One of the many reasons why the web browser Mozilla Firefox has become so popular is its ability to use add-ons (or extensions), small programs that allow you to personalize your internet surfing experience. They can do everything from blocking advertisements to giving you weather reports to making your email simpler to use. This walkthrough will tell you what add-ons are, how you can find and install them, and will detail a few that we particularly like: Adblock Plus, ForecastFox, Flashblock, and ReminderFox. While this walkthrough assumes you're using Microsoft Windows, the principles also apply if you're using Firefox on a computer running Linux or the Macintosh operating system. This class was last presented at the Bay Area Seniors Computer Club in March 2010.

1. Using Add-ons
with Mozilla
Firefox
Objective
One of the many reasons why the web browser Mozilla Firefox has become so popular is
its ability to use add-ons (or extensions), small programs that allow you to personalize
your internet surfing experience. They can do everything from blocking advertisements to
giving you weather reports to making your email simpler to use. This walkthrough will tell
you what add-ons are, how you can find and install them, and will detail a few that we
particularly like: Adblock Plus, ForecastFox, Flashblock, and ReminderFox. While this
walkthrough assumes you're using Microsoft Windows, the principles also apply if you're
using Firefox on a computer running Linux or the Macintosh operating system.
Outline
What are add-ons and where can I find them?.......................................................2
Searching for and evaluating add-ons...................................................................4
Installing add-ons..............................................................................................5
Managing your add-ons .....................................................................................6
Adblock Plus (advertisement blocker)...................................................................7
ForecastFox (weather)........................................................................................9
Flashblock (online video/advertisement blocker)...................................................11
ReminderFox (reminders & to do lists)................................................................12
Conclusion......................................................................................................15
This walkthrough is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution
United States license. For more information, visit http://www.creativecommons.org.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.1

2. Mozilla Firefox is a web browser that many people use as an alternative to browsers such
as Internet Explorer or Safari. Firefox is open source, which means that all of the
underlying code that makes the program work is available to anyone who wants to
expand on or modify it.
If you don't currently have Firefox on your computer and would like to try it, you can
download and install it from http://www.firefox.com. You can check out our walkthrough
for how to install and use Firefox at http://www.slideshare.net/nbpl/intro-to-firefox.
Term: A web browser is a program that allows you to access the various websites and
resources available on the internet. Internet Explorer is the most common.
There are many others, however, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.
As you can see from the screenshot of Firefox shown below, web browsers'
layouts are often very similar.
What are add-ons and where can I find them?
Because Firefox is open source, interested individuals are able to write little
“subprograms,” also known as add-ons or extensions. They are designed to offer
additional functions to Firefox and allow you to personalize your internet surfing
experience. They can do everything from blocking advertisements to giving you weather
reports to making your email simpler to use.
There are literally thousands of add-ons available for Firefox. Mozilla, the nonprofit
corporation responsible for Firefox, maintains a directory of these add-ons. To get to this
directory . . .
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.2

3. 1. Open Firefox, either by double-clicking the Firefox icon (shown at
right) on your computer desktop OR by clicking the start menu in the
bottom-left corner of your computer and clicking the Firefox icon you
see there. You may need to move your mouse over “All Programs” to
find it.
2. Click inside the address bar (the box near the top of the screen that has text
starting with “http://”). The text in the address bar should now be highlighted. If
it's not, move your mouse cursor to the right of the text in the address bar, click
and hold your left mouse button, and drag it over the text. Once the text is
highlighted, type “addons.mozilla.org” (without the quotes). Press “Enter” on the
keyboard.
Type addons.mozilla.org and press
“Enter” to find the add-ons website.
3. That's it! You're now on Mozilla's add-ons directory, shown below.
Search box:
Search for specific add-ons or
ones that do specific things here.
Categories:
These are helpful
categories of add-ons.
Just click on one to
browse through a list of
add-ons in that area.
Content area:
Gives you the list of add-ons, including short
descriptions and the option to install the add-ons.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.3

