If you are a Firefox user and are experiencing the same problem, you should try the Easy Access add-on for Mozilla Firefox. What this add-on does is that it adds a quick menu to open applications without leaving Firefox. These programs can include My Computer, Pain, Notepad, etc. If you want, you can even customize the quick access menu and add any application you want to your Firefox taskbar.

How to Launch Programs from Within Firefox

First of all, go to Mozilla Add-on repository and install Easy Access for Firefox. Once installed, you will notice a small wheel icon in the add-on bar (lower right corner of Firefox). Click on it, and it will show you the default apps that come with the add-on. If you want to add any other program to the list of shortcuts, you can do so by going to the add-on settings. Click on the wheel icon and go to ”Manage Your Easy Access”.

When you open “Manage Your Easy Access”, it will show you two tabs: “Add to Add on Bar” and “Customize Your Quick Launch’. Add To Add on Bar contains shortcuts to some of the most commonly used programs in Windows such as Calculator, Notepad, Paint, My Computer, etc. If you want to add any of these programs, just check the box right next to the program and click Ok.

If you want to customize the easy access menu and add some other program, open Customize your Quick Launch and click on Add EasyAccess.

All you have to do is browse the location of the program you want to open. It will automatically add the name of the app, but you can edit it if you want. After adding the required information, click Ok and you are done. Now, the selected shortcut will appear on the add-on bar.

Conclusion

EasyAccess for Firefox is a very handy add-on that can make it easy to open applications without closing Firefox. It’s simple and one click away. The add-on does exactly what it says, and during my testing, I didn’t come across any issues or problems with the add-on.

If you tried EasyAccess for Firefox, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

The post Open Applications Without Leaving Firefox appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Since Temporary Bookmarks is a Firefox add-on, it doesn’t require a login or account for you to use it. You only have to download it from the Add-on store. After this, you can then start saving web pages into a bookmark folder called Temporary Bookmarks.

To do this, just right-click on any link in a website and select “Add to Temporary Bookmarks.” One thing I noticed is that this option is only visible when you right click a link from a web page, and not from the URL address bar.

To locate your saved bookmarks, find the Bookmark icon on the top of the browser (a square with a star inside). Click on this and go to Bookmarks bar. If you already have the Bookmarks bar visible on the top of the browser, then you should be able to find the folder from there. Look for the folder labeled as Temporary Bookmarks. You should see all the links saved here.

By default, the add-on is set to get rid of the bookmarks after one day, but you can change this setting by going to the add-on’s Preferences page. To do this, click on the Firefox menu button on the top left corner, click on “Add-ons”, and select Options right beside the name of the add-on.

Here, you can change when or what action is required for Firefox to delete the bookmarks. You have an option to delete the bookmarks when the browser closes, or choose from a number of days from one to seven. I tried setting it to remove bookmarks when I close the browser, and sure enough, the bookmarks were gone when I restarted it.

One notable feature is that you can also remove bookmarks saved in other bookmark folders. Click on the drop down beside “Remove bookmarks in” to view the complete list. If you have other bookmark folders that need cleaning up, then this add-on can help you do just that.

Temporary Bookmarks is a no-brainer solution for users who don’t want to sign up for a note-taking app, or who don’t want to store web content for too long on their browsers. It’s easy to use, and a good way to also prevent the browser from getting too congested with data. It also encourages a user to be organized when browsing the web, without having to clean up after. If you tend to pile up your bookmarks and don’t have time to organize or delete them, then this add-on is definitely a great tool for that.

Image credit: An image of a nice clock with time to bookmark us by BigStockPhoto

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If you want immediate access to Slick Write’s writing tool, then you’ll need to install the add-on in Firefox or Chrome. The installation requires a restart for Firefox, but not for Chrome.

After installing the add-on, you should see a pen icon in the top right corner of the browser, but the easier way to access the tool is from the contextual menu (right-click). You can right-click at the end of the text you want to analyze, or you can highlight a portion of the text.

Click on Analyze Writing. This should open a new tab that leads to the Slick Write analysis page. The page has a few tabs on top, and there are four major areas of analysis: Critique, Structure, Flow and Stats.

The page opens to the Critique tab by default. Critique identifies flaws within the writing including double words, unnecessary adverbs, overwriting and other stylistic errors. The errors are highlighted by color depending on the type of error, and mousing over them will analyze writing errors by identifying what’s wrong with the word or phrase.

The Structure tab analyzes all sentences and categorizes them into Simple, Compound, or Compound-complex sentences. Hovering the mouse over a sentence shows the type of sentence structure, along with the word count. To know more about the sentence type, you can click on the sentence to get a brief explanation.

