Efficient Blogging with Firefox

Efficient blogging is the target of many a blogger, no matter what field they are coming from. One of the best ways I’ve found to speed up my blogging is to use my browser in a smart way. With the right techniques, my overall browsing (and thus my interaction with blogs—my own and others’) has sped up. Here are a few tips based off of some things I’ve learned that have helped me—hopefully they will help you too.

Oh, and be sure to share your own tips in the comments (Firefox or otherwise).

• Use tabs to launch sets of sites. Granted, Firefox isn’t the only browser that allows tabbed browsing anymore. That’s beside the point. Odds are that there are a few pages that you visit every time you open your computer (whether you should or not). To speed things up, try setting up a folder of bookmarks to launch in tabs all the sites that you usually take the time to open up anyway. Using Firefox, go to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks to add folders and organize your links into sets you can pull up quickly. Once you have that folder, just use the Open All in Tabs option that comes up when you view that folder through Bookmarks. For me, those sites include:
  • my blog,
  • the WordPress Dashboard,
  • my FeedReader stats,
  • Adsense, and
  • Analytics.

  What’s on your list?

• Use add-ons like CoComment and Clippings. I know CoComment has faced some criticism lately, what with the slow operations and frequent downtimes, but they’re trying. I still have hope for them. CoComment allows you to track your comments across the web, and could have a very useful place in your browser when they get the kinks worked out. Clippings is a Firefox plugin that lets you “bookmark” portions of a page. This can be helpful, especially if there’s something like an image that you want to save without saving the entire site. Or, perhaps you will later forget why you bookmarked that page. Clippings is a big help. Check out “other Firefox plugins”https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:7 and see what peeks your interest.
• Add browser javlets to speed certain actions up. A javlet is a little link that lets you perform simple tasks quickly from your browser, usually things you perform on a regular basis. WordPress offers the Press It javlet and Furl offers the Furl It javlet. Use them at your own discretion, but if there’s something you use often it might be worth it. At the very least, feel free to drag each link up above the tabs to save it for when you’re going to read it. Just keep tabs on it, so it doesn’t get overwhelming!
• Use Foxmarks. Finally, I would highly suggest using Foxmarks. I know I mentioned plugins already above, but this one deserves its own mention. Foxmarks synchronizes your bookmarks (and many attributes of your browser, I’ve found) across multiple computers. If you have a work computer, maybe a computer at home, a laptop, etc. this may be something you should look at. I’ve found it extremely useful, and it makes it possible for me to blog from almost anywhere.

That’s all from me. How about you—what makes your blogging more efficient? Keep it to browser techniques, please.