1. Type ‘ to bring up the Quick Find bar on the bottom of the browser
2. Type in the phrase or word you want to find within a link into the empty text field
3. Hit Ctrl + G to highlight the next link that has that word or phrase in it

To get rid of the Quick Find bar across the bottom of your Firefox window, hit Esc or just wait a few seconds and it should disappear automatically. 

Here is a little more about the theme from the developers:

“8 Ultimo” is a theme that has been created to transform the look of Firefox (version 4 and higher) for Windows users. It has been specially designed for Seven, but rendering is relatively accurate on XP and Linux (I can t test it on MAC, but for those who would like to try it anyway on that platform, you can force download and once the package downloaded on your computer, you can install it manually by dragging it into the add-on manager). It contains no added functionalities, it’s simply a full Firefox’s GUI customization.

Dark themes for Firefox (that actually look good) used to be a dime a dozen.  These days though, it is very hard to find a nice looking dark Firefox theme.  If needed, you can also find some great wallpapers that go with this Firefox skin here.

You can download the 8 Ultimo theme from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Here are some of the reasons (from the developer) that you should give this add-on a shot:

- Faster navigation within long web pages (dynamic scroll distance).
- Less disorientation when scrolling, especially with long texts (fluid scroll).
- Reading while scrolling is actually possible.
- No learning curve – unaltered interaction, but more useful outcome.
- Very customizable, sane defaults.
- Fun, Addictive – may trigger an emotional response

Once enabled, SmoothWheel offers an enhanced and configurable way to handle smooth scrolling in Firefox. You can pick up this extension for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

We have all seen the mess that is created when you right-click on something and see 200 options to choose from.  There is no way you can easily find the menu item you are looking for.  The Menu Editor add-on allows you to reorganize or remove options from the right-click menu to make things a little more tidy.  You can also use this add-on to reorganize or remove things from the main menu bar (the options you get when you click the big orange Firefox button). 

This add-on does a great job at getting rid of annoying menu items that you never use.  If you want to pick it up and try it yourself, you can download the Menu Editor add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Toolbars that are added without our knowledge are annoying.  The first place to check to uninstall an unwanted third party toolbar is the Install/Uninstall programs section of your computer’s operating system.  If not there, then I would check and see if you can use Firefox’s built in Add-on Manager to remove the toolbar.

To uninstall a toolbar from the Firefox Add-ons Manager, follow these steps:

1. Click the Firefox Button and then click Add-ons.  This will make the Add-on Manager window pop up.
2. Next, in the Add-on Manager tab, select Extensions
3. Now select the toolbar (if listed) that you wish to remove.  Click the button labeled, “Remove”.
4. If it comes up, click Restart Now.  This will restart the Firefox browser and remove the toolbar.

The best advice I can give you to make sure you do not find yourself in this situation is to pay attention when you are installing programs to make sure you are not agreeing to browser changes without your knowledge.  For example, I know when you update Java – it asks you if you want to install the ask.com toolbar. 

If your default search engine has been changed, you might check out this post on changing your default search engine in Firefox.

Once installed, here is how MX3 would look with Firefox:

Want to pick it up for yourself? Head on over to the Firefox Add-ons website to download it and give it a shot.

This add-on for Firefox allows you to draw on any website and take a screenshot of your work.  Now, this could come in handy when it comes to writing notes about website changes you would like to see – or you could draw a duck dressed up like Abraham Lincoln.

To use the add-on, all you have to do is go to your toolbar and find the Screen Draw icon.  Once clicked, you will pull up the Screen Draw toolbar that has all the tools you need to do some simple drawing on the website you are currently viewing.  If you go into the options, you can also configure your default brush color and size too.

You can pick up Screen Draw from the Firefox Add-ons website.

You can find this option from within the Firefox Options screen.  You can get there by clicking on the Firefox icon, then go to Options and then click on Options. Here is what Mozilla says about the topic:

If you set Firefox to use the Session Restore feature to show your windows and tabs from last time, Firefox can take a long time to start if you had lots of websites open the last time you used Firefox. Check Don’t load tabs until selected in the General panel of the Options window so that only the last selected tab is loaded at startup.

So, there you have one more way to make Firefox seem a little faster.  Have any more quick tips? Be sure to share them in the comments!

Here is a little more about the add-on from the developers:

You can easily view images of a page in full screen with Full Screen Image Viewer extension. Just right-click on the Firefox browser and find the *Full Screen Image Viewer* item from the Context Menu; or use the shortcut Shift-F11 (version 1.3+). The Full Screen Image Viewer can also open the image links on a web page or your local disk. You can use it as a local image viewing application.

The Full Screen Image Viewer add-on for Firefox was just released on March 4th, so this brand new extension is ready for your feedback and testing.  If you want to give it a shot for yourself,  be sure to head over to the Firefox Add-ons website and be sure to leave the author some comments on what you think might improve it.

Looking for a new Firefox theme? You might want to try out Afterglow.  While not the prettiest theme I have used, it does have a unique look and comes with a lot of nice customization options to help you make the theme your own, if you like to tweak little things about the browser.

Here is a little more about the theme from the theme developer:

First version of this theme was already created in 2003 for the original Mozilla suite, after a long time in hiatus it’s now finally back for Firefox 4! In addition to the original orange version you can choose now between 6 more colors: Blue, Lightblue, Darkblue, Red, Darkred and Pink. A small options extension is installed together with the theme, which allows you to configure the theme and adjust the color scheme, throbber, menu and scrollbar appearance. Theme is based on Utopia black, so some elements are retained from there. Basic code for the options extension taken with kind permission by Aris-T2′s fantastic Noia 4 theme.

Also, here is a closer look at the options screen:

Want to give it a shot? You can download the Afterglow theme for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.  Install it, play around with it and let me know in the comments how you like it or what you think would make it better.