The Flow tab is a graphical representation of the distribution of sentence type, length and word length within the text. Colored bars called meters are shown for each sentence, with a rating for each analysis. Click on a meter to know more about the statistic shown.

Finally, the Stats tab is divided into Aggregate, Phrases and Words. Aggregate is a statistics summary which includes word count, average word length, paragraph count, unique words, and more. You can further filter it down to the next two tabs, Phrases and Words. Under Words, you can see words that are repeated all throughout the text.

If you want to see all editing features, you can click on the Configure tab to enable or disable certain functions. Click on a function to know more about it. There are presets and the default one is set to Fiction, but you can click on Custom to make your own settings.

Additionally, if you want to edit the text within the Slick Write interface, you can click on the Edit tab and do it from there.

Slick Write’s vast and flexible features are perfect for creating excellent written work. It doesn’t require a lot of tweaks or steps. In a matter of a few clicks, an overwhelming amount of information is presented in an organized manner that is easily understood. Any writing task can be daunting, but not when you have this tool handy in your browser to analyze writing errors.

Do you have a favorite way to check for writing errors in Firefox and Chrome. Tell us about them in the comments section.

The post Analyze Writing Errors with SlickWrite for Firefox and Chrome appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Lazarus is available for both Chrome and Firefox. After installation, you should notice the Lazarus icon on the right corner of the text fields on any web site. If you mouse over the icon after entering information, a pop up should appear telling you that Lazarus is saving the form.

There’s nothing you need to do since the add-on is automatically enabled after installation. Lazarus acts as a backup tool for saving the things you type into a long and detailed online form.

To restore data on a form, simply click on the above mentioned icon (to the right of the text field). A pop up window should appear, showing the last information entered on that field. Note that only the most recent information entered is saved, and not others that was entered before. Simply click on the text from the pop-up to restore it back to the form’s text field.

If you don’t want to compromise sensitive information in forms and want a more secure way of restoring form data, you can set a password. To do this, click on the Lazarus icon on the right corner of a text field. Go to Lazarus Options. Under General>Security, check the box beside “Encrypt form and reqire a password to restore text.”

After setting a password, the pop up should now prompt to enter a password before you can recover data on a form.

Lazarus does not save passwords for log in pages. However, this can be enabled by going to the Options page. Under General>What to save, check the box beside “Save passwords”.

On the same page, you can exclude certain websites from using the add-on under Disabled Sites. You can also do this by clicking on the add-on’s icon on a text field and selecting “Disable Lazarus on this site”.

This is also where you can specify how many days to keep the saved forms (it’s defaulted to 10). Forms can be kept until a maximum of 14 days.

Note that this add-on does not currently work in WYSIWYG mode in Chrome, as declared in the add-on’s information page. It also does not save data from a drop down menu with pre-loaded lists. Only text that you manually type in is saved automatically, as soon as you finish typing and move on to the next field.

Some forms may require confidential information, like Social Security numbers, Credit Card details, to name a few. If you don’t plan on putting a password, then it is highly recommended that you use this add-on only on your own computer and not a shared one.

If you are keen with filling out forms online, then Lazarus is a great preemptive tool to prevent data loss and having to type it all in again.

The post Easily Backup and Restore Forms Data In Chrome and Firefox appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

After installing the add-on, when hovering the mouse pointer over a tab, you’ll immediately notice a drop-down list of recently visited sites. The list is in descending order, with the most recently visited page on top.

Although Firefox has its own way of showing you the browser’s history details, this add-on makes the task a lot more simpler and accessible. This eliminates the need for going to the browser’s “History” page in the menu bar.

To view a tab’s history, simply point the mouse on the tab. The drop-down list should appear and disappear when you move the mouse away from the tab. If a tab doesn’t have history yet, the list displays the title of the current tab’s web page.

This can be disabled from the add-on’s “Options” page. To go there, click on the Firefox bar on the browser’s top-left corner and click on “Add-ons.”

Find “Tab History Menu” on the list and click on it. Go to “Options” and uncheck the box  beside “Display current page title in history menu”.

To open a previously visited website, simply hover the mouse over the tab and click the link from the list. You should be able to view the page on the current tab.

Note that the contextual menu (right-clicking the mouse) does not work when clicking on links from the tab history’s drop down list. The only way the links open is by using the current tab.

You can navigate between previously visited pages from the tab list. The current page is indicated by the dot on the left side of the page’s title. A left and right arrow serves as the usual “back” and “forward” controls that is seen in most browsers.

The add-on also saves visited links within a page. For instance, if a page has a table of contents to jump to certain parts within the same page, then the add-on remembers this as a separate history item despite the fact that the links are on the same page.

