As i prep to upgrade my home box to Firefox 1.5 i’m making sure all my must-have extensions are 1.5 compatible. Last i checked, many weren’t, which is why i didn’t upgrade right away. But now it looks like most have been updated, so here they are:

• My most-used extension is DictionarySearch, hands down. Because i spell only as well as the closest dictionary. And because i have it linked to Answers.com which pulls info from a bunch of great reference sources. And because it works from within textareas so you can check stuff you’re writing. It’s one of those things that’s so useful, yet so terribly simple that it should come installed from the factory.
  Install DictionarySearch.
• I also end up using MakeLink a lot when citing site links for blog posts. I have it set to copy both the URL and site title and format it into a proper HTML link with a title attribute.
  Install MakeLink 2.0.3.
• TripleSelect is an extension that i’ve grown really fond of. It makes Firefox replicate the standard Microsoft behavior of selecting the entire paragraph on a triple-click. Firefox normally only selects the line. The beautiful thing about it is that you can still only select the line by doing 2.5 clicks (double+hold down).
  Install TripleSelect 1.7.
• I’m glad to see that miniT (drag+indicator) is now built-in functionality in Firefox 1.5. (I’ve had the drag indicator themed in LCD for a while now.)
• SessionSaver is a life saver. It just works. Ironically, i haven’t experienced many crashes lately, but i don’t miss a beat if i do.
  Install SessionSaver.
• Couldn’t do without Adblock Plus. Almost literally. Flash ads bring my aged machine to its knees. Coupled with Filterset.G, you’ll never have to look at another ad again. (The filter rules can be a bit agressive sometimes—blocking actual content, but they’re constantly being refined.)
  Install AdBlock Plus 0.5.11.2.
  Install Filterset.G Updater 0.2.9.
• I read that Link Toolbar for 1.5 would require a separate extension to place it on the status bar. But i just realized that i pretty much only use it for navigating up through directories in a URL, so i’m gonna try going back to Digger, which i haven’t used since the Firebird era.
  Install Digger 1.0
• I use IE View occassionaly to peep sites from the other side of the fence, or if some page doesn’t work in Firefox.
  Install IE View.
• You used to be able to drag any bit of text (non-linked URLs, domain names, etc.) to the tab bar and Firefox would try to open it in a new tab. Somewhere along the way after 1.0 that stopped working. Right-Click-Link fills that void.
  Install Right-Click-Link 1.1.1
  Dragging text to the tabbar seems to be fixed in 1.5, so i don’t need this extension anymore.
• I’ve used ScreenGrab a little, but i’m not thrilled that it uses Java. Too slow on my machine. Not sure if i’m going to reinstall it in 1.5.

I had a few others installed, but never used them. Out with the old.

technorati tags: Firefox, extensions, Firefox extensions, Firefox 1.5