OMG, I thought I was in the Twilight Zone!
I am not sure how I did it, but today when looking at Twitter from the Firefox web interface, the pages were totally un-styled and plain.
I checked Safari, everything looked normal. I tried searching on Twitter for some weird issue and no one else seemed to have a problem. aaack!
I tried logging out, and even the login page was un-styled. And then like a beacon of light, I saw it! A little button under the login text boxes “Standard”
I clicked it! My Twitter page was back to normal again. Dur, I was in the Mobile view version! Silly me!
I think I clicked on someone’s link or something and it must have sent me to the Mobile version of Twitter. Well, at least now I know what to do next time!
One of my older web sites is in desperate need of a new web design; the problem is I am so rusty and out of practice. sigh, one of the perils of getting older! You don’t use it, you will lose it!
I needed to re-learn CSS positioning and layout, so I took a couple of days and read through Chapter 8 of the CSS Anthology book by Rachel Andrew. Fantastic book for learning the bits and pieces of CSS.
So, I think I now have recovered enough knowledge to tackle my project.
Back a couple of years ago, when I was regularly designing, designers had to worry about coding for horribly outdated browsers like IE 5 for Windows & Mac and Netscape 4. Thankfully, the browser stats for the site I am redesigning show an insignificant number of visitors using these outdated browsers. I still have to deal with IE6 (which still shows about 30% of my visitors) but the design will be simple, so I don’t foresee a problem. Uh oh, I probably just jinxed myself!
And while we are on the subject of IE6, who ARE these people still using that insecure browser? The cool thing is the stats show about 17% of visitors are using a version of Firefox. It is not a techie site, so that is good news!
Want to learn more about positioning and layout using CSS? Check out these other sites:
Have you ever mistakenly added a misspelled word to the Firefox custom dictionary. It has happened to me a few times, and I always google to find the answer for editing the dictionary entries.
Look for the “persdict.dat” file in your Firefox profile folder on your hard drive.
Users/username/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/profilename.default/persdict.dat
Found this forum post and I wanted to blog it so I remember it for next time!
http://www.trap17.com/forums/firefox-dictionary-word-edit-t48009.html
also: Mozilla Support
Hmm, now if I can just remember that I blogged it, we will be all set!
For some reason, the last time I moved my Thunderbird profile, it didn’t work very well.
Firefox is very easy to move; I just drag the whole Firefox folder from my back up to the Library folder in Finder (Mac OS X). Thunderbird used to work that way as well.
I found this article explaining the proper way to move a profile:
Moving your profile folder
Make sure to also check out the article on how to start the profile manager too:
Accessing the Profile Manager
The SOS – Invites & Comments for Flickr is a special Greasemonkey script for Firefox browser users. When installed, the script creates two drop down menus to post various Flickr group "invite" and "vote" html codes into photo comments.
It is based on the original SIC script, which I found it to be very helpful. Unfortunately, the script didn’t include some of my favorite group codes, and some of the existing code was out of date.
So, I decided to edit the script to fit my needs better, adding more group codes and updating the existing ones. After testing it for a few weeks, I am ready to share it with other Flickr users.
Learn more about my SOS – Invites & Comments for Flickr script.
I have been using Flickr for years, but just recently I have become much more active in the community. I have found a few tools that have made my experience at Flickr much more efficient.
This was driving me crazy. I couldn’t find any information or preference/setting on the plugins used in Firefox, specifically the Flash plugin. How could I tell which version was installed on my system.
After googling, I finally found this page.
To view the list of plugins and their versions, type “about:plugins” (minus the quote marks) into the address bar in Firefox.
Hmm, now I just found this article and it states that plugins are supposed to be installed in the “Internet Plug-ins” folder found in the Library. That folder is empty on my system!
Ha! I found ’em! I was looking in my own Library! Take a look at the main Library folder (Macintosh HD) and they are all there! And in case you didn’t realize, the Internet Plugins folder is accessible to all browsers, so Safari will use these plugin files as well, and I assume Opera would too.
I finally felt confident to upgrade my Mac PowerBook to Firefox 2 (version 2.0.0.4 to be exact) and it did seem to go smoothly.
Before the upgrade, I moved my 1.5 app file into a new sub-folder in the Applications folder (Mac OS X users only) just in case I needed to revert.
After the upgrade, I found one issue (besides the funky keyboard shortcut issue with WordPress 2 – see my other article) with the SessionSaver extension. I couldn’t find my list of “SnapBack Tab” recently deleted tabs. Normally it is found under the Tools menu.
I am lost without the Snapback Tab feature, as I frequently close tabs and realize that I need to view them again. Yes, I can use the Undo Closed Tab option, but I prefer the Snapback Tab feature much more.
I tried launching Firefox 1.5 instead, and still no luck finding it. I think there might have even been a notice in Firefox 1.5 that the newly updated version of SessionSaver wouldn’t run in this older version.
I closed all instances of Firefox and found the extensions folder that was backed up prior to the upgrade. I replaced the folder in my Firefox profile folder, then re-launched Firefox 1.5. Checking the Tools menu, yep, there it was.
Okay, now close Firefox 1.5, and launch Firefox 2. Go through the process of upgrading extensions again, then view the Tools menu. Not there.
I checked SessionSaver preferences, and the checkbox next to “Allow me to reopen tabs” was checked.
The solution was to UNcheck the box, click OK, then go back into Preferences, and check it again. That worked, and my precious Snapback Tab was back in the the Tools menu!
If you haven’t used the SessionSaver extension yet, try it. I love it!
I recently upgraded to Firefox 2 on my Mac PowerBook. All seemed well, but I did keep an instance of Firefox 1.5 in my Applications folder just in case.
When posting in WordPress 2 using the simple text editor, I had been utilizing keyboard shortcuts for various html codes, such as the <a>anchor link</a> – which was Ctrl+Command+a.
Since upgrading to Firefox 2, the keyboard shortcuts did not work. They did work normally in Safari.
I searched online for answers, but no one else seemed to be having this issue. Finally, by trial and error, I realized that the keyboard shortcut was now fn+ctrl+a. I have no idea why it changed, but I am glad to have this feature again!
UPDATED for Firefox 3
I have heard many users complain that Firefox lost their bookmarks for some reason or another. It can probably happen to anyone, although it has never happened to me. I don’t know if I am lucky, or perhaps it is because I empty the cache regularly.
(Read Mozilla’s Troubleshooting article on Lost Bookmarks)