If you use the Firefox web browser, there is a new Firefox add-on that may be of interest to you.   It has been in development for the past 6 months and is finally ready for people to use.

The add-on is called WordPress Helper, and it does exactly that.   Once installed in your Firefox browser, it will add a bunch of WordPress-related features to your right-click contextual menu.

According to the author:

The Firefox extension WordPress Helper helps you working with WordPress by providing useful help and tools. The extension eases the fast and simple access to develop-relevant pages of the WP Codex. So you always have all the necessary help at your fingertips. It’s also possible to search after strings of text that is currently marked. Furthermore it’s possible to easily switch to WordPress backend of current site. More than that, a small Icon indicates wether the currently displayed website makes use of WordPress.

‘Editor’s Choice’ links are obtained from a remote source (the author’s website), therefore are faster kept updated and available than the Codex links of this WordPress Helper extension. The links are maintained by the plugin author, new links can be suggested by any user though.

Here is a quick summary of the features included with this add-on:

• Categorized Access to WordPress Help pages (WordPress Codex)
• Search for highlighted text strings on websites
• One-Click-switch to a website’s WordPress backend
• Update Notification on new WordPress versions
• Website Profiles
• Custom Shortcuts
• Various preference settings

If you have anything you’d like to see in a future enhancement of the add-on, the author is looking for additional feedback.

[Discovered via Weblog Tools Collection]

Optimizing your WordPress website for all browsers can often be annoying. Not only do you need to make sure your browser works with Firefox and Internet Explorer, but you also need to make sure it works with older versions of those same browsers whenever possible.

One method some WordPress bloggers use is to actually refer their Internet Explorer users to Firefox through the use of the Get Firefox Banner WordPress plugin. This plugin will detect people using a version of the Internet Explorer browser and automatically display a banner promoting the free Firefox web browser along the top of the page. When users click on it, they will be taken to a web page where they can download Firefox.

Here is how it looks:

when you upload and activate the plugin, you will be given a few options in the Options panel. You can choose various text and background colors, and the banner will allow your your readers to close it easily to avoid offending any readers.

While this plugin is not a substitute for optimizing your web page for Internet Explorer, I don’t see how it could hurt to promote a better web browser to your readers.