Pimp my Firefox/Iceweasel (You are using Iceweasel, right?) -- The Awesome Bar

[der.hans]

Am 17. Jun, 2009 schwätzte Ryan Rix so:

moin moin Ryan,

thanks for this post! I've wondered what these things were when they were
mentioned in release info, but I never got around to figuring it out.

I see a couple of ways I can improve how I use my browser. Danke.

ciao,

der.hans

> Google Chrome's OmniBar is cool.
> http://www.dashken.net/uploads/technology/software/Google_Chrome/Chrome_autocomplete.jpg
>
> You can do dang near anything in that little bar, the most powerful of
> which you can do in Firefox -- with no addons! (I'll bother you about
> Firefox addons some other day -- the folks who had to suffer through
> my West side meeting presentation have already heard it)
>
> Let's take a look at a few other cool things that you can do with a
> stock (no addon, theme or  hack) Firefox installation:
>
> **Auto-I'm-Feeling-Lucky-Fail**
>
> By default, Firefox takes any 'URL' that it doesn't recognize,
> attempts to tack on a .com, and if that doesn't work, does a Google
> "I'm feeling lucky" search on the text. This often leads to confusion
> when you end up on some random doorhole site in the middle of nowhere.
>
> So change it!
>
> In the URL bar, open "about:config" and find the entry 'keyword.URL'.
> This is the URL that Firefox uses to do the above search. You can
> easily update it to just do a simple Google search by replacing the
> entry with:
> http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&&q=
>
> This will automatically bring you to Google for unknown entries. The
> upshot of this is that you now have a fully functioning google search,
> only an alt-d (or F6) away!
>
> **Bookmarklets and Custom Searches**
> This is where the real power of Firefox's URL bar lay: The ability to
> define custom searches and bookmarks to open using keywords in the URL
> bar, which Mozilla calls "Smart Keywords."
> http://img10.yfrog.com/img10/3372/r0l.png
> http://img517.yfrog.com/img517/4923/vkp.png
>
> There are three kinds of keywords that can be created: Bookmarklets
> (JavaScript snippets that do cool things), Custom Searches, and just
> plain old bookmarks, which are browsed to when you type in the
> keyword.
>
> ***Bookmarklets***
> Bookmarklets allow anyone with a small degree of knowledge in
> JavaScript to write a nice little script to do, well, something
> useful.
>
> In my case, my use is easily tweeting things. So I have made some
> JavaScript bookmarklets to help me:
>
> Tweet Selected Text:
> javascript:var%20r=window.open('http://twitter.com/home?status='+escape(document.getSelection().replace(/\s/g,'%20').replace(/%20{2,}/g,'%20')));
> This uses window.open to open a twitter status update url with the
> encoded version of my text selection.
>
> Tweet A Link:
> javascript:var%20r=window.open("http://twitter.com/home?status="+document.location);
> Easy: uses window.open to post the current document.location!
>
> These were hacked together after fifteen minutes of learning
> javascript from some other bookmarklets.
> [https://www.facebook.com/share_options.php]
> [http://codex.wordpress.org/Press_This] Note that the var%20r= is
> necessary if you don't want to lose the contents of the current
> window.
>
> There are tons of other javascriptlets that allow you to do a whole
> lot, from toggling CSS in a page, to a small calculator, even a full
> scale Javascript shell!
>
> But they do you no good if you have to type them in every time; speed
> is the prime concern with bookmarklets, to make them fast to type and
> get the info from.
>
> So you can use keywords to expedite this greatly!
>
> Keywords are what allowed me to type g [search term] in my above
> examples (r0l.png and vkp.png) and can easily be added to any
> bookmarklet.
>
> First, bookmark one of those bookmarklets. The problem with this is
> that Firefox does not realize this is a link, and I'm too lazy to
> figure out how to add it. So, what you can do is go to the
> menu->bookmarks->organize bookmarks. This opens up your bookmarks
> library. Click Organize->New bookmark. Give it a decent name (Tweet
> This), and in location, you will put the entire bookmarklet, including
> javascript: (javascript:var%20r=window.open("http://twitter.com/home?status="+document.location);)
> now, keyword, you can enter any single word (tweet) this is the word
> you will use to execute the bookmarklet, so remember it, and make it
> something you will be able to remember next time you open up Firefox.
> Finally give it a nice description.
>
> Congratulations! You've made your first bookmarklet! now press alt-d
> and type tweetthis (not in your webmail though ;)) You'll be given a
> new twitter home window with that status filled in (if you're logged
> in)
>
> **Custom searches**
> Custom Searches (or smart keywords) allow you to easily search on any
> site without having to open up that site first. They are also insanely
> easy to add to Firefox, more so than Bookmarklets.
>
> So, let's say that you wanted a search for all of Lostpedia
> (http://lostpedia.wikia.com)
> 1) Right click in the search box
> 2) Select Add a Keyword for this Search
> 3) Enter "Lostpedia search" or whatever you like into Name
> 4) Enter lost, or something more memorable in keyword (keep it short!)
> 5) make sure you create it in a special folder for these searches, so
> that your bookmarks do not become cluttered or confusing. My Firefox
> has a quick searches folder.
> 6) click add.
>
> Congratulations, you've now gained the knowledge to super charge your
> searching, make it faster to get or share the information you need,
> and Pimp your Firefox!
>
> Below is a copy of my quick search folder. Download it as html, open
> up the Bookmark Library, and click "Import and Backup" and then Import
> Html. All the quicksearches, including keywords, descriptions, et al,
> will be added to your library. most of these came from my own
> additions (All of the Smart keywords, the Tweet This, Twitter Post and
> Tweet Selected Text bookmarklets), the tinyurl bookmarklet came from
> http://tinyurl.com/#toolbar, the facebook one came from
> https://www.facebook.com/share_options.php, English conversion came
> from http://translate.google.com/translate_tools, all of the other
> bookmarklets came from https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/ and
> http://www.bookmarklets.com/tools/categor.html
>
> http://phrkonlsh.pastebin.ca/1463779
> On the right side is "Download Raw." Right click it, save it as
> bookmarks.html or whatever.html.
>
> [we need a wiki :o]
>
> --
> Thanks and best regards,
> Ryan Rix
> OnBoard-NG
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