After finally moving to Firefox last month, I’ve gained an invaluable Web experience. Yes, I know that I’m a little late on the Firefox bandwagon, but it’s better late than never, right? As a blogger and WordPress theme designer, I’ve quickly found a few tools that have made my life a lot easier.
These are seven must-have add-ons for Firefox. There may be some different varitations of these add-ons, but I’ve come to enjoy the Internet again because of these tools. I’m browsing happier, blogging happier, and designing happier.
FireFTP
No self-respecting blogger or designer would be without a decent FTP program. FireFTP was easy to set up, it quickly transfers your programs, and runs right in a browser tab/window. I may never go to another program again. I like the interface. It’s simple to use and it gets the job done. And, it has a cool logo. That’s reason enough to download it.
HTML Validator
Forget online validators. They’re too much hassle. HTML Tidy lets you validate as soon as you change the code. Plus, you can see if any blog or site on the Internet is validated. This has been invaluable when theme designing. I no longer have to check my code through an online validator if something goes wrong.
StumbleUpon Toolbar
StumbleUpon has become one of the most popular social bookmarking sites. I get a large portion of my traffic through this service and believe that this can be used as effectively as Digg or Reddit as a great source of traffic. Easily add those great articles you write and let someone stumble upon it today and tomorrow and sometime next week.
Brief
There are a lot of different options when it comes to feed readers. It’s no different when it comes to Firefox add-on feed readers either. I’ve tried out a few, but have come to love Brief for its simplicity. There aren’t a lot of options. It’s a straightforward reader. Bloggers definitely need to keep up with what’s going on around the Web and the sites in their niche.
AdSense Notifier
Do you visit Google AdSense five minutes or so? Stop worrying about how much money you’re making. Now, you can take a quick glance down at your bottom toolbar and see that extra 2-cents you made in the last hour. Then, you can get back to working on the things that matter, like actual content for your blog.
del.icio.us Bookmarks
If you don’t have a del.icio.us account, then you need to stop reading this article and get one now. A great bookmarking system is essential for all bloggers and designers. This tool lets you quickly add bookmarks to your del.icio.us account. There is an integrated sidebar for your browser that lets you browse your bookmarks on the fly.
Download Statusbar
I seem to always be downloading something new. Whether it be a plugin or piece of javascript that seems cool. The Download Statusbar keeps those downloads in a convenient spot on the bottom of the browser window, showing the download progresss also. You don’t have to immediately deal with the file once it downloads, but you won’t forget about it because it’ll be in your statusbar.
There you have it. Seven invaluable Firefox add-ons for blogging and designing. What Firefox add-ons do you use to make your blogging and/or designing experience happier? I’m always looking for new tools to work with.
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Great list. I especially like the SU and Delicious toolbars.
I’m falling in love with the del.icio.us toolbar more every day Fred. The StumbleUpon toolbar is sometimes bad for me though. I can stumble sites for hours at a time.
What a coincidence! I have all except for Brief.
Thanks anyway for the list.
Brief’s been great for me. Do you use a Firefox add-on as your feed reader? I’d love to know what other add-ons you are using. Any recommendations?
The List is nice but still incomplete… You forget to mention web-developer tool and firebug… that is a must have for any developer.
And you can also try to IE-tab switch. By that you can view the page in IE as well in Firefox from the same browser ie. firefox.
Try coolIRIS previewer..that is also one of the gr8 tools.
Thanks 4 the list
That is a fantastic list! I use StumbleUpon a lot, and every once in a great while I will find something I think is really good and really useful. These seven add-ons actually made me exclaim out loud: “That’s awesome!”