Mcneri: add-ons

Showing posts with label add-ons. Show all posts

Monday, May 12

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 9 of 22)

Image via Wikipedia
#9:IE Tab (Internet Explorer)add-on for Firefox
This add-on may be self explanatory but I will still lend it some brief explanation. IE Tab for Firefox is an add-on that simulates the Internet Explorer engine within a new tab in Firefox. This enables bloggers to see how browsers using internet explorer (which is very popular though not the best browser) will see their pages.

You may be wondering what for and I will tell you. Internet explorer is a bad browser that finds it really difficult to render webpages adequately as the designers of the page want. Therefore, if the page publisher is able to identify what elements IE will not show its users, then the blog owner can adjust or modify the design to overcome that deficiency.

This add-on is also said to be a more convenient alternative to the add-on called open in IE. That is because you really do not have to leave Firefox to see how the page you have just blogged renders in IE. Serious bloggers have a need for this add-on and you can download it from here.

Monday, May 5

22 must-have Firefox add-ons for bloggers (Blogging tip 8 of 22))

For many bloggers, it becomes a bore to have to type in their name, webpage and email address into every form on other blogs when they make comments. This really gets a lot of bloggers cruising around and not dropping their url all over the place. they even do not place comments because of this. This add-on will make that a past issue.

Signature is a Firefox add-on that allows you to insert custom lines of text called signature. There could be multiple. It opens a cache that lets you store as many signatures as you like. You can also name these signatures whatever you like. When you get to a blog and want to comment, it makes life easy. If the blog does not have an autofill and does not recognize you/your computer through cookies, you just go down to the comments box, right-click on the name box and select the stored name which you want to apply to that comment. This comes in really handy for those that operate multiple blog identities.

In the section for email address, you right-click and select whatever email you want to add to that comment. The third one is url and I think that is the most important. Many bloggers and commenters simply put their homepage url. I was doing that for many of my postings on other blogs. However, it makes more search engine sense to add the url to either your latest post, your best post or the post you have which best relates to the article you are reading. That way, any reader at that blog who finds your comments interesting and clicks on your name/url will be taken directly to the related post on your blog. It also may add some valuable external links to your blog. I however understand that links from comments are of less value, almost no real value than links in body of posts. (That is why my contest gives links in posts, get my RSS now and register).

One of the trusted ways of getting your blog out there is through networking. Having a good and ready access to your signature/url makes dropping comments easy and really gets you one inch or two up the ladder of networking. So get this add-on and blast through the blogosphere. You can get there and you will.

Tuesday, April 22

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 6 of 22)

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#6: Session Manager add-on for Firefox
This add-on rescues you when you need to be rescued. Of course we have all at one time or the other suffered a browser or worse still a computer freeze. When that happens we are likely to lose those important blogs that we had open on several tabs, or those web images that took you two hours to accumulate. Session Manager saves and later restores your tabs either when you want it, or at start-up following a crash.

Session manager also helps you restore a window which you have accidentally closed. It may be three windows ago or just the last window you closed. For any blogger out there that uses several tabs at the same time, one could get mixed up and close the wrong one. Also many times I have had to stop blogging in the middle because it is too late, or something has come up. This tool helps me get back to where I was.

You can download it from here. One important thing which I forgot to mention earlier in this series is that Safari works pretty much with many Firefox add-ons. Thus owning a Mac should not discourage you, besides Firefox works on Macs too. There are many inherent advantages of Firefox which I have outlined elsewhere.

Monday, April 21

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 5 of 22)

#5: Foxlingo add-on for Firefox

The tool is a browser embedded translator. It makes translating web pages very effortless, as the tool is part of your browser. It kicks into action the moment you navigate to apage that is not in your default language.

Concisefreeware, the authors say Foxlingo supports 45 languages and over 1000 different language pairs. It has features like translated search, auto-translation and text translation. It uses 35 free online translators. see list below as obtained from their website:

Worldlingo.com, Tranexp.com, Google.com, Abacho.co.uk, Altavista.com, Eigo-navi.com, Elmundo.es, Excite.co.jp, Freetranslation.com, Gencat.cat, Gts-translation.com, Ibm.com, Imtranslator.com, Internostrum.com, Interpret.co.za, Linguamatix.com, Lingro.com/, Lingvo.org, Nazgol.co.il, Nifty.amikai.com Ocn.ne.jp, Oesi.cervantes.es, Online-Translator.com, Opentrad.org, Sli.uvigo.es, Solvingmaze.com, Toggletext.com, Tr.voila.fr, Translatica.pwn.pl, Translator.live.com, Translendium.es, Vil-net.dyndns.org Yahoo.com, Xixona.dlsi.ua.es, 220.194.61.120

This tool is a definite must-have and it removes one of the the well-known barriers to communication, language. Any blogger using this add-on will have access to blogs and web material written in many different languages and that is a good thing. The only limitation to getting these blogs is the search engines that try to predict what you want and end up giving you websites written ONLY in your language! (Google take note).