In the example below, the Wikipedia page for Dreamsong has several jump links, and these are all listed on the tab history drop down. However, this might be confusing because only the page’s title appears on the list. In the example below, the list shows the same title page several times, but does not indicate what part of the page it leads to.

Tab History Menu is great for lengthy and detailed browsing sessions, most of which apply to research and document-writing tasks. While bookmarking tools can assure that a user won’t ever lose a webpage, this add-on takes that guarantee even further by providing a more accessible way of coming back (or forward) to previously visited sites.

How do you keep track of a tab’s history? Do you know of any other tools to accomplish this? Let us know in the comments below.

The post How to Easily Access Your Tab History in Firefox With A Single Click appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

In Linux (this solution is tested in Ubuntu) and Mac:

1. Open a new tab in your Firefox browser and type “about:config“.

2. In the Search bar, type:

mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount

3. Double click on the entry and change the value from 5 to 60.

If 60 is too fast (or slow) for you, you can change to a value that is suitable for you. Generally, the higher the value, the faster the page will scroll.

4. Close ths “about:config” tab and load a website. You should notice that the page’s scrolling speed has greatly increased.

The above trick is not applicable in Windows, but you can use the mousewheel.acceleration tricks (which is applicable in Linux and Mac as well)

1. Open a new tab in your Firefox browser and type “about:config“.

2. In the Search bar, type:

mousewheel.acceleration

You should see two entries in the list.

3. Double click the “mousewheel.acceleration.start” entry and change the value to 1 or more (the value is the number of times the wheel is scrolled before the acceleration kicks in).

4. Double click the “mousewheel.acceleration.factor” entry and change the factor to the speed you desire. The default factor is 10, which means your scrolling speed will increase by 10 times when the acceleration starts. You can change it to higher or lower, depending on your needs.

Note: If this trick causes issue to your mouse wheel scrolling, you can disable it by setting the “mousewheel.acceleration.start” entry back to “-1″

That’s it. This should increase your mouse scrolling speed in Firefox.

Image credit: Scrolling on wheel on computer mouse by BigStockPhoto

The post How to Change the Scrolling Speed in Firefox [Quick Tips] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Note: Stratiform is available for Windows only.

Installing and setting up Stratiform

In order to use Stratiform, you will need to head to Mozilla.org to install the Firefox extension.

Once installed, you can start setting up Stratiform from its main page.

You can change some basic settings for Stratiform here, including whether to show a link to the add-on in the Firefox Menu for quick access. Changing the highlight color will simply change the menu colors in Stratiform. You can also reset your changes with the add-on from here by clicking Get started at any time.

If you click “Settings,” you have a handful of settings to work with which makes it easy to configure for use.

You can change the settings for toolbars, tabs and the application buttons from here. This allows you to change the skinning of the toolbars, the size of tabs and the look of the application button.

The application button settings are nifty, because you can actually rename the Firefox button to anything you choose.

Presets

Stratiform offers several preset options for changing the appearance of Firefox.

These allow you to change the browser completely in color, toolbar shapes and transparency. This is a great base to start tweaking the look of Firefox with. Once you set a preset in Stratiform, you can begin working with the other features to get the desired look.

Styles

If you chose a preset to change Firefox to, you can then customize features further from this menu.

You can also customize them one by one. This leaves the overall preset colors intact and gives you more customization over tabs, icons and even the status popup in Firefox.

Colors

Stratiform allows you to customize the colors of various items in Firefox.

You can choose any color and even input your own HEX colors by clicking “Settings.” You can do this for each color selection you make for buttons, selected tabs, inactive tabs and even the application button. By tweaking the color scheme of Firefox, especially by using the fine tune coloring options, you can come up with some amazing color schemes for your browser.

Conclusion

I am not a theme maker. I do not have the patience or talent to create my own themes, sadly. Utilities like Stratiform in Firefox help me tweak the browser the way I like. Stratiform is easy to use and even quicker to pick up by someone who may not have any idea how themes work in a browser.

This is what my Firefox looked before I started using Stratiform:

This is what it looks like after tinkering with colors and customization options:

Some people are particular about how they want a browser to look. If you cannot find a theme for Firefox, Stratiform is a way to customize Firefox to have it feel and look the way you would like it to. What are you using to customize the look of Firefox?

The post Change the Appearance of Firefox Without Installing a Theme appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

To save highlighted text in Firefox, download the Save Text to File extension and start using the feature right away. Highlight the text you want to save and right click on it.

Click on the option Save Text To File. This should bring up the extension’s menu with all of its options.

