Mozilla web browsers (Firefox and Flock) are my absolute favourites, so, like many of you, I’ve been waiting for Firefox 3.5 to come live. Now that we all had a chance to use Firefox 3.5 for some time,  let me share with you which of it’s new and improved features I like best.

1. I know this is not exactly a feature and it doesn’t sound too creative, but for me the number one improvement is speed. Firefox 3.5 uses the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine instead of the SpiderMonkey engine used in Firefox 3. As a result Firefox 3.5 is more than twice as fast as Firefox 3. Take a look at the SunSpider test results (in milliseconds). The test was performed on a Windows XP computer:

An additional improvement is better memory usage – Firefox 3.5 is not as heavy on RAM as the previous version.

2. A great new feature is HTML 5 support. If you are viewing a web page that is coded in HTML 5 and has video or audio in an open-source format like Ogg Vobris and Ogg Theora, Firefox 3.5 will treat that media as part of the page and not Flash content – no plug-ins or software downloads are require. This new feature provides lots of new ways for websites to display rich content.

3. Private Browsing is new for Firefox, but a number of competing browsers had it for a while. So it’s nice to see Firefox catch up there! And no, it’s not only for browsing inappropriate websites!  To start a Privet Browsing session you’ll need to either go to the Tools menu, or press Ctrl+Shift+P and do the same to turn it off.

4. Another handy security enhancement is Forget This Site. It’s really useful if you want to wipe a single website out of your history rather than delete the whole lot. To make Firefox forget a website all you need to do is press Ctrl+H – select a site – right-click it and select Forget About This Site.

5. The last feature I mention in this post is by no means less important than the rest – Location-Aware Browsing. Now Firefox can detect websites from your area. As a result, you get more relevant information than ever before. Very useful if you are looking for places near you and not in, say, New-York City, such as restaurants, libraries, or in my case shops that buy second-hand furniture! This feature is optional and Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission – no need to worry about your privacy.

In my view, these are top 5 new Firefox 3.5 features. What are your favourite Firefox 3.5 features? Please share in your comments!

Adobe PDF is just about the best format for sending and receiving documents. For example, as a classical music lover I can tell you that most music scores available online are in PDF, because PDFs are small and are easy to upload and send via email. But what if you need to create or edit a PDF document, or fill in a PDF form? That could be a problem if you don’t have Adobe’s software installed. Well, not really. There is a number of free tools to create and edit PDF documents that don’t need to be downloaded or installed – you can use them from any computer that has an Internet connection. Here are 5 top tools to create and edit PDFs online.

1.

I know, this is a pretty obvious choice. But really, all you need to do is upload the file you with to transform into PDF, edit it, click  Save As, and save it in PDF format. No need to install any software.

2.

This free PDF editor lets you:

• Combine PDF. Create single polished PDF files by merging multiple files together.
• Edit PDF pages. Quickly rearrange, reorder and delete the pages from existing PDF files.
• Secure PDF. Protect the contents of PDF files with password-based security.
• Update PDF metadata. Make PDF files more useful and usable by setting the document information (metadata) fields, including author, title, subject and keywords.

3.

PDFescape is a great free online editor. No need to download anything, no need to register, no watermarks. It’s really handy for filling in a creating PDF forms. With PDFescape you can fill in PDF forms, add text and graphics, add links, and even add new form fields to a PDF file. Other features include:

• Open PDF Files from your local computer
• View PDF Files discovered on the web
• Fill Out PDF Forms using PDF form fields
• Forget Hand Writing with the typewriter style tool & complete non-fillable forms
• Edit PDF files & forms
  • Add Text & Shapes to PDF files, allowing customization & markup of PDF
  • Move & Delete Pages in PDF files
  • Insert Links other websites & pages in your PDF files
  • Create New Form Fields, allowing others to easily fill our your PDF forms
  • Edit Existing Content using whiteout tools
  • Rotate Default Page Views using page rotation tool
• Save PDF files to your local computer or your online account

4.

