David McRitchie

About me

Developer Information
Name David McRitchie
Homepage http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm
User since March 5, 2007
Number of add-ons developed 0 add-ons
Average rating of developer's add-ons Not yet rated

My Reviews

Stylish - Custom themes for any website

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

The complaint is not really about Stylish, it is about Firefox, but Stylish is no good to me beyond FF 56.0.2 because all of the styles I use are not themes, and only themes can be done in Stylish now because Firefox is crap beginning with FF 57. If Firefox is going to look like Chrome, act like Chrome, use Chrome as a goal-- you might as well not be using Firefox.

I have put Stylish back to pre version 3.0, and Firefox, extensions including Stylish styles are no longer allowed to update themselves. I guess in 3 months I will switch to Chrome I've had to use it all too many times up to now. Stylish and extension were what kept Firefox usable and enjoyable (FF not so enjoyable starting around 3.0 when they started to lose sight of their users).

I wish I could tell you to look at the styles I wrote and the others I also use but the pictures are incomplete not showing before and after and are distorted and cropped.

* As I understand it Firefox 57 will not allow or will only allow for a while changes to Firefox structure interface, no more changes to toolbars, scrollers, scroll thumbs to make them visible, unhiding hidden or self hiding scroll bars, eliminating wasted space on toolbars making them more readable in 1/4 the space. Almost every extension that I have left is marked legacy and has to do with toolbars. Loss of bookmark functionality. The only extensions that will remain appear to be Adblock Plus and Stylish themes.

* More on the Firefox 57 Fiasco -- https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/02/16/the-road-to-firefox-57-compatibility-milestones/

* If Firefox is is just going to remove features not available in other browsers and play catch-up to Chrome, as if that is desirable, then why continue to use Firefox at all. Dumbing down Firefox to Google Chrome's level is going to eliminate the remaining Firefox users who have persevered through all of Mozilla's shenanigans.

* If you try to read up about an extension now they've f*ck*d that up as well. Most important items: version, size, releases it works with, stars, description, developer's comments, user comments & developer comments related to a user comment.

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (3.0.1).  This user has a previous review of this add-on.

Tab Counter

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

In Firefox 4.0, the tab counter can be moved to the Tabs Bar in addition to anywhere in Menu Bar, or Location Bar in Firefox 3.6. This means one can make the tabs bar always visible even in full screen ("F11") and include the tabs count. The following styling includes color and different padding in the code to make the tab count really stand out which could be included via userChrome.css provide additional styling not available in the extension's options, but it is more convenient to use the "Stylish" extension, and is include in "Tabs Bar Minimal Size" -- http://userstyles.org/styles/9043/tabs-bar-minimal-size

/* "Tab Counter" Extension can be moved to the tab bar in Fx4.0 */
#tabcounter-toolbar-item {font-size:12px; font-weight:700 !important;
margin:0px !important; padding:0px 2px 0px 2px !important;background-color: yellow !important;
border:1px solid black !important;}

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.8.8.1-signed). 

InfoLister

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Thanks for the update 0.10.4 available at your site http://mozilla.doslash.org/infolister/ works great alone or with template. Tested in 4.0b11 and in 4.0b12pre Review mainly for those that don't look at developer's notes, or may not notice developer's reply which can only be seen on "See all reviews". Thanks Nickolay for updating.

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.10.3). 

Readability

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Learned about this extension after reading about "Reader" in Safari (5.0) which added a simple toggle switch to the address bar, though it takes too much space there a simple "R" would have sufficed. The button changes color when it toggles the view (good).

"Readability" extension in Firefox has an "R" on the status bar click to invoke, right-click to change formatting styles / margins. Unfortunately buttons do not toggle. To return to normal view use the Refresh looking button added to leftside of the webpage. I changed addons options Ctrl+Alt+R to Ctrl+Alt+S (summary) because the default conflicted with "QuickRestart" extension, I also deactivated autoscroll shortcut (probably useful for others) with "keyconfig" extension. Keyboard shortcut has no advantage because it does not toggle either. Optional toolbar button is same as on status bar but takes additional space for unneeded drop-down arrow when right-click would do just fine.

Adds a Highlight Summary at top from phrases within article. Built-in Safari "Reader" lacks both a Summary and formatting options.

If the buttons were removed from the left, it could have minimal margins more suitable for portable devices and netbooks. Addition of the print and email to right click on button would make that possible.

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.8). 