First you can rename the file (the default is set to Highlighted Text). This is a must if you’re planning to save multiple files this way. In the example below, I renamed the file to “Ice Fishing” which is the main topic of my research.

The next option is to specify the directory where you want to save the file. This can be anywhere on your hard drive.

The next few options are for inserting additional information about the file such as date, the source URL and whether or not to add this in the beginning of the text. You can decide which one works best for you, but if you’d rather just save the text, then you’ll need to uncheck the boxes to disable all or any of these.

The last option is the saving method: this asks whether you want to create a new file or append it to an existing file. Unfortunately, the append feature did not seem to work. This appears to be the same for other users, as I’ve come to know from reading the comments in the Add-on’s Firefox page. As a workaround, you can choose to add the date and time to the saved file name so you’ll know which file was most recently saved and therefore has the added information.

When you have all settings in place, click on Save. A pop-up on top of the browser window should appear indicating where the file was saved and the actual file name. You can close this by clicking on the x mark to the right.

Remember that the saved file is in the .txt format, so any word processor or note-taking software should be able to open it. You can use Notepad or Microsoft Word in Windows. In MS Word, you’ll need to specify to open All Files in the Open File dialog box so that the file is visible in the list. A saved text file (with all options checked) will look like this in Word:

Save Text To File is great if you want a quick and easy way to save highlighted text into a file. It obviously has a few bugs (unable to append to existing file), but it’s a good start if you want something that will help you gather information for important pieces of writing that you might be doing.

The post How To Save Highlighted Text in Firefox Into a File appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

About:Addons-memory is a very handy addon for Mozilla Firefox that allows users to find out which particular addon is causing problem for the browser.

After the installation (no restart required), all you have to do is to open a new tab and type “about:addons-memory” (without the quote) in the address bar. It will show you the summary of all the installed addons and their memory consumption.

The Memory column shows the memory consumption of the specific addons (in MBs) followed by the addons column that shows the memory consumption in percentage.

The list is organized in descending order, starting with the addon that consumes the most resources. It is a pity that the list is not updated real-time, so you have to refresh the page to get the latest information. However, if you are constantly seeing a particular addon at the top of the list (other than the Firefox, which will always be the first in the list), you might want to remove it from the browser.

About:Addons-Memory is probably not an addon that you will use it everyday or every moment, but if you are troubleshooting your Firefox and wondering what is slowing it down, this addon will be very handy.

About:Addons-Memory for Firefox

The post How to Check Your Firefox Addons Memory Consumption [Quick Tips] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Why do web sites ignore Do Not Track?

The more information a web site has on you, the more it can come up with ways to lure you to keep coming back. Do Not Track was a simple way to let Internet users control what lengths web sites go to track you around the web. However, not all web sites adhere to this rule. Certain high profile web sites, such as Google and Facebook, routinely ignore the Do Not Track settings when turned on. With tools like Google Privacy in Firefox, you can take steps to ensure your privacy is respected.

How to use Google Privacy in Firefox

1. Install Google Privacy in Firefox here. Click “Add to Firefox” to start the process.

2. When the pop-up appears, click “Install.”

3. A few seconds later, Google Privacy will install itself and you will be prompted to restart Firefox.

4. After restarting, click “Firefox” in the upper left corner to open the browser’s menu.

5. Click “Add-ons.”

6. Click “Options” for Google Privacy to open the settings for the add-on.

7. Google Privacy’s options allow you to choose how your browser interacts with web sites who ignore Firefox’s Do Not Track settings.

8. Make sure that Privacy active and Set Mozilla’s Do-Not-Track Flag options are checked.

This will turn on Do Not Track in Firefox as well as making sure the Google Privacy add-on is turned on.

9. Under the Websites options, you want to ensure all web sites that ignore Do Not Track are checked.

This will let Google Privacy generate clean links to follow. You can choose whether to block all links from these web sites which will keep you safe from tracking. You can also allow all links which will not block tracking-based links when you visit these sites. If you choose neither option, you will be able to choose between which links to follow.

10. The options for Google Privacy let you automatically start the add-on when you begin a browsing session.

You can replace original links all together, too. This will automatically convert links at a web site ignoring Do Not Track in Firefox with clean links. You can mark links to showcase whether they are safe to follow or not with a small icon as well as indicate whether the link is private or not when you hover over it. As you get more familiar with Google Privacy for Firefox, you can change these settings to make Google Privacy less intrusive.

11. For the most part, the Advanced options in Google Privacy can be ignored for the majority of users.

The Advanced options allow users to do several different things. If you choose to route private links through the browser, this will open a link as if it was a bookmark which strips the link of all identifying information. If you choose to replace empty and JavaScript links, this can actually break most web sites. While it will block certain types of tracking, turning off JavaScript completely in Firefox is a safer option.

