MeasureIt (0.4.8), A Web Page Screen "Ruler" Addon For Firefox4!

While creating or working with websites, a screen ruler application is a must!. For instance say that you were browsing a web site and got interested how it's designed, etc... thought to your self, "hmm, I wonder what is the exact width of the page".

By default you can't measure it in pixels no matter what web browser you're using.

Easy to use... and excellent as well.

But if you're using Firefox version 1.0 to the latest 4.01 version, then there is an excellent addon called MeasureIt. It did not support the latest Firefox version 4 until recently but now you can use it in the version 4 nonetheless.

Installation is pretty simple. Just go to this measureIt official mozilla page and click on "Add to Firefox" button and follow instructions on your screen.

Once installed, when the web browser asked, you must restart it. Even after doing that, in my Firefox4 the MeasureIt ruler did not show-up, if this happened to you (it happened to me) then use the below method.

1. From the main menu in Firefox4, go to: "View" -> "Toolbars" -> "Add-on Bar" (just make sure it's enabled - you should see a "check mark", if not, simply click on it).

Before enabling the Add-on bar (it's disabled by default if I'm not mistaken).

After enabling add-on bar (in Red is the add-on bar and in Green is our MeasureIt icon).

Now even after enabling it still if you can't see a that Yellow MeasureIt icon, then again go to : "View" -> "Toolbars" -> "Customize" and from the toolbar window you get, scroll down till you find the "MeasureIt" icon and simply drag it and drop on the above mentioned "add-on bar" (in Red of above screenshot) section in your Firefox4 browser. That should do it!. 

If you use Safari Web browser or the Google Chrome then no worries... it's also available for those browsers as well. Get it from this official author page.

Introducing the Unity Fox!: Get Thumbnail Previews of Firefox Downloads in Unity's Launcher

I'm pretty sure Google's Chrome is an excellent web browser. But still there are a lot of other GNU/Linux users (including Microsoft users as well) who just love the new Firefox4!. Now, since with Ubuntu 11.04, Canonical puts a lot of emphasis on the app launcher, when properly used, a well designed application launcher is actually something very useful.

Unity Fox!........

Previously I discussed about the Pidgin-libnotify plugin which automatically "notifies" your when new messages arrive by using a dedicated icon written for the Unity's launcher, just like that, would you like to see a live preview (as in the above screenshot) of the files that you downloading via the Firefox4 web browser directly in your app launcher in Ubuntu 11.04 (even when the web browser is closed or minimized!).

If so, then you should install the plugin called UnityFox. This is actually a Firefox add-on! which again shows the power of the (not sure if Unity comes with a fully compatible GNU license, there are few issues) open-source application standards and how easy it is to integrate new features into them.

Anyhow, if you want to use this, then make sure you you're using Ubuntu 11.04 and download the add-on from here.

FireSSH, Install a Cross Platform SSH Terminal for Firefox4

FireSSH is a cross-platform SSH terminal that can be used with Firefox4. So remember this does not support Firefox 3.5+. Anyhow, why do you need a SSH addon for Firefox?.

Well let's say that if you have a portable version of the Firefox, then you can have a dedicated SSH client with you. But secondly and most importantly, let's say that the PC on your work-place does not allow you to install applications but allows you to add browser pluggings, then you have the ability to install and sue FireSSH with your browser and access some of those applications via the Terminal window! (as long as those ports are open for your browser of course).

So it is pretty handy to have around. If you want to install it then again make sure you have Firefox4 (still in beta) installed and go to this page and click on the "add to Firefox" button and follow the instructions on the screen.