User:Operations

Personal homepage: ACD - HUB

---

Firefox is by far one of the best browsers available but for many people it's still a hard browser to accept. Sadly Firefox still needs a lot of work and I'm not just talking about the god-awful load times, which are improving greatly. Overall the purpose of this write-up is just to enlighten others by bringing together some of the more intelligent browsing enhancements I've found. I'm also hoping that actual Firefox user-interface developers might consider setting the browser up as I have, but not everyone thinks like I do. Many others besides myself have suggested the following changes but I'm afraid those people and I may just be power-users.

CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES:
- Firefox Campus Edition

DEFAULT INTERFACE PROBLEMS: [ more ideas can be found here ]
  BUTTONS:
   - New Tab button
        [ isn't a default but should be the first button on the toolbar ]
   - Back and Forward buttons
        [ could be integrated into one button, like how Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is ]
   - Stop and Refresh buttons
        [ could be integrated into one button, like how Apple's Safari browser is ]
   - Home button
        [ is a default that nobody probably uses ]
   - Go button
        [ if I take the time to type a URL then I'll likely use the "Enter/Return" key, how often does anyone use the mouse to enter a URL? ]

  WINDOWS:
   - Preferences, Add-ons, and Downloads
        [ each opens a new window instead of using the tabbed browser interface, they should load in the sidebar or in a separate tab ]
   - New windows
        [ new windows should only be used/allowed for separate Firefox profiles, Tab Groups should supplant the necessity for windows ]

  MENUS:
   - Menus
        [ on the Mac OS version of Firefox there are too many menus, I've yet to find an acceptable fix since Menu Editor made things even worse ]
   - Send Link option
        [ what is this? it never works, especially since I use Gmail ]

  TABS & TAB BAR:
   - Tab sizing
        [ most websites only need an icon-sized tab like FaviconizeTab ]
   - Tab group menu
        [ this menu could allow users to switch between groups of tabs all within the same window, this would help avoid an overcrowded tab bar ]
   - Floating tabs
        [ it should be possible to float a tab, like picture-in-picture only for your browser ]

  ICONS:
   - Tab icons
        [ inactive tab icons dim, I'd rather they didn't ]
   - Bookmark icons
        [ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
   - Menu icons
        [ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
   - Loading statusbar and toolbar icon
        [ each tab in Firefox shows the loading status, is it necessary to display this information anywhere else? Fission is the way it should be implemented if at all ]

  LOCATION BAR:
   - Integrate search
        [ why would anyone want an error page in response to forgetting .com? I say make this the search bar ]
   - Paste options
        [ add a paste-and-go option to the contextual menu, like how Maxthon's location bar is ]

  OTHER:
   - Download manager
        [ integrate torrent / Metalinker support ]
   - OpenID integration
        [ VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt extension is really buggy but the idea is great, another tool is Sxipper ]
   - Pop-up blocking notifications
        [ it may just be me but the exclamation marks in the status-bar should probably be set as default, instead of the annoying bar that appears the tab-bar ]

TWEAKS:
- Force link that open new window to open in new tab
        [ set option to 0 not 2, works best when you disable the Javascript window resizing option ]
- Turn off Firefox Go Button
- Fastback
- Google Search from the Address Bar

EXTENSIONS:
- All-in-One Sidebar / Download Statusbar
- Autohide
- Better Gmail 2
- BugMeNot
- DownThemAll
        [ resume/stop downloads, Metalinker support, could be better integrated ]
- DragNDrop Toolbars
- FaviconizeTab
        [ the only sane way to browse the internet ]
- Fission
- Flash Block
- Greasemonkey
        - GMail Real Estate (Minimize Header, Nav or Ads)
        - Google Reader Preview Enhanced
        - HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector
- IE Tab
- Link Fixer Thing
- Linkification
- Options menu
        [ quick and easy access to extension settings ]
- Organize Status Bar
- Save Session
        [ quick and easy way to abort browser, like when you need to restart your computer ]
- Screengrab!
- Stop-or-Reload Button
- Tab Groups
        [ this should replace any need for new windows, but currently causes problems with Greasemonkey ]
- Tab to Window
- Undo Closed Tabs Button
- Unified Back-/Forward Button
        [ doesn't always work well with certain Firefox themes ]
- Update Notifier
        [ way more reliable than the integrated Firefox options ]
- VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt / Sxipper

MY TOOLBAR:
Image converted using: Seashore
Browser theme: iFox Graphite 2.4.2

[ from left to right: New Tab, Undo Closed Tabs, Separator, Back-Forward, Separator, Stop-or-Reload Button, Location, Options menu, DownThemAll, Save Session, Update Notifier ]

DISCLAIMER: I'm not encouraging the use of Adblock, that's just my personal preference. Also, the Back-Forward buttons on my browser are not Unified. They only look that way because of the iFox theme I'm using. The actual Unified Back-/Forward Button extension has problems with certain Firefox themes.

--Operations 19:30, 4 December 2007 (PST)