12. Head to Google and search for “Google Maps” to see how Google Privacy works.

13. The red marker indicates a link is violating Do Not Track.

14. The green marker indicates a link is safe to follow.

Conclusion

While certain web sites ignore Do Not Track, with tools like Google Privacy, you can take more control over keeping your activities online private.

What other tools are you using to protect your privacy online?

The post How to Enforce Do Not Track in Firefox And Protect Your Privacy appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The add-on requires Firefox to be restarted after installation, so make sure to do this before using it.

Once the add-on is installed, a tutorial page should load with short but helpful instructions on using the add-on for the first time.

There are two things you can do straight from this page: remove the toolbar buttons (the + and – signs on the top bar), or customize the placement of the buttons anywhere within the browser.

Other ways to enable zooming is to hold down the “Ctrl” key while scrolling the mousewheel up and down. Scrolling up zooms in, while scrolling down zooms out.

If your mouse doesn’t have a wheel in the middle, you can hold down “Ctrl” and then press the “+” or “-” sign on the keyboard.

To get an idea of how much you are zoomed in or out, you can hover over the magnifying glass icon on the bottom right corner. This should show details about the current page you’re on.

You can also change the text and link colors of a specific site. To do this, you can right-click on the glass icon on the bottom and select Site settings. Click on the color box beside Text and choose your preferred color.

To change text and link settings for all websites, select “Global Settings” instead from the same context menu and clicking on the Colors tab. This would override any setting you’ve set for a single site.

There are also more things you can adjust under Global Settings like forgetting settings for websites not visited in a specific amount of time (one, three and six months and one year). You can also make the add-on forget the settings when Firefox closes.

Under the Zooming tab, you can select the zoom method: Full page or Text zoom. Full page Zoom adjusts both image and text sizes, while Text zoom adjusts the text only.

Some websites may not work with NoSquint due to the way they’re structured. For this, you can go to Exceptions and add an Exception Pattern that fixes the problem. It’s a bit technical, so I highly recommend thoroughly reading the Help section.

Having used this extension for a while now, I find that it is indispensable especially for websites that use small print. It also helps that there is more than one way to zoom in and out, so it’s always accessible with either keyboard or mouse. With an add-on as easy to configure and easier to use, you’ll never have to squint at web pages again.

NoSquint

Image credit: Magnifying glass

The post How To Adjust Text Size In Firefox appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Once installed, you’ll need to register for an EverSync account. You can do this by clicking on either of the EverSync buttons found along the top menu bars of the browser.

In Chrome, the button drops down and provides you with a Login or Register button.

In Firefox, click on Sync Bookmarks and a dialog box opens with a Login and Register buttons.

You only need to register using one browser, and you don’t have to do it for both. Registration requires only your email address and a password. Registration allows EverSync to store your data in their servers, so your bookmarks are stored in the cloud and safely backed up.

Syncing Bookmarks in Firefox

In your Firefox browser, click on the Sync icon again. In the drop down, click on Sync Bookmarks.

A dialog box will open. There are three ways you can do to start syncing bookmarks: Merge, Upload and Download. If this is the first time you’re going to use EverSync, then merging server and computer data is the best option.

This setting is chosen just once, and will become the default action the next time you sync bookmarks. If you want to change the sync method, you can always go back to this page and change it accordingly.

Syncing Bookmarks in Chrome

Chrome has its own bookmark syncing feature, and this has to be disabled for EverSync to work. To do this, go to “Settings -> Advanced Sync Settings”. Change the drop down from “Sync Everything” to “Choose what to sync”. Uncheck Bookmarks from the list below. Click OK.

You are now ready to enable EverSync. Click on the Sync icon and click Start Synchronization.

A similar menu should open and prompt you to select from Merge, Upload or Download. To make syncing between Chrome and Firefox work without losing data, be sure to always choose Merge.

As a precaution, EverSync automatically backs up your bookmarks and saves it in its server even if you haven’t done so. The number of bookmarks saved is indicated on the bottom of the sync settings dialog box. If, at any time, your bookmarks disappear, go to this page and click Restore bookmarks.

Remember that uploading and downloading options will overwrite what you’ve already saved in the server. If you upload your current bookmarks, it will erase all previous ones you’ve synced and retain only the ones you have at the time of upload. The same goes with downloading.

Once you have sync settings set up in both browsers, you should be able to see your bookmarks in either browser. When you add a new bookmark in Chrome, it should automatically appear in Firefox too. If not, you may need to refresh the bookmark page, or click on the EverSync icon.

