Firefox Add-ons that Add-up

Getting Up To Speed

• Web Developer -  This toolbar is offers so many tools to make your life easier.  View the source and css of any website.  Validate a new site using this toolbar, view all ID’s and classes.  Need to know the size of an image, you are just a click away.  There are so many features that an entire article could be written on this add-on.
• Firebug -  Firebug is a really useful add-on for debugging websites on the fly.  You can change html or css and immediately see how they effect your design. There many add-ons that go with Firebug.  One of my favorites is YSlow.
• YSlow – When I develop a new website, using YSlow is one of the final steps prior to release.  YSlow analyzes your pages for performance.  It also explains ways to improve performance and the tools like Smush.IT.
• Screengrab! - This isn’t the fanciest add-on out there but I still recommend it.  You can copy and save anything on your screen.    Need to grab an entire website from top to bottom, no problem for Screengrab! If you blog, this is super handy.
• IE View 1.4.5.1 – Stop wasting time opening Internet Explorer to see how a design is progressing.  Simply right click a website and select “View this page in IE”!  Timesaver!

Feel free to comment about  your favorite design/development related  Firefox add-ons.

What’s New in Add-ons?

SEO Doctor

This is one doctor you are going to want to visit!  This add-on is awesome for SEO newbies to SEO gurus.  At first glance this doesn’t look like much but if you dig in you’ll be amazed at how much information is literally at your fingertips.  SEO Doctor offers up the basics such as reminding you to use headings and alt tags.  It shows you which pages of your website are indexed.  Then you can really kick your SEO up with the other features.  Want domain info? Want to see who’s linking to you, or want to know how your sites ranks against your competition, no problem.  It’s here.  This is one add-on you will not want to disable.

Rainbow

How many times have you been searching galleries for inspiration and wanted to know what the hex is for that great blue? Rainbow is a lightweight add-on that will give you that info in one click. Color values can be viewed, and copied in hex, rgb, and hsl CSS formats.

FireQuery 0.7

jQuery users will find this Firebug add-on useful. You can see jQuery elements on hover as well as see an organized view of your code. Want to insert jQuery on the fly, go ahead.

phpMyAdmin Timeout Preventer 0.3

Some add-ons just make life easier. Never experience a sessions timeout in phpMyAdmin. This lightweight add-on refreshes every 5 minutes. This extension has been tested with phpMyAdmin 2.1x and 3.x.

JSONView 0.4

This add-on allows  you to see JSON documents in a browser the same as XML  documents.  The document is highlighted and arrays and objects can be collapsed.  This will save you tons of time!  Don’t we love saving time?

Domain Availability Search – DomainExtension.org 1.5.5

Here’s the scenario.. You’re on the phone with a client and they ask you if a particular domain name is available.  So you quickly boot up your favorite domain name search website.  That’s not so bad, but this add-on is better.  It sits nicely in the bottom toolbar ready and waiting to check domain availability. (.com,.net, .org, .biz, .co.uk, .me.uk, .org.uk, .mobi, .info, .tv, .ws, .in, .me, .us, .cc, .bz, .ca, .cn, .eu, .de)

Capture Fox

Here’s a really useful add-on for bloggers.  If you enjoy making screencasts, video tutorials or simply want to record something on your screen, this is a nice option.  Want to show clients how to use the backend of a CMS?  Use Capture Fox to record specific tasks and send them to clients for training.

Anyway you look at it, firefox add-ons, add-up to time savings, increased productivity, as well as convenience.

Let me know what add-ons you can’t live without!