Guide to Firefox Extensions for Productivity

Okay, I know that 90-something percent of you are using Microsoft's Explorer browser, and I've got nothing against that. But if you can take a minute to download the free Firefox browser, you'll find a number of productivity features that can dramatically alter the information-hunt-and-peck you normally experience.

Life-changing? Perhaps not, but as a pro-level user of the Web's vast trove of info, I find these little tools nearly indispensable. You might, too.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

First, of course, you'll need the Firefox browser

The browser is one of several alternative to Microsoft Explorer. It's based on Netscape, stable and in use by millions around the world.

I recommend: Get the browser at Mozilla.org. If your machine is older, read first the system requirements. Short version: Windows 98 okay, XP better. Mac users can get by with G3, but G4 is recommended.

Learn the lingo

Firefox calls the various types of software you download to improve the browser by various names: Add-ons, extensions, plug-ins or themes.

I recommend: For our purposes, add-ons = extensions, covered below in detail. Plug-ins are standard products you probably already use, like Adobe Acrobat, Flash and Shockwave. To use them with Firefox, you should probably download the newest versions. Themes cosmetically change the look of the browser. Fun, but not productive by themselves.

Search engines come in many flavors

In the upper right corner of your new browser you'll find a curious box with a "G" in it. If you type a word or phrase there (or in the main URL box for that matter) and hit "enter" the browser will run a Google search by default.

I recommend: Useful, but if you really want to crank things up, add search engines. You can run quick searches on recipes, movies, auction sites, shopping and social networking sites.

Share information faster and more simply

Say you find a great resource, news clipping, cookie recipe -- whatever. Getting that to the person who needs it is your aim. Cutting and pasting the data among several different programs is definitely not.

I recommend: E-mail this is great. It turns any link seen on the Web into a one-click e-mail. Send Story grabs whatever text you have highlighted on the Web and does the same. Google Send to Phone pops out a text message to virtually any cellular phone. Great for addresses or phone numbers.

Deal with documents and data

Sometimes the stuff you find on a Web page is good but overloaded with garbage that won't affect the content.

I recommend: Copy Plain Text does exactly that. Any information on the Web goes to your clipboard as plain text with no heavy Web code, images or design. Paste it into your word processor or spreadsheet and move on.

Dispatch with repetitive questions quickly

If you find yourself hunting down pre-written text to answer questions, or just have to send instructions over and over to different people, automate that!

I recommend: Signature was designed to allow right-click access to multiple e-mail signatures in Web-based mail like Yahoo!, Hotmail or Gmail. But if you load up on those boilerplate texts, you can respond like lightning to those never-ending -- if common -- questions. If you use Outlook, you can do a similar trick on the mail format page by just creating lots of signatures and right-clicking them in at will.

Don't just network, hypernetwork

Several extensions are designed to make finding people or jobs faster and easier by linking your browser directly to social sites.

I recommend: Who Is This Person? puts eleven people-searching sites like Wikipedia, ZoomInfo and Google within one right-click once you highlight a name. If you use professional network LinkedIn, the special companion extension for Firefox can turn nearly any Web-mail into a job hunt or networking opportunity.

Turn a Gmail account into a hard drive

Google almost certainly doesn't want you to do this, but you can turn their offer of more than 2 gigabytes of online storage into a digital hard drive. (Shhh! I didn't tell you this, okay?)

I recommend: One way is using Gmail Space, an extension that creates a viewer much like a file-transfer-protocol program. Two windows show you files here and there. Another is by installing Gmail Drive, not an extension to Firefox by a small program that creates a new drive on your PC. Drag files there and they instantly back up to Gmail. Delete them, and they're gone.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Once you install an extension, you will have to close all browser windows (yes, every one) and re-open the program before it will work. Same for uninstalling. But don't worry, it's very fast.
• Extensions for Firefox, like Firefox itself, are a freeform kind of public experimentation. They are (virtually) all free and easy to install and uninstall, but some work better than others.
• Some extensions can be maddeningly short on explanation. Try going to the extension download page and look for a developer homepage for basic help.