4. Searching for and evaluating add-ons
With thousands of add-ons from which to choose, it might be difficult to select ones.
Fortunately, Mozilla offers a few ways to help you decide.
➢ Categories:
Add-ons on the website are categorized to help you choose the right ones.
Categories are listed on the left side of the add-ons page. To browse them, simply
move your mouse cursor over the category you want and left-click it. Say you want
Firefox to alert you when you receive an email. No problem! Just check out the
“Alerts & Updates” category, shown below, and find an add-on that does that.
➢ Searching:
What if you want your web browser to do something specific, perhaps like blocking
all of those annoying advertisements you often see on websites? Chances are that
if you want your browser to do that, so does someone else. Using the search box
on the add-on page, type what you want the add-on to do and left-click the green
arrow button. You'll get a list of add-ons that do that function, as shown below.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.4

5. ➢ Add-on descriptions:
When you're browsing or searching for add-ons, you'll get short descriptions of
what the add-ons do. However, by left-clicking the blue title of the add-on, you can
get a longer description of what the add-on does. These descriptions have several
useful elements including longer explanations of the add-on, ratings by users, and
screenshots.
Screenshots:
Show you how the add-on looks and works.
More screenshots can generally be found by
scrolling further down the page.
Description:
Gives you a more
detailed explanation
of the add-on and
how it works. More
information is
available farther
down the page.
Reviews:
Regular users of the add-on, just like
you, can review it. Add-ons are rated
from  to . Make sure to check
out the reviews, especially the bad
ones. Left-click the “# reviews” link to
read them. Try to find add-ons rated 4
or 5 stars.
Installing add-ons
Once you've found an add-on that you want, it's simple to install!
1. On the browsing, search results, or add-on description page, left-
click the “Add to Firefox” icon, shown at left.
2. This will open the “Software installation”
box, shown at right. This is Firefox's way of
warning you to make sure you know what
you're doing. Since you do, click the
“Install Now” button.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.5

6. 3. Firefox will now download the add-on you
selected. Once it's downloaded, it will show
the “Add-ons” screen, shown at left.
4. Add-ons require you to restart Firefox in
order for them to take effect. Click the
“Restart Firefox” button on the Add-ons box
to do so. Don't worry, though; Firefox will
remember which pages you had open.
5. Once you restart, Firefox will reopen the Add-ons box to confirm that your add-on
installed correctly.
Managing your add-ons
Once you've installed a few add-ons, you
may want to manage them, perhaps by
changing their settings or even uninstalling
them if you don't like them. You can
manage all of your installed add-ons from
the Add-ons box, which is the same window
that opened after you installed the add-
ons. To access this window,
1. Click the “Tools” menu near the top
of the Firefox window and left-click
the “Add-ons” option.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.6

7. 2. This will open the Add-ons window. It shows you a list of your installed add-ons
and gives you a few options.
Your list of installed add-
ons appears here. The
“Options” button allows you
to change the settings.
Options for add-ons differs
depending on what it does.
Uninstall:
Disable: Don't like the add-
Clicking this prevents the add-on on? No problem.
from working but does not remove Click this to get rid
it from Firefox. You can re-enable of it!
an add-on from this screen as well.
3. If you change options, disable, or uninstall an add-on, you may need to restart
Firefox for the changes to take effect.
Adblock Plus (advertisement blocker)
Now that we've talked about how to install and manage add-ons, let's try out a few! One
of which we're particularly fond is Adblock Plus. It does pretty much what it says: it
blocks advertisements on various websites. Have you ever been on a website and seen
one of those annoying ads for mortgages with bizarre dancing people? They'll be no more
with Adblock Plus! We'll summarize how to install it below:
1. In the search box on the Mozilla add-ons page, type in “adblock” (no quotes) and
press the “enter” key on the keyboard.
2. Find the entry called “Adblock Plus.” Click the “Add to
Firefox” icon to install it.
3. Follow the steps described above in the Installing add-ons section to complete the
installation.
4. Restart Firefox when it prompts you, and that's it! Now you have Adblock Plus
installed.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.7

8. 5. Once you restart after installing Adblock, Firefox will open a page called “Add
Adblock Plus filter subscription.” Advertisements on the web come from a variety of
sources and companies including Google, Yahoo, and others. This page basically
asks you which set of sources you want to block. The default selection is “EasyList
(USA).” Since you're presumably in the United States, leave this option selected
and then click the “Subscribe” button near the bottom of the page. Now Adblock
will start blocking advertisements!
Now let's test it out. Go to a website you enjoy that usually has advertisements. Notice
anything missing? We demonstrate using OregonLive (http://www.oregonlive.com).
OregonLive
without Adblock
Notice something missing here?
OregonLive
with Adblock
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.8