PDFVue Beta is a free online service that lets you upload PDFs or open them from a URL, edit them, and then download the edited document. You will be able to fill in and create PDF forms, add text, images, and links to PDF files, rotate and delete pages, and more. There is a very straight forward Quick Start Guide on the website, so you won’t have a problem finding your way around.

Another great thing about PDFVue is that you can download a Firefox add-on, that will let you view and edit PDFs even if you don’t have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. Unlike Adobe’s products, PDFVue is very light on system resources, which makes it ideal for less powerful computers.

5.

With PDF converter you can convert commonly used files (MS Office, Open Office, graphic images, vector graphic and other formats) to PDF. Example: you need to convert a Power Point (PPT) file into PDF. Use the “Browse” button to locate the source file on your local PC, select it and click the “Convert” button. Done!

If you know of other free online PDF editors/creators that don’t need to be downloaded and installed, please let us know in your comments!

If you’ve recently visited the Firefox add-ons website, I’m sure you liked its new design and organization. Now it’s a lot more user-friendly and finding and installing add-ons has never been easier. But that’s not all – the new Collections and the Add-On Collector extension are the real corkers!

So, what are Collections? Simple, really – they are packs with various add-ons, themes, and language packs. For example, there is a collection called Reference Desk, which is really handy for students. This collection consists of 13 add-ons, including Hyperwords (one of my favourites), Merriam-Webster dictionary, and Read It Later – a handy little add-on that lets you bookmark pages you want to read later without adding them to your actual bookmarks.

But what I really like about it all is that you can create your own Collections.  To create one, all you need to do is log in with your Mozilla account, put together your own Collection, and make it either public or private.

Another great improvement is a tool called Add-on Collector.

It lets you control your add-ons like never before. With Add-on Collector you can:

• Access your favourite collections from Firefox

Collections that you mark as favourites in the Collection Directory appear in a special part of the Add-ons Manager. You’ll be able to stay up-to-date and view the contents of each collection.

• Share add-ons with the Publishing Menu

Each add-on you install is easily shared with a friend via e-mail or published to one of your collections through a publishing menu.

• Receive notifications

Collector will alert you when one of your favourite collections has a new item, and mark it for you to review later.

• Automatically publish your installed add-ons to a collection

Auto-publisher functionality keeps your collection continuously updated with your latest add-ons, keeping your friends who subscribe up-to-date.

I’m really pleased about these changes. Well done Mozilla!

Image by mtellin

Netbooks are great, especially if you are on the move, or you’re a student, or just want to be able to browse the Internet  and be able to do some work from anywhere. And you don’t want to be carrying a big heavy laptop with you. That’s the case with me – I travel a lot and got really tired of dragging my laptop during the day and my shoulder aching in the evening!

Some people say that netbook are only for browsing the web and running lightweight applications. Of course, that’s partly true, but you can always enhance your netbook experience with a little optimization.

1. First of all, if you’re getting (or already have) a netbook with a 3-cell battery, get a second one or a 6-cell one instead. A 3-cell battery won’t last long enough, which doesn’t really go with the “on the go” idea. This is not really an optimization tip, but will save you a lot of trouble nevertheless.

2. Some netbooks are running Vista. If that’s the case with you, I’d recommend downgrading to XP. Vista is not the OS for netbooks.

3. Upgrade RAM, if your netbook has the capacity. Some of them can be upgraded to 2GB, which is not bad at all and matches some larger laptops specs.

4. Uninstall try-and-buy applications that come pre-installed on some netbooks. Most likely you will never need them and they are only demos anyway.

5. Configure your startup list. The more programs are loading on startup, the longer your netbook takes to boot. Go to Start - Run - type in msconfig – hit Enter and review your startup list.

6. Disable unnecessary services. You don’t want them to waste system resources! One way to do it is to click Start - Run - type in msconfig and hit Enter. Then go to the Services tab and disable what you don’t need. A good list of Windows services can be found here. Be careful and don’t disable any vital services. And backup first!

