Wicked Cool

Print What You Like (not what you don't)

Next time you print from a website that isn't "printer-friendly,"  run the page through PrintWhatYouLike.  It lets you selectively delete pieces of the page before printing—so you save a little paper, save a little ink, and get a cleaner printout.

Goodbye, banner ads, navigation links, and fine print.  I won't miss you in my printouts!

(Thanks to Stef and Jean for the tip!)

Zoom In! How to Increase Text Size in Your Browser

Tired of squinting at websites with too-small text?  Use one of these easy techniques to make the text BIGGER (or smaller, when you want the normal size again) on most websites:

View > Text Size > Increase (or Larger)

• Works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, though they use slightly different terminology

Ctrl and Mouse Scroll-Wheel

If you have a scroll-wheel mouse, hold down the Ctrl key and spin the mouse-wheel.

• Works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer
• Also works in Adobe Reader and the Adobe Reader browser plug-in
• Different browsers may vary in which direction you have to scroll for larger or smaller text
• Internet Explorer 7 zooms in on the entire page for this, not just the text (even images get bigger)

Ctrl and +, Ctrl and -, Ctrl and 0

Hold down the Ctrl key and hit the + key at the same time.  More than once makes it bigger.  Use Ctrl and - for smaller text, or Ctrl and 0 to return to normal size.

• Works in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7
• Internet Explorer 7 again zooms in on the entire page for this, not just the text
• Does not work at all in Internet Explorer 6

These options can make browsing the web a better experience by helping to avoid eyestrain.  Tell your patrons, your coworkers, your family, your friends!

Thanks to Greg and Brian at Automation for the tip!

Time-Saving Firefox Add-on: IE View

Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll last week!

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need things like the IE View Add-on for Firefox.  Every website would display equally well in every browser, in a perfect world -- you'd never see messages saying "This website requires [a different browser than the one you are using]," and website developers would only need to test their pages in one browser, since they would all work equally well.

But it's not a perfect world.  Some websites still only work in Internet Explorer (for example, the Windows Update website), and creating brand new web pages involves tedious cross-browser testing in both Firefox and Internet Explorer (not to mention Safari, and Opera, and Lynx...).  In our imperfect world, IE View is a big help for web developers and anyone who dreads those tiresome "This website requires Internet Explorer" messages.

What it's good for:  IE View takes you from viewing a web page in Firefox to viewing the same page in a new Internet Explorer window, in just one step (as opposed to copying the URL from the Firefox address bar, opening Internet Explorer manually, waiting for the default IE homepage to load, pasting in the URL, and then waiting for that to load too).   

How it works:  Once you have IE View installed (see instructions for how to install Firefox Add-ons), right-click on a web page.  Select the menu option to "View This Page in IE" and an Internet Explorer window will open with the same web page.

IE View also creates an option in Firefox's Tools menu to "Always View This Page in IE," for frequently-visited pages that don't play nicely with Firefox.

Have a favorite Firefox Add-on? Let us know what it is in the comments!

With or Without WWW

If SCLS manages an alternate domain name for your library's website, the alternate domain name will now work either with the www or without it.  It's been a long time coming, and it took some negotiating to get it... but it finally works!  No more missing websites.  No more patrons complaining, "I typed in the right address, but all I got was this weird page..."  Whether you type in "http://www.mylibrarywebsite.org" or "http://mylibrarywebsite.org," you will still end up in the right place -- at the library's website.

Run Meebo in Firefox Sidebar

Sometimes it's the little things! Here's a tip that might make your IM life easier, especially if you're tired of juggling browser windows between Meebo and elsewhere: you can view Meebo in a Firefox sidebar.

You may miss the flashing in your taskbar when an IM comes in. And you'll have to trade in some screen real estate. But it might just be worth it.