TrueStar Technology Blog » Firefox Tweeks and Add-ons

Adding a “Favicon” to your Website

TrueStarTE — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:35:25 +0000

Favicon?

I’m sure by now most of you have noticed the “favicons” located in the address bar of your browser or in your favorites/bookmarks links:

*Adding a “Favicon” to your website is actually a pretty simple process. Follow the instructions below to add a favicon to your site.

Adding the Favicon:

1. Create your favicon.

To create your favicon (a 16×16 pixel .ico image), you may create one, or select an image of your choice and edit it with a graphics design/editing program like Adobe Photoshop/CS3, the GIMP, or some free services (here for instance) offered by numerous websites on the net.

2. Upload the favicon to the directory/folder in which your website’s index page (website’s home page) is located.

3. Add the following line of text between the tags ( and respectively) of your index page:

Note:

[make sure that your favicon/icon is called "favicon.ico" (wihout the qoutes) or whatever the name of your favicon/image is. The browser will try to load (as the favicon) whatever image name you put after "href=" ]. Please note that this image does NOT have to be a “.ico” image. You may also use such images as a non-compressed/compressed PNG or a GIF. All browsers may not support PNGs or GIFs however.

Also:

If you are having issues with this showing up in your browser, such as Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon, or any other browser, you may wish to put a “?” (question mark without quotes) after the URL as shown below:

4. Publish/Post your edited index page.

5. Refresh your browser by pressing f5 on your keyboard or by pressing and holding the “Ctrl” key and momentarily pressing “R” on your keyboard.

This completes the implementation of the favicon.

Note: You may wish to check whether your favicon is showing up on a different computer/different browser to avoid issues with it not showing up. Also note that on a Linux/Unix server, you must make sure that all your text matches exactly ( Characters/letters are case-sensitive on Linux/Unix servers.)

* This refers to adding a favicon to your unix-based server and may be different given your situation and Server Operating System.

Your TrueStar Technology Expert

Firefox, Skin, and Weather

TrueStarTE — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:51:09 +0000

Firefox is Very Versatile

Firefox, the browser by Mozilla, is indeed a very versatile creature. If you consider the multiple levels on which you can use Firefox it is quite amazing. Today I would like to cover a couple of the more popular features available. One of the features that I like and find extremely handy, is the “Forecast Fox” Add-on. This feature basically allows you to view the weather for a given location in a few moments by integrating a little weather station if you will, into any of a number of locations in Firefox.

Simple, Easy to Understand Layout

You are presented with a simple layout that features a radar button for an geographically expansive outlook at the weather, followed by the current state of the weather and the current temperature. This is followed by two other panels dictating tomorrow’s and the “day-after’s” forecasts (noted below).

How Do I Install ForecastFox

Adding Forecast Fox to your Mozilla Firefox browser is a simple matter. Follow the instructions below:

1. Visit the Mozilla Add-ons page here (you’ll download the Add-on here).

2. Do a search for “Forecast fox” by typing forecast fox into the search box noted below (I personally like the enhanced version of the software).

3. Click on the version that you like, it will take you to the page dedicated to that version specifically.

4. Click on the “install now” or thus related button.

5. You will be presented with the software installation dialog:

6. Clicking on “Install Now” will let you install the software into your browser:

7. Once the installation is complete, you will have to restart Firefox:

8. After the restart is complete, you will need to tell Firefox to make use of the addon. You may accomplish this by:

1. Clicking on “Tools” in the menu.

2. Next click on Add-ons.

3. Click on “Extensions”.

4. Click on “Enable” under the Forecast fox Add-on:

Installation and Initialization Complete

This should put the dock into your browser. It may be necessary to restart your browser once more. Once the doc is in place, you simply need to tell it where you would like to track the weather. You may accomplish this by right-clicking anywhere on the weather interface and selecting “options”. This will present you with the Options dialog box and allow you to type in your zip code (this allows Forecast fox to track the weather for your location) If you’re putting this on a laptop and you travel frequently to multiple locations, you can add another profile and switch to that profile when you are at that location to have Forecast Fox show the weather for that location specifically:

After you type in your zip code, click on “OK” to close the dialog box. Forecast fox should begin showing the current weather as well as the two-day forecast.

Easy Weather Access

From now on, whenever you want a quick peek at what the clouds overhead are doing, simply point your mouse over the little, green, radar symbol and it will pop-up a little weather map showing cloud conditions in your area.

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Skin? What’s this About Firefox Skin?

Firefox has a skin, believe it or not, Firefox is quite the dermatological agglomeration. When I say Firefox has a skin, I mean that the look and feel of Firefox can be changed to a look and feel with a completely different atmosphere. This can easily be accomplished as is made available to you by the community of Firefox interface developers.

A Plethora of Skins

The amount of skins and styles that are available for your Firefox browser is varied from the simple, cool, and professional, to skins that will make you go hmmm. Take a look here at the types of skins available, you can go simple, bright, large, cool, smooth, modern, old, have a Mac OS look… etc. etc.

How do I Get These Wonderful Skins?

Obtaining skins for Firefox is simple and free… just like the browser they are made for. If you do not have Firefox, you can download it here. If you would like skins for Firefox, you can download them here. Installation is a snap, they take the same path as do the installations that were performed above (the Forecast fox Add-on). Just follow the same instructions choosing instead, whichever skin you would like.

Adding Color to Your Firefox Tabs

TrueStarTE — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:16:43 +0000

If you are like me, you use Firefox because of it’s speed, reliability, and security. Mozilla has been offering a much better browser than Microsoft for an extended period of time now. I am providing a quick link to one of the many tweaks and plug-ins that is available for this web browser, RSS reader etc.

The Tweak: (Adding Color to Your Tabs)

To add color to your tabs in Fire fox, you simply:

1. Click on “Tools” in the menu bar.

2. Click on “Add-ons”.

3. Click on “Get Themes” on the bottom-right hand portion of the Add-ons dialog box (This will take you to the Mozilla Add-ons/Themes page where you can obtain this and many other add-ons).

4. Enter the words “colorful tabs” in the search bar on the top-right hand portion of the page and press enter (this will bring up a list of items of which colorful tabs should be number one).

5. Click on the “Colorful Tabs” link to bring up the details of that Add-on.

6. Click on the “Show License Agreement” button to bring up the license agreement.

7. If you accept the agreement, go ahead and click on the “Accept and Install” button to launch the download (just a small download).

8. You must restart Firefox for the Add-on to work.

9. Click on “Tools” once more.

10. Click on “Add-ons”.

11. Click on the green “Extensions” graphic on the top left of the dialog box that comes up.

12. Click on “Colorful Tabs” in the list.

13. Click on “Enable”

14. Click on the “X” in the upper-right hand portion of your screen to close the dialog box.

15. If necessary, restart Firefox. You may need to make a new tab to see the effect… best wishes.

Here’s the Mozilla Firefox Add-on page… there are lots of cool stuff located here.

Your TrueStar Technology Expert.

TrueStar Computer Solutions… Technology Blog

TrueStarTE — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:53:41 +0000

Welcome to TrueStar Computer Solutions… “TrueBlog”!

In this blog, we will discuss most anything technologically related… whether it be the latest computer Operating System technology (Linux, Apple, Windows based), computer hardware, third-party software, or whether it be as simple as the latest gadgetry. Drop by and take a peek at what’s going on, and hey, pop us a quick question or pass us a comment! Thanks, and… Enjoy!

Your TrueStar Technology Expert