One way around it is to go to a non-english version of the search engine like google France and search for your terms. Any results will come with the translate this page clip of google and even if you go direct to the site, Foxlingo immediately comes to the rescue.

Wednesday, April 16

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 4 of 22)

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win in April

Image via Wikipedia#4: Permatabs add-on for Firefox

Just like the name says, Permatabs keeps some tabs of your choice permanent. That way, you can have web pages that you visit often stay permanently in your browser in-between sessions. This comes in very handy for the blogger. The reason is that any and every blogger knows that one sure destination on the web is your blog.

We may read our emails in a desktop-based email application, but we really want to sight that our creation. More importantly, if you have multiple blogs, or some "high-yield" blogs that always give you ideas to blog about, then the permatabs makes it easy for you to always get to that destination.

Permatabs makes it impossible to accidentally close a tab. As Universe Firefox put it, it locks the essential tabs in. The other examples are like your RSS, or calendar. This add-on makes it impossible to accidentally close a tab.

With a little tweaking....which I will talk about elsewhere, you can even use one of your tabs as your windows explorer. Thus all your computer operations will that go on inside your Firefox. Do you want me to tell you the tweak? Ask for it, c'mon. feel free to leave your comments you like here.

Tuesday, April 15

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 3 of 22)

#3: Scribefire add-on for Firefox

Scribefire literally fires up a scribe. This nifty blogging tool is another killer tool that makes blogging a breeze. It is an in-built editor that handles text as well as images just like any other WYSIWYG web publishing tool. It has its own cache, so it stores your blog posts on your computer.

When you fire up the add on, it splits the screen into two, thus you can flip from tab to tab in your browser, while the blog piece you are writing still sits in front of you. That comes in handy especially when you need to refine a post, or look for references for your blog post. Some professional bloggers are silent on these wonderful add-ons that we are discussing in the series when they talk about their techniques, but I am sure they use to spin out wonderful posts.

The beauty of Scribefire is that it is adapted to upload your completed blog post to your blog once you input your sign-on details. It also keeps a copy in the tool if you like.It has an FTP transfer tool which comes in handy for pictures and larger files. It also seems to integrate well with Technorati for tags and similar content.

Whizzhack.com recently produced a demo video that further elucidates the uses of this great tool. The authors of Scribefire are not resting and are regularly updating the application. Now the latest version has a button to add videos from Youtube. You can download it here. Be sure to read the notes prior to installation.

Tuesday, April 8

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 1 of 22)

#1: SEO for Firefox add-on
This is the number one Firefox add-on for bloggers. It is much the same idea as other Firefox browser add-ons, but it makes a huge difference when it comes to assessing web pages.
There are several aspects that I will touch on however this post can not be exhaustive, as there are many other aspects beyond the scope of the write-up.

It makes in-depth searching a breeze. This add-on is very nifty and easy to use. The writers advice that it is toggled off and on, based on need. After installation, the button sits at the bottom of your browser screen. When you want to search for the ranking of a web page like SEOBook, all
you have to do is go to the page, then turn the toolbar on (by clicking on it in the lower part of your browser) and then right-clicking anywhere in the homepage which you have opened.
Then select SEOforfirefox>Look up this page. The result is an array of values including Google Pagerank, the Google Cache date, date page was written,Yahoo links, Alexa Rank, DMOZ rank and other parameters.

This is a screenshot of SEOforfirefox in action

This tool makes it possible for a blogger to be able to quickly assess the authority of any web page and to know whether to link to it or not.

Another capability of this add-on is in the area of regular Google and yahoo searches. Ordinarily, these major search engines do not give you details of things like Keyword research, Traffic estimator for that keyword, trends for that keyword and a host of other things. It also gives you the SEO details of each of the pages in the search results.

This is the Google search page with the SEO for Firefox turned on.

This is the Google search page without the SEO for firefox turned on.

Below is a video that may be more visual, but I would strongly recommend this for any and every blogger!