The easier way to disable services is to download Auslogics BoostSpeed and run Service Manager. It gives you detailed description of each service and advises you which ones are safe to disable and which ones are not.

7. Use the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup tool (Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup) to get rid of junk files. You can’t afford to waste disk space, especially if your netbook has an SSD.

8. Download free Auslogics Registry Cleaner and Auslogics Disk Defrag. Both are lightweight and will help you keep your Registry and disks in top form.

9. If you are like me and Firefox is your web browser, use small toolbar icons. Right-click on the toolbar – click Customize - a new window will open – check the Use Small Icons checkbox.

10. Another tip for Firefox users -  press F11 when you need more space. All toolbars and the status bar will disappear. You won’t have any problems if you want to access tabs – just put your cursor on top of the screen and your tabs will reappear. I found this quite handy when browsing through photos or looking at maps.

By default your browser history is kept for way too long, which takes up system resources and slows down the browser.  Limiting history size is an excellent way to quickly speed up your browser.

Firefox users:

1. Go to Tools - Options
2. Click on Privacy
3. Then select any number under Keep my history for at least … days. I have it on 7.
4. 
5. Click OK

By the way, if you don’t want to keep any private data at all, simply check Always clear my private data when I close Firefox. To specify what you want cleared, click on the Settings button and check relevant checkboxes.

Internet Explorer 8 users:

1. Go to Tools - Internet Options
2. Under Browsing History click on the Settings button
3. Select a number to keep you browsing history
4. 
5. Before you click OK I would recommend forbidding the browser to check for newer version of stored pages (select Never) and allowing 50MB of disk space to store Temporary Internet Files (the default number is ridiculous).

Enjoy a faster browser!

If you’ve ever used Firefox, you probably would never go back to IE, because Firefox is so much more comfortable to use, intuitive, and fast. And there are all those add-ons that, in my opinion, make it simply the best.

However, having too many add-ons can make the browser slow down and annoy you. To make it fast again, simply run Internet Optimizer, which is part of Auslogics BoostSpeed. With Internet Optimizer you can optimize your connection and browser settings. After running this tool Firefox will be as fast as ever.

But, to tell you the truth, with fast Internet connections available these days speed is not that much of an issue (unless something is really wrong with your settings). I mean, so pages will take 2 milliseconds less to render and your download speed will improve a bit – that’s not really a big deal anymore!

What is important, though, is your browsing experience – usually you don’t sit there for ages waiting for a page to load, but rather waste a lot of time clicking links one by one, looking for the entry you need in your right-click menu, and so on.

Luckily, Firefox has add-ons and here is a list of the ones that save me a lot of time and speed up my browsing experience.

Menu Editor

Menu Editor is a wonderful add-on that lets you manage and organize your Firefox right-click menu. You can rearrange items and group them together to make the context menu less cluttered and confusing. This extension is especially useful if you have a lot of add-ons installed.

AutoPager

AutoPager is a great extension which can save you a lot of time by loading the next page of a site automatically. It does it in-line, so all you have to do to see the next page is scroll down. This add-on is a real time saver when I’m looking for something on Google, because I don’t have to keep clicking the page numbers anymore.

Hyperwords

For me this is the handiest extension ever. Basically, Hyperwords makes all the words on the page interactive. You can select any text on any page, right-click it, and lots of options will appear in the context menu. You can do a search, you can look up references, translate the word, and much more.

LittleFox

If you want to get the most out of your screen and especially if you have a lot of add-ons installed and they take up a lot of screen space, LittleFox will help. This extension will make items smaller and ensure optimal screen usage.

Snap Links

Snap Links will allow you to open multiple links in new tabs by drawing a box around them. No more  clicking one link at a time! No need to say that this is extremely handy for opening search engine results. Links can also be opened in new windows, new tabs on a new window, copied to clipboard, bookmarked or downloaded.