The post How to Sync Bookmarks Between Firefox and Chrome appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The problem is that, until now, you’ve had to open up your browser first and then turn on the feature. This gets a little annoying after a while. What if I told you that you can configure your browser to automatically start up in private browsing/incognito mode? What if you never had to spend a minute without privacy?

Why Would I Want To Start Up My Browser Like This?

Most people start with the normal browsing mode simply because they don’t know the existence of the privacy mode or they just don’t bother about it. If you are one of those who prefer to go private, you will want to start your browser directly in privacy mode so you won’t expose yourselves right from the start.

Configuring Private Browsing/Incognito Mode On Startup For…

1: Google Chrome

Chrome is a very strong browser, especially known for its incognito mode feature. To configure it to start directly in incognito mode:

• Right-click the shortcut you use for Google Chrome. If your shortcut is pinned to the taskbar, right-click on the pinned icon and then right-click on Google Chrome.
• Click “Properties.”
• Under “Target,” you’ll see a path. After that path, attach ”-incognito” to the end of it. Click “OK” when you’re finished.

That’s all you have to do! Chrome will now start up in incognito mode.

2: Mozilla Firefox

This one’s a little tricky. Firefox has a “private browsing mode,” but it’s not really so much of a mode as a temporary setting in your options. It temporarily forgets all the history in your browsing session while using the feature. The same goes for any other browser’s private browsing feature. Unlike with Chrome, you can configure Firefox to let you browse privately on startup without any workarounds. The most transparent way to set this up is through the “Privacy” section within the “Options” dialog:

• Click the orange “Firefox” button on the upper left corner of the window and click “Options.”
• Navigate to “Privacy.”
• Select “Never remember history” under “Firefox will.”

After setting this, Firefox will always forget every website you navigate to.

3: Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer, the configuration is very similar to Chrome’s.

• Right-click on the shortcut you use to access Internet Explorer and click “Properties.”
• Under “Target,” you’ll see a path. Type ”-private” after the path.
• Click “OK.”

This setting is straightforward for the most part.

4. Safari

Unfortunately there is no way to keep Safari in private browsing mode after it’s turned off. Every time the app is opened, Private Safari will have to be initiated unless you set up an AppleScript.

• With Safari open, pull down on the Safari menu and choose Private Browsing.
• In the resulting dialog box, Click OK to confirm.
• A bar with the word “Private” will appear in the address bar.
• To turn off, either click the Private button in the address bar or pull down on the Safari menu again and choose Private Browsing again to turn it off.

A Final Word Of Warning

If you’re using private browsing to perform illegal activities, you’re still going to get busted anyway. Your browser’s privacy mode is mostly ornamental, so people using your computer can’t just jump in and check your history. But your ISP can still keep track of you if you’re doing something nasty. Please browse safely.

Post a comment below if you have a question or would like to add to the discussion on private browsing.

The post The Ultimate Guide To Private Browsing on the Internet appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

How to Create and Restore Backup in Firefox

Creating Backups

FEBE is really simple and easy to use. Go to Firefox Addons Repository and install FEBE. Once installed, the extension will add new options to the Firefox menu.

First, you must configure FEBE and specify the directory location where you want to back up your profiles and extensions. Click on the Firefox button and go to “Backup Utilities -> FEBE -> FEBE Options.”

From there, go to the “Where to Backup” tab and specify the directory location. You can even timestamp backups so you can easily check when the last one was done. Even if you don’t timestamp your directories, you can use the backup history option to check for the date of backup.

Now, click on the “What to Backup” tab and select the items you want to back up. If you want to create a full backup of your profile, simply check “Full Profile” under Backup Time and click OK. Otherwise, check the “Selective” option and select the items you want to back up.

If you have an account on Box.net, you can sign in and save local Firefox backups online as well.

You are almost done. Go to “Backup Utilities -> FEBE -> Perform Backup“. This will create a backup based on the backup options you configured earlier. After creating the backup, it will show you backup results that contains information about the backup and how much time it took to create the backup file.

Restoring FEBE Backup

To restore the backup click on the Firefox button and go to “Backup Utilities -> FEBE -> Restore“. Select the items you want to restore. It will ask you to find the backup files from your computer or use your Box.net account to restore from the online backup.

If you want to restore your complete profile, select “Restore Profile” instead and select the location of the file your computer or your Box account. it will also ask you to select the profile in which you want to restore the backup. Once done, click on the “Start Profile Restore” button and it will show you when that specific profile backup was created. Just click OK and you are done.

Schedule Backups

FEBE even allows users to schedule backups as well. From FEBE Options, just go to the “When to Back Uup” tab and select the schedule and the time when you want FEBE to create a backup of your browsing data. If you want, you can even configure the extension to create a backup every time you start or close Firefox.