9. Now that you have Adblock installed, it will block all sorts of advertisements, including
even the ones that appear when you conduct a Google search! You may have noticed
that Adblock placed a small icon in the top right corner of Firefox. If you click this icon, it
will open a small menu, shown and explained below.
Click this to open all of the
blocked ads on a page.
Use these options to prevent
Adblock from blocking ads on
a specific page or an entire
website.
Change Adblock's settings.
These options are also
available on the Add-ons
window.
Turn off Adblock while you're
browsing. You can turn it back
on the same way.
Occasionally, Adblock may block something that's not an advertisement, or just block
something you want to see. This menu is a helpful way to temporarily turn it off to view
what you want.
ForecastFox (weather)
One of the many great things about the internet is that you can get up-to-date weather
information anytime you want from websites like http://www.weather.com or
http://www.wunderground.com. But a simple Firefox add-on called ForecastFox makes
weather information readily available no matter where you are on the Web! It places
current weather information down in the status bar on Firefox (i.e. the bottom bar on
Firefox).
To install ForecastFox, type “forecastfox” into the handy search bar
on the Mozilla add-ons page and click the green search icon. Find
the entry for ForecastFox and click “Add to Firefox.”
Once you install the add-on and restart Firefox, the ForecastFox options windows will pop
up. The options page gives you tons of ways to customize the add-on including its
appearance, what information to show, what city you want weather information on, and
more. All you have to do to get started, though, is to click inside the box next to “Code”
and type your 5-digit zip code. When you're finished, click “OK.” You can revisit these
options anytime by clicking on the “Tools” menu at the top of Firefox, clicking “Add-ons,”
and clicking the “Options” button under the entry for ForecastFox.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.9

10. The Code is your 5-digit zip code.
Use these options to prevent
Adblock from blocking ads on
a specific page or an entire
website.
The Display Placement section
lets you change where on the
Firefox screen your weather
information will appear.
ForecastFox places a small bar at the bottom right corner of your screen (if you left the
options at default) with various weather information.
Indicates a severe Click these for the
weather warning. hourly and 5-day
forecasts respectively.
Move your
mouse over
this to see a Gives you the current, present
small radar day, and tomorrow forecasts.
map.
Moving your mouse cursor over any one of these icons will
give you a bit more information. For instance, the picture
at right shows a little popup that appears when mousing
over the current weather. Each of the icons on the
ForecastFox toolbar is also a link. You can tell because your mouse cursor turns into a
small pointing hand when you move it over them. Clicking on one of these links will take
you to a further description of, say, a severe weather alert or the 5-day forecast on the
website http://www.accuweather.com. For instance, on the next page is a screenshot of
the AccuWeather description of a severe weather warning.
ForecastFox provides a great way to have quick access to information right from Firefox,
no matter where you are on the Web. Play around a bit with the options to personalize it
to show the weather just the way you want!
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.10

11. Flashblock (online video/advertisement blocker)
Many websites use the technologies such as Flash or Silverlight, which are ways of
adding animations, videos, and interactivity to websites. These has many useful functions
(websites like YouTube rely on Flash). Unfortunately, Flash can be pretty annoying, too.
Have you ever gone onto a websites and suddenly had an annoying advertisement or
video start talking to you? That's Flash, too. To add insult to injury, Flash requires a lot of
bandwidth; that is, it can severely slow down your internet connection, a particularly bad
quality if you have a dial-up connection.
Fortunately, a little add-on called Flashblock can help with these annoyances. It stops
Flash videos from playing unless you want them to play. To
install Flashblock, search type “flashblock” into the search
box on Mozilla's add-ons page and click “Add to Firefox.”
As an example of how Flashblock works, look at the screenshots of YouTube on the next
page. Flashblock doesn't simply block Flash, as with Adblock Plus. Instead, it just places
a little Flash/play icon on each Flash object. If you want to play the item, just click the
icon. If not, don't. It's that simple!
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.11

