The ‘Web Developer’ Extension For Firefox - Invaluable | Fog of Eternity

The ‘Web Developer’ Extension For Firefox - Invaluable

One of the biggest advantages of the Firefox web browser is the wide variety of useful add-ons. These are small pieces of software which extend the functionality of Firefox. Some of these add-ons, and particularly those related to web accessibility, I highlighted before in ‘Some Useful Firefox Add-Ons For Designers’.

More recently I’ve been using a further add-on that I think is well worth highlighting, called simply Web Developer. This is an invaluable extension, and probably my most commonly used and ‘could not do with out’ addition to the browser.

The range of features is huge, but it’s absolutely excellent for evaluating any page that you’ve been designing, and for analysing design features of other pages that you’re viewing. Taking just a selection of some of the most useful:

‘View Style Information’ and every time your mouse pointer hovers over an element your status bar will provide details of the CSS applied to it.
Disable certain elements of a page to see how sturdy a design is when javascript, cookies, colour, images etc aren’t available.
View how the page CSS will render for handheld devices such as an iPhone or for printing.
Automatically resize to 800×600 window size.
Get an “at a glance” icon on whether a page is generally accessibility standards compliant.

It really is an invaluable piece of kit for any web developer, and in addition to Firefox it also works for Flock and Seamonkey. Given it’s not even going to cost you a penny, you can hardly go wrong.

Filed under: Browsers, CSS, Design, Review by Robin Cannon

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