Firefox Extensions: Table Of Contents

Simple Boss Key
A lightweight extension that lets you use the F12 key to minimize the current browser window.

Take A Break
By reminding you when to take a break during surfing, it tries to help you avoid excessive web browsing and keep healthy.

Boss Key and Buttons
You can press the F12 key or both the mouse buttons simultaneously to hide all your browser windows.


Support
If you want to report bugs, please add your comments to the page of the extension in question. Please provide the following information:

• OS type and version;
• Firefox version;
• The version of the extension;
• The steps to reproduce the bug.

If possible, please try the latest version of the extension first before you report a bug.

Firefox Extension: Boss Key and Buttons

This Firefox extension allows you to quickly minimize your browser windows by pressing the F12 key or both the left and right mouse buttons.


Features
- Press the F12 key to minimize your browser windows.

- Press both the mouse buttons (left and right) down to minimize your browser windows.

- Open and focus on a new tab with the URL you preset.

- Hide the tab-bar.

- Press Shift-F12 to show the tab bar and close the new tab opened by the boss key or buttons.

- Minimize the browser window.

- Do the hiding for all the open browser windows.


Installation
Download and install it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/zh-CN/firefox/addon/46553

You will need to restart Firefox browser after the installation.


Options setting

- Enable F12: enable/disable boss key F12. By default, it is enabled. It may be obvious but I want to mention that the Firefox browser window must be the active window you are using. If it were at the background, it could not capture the key pressing event and would not do anything.

- Enable mouse: enable/disable using mouse to hide windows. By default, it is enabled. You must press down (and hold) both the left and right mouse buttons together inside your browser window. Do NOT simultaneously press both buttons. Instead, press down one button and while holding it down, press down another button. If you are using Linux, avoid clicking on the Flash plug-in, which seems to have a higher priority to capture the mouse pressing events. You might want to practise a little bit.

- Open a new tab and load URL: if checked and the URL is supplied, the boss key or buttons would load the URL in a new tab and bring the new tab to the front. Avoid using this new tab because when you press Shift-F12, it will be closed.

- Hide tab-bar: if checked, the boss key or buttons would hide the tab-bar. Pressing Shift-F12 will show the tab-bar again. If you open a new tab by using menu File|New Tab or Ctrl-T, the tab-bar will show up too.

- Minimize window: if checked, the boss key or buttons would minimize the browser window.

- Apply to all windows: if checked, the above actions would be applied to all the open browser windows when the boss key or buttons were pressed.


Restore
You can press Shift-F12 to restore the browser window to the previous status before you pressed the boss key or buttons. It would close the new tab and show the tab-bar. Please do not use the new tab.

If you accidentally used the new tab and it were closed by Shift-F12, don't panic, you could get it back from the menu History|Recently Closed Tab.


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Firefox Extension: Take A Break

Addicted to the Web? Don't compromise your health! Continuously staring at the computer can cause headaches, blurred vision, neck pain, fatigue, dry eyes. Take A Break extension tries to help you avoid or reduce these problems. It reminds you when to take a break while you are surfing the Web.

Features
- A little icon on the status bar will be flashing every 15 minutes to remind you a short break. You should sit back and close your eyes, or look outside the window for a while.

- A pop-up dialog will remind you a big break every hour. You should stand up, get a cup of coffee, do some stretching, or go freshen up.

- You can adjust the timers according to your own needs.

Installation
Download and install it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/45343

You will need to restart the Firefox browser after the installation.

After the Firefox browser restarts, you will see an icon of a green clock on your status bar. If your status bar is hidden, you could show it by selecting menu View->Status Bar.

How does it work
- The clock icon on the status bar will be flashing in red and yellow every 15 minutes to remind you a short break.

-- Take A Break extension is on.
-- Icon is flashing and reminding you to take a short break.

- A pop-up dialog will remind you a big break every hour. The pop-up window will be automatically closed after 5 minutes. You can click on the colorful text to close it, too. Clicking on the URL will bring you to more Firefox extensions I made.

- A click on the clock icon will switch off and on its function. If the function is turned off, the icon is in gray.

-- Take A Break extension is off.

- Right-click the icon and you can select to open the Options dialog. Here you can adjust the timers to meet your own needs. See the next section for the meanings of the options.

- Move the mouse over the icon and you can see when the next break will come.

- Of course, you can also open the Options dialog through the menu: Tools->Add-ons->Extensions, and click on the Options button of this extension.

Options setting

- Enable Flashing: enable/disable the feature of icon flashing. If it is not checked, the following two timers of Flashing Interval and Flashing Duration are ignored.

- Flashing Interval: the time between two flashing. You can set a value between 1 to 999 minutes.

- Flashing Duration: the duration of the flashing. You can set a value between 1 to 999 seconds.

- Enable Pop-up Reminder: enable/disable the feature of pop-up reminding. If it is not checked, the following two timers of Rest Interval and Rest Duration are ignored.

- Rest Interval: the time between two pop-up reminding. You can set a value between 1 to 999 minutes.

- Rest Duration: after this long, the pop-up window will be closed automatically. You can set a value between 1 to 999 minutes.

- No reminding if idle for XXX min: if checked, you can inform the extension that XXX minutes of no mouse movement means you are not browsing. So that the extension would temporary stop when you had left your desk.

You can click on the Restore defaults button to restore all the timers to their default values.


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Firefox extension: Simple Boss Key

When people come over to your desk, maybe you do not want them to see what you are browsing. This extension helps you quickly minimize your browser to the taskbar.

When the key F12 is pressed, the browser will first bring the first tab to the front and then get minimized to the taskbar. If the first tab was opened with a serious page, its title would be shown by the Firefox's icon in the taskbar. So even somebody peeks at your taskbar, he could not tell what you were actually browsing.

This Firefox extension has been submitted to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14646.

After you install it, it will appear in the Extensions tab of the Add-ons dialogue (accessed from Menu Tools->Add-ons->Extensions).

The extension is very simple and does not need configurations. If you click the Options button, you will see a dialogue with brief instruction and tips.

Does writing a Firefox extension have to be complicated? This one gives an example of how simple it could be. You are encouraged to read and play with the code. Read my another post Learn how to create a Firefox extension in 10 minutes to see how I built it.


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Is the computer ruining your health? Try my new extension Take A Break.