Conclusion

FEBE is a must have extension for all Firefox users who want to create timely backups of their profiles and other browsing data. It’s simple, user friendly and easy to use. And the best thing about this extension is that you can even schedule backups so that you don’t have to do that manually.

If you tried FEBE, feel free to share your thoughts.

The post How to Back Up Your Browsing Data in Firefox appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

To get started, download the add-on Save to Google Drive from the Firefox Add-on web page.

After installation, you should get an icon on the top right corner of the browser and a smaller one on the add-on bar located on the bottom. If you don’t see this, press “Ctrl+/” or go to “Menu -> Options” and click on “Add-on Bar”.

If you’re already on the web page where a link to a file is located, then you can go ahead and click on any of the Save to Google Drive icons. If not, navigate to the download page that shows the link first.

The icon will show a popup box with two options: “Add to Queue” and “Analyze this page for links”. Add to Queue is used when you copy a link and paste it into the text field above it. If you don’t want to open a new tab or window for a link, you can right click on a link and click “Copy link location.”

If you want to download more than one link in a page, you can select “Analyze this page for links” to get a list of all links. You can then select the ones you want to send to Google Drive.

After selecting files, you can now go to the add-on’s “Login” tab to log in to Google Drive.

You should see the files in the My Drive folder.

If you don’t see the files, it might still be in the queue. To check this, go back to the add-on pop up box and click on the “Queue Status” tab.

The add-on also lets you turn off notifications of login and save failures as well as setting the default action for right-clicking on the icon on the add-on bar.

To see a list of previously analyzed files, you can go to the “Analyzed files” tab. Here, you can add more files than previously selected to add to the download queue.

Note that some conditions must be met for the add-on to work properly. Links should be direct from the source and are publicly accessible. There also is a 25 mb limit for each file download.

Provided these requirements are met, Save to Google Drive is a brilliant add-on for saving files in the cloud and on-the-go. Whether it’s for sharing with others or for your own use, it can work wonders for saving time and hard drive space.

The post How To Save Files Straight to Google Drive In Firefox appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Open a new tab or window and go to https://www.rollap.com to register a free account. You can use your Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo or OpenID account to sign up.

Enter the log in credentials for your selected network and allow access to rollApp in the next page.

You will then be guided into adding a cloud storage service to link to your rollApp account. Select the service from the drop down and click Connect.

You should get a confirmation that your rollApp account is now linked to that service. In my case, I chose to connect my Dropbox account.

Note: The add-on might require you to allow pop-ups, in which case a tutorial on doing so will be available to you should your settings have pop-ups disabled.

Once you get the confirmation, you can now access the cloud service in another tab or window within Firefox. This time, with the add-on installed, you’ll get a pop-up with options to open or download a file when you mouse over a link. In the example below, the link is found on my Dropbox folder, and is an XLS file named Invoice. To open the file, click Open. A new window should pop up informing you that your file is being accessed.

Clicking on Open will trigger the add-on function and open a new window where the file is shown in an online document viewer. In this case, the file was opened using LibreOffice.

The add-on not only allows for viewing content from a number of file types, but also lets you edit and save other versions of it. The add-on supports a large number of files including Microsoft Word files, spreadsheets, photos, and even zip files.

It also works on other download links from any web page. Simply hover the mouse over the link and you should still get the same pop-up options.

Although using the add-on may seem simple enough, there are a few rules to remember. First, ensure that pop-up is enabled in Firefox, since links opened using this app need to do so in a new window. Second, when you go idle in your browser for 10 minutes, the add-on disconnects from your cloud storage account, in which case you would need to reconnect to continue using it.

If you don’t mind going through these steps, then rollApp File Opener will definitely save you more time next time you access files online. Although it’s not exactly as user friendly as one would want, it’s a doable process that ensures long term convenience and is definitely worth the effort.

The post How To Open Any File In Firefox With rollApp File Opener appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Download Everbot for Gmail add-on from the Firefox Add-on website. There is no need to restart after downloading it.

You should get a new tab that will walk you through the rest of the process. Under Step 1, click on Connect to to authorize the add-on to access your Gmail account.

On the pop up page, enter your Gmail credentials and click Sign In. Click on Allow access on the next page after signing in.

Next, you’ll be redirected to another sign in page for Evernote. This time, enter your Evernote user name and password. On the next page, click on Authorize.

Once done, you are taken back to the initial start page under Step 2. Click on Read the Manual.

This takes you to a short tutorial on how to use the add-on for specific functions, such as forwarding an email to an Evernote account. You may now close this window and start accessing your Gmail inbox.

