new Tabs by double-clicking on an empty part of the Tab-bar. Incidentally, you can close tabs quickly by middle-clicking.

Customising the Firefox and Thunderbird Toolbars and Buttons
An often overlooked feature, because it really needs to be more prominent. Simply right-click on any button in the Toolbar and choose Customise... from the menu.

Installing Extensions and Themes with Thunderbird
With Firefox you can simply click on a link to install an Extension, but the process is slightly more long-winded with Thunderbird. First, you need to save the XPI or JAR file to disk. Then, open the Extension or Theme manager from the Tools menu, choose Install, then select the desired file. You can also install Firefox Extensions and Themes that you have downloaded by choosing File > Open File... from the menu.

Widening the Reply-box in vB2 forums
Most people who have been recommended Firefox and who frequent vB2 forums (like INA, SC, and Tournament.com) find that the reply-box has shrunk in comparison to how it was IE. The fault is actually in the HTML, not the browser, but you can get round it by editing your userContent.css file and adding the following code:
Taming the Marquee-tag
If you can’t stand Marquees or find that the mess up your page-width, you can use this userContent.css hack to a) Prevent them scrolling, and b) Label them so that you still know they are a Marquee:
Pretend you’re the Googlebot
As mentioned above in the info about the UserAgentSwitcher extension, here is the user-agent string you need to get web-sites to believe you are the Googlebot:Do this from Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options > Options > User Agents > Add.... Use Googlebot as the Description, the code above as the User Agent, and leave the other fields blank.

That’ll do for now. I’ll add more if someone makes a good suggestion or tip.

Best extension ever:
AdBlock Filterset.G AutoUpdater

Security tweak to always display the location bar:
in about:config set dom.disable_window_open_feature.location to true.

Usability tweak to add a tooltip that shows the URL of every bookmark:
Change the appropriate section in firefox\chrome\browser.jar\content\browser\browser.xul to look like this:
<menuitem class="menuitem-iconic bookmark-item" uri="rdf:*"
label="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#Name"
image="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#Icon"
status="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/WEB-rdf#status"
statustext="rdf:http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#URL"
tooltip="btTooltip"/>


btw: Mr. B. - any ideas on how to do a recursive bookmark sorting in 1.5b2 since the "sort bookmarks" extension isn't working anymore?

I find Flashblock to be a good way of preventing Flash-based popups if you don't have AdBlock and Filterset.G

Also, Deer Park is at Beta 2 and is pretty damn stable...

The Disable Target Window extension link is outdated, you can find the most up to date version here: http://www.cusser.net/extensions/disabletarget/

Originally posted by omgOMGuybrush:btw: Mr. B. - any ideas on how to do a recursive bookmark sorting in 1.5b2 since the "sort bookmarks" extension isn't working anymore?

Note to self:
Download Sort Bookmarks 0.7.0, which is working in 1.5RC1 from its super secret location and make it available in the grotto.

Status:
Done.