Sunday, November 16, 2008

Faster with FireFox

Sunday's are a prep day for me. Prepare for the work week ahead, Prepare many of the blog posts I can do ahead of time, (I will do a minimum of 40 each week, spread out over 4 or 5 blogs). So I found this article helpful, and I'm sure you will too.

8 Killer Shortcuts A Blogger Should Master With Firefox

I just used tip 5 to get the link to this article: http://thedanielrichard.com/2008/11/8-killer-shortcuts-a-blogger-should-master-with-firefox/

8 Killer Shortcuts A Blogger Should Master With Firefox



8 Killer Shortcuts A Blogger Should Master With Firefox - Image courtesy of thms.nl

As a blogger, we would have to go through our daily ritual of reading blogs, commenting, checking out updates on our RSS reader, emails, and so on. Here’s a list of the 8 killer shortcuts that you should master on Firefox to get those things done and help free up a whole lot of time that will be better utilized for writing your next big article.

  • 1. Ctrl + T = New Tab

    The “New Tab” feature had been one big reason to why Firefox was exceptionally popular ever since it’s first launch on November 9, 2004.

    “New Tab” helps when you are about to look up for some references on Google or Wikipedia while writing. This too allows you to go get distracted on other media sites like Facebook to chat up with friends, or on Youtube to look for some videos like the ninja cat that sneaks up to the owner while not moving.

    The best use for this “New Tab” feature is to get you to your Wordpress (or any other type of blogging platform you are using), another tab for your email, another for your RSS reader, one more tab for anything else random of your choice, the first thing you load up your browser.

  • 2. Ctrl + W = Close Tab

    After having about 15 new tabs opened thanks to the speed in opening new tabs, it is time to close them as fast as you can count from one to three - without the need to move your mouse cursor over to the close icon button (which would be blended into the entire tab on the browser).

    Using the “Ctrl + W” way to close a sequence of tabs is faster than using the clicking method.

  • 3. Ctrl + Left Click = Open Link In New Tab

    Most likely you should have a RSS reader and have subscribed to a few blogs like mine as an example, or receive tons of emails that grabs your attention, and you find those that are worth reading and want to open the links in a new tab.

    The fastest way to get that done is to use the “Ctrl + Left Click” on the link to open up the page in a new tab. No need for the traditional way of going to the right click menu and clicking the option which takes tons more time.

    The cool part is that your screen won’t be taken to the new tab, but still stays at the same page where you can now open up let’s say, the 12 new updates that you have in your RSS reader in different tabs.

  • 4. Ctrl + Shift + R = Full Refresh

    “Full Refresh” would be extremely valuable for developers and website designers. It will override the cache - means that new images that are uploaded or new javascript code can be reloaded with the new data that might not have been retrieved by a normal refresh.

  • 5. Ctrl + L = Highlight URL (from address bar)

    Maybe it’s 4 in the morning and you have just published your new article and getting ready to send out your address for the entry to your friends. You are in the freshly published post, and here’s the best time to select the entire link by pressing “Ctrl + L”. Which now you can use the shortcut to copy and then paste it to wherever you require it to appear in.

  • 6. Ctrl + Shift + L = Bookmark Page

    The “Ctrl + Shift + L” quick bookmarking feature allows you to bookmark that exceptional article or resource that you could refer back to later on in the day or week.

  • 7. Backspace (in a tab) = Go Back One Page

    This is particularly useful when you may have proceeded on to a following page from a link in a page by accident, and would like to go back to the place where you were from.

    Press the “Backspace” key helps to go back one page with ease.

  • 8. Ctrl + Alt + Del = “The Last Resort”

    You won’t have to use the “Ctrl + Alt + Del” function with Firefox. Unless… there’s more tabs opened than you can get to visit in a week at one given moment, with half of it coming from video clips, and another quarter of them happen to be sites that uses huge flash files or running several java applets at the same time.

    That’s when you will invoke “The Last Resort” to kill off the entire processes and get back your laptop resources that the browser would have hogged from the fictional scenario mentioned.

Of course, there are many more shortcuts created for Firefox that you too could use for a faster browsing experience. But you will still be better off with mastering these 8 first. You will actually use them and find them very reliable and helping you to be a more effective blogger!

Yes, you can now track 800 blogs with ease with these killer shortcuts!

Do share in the comments some of the other shortcuts that you use in your life as a blog owner and writer, and how much faster they had been in your own personal experience.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:16 PM

    FF's been glitching up on me lately

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, I'll let you in on a little secret of mine.

    I have 5 different browsers on my laptop. Firefox is my default. I also have Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome and the Avant Browser. Why? Sometimes Firefox hangs, for one. Also I need to check compatibility with the other browsers for some of the sites I manage.

    Make sure you either check for software updates weekly or set up automatic updates for all the programs you run.

    ReplyDelete