10 Firefox Add-ons to Level Up Your Freelance Efficiency
Mozilla Firefox is a real treasure for freelancers worldwide. Why? It’s an advanced, fast and secure web browser.
In the last 7 years the open source browser has proved – it’s more than a web surfer. Mozilla Firefox is translated into over 70 languages, enriched with dozens of extensions, and beautified by many persona designs.
Firefox may be modified according to your needs on the fly. With a couple of useful add-ons the browser turns into your developer, designer, or SEO fellow-worker. Today, we continue our top Firefox extensions topic with a roundup of excellent free Firefox addons. These extensions will improve your productivity and level up your freelancing performance.
ReminderFox
ReminderFox
ReminderFox is all you need to keep your freelance project time frame on target. The add-on helps to create to-do lists, set alerts, make notifications. You can specify time and date of your reminders. Thus, you will stay organized and goal-oriented with this tiny Firefox add-on.
Xmarks Sync
Xmarks Sync
Xmarks Sync is a free back-up add-on. The tool saves tabs, browsing history, bookmarks and passwords before closing Firefox. Moreover, it lets you create an account and sync all your Firefox information so you may use it on another computer or restore it if your PC crashes. Xmarks Sync emphasizes that your freelance performance will not suffer due to sudden tech issues.
WebMail Notifier
WebMail Notifier
WebMail Notifier is a Firefox reminder for freelancers who have multiple email accounts. WebMail Notifier handles Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and other email systems. It checks your email accounts and shows you alerts when you get new messages. Thus, you can promptly reply to your business and personal emails without missing important information.
WOT
WOT
Web of trust created by WOT Firefox add-on strives to make web surfing more reliable and secure. It’s not another antivirus link scanner. WOT website ratings are built on a human approach to web safety. Install the add-on and rate websites that you use. Leave your comments when a website is tricky or your customer experience is bad. Or vice versa: vote for good websites and write testimonials. All websites are rated by people and you can read reviews before downloading, making purchases or registrations.
FireShot
FireShot
FireShot is a free screen capturing add-on. It easily replaces the “Print Screen” button or any other software you use for screenshots. Just click the button and make a screenshot. Edit the screenshot, add notes, highlight objects, print, save or email the screenshot. You can export FireShot screenshots to Flick or Picasa accounts and show your draft to your freelance boss.
Rainbow Color Tools
Rainbow Color Tools
Rainbow Color Tools is a handy add-on for freelance designers and webmasters. Click the add-on button and pick up the precise object color. Rainbow Color Tools shows you color info and copies it to the clipboard. Plus, you can save your favorite colors to the library for further access. Next time when a client asks you to make a banner with their authentic website logo color, just go to Rainbow add-on and select a perfect match.
View Source Chart
View Source Chart
The goal of this add-on is well described in its name. View Source Chart shows code and helps you examine bugs and alerts. Along with Firebug, View Source Chart is a helpful Firefox extension for freelance developers.
SeoQuake SEO extension
SeoQuake SEO extension
SeoQuake SEO extension is a useful all-in-one toolbar for SEO freelancers. The toolbar shows Google rank, Bing index, Alexa rank and other metrics. You can analyze keyword density for a page, count external and internal links. The add-on is suitable for a quick website performance check-up.
Show My Password
Show My Password
Show My Password is a great app to save your time. Almost each registration has “repeat password” field. It’s easy to err when the original password is hidden by dots. So you have to retype it again and again. Show My Password makes your work more efficient and less stressful. The add-on enables you to create accounts quickly with proper password spelling.
Text to Voice
Text to Voice
Text to Voice is an ideal add-on for freelancers who manage several tasks simultaneously. You can listen to a specification and code a web page form. You can enjoy my FreelanceSwitch posts and design a wonderful Android app interface. The voice is a bit artificial. However, it will do if you are tired of reading.
Great ideas!
I wanted to add mine to the list: I am a freelance web developer. I use Firebug daily to test css codes before moving them onto server files.
I also use ShowIP, which is handy for making sure my DNS has propagated (seems to be an issue in Wyoming) also gives me one click to see who is hosting my clients websites, which is handy to know what their server and do and not do quickly.
There’s also Fire Bug that lets you see the code of a site and What Font where you can see what font is being used on a site.
I’d like to recommend Google’s PageSpeed:
http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/docs/using_firefox.html
Also available on Chrome
I’d be interested to know the number of developers that use chrome over firefox as their primary dev tool
I do…love Rockmelt/Chrome. On my MBP they’re the quickest usually and can’t live without the old ‘Inspect Element’. Other’s have it too of course, I just like it on Chrome. I used to be a huge user of Firebug but since switching to Coda as my primary dev tool I’ve rarely touched Firebug.
Thanks for the list, these seem like some great add-ons that will help me save a lot of time. ReminderFox seems very useful because normally i just have a giant to-do text document instead but the add-on makes things much more organized now.
Rainbow Color Tools seems great also however i have a similar add-on called ColorZilla already so i will have to compare them some time.
Isn’t this just a metatr of clarification?What stops me from setting a shop “recycled Dells”? or “Watter proofed Wiis” and such?If I make a distro and offer “Firefox[Moddified by CoolDistro]” on what sorts of legal grounds am I going to be sued? If I can be sued for that then obviously Trademarks are not being used for its original purpose, to identify the source of a product.On point 7: For the same reason you shouldn’t need Time Warner’s permission to talk about Time Warner.