Open another window or tab and log in to your Gmail account. Go to the inbox and choose which email you want to send to Evernote.

There are two different ways to send emails. Look for the button that says “Send to Evernote”. One will be located on the top right corner of the email body, and another one on the email header. Clicking on the header button sends the entire email thread, while clicking on the one within the email body sends only that part of the thread. Any images, and other attachments in the email will also be sent to Evernote as part of the email content.

To insert a note or notebook in a new email message, click on Compose. This brings up the New Message window, and below it there should be a link that says Insert Evernote notebook/note. Click on that.

A pop-up box lets you input a name for the note and which notebook to send it, along with adding tags and comments.

Once done, click on the Insert note/notebook button. You should see a link for the note in within the email composition. When ready, click on Send.

Evernote’s cross platform appeal, along with its collaboration with numerous other apps make it extremely usable. Everbot for Gmail is no exception. With a tool like this, it’s now possible to get Evernote functionality without having to leave Gmail or open another window to access Evernote’s web or desktop app. If you’re looking for ways to organize and share your notes from Gmail, this add-on is definitely a wise solution.

The post Add Evernote Functionality to Gmail with Everbot Firefox Add-on appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Here’s how:

1. Install the FB Cursors add-on for Firefox and restart your browser.

2. Go to the Facebook website and click on the hand icon at the top right corner of the page – between your name and “Home.”

3. A new window will pop up and you’ll need to add the FB Cursors Facebook application to your account; click on the “Go to App” button.

4. You’ll be directed back to Facebook in that new window that was opened up, but you won’t see the hand icon displayed in the top corner.

Just close out that window and go back to the original window that you were in. You may need to refresh the page.

5. Click on the hand icon again and a layer popup will appear titled, “Select New Cursor.”

6. Now it’s time to select your cursor of choice; there’s many to choose from and they’re organized by category.

7. You can also upload an image from your computer to use as a cursor. Just click on the “Browse” button at the bottom of the popup.

8. Once you find a cursor that you like, click on it and click on the “close” button.

Note: If you don’t want to share your new cursor on your timeline, be sure to uncheck that option in the top right corner of the popup layer.

That’s it. You now have a cool new mouse cursor that works exclusively on Facebook.

The post How to Customize Your Mouse Cursor on Facebook [Firefox] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Here’s how:

1. Install the WikiLook add-on for Firefox and be sure to restart your browser.

2. While browsing the Web, use your preferred method of defining a word.

• Hold down Shift while right-clicking a word
• Hold down Ctrl (or Command on Mac) while right clicking a word
• Hold down Alt (or Option on Mac) while right clicking a word
• Highlight a word, right-click on it, and select “WikiLook” from the menu

Note: You can enable/disable your preferred methods in WikiLook’s Options, which can be accessed from the Add-ons Manager in Firefox.

3. Upon activating WikiLook, the definition of the word will display right on the page in a popup (as seen in the screenshot above). If you have the option enabled, you’ll also hear the word being pronounced on your computer.

Now you can find out what any word means in a matter of seconds. If you want to turn WikiLook off, just click on the fancy green “A” icon on the Firefox Add-on Bar.

The post How to Quickly Define Any Word on a Web Page [Firefox] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

If you are a tech enthusiast or a developer wanting to test out the Firefox OS, here is a quick and simple way to get started:

1. In your Firefox browser, go to this link and click the download link for your OS. This will install the r2d2b2g Firefox OS simulator extension.

2. When prompted, restart your Firefox.

3. After the restart, go to “Tools -> Web Developer -> Firefox OS Simulator”.

4. In the Simulator dashboard, flip the “Stopped” switch to Running. The Firefox OS simulator will now start.

5. You can start to play around with the Firefox OS.

A Quick Review of Firefox OS

After playing around with it for a while, you will find that it is very similar to iOS and Android. In fact, it is more like a hybrid between the two. As with iOS, you can slide from screen to screen to access your apps. There isn’t a drawer to store your apps, but there is the familiar drag-down-to-reveal notification bar. Not to forget the Home button at the bottom of the screen.

Firefox OS Home screen

Firefox OS Notifications

Firefox OS Settings

Firefox OS Long press to change wallpaper

There is also a marketplace in the simulator where you can access the apps. You can scroll around the different categories, but there aren’t many apps at the moment.

Knowing that the number of apps in the marketplace will make or break the OS and the ecosystem, Mozilla has been trying hard to push for more developers and apps. We are keen to see whether Mozilla can break the chain dominated by Apple and Google, or just another project that never see the light.

Meanwhile, enjoy the testing.

The post How to Run Firefox OS In Your Browser appeared first on Make Tech Easier.