12. YouTube without Flashblock: YouTube with Flashblock:
The video plays automatically. You choose whether the video plays.
This blocking feature is particularly useful
for websites with annoying Flash-based
advertising that you don't want. But there
may be some websites, like YouTube, that
you always want to have its videos or
animations play. Fortunately, you can add
websites to a “whitelist,” which means that
Flashblock will turn itself off automatically
on the websites you list. To access the
whitelist, open the Flashblock options
(Click the “Tools” menu near the top of
Firefox, then click “Add-ons”, and finally
click the “Options” button just under the
entry for Flashblock). The options window
is shown at left.
In the Flashblock options, you'll be able to
turn the add-on on or off. You'll also see a
small tab up at the top called “Whitelist.” To “unblock” all Flash content on a whole
website, just type in the web address of the website up to the .com (or .org, .net, etc.).
For example, you would type in “www.youtube.com” for YouTube. Then click “Add.” Now
the videos on YouTube will automatically play, without you having to click them. But all of
the other websites with annoying Flash animations won't!
ReminderFox (reminders & to do lists)
We all sometimes need a bit of help to remember things or keep track of things we need
to do: remember to pick up milk, make sure you go to that meeting you have tomorrow,
get the steps to the porch fixed, etc. The lists can be endless. Fortunately, Firefox can
even act as a memory helper for us using an add-on called ReminderFox. With
ReminderFox, you can enter things you want to remember or to do, and Firefox will give
you little notifications to help you keep track of them.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.12

13. To install ReminderFox, search for “reminderfox” in the
search bar on the Mozilla add-ons website. Once you find
the entry for it, you know the drill by now: click the “Add to
Firefox” button in install it then restart Firefox.
ReminderFox will put a small icon, shown above, on the status bar on Firefox (it will be
next to your information for ForecastFox, if you installed that earlier) on the bottom right
of your screen. A single left-click on this icon will open the ReminderFox window, shown
below, where you can enter your reminders and ToDos. The window will list the various
reminders you've entered.
Click this tab to
view your ToDos.
Let's start out by adding a reminder. Just click the “Add Reminder” button in the bottom
left corner of the window. The window shown below will appear.
Description
Date/Time
Repeat:
If your reminder is about,
say, a monthly meeting, you
can have the reminder
reappear.
Show alarm popup:
Want Firefox to show you a
little popup reminder? Make
sure this option is checked.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.13

14. In the example above, we've put in a reminder about a class we have teach. Make sure
to fill out the description as well as the date on which the item occurs. If the event occurs
regularly (e.g. monthly, yearly, etc.), you can enter when the event repeats.
One helpful option that ReminderFox offers is
the ability to have a small reminder, like the
one shown at right, pop up. The reminder will
appear at the bottom right corner of your
Firefox window periodically just to remind you
that your event or ToDo item is coming up. You
can make sure that these popups appear by making sure the “Show alarm popup” option
is checked when adding a new reminder. You can even specify how many days in advance
you want to be reminded! Also on the Add Reminder window, you can specify other
options including the location and even a “category” (discussed below).
Once you've entered your reminder, click
“OK.” You'll now be back at your list of
reminders and see the one you just
entered in the list. From here, you can
manage your reminders. Try right-clicking
one of the reminders in the list. Various
options will open up to you including the
ability to edit the reminder, delete it, or
mark it as having been finished.
You can access the ReminderFox options
from the Firefox Add-ons window (available
from the Tools menu). The Options window
is shown below. In the interest of time, we
won't go through all of the options
available to you. However, play around in here to see what you can do. You can affect
everything from where your ReminderFox icon appear to how the reminders work.
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.14

15. On the ReminderFox options window, click the tab that says “Categories.” Categories
provide a helpful way to put your reminders in groups. As you can see, ReminderFox lists
a few helpful ones already such as “Birthday,” “Personal” and “Projects.” However, you
can add your own by clicking the “Add” button. Use these categories to help you organize
all of your reminders. (Pretty sad to need to organize your reminders, eh?)
Conclusion
Those are a few Firefox add-ons we particularly like, but there are thousands more. We
encourage you to try them out. And remember, you're always able to simply uninstall
them, so don't be afraid to play a little.
You may have noticed when you were searching for add-ons that several have the option
to donate a bit of money. The people who design these add-ons are offering their time
and skills free of charge in most cases to create these helpful tools. If you find yourself
using an add-on a lot, it would be a nice gesture to contribute a bit of money to help
keep all of these great programs available.
Last updated: March 4, 2010, by Don Luce and Buzzy Nielsen
Using Add-ons with Mozilla Firefox, p.15