No modern computer should be without Firefox, it is even being installed by default on our machines at work by our IT team, and hey, it is free for anyone and everyone to download, so if you haven’t already, you should. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
There are a few things you can install to improve Firefox a bit though, and no one within a web design/development agency or similar work place, should be without the following three tools, if nothing else because it will make your life a LOT easier if your end product is web based in the slightest.
1. Web Developer Toolbar: (download here)
Don’t let the name fool you, anyone working with anything web related should have this installed in their Firefox (which possibly should be your main browser for checking web sites). It allows you to check alt attributes for images, it links off to different validators, it allows you to disable CSS, images, it can show you the colour palette of the web site you are looking at etc. In short, if you explore it a bit it will make you sound really knowledgeable on these topics, mainly because you will be.
You can read more about what it can do over at Six Revisions and also over at WebDesign10.
2. Quick Java (and JavaScript): (download here)
Javascript etc
Even though you can switch off JavaScript with Web Developer Toolbar, this makes it even quicker, by placing icons in your status bar.
The benefit with this is that if Flash has been implemented correctly this also turns off Flash on the website, and we very often make Flash web sites/components where you have to check/verify the non-flash version of it. This extension makes this a 2-second job (click it, refresh page).
3. Clear Cache Button: (download here)
No cache image to be found 
…and yes, very often the first question a developer will ask you is “have you cleared your cache? Are you sure? Really?” when you approach them with a “…but it isn’t working!?! I can’t see anything new!“.
If you have this installed you can turn this as well into a 2 second job (like above, click it, refresh page), without having to do a massive menu-search-and-find exercise.
If you are keen on REALLY finding out how web sites work, also check out Firebug.
It will show you download speeds of particular files, allow you to inspect any element of a page etc and is a power house of nifty functions. It even comes with plugins of its own. You can read more about that over at Tech Hail.
Ok. That was actually four add-ons, but that is ok, they are all good.
Have you installed them all?
Good. We just turned up the web savviness a notch.
You can thank me later.