Stylish - Custom themes for any website

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

The bloated presentation format has made it difficult to manage the styles. Amazingly the extension is now smaller, but these are the problems.
1) can no longer sort on choice of 'checkmark', 'description', 'applies to' via column headings. Forget to see if there are options, but I need to be able to change immediately where used, and be able to sort on my own modified description names. Some for instance are prefixed with "(bad)" or "(off)" as I often turn on or off a lot of them at one time and those I keep turned off,
and know which of the other to normally have on or off.
2) bloated line height in manager by addition of ugly icon.
3) ugly icon added to menu bar is really messed up does not conform to proper size.

Gone back to 0.5.9 which is still working had no complaints about it and organization works out a lot better. On the other hand 1.0 has Bold for active, and Gray for inactive and mystery sorting.

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.0). 

SortPlaces

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

As long as SortPlaces remains in Experimental status you will have to check for updates yourself as automatic updates will not occur, nor will experimental extension updates be found with the "Find Updates" on your add-ons.

This extension is invoked manually from the status bar, or moving button to toolbars from customization. The option to make sorting automatic may result in longer times to create a new folder, extending the delay helps with that.

There is some misconception of the use of "Sort by Name" in bookmarks context menu which nothing to do with this extension, nor does this extension interfere with that, though this extension makes that built-in feature redundant and actually takes longer than sorting all your bookmarks with SortPlaces. "Sort by Name" in FF3 must be invoked from a folder, never from a bookmark. FF2 allowed you to do either. More information on that can be found in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_and_rearranging_bookmarks_-_Firefox

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.4.0). 

Launchy

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Launchy is one of my favorites because it is customizable.

In Firefox 3 the Launchy toolbar button wastes space on the toolbar with it's dropdown. The solution is to install the "Stylish" extension and then to install the following Style.

Launchy button remove space wasting drop-down(DM*)
http://userstyles.org/styles/13115

My example of launchy.xml can be found at
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/code/launchy.txt

where I include browsers that were not automatically picked
up, and I can invoke other Firefox profiles as well, rather
than always having to go through Windows Quick Launch.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm#launchy
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/quicklaunch.htm

For the other Firefox profiles note the use of a specific profile and the use of "-no-remote" because they are not the default profiles and not the default browser because that might be another Firefox version.

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (4.2.0). 

keywordManager

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Ever since Fx3 went to Places, when Mozilla tried to dump keywords in favor of tags, we lost the use of "keywordBar" extension. Although I prefer the sidebar from the view menu and the the keyword shortcut that it had, it apparently could not be rewritten for Fx3, nor even keep up with changes made in much later versions of Fx2.

Which means that the "keywordManager" extension is the ONLY extension providing the sortable view of all keyword shortcuts. It works as indicated lets get it out of "experimental". Because this extension was marked as experimental I missed the update way back in August that fixed the button lettering colors. Properties should be a choice on right-click, not on double-click.

It would be nice if could double-click would enter the shortcut into the location bar without entry so it can be modified with parameters if needed, and that right click would bring up properties as a choice in context menu as it's defacto predecessor, but those would be enhancements.

Users need this extension to be able to find and work with their keywords in an orderly manner.

For help with other keyword issues see my page
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/kws.htm

This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.7.1). 

Enhanced History Manager

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

This is a great extension, and you will find that it is at least mostly built-in to Firefox 3. You get the History sidebar with Ctrl+H (History), and you get the expanded History layout of Organize Bookmarks with Ctrl+Shift+H (Places Library - Manage History).

What you are missing is to be able to search on either title or location, but in Fx3 you are searching on BOTH title and location.

You can still double-click on any column to sort by that column,and of course, you have your search from either listing. You can rearrange columns by dragging the column header.

In addition because both Bookmarks and History are in the places.sqlite database you can access additional columns by right-clicking on column heading and choosing among the following: Name, Location, Visit Date (last), Visit Count -- the other items are for bookmarks Keyword, Tags, Description, Added (date), Last Modified.

The columns you had with EHM, which you may not have been aware because they are selected from small icon at the rightmost column are Title, Location, Last Visited, *First Visited, *Hostname, Visit Count, *Referrer -- you won't see the ones with asterisks in Fx3.

Copy URL +

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

This is one of the best Firefox extensions around, and is highly customizable by the user to provide a wide selection of link formats that will be selectable from the context menu to be pasted into any application after choosing the desired format. \r\n\r\nThe author\'s documentation is on his homepage http://copyurlplus.mozdev.org/ not easily seen in the new addons format. (Platform is Windows, also not seen in the new addons format). A user modified 1.3.2 version can be obtained at http://btcorp.dyndns.org/Tools/FireFoxExtensions/FF_2.0_extensions/ to run on Fx2 for those that don\'t turn off compatibility testing.\r\n\r\nI have extensive notes on my own usage starting at \r\nhttp://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm#copyurlplus