If you’re like most Firefox users, you probably use the browser to access your favorite online content and tools. But what if you want to launch external applications from Firefox? There are a few ways to do this, but the best way is probably using the Firefox add-on “Firefox Add-ons.” This add-on allows you to install a variety of different external applications, including ones that are specific to your needs. To get started, open Firefox and click on the “Add-ons” button on the top left corner of the screen. Then select “Firefox Add-ons.” On the next page, select “Extensions.” In the Extensions field, type “firefox://addons/”. Once you’ve added this extension to your Firefox browser, you can use it by clicking on its name in the list of extensions on the left side of your screen. Now that you have an external application installed in Firefox, it’s time to try it out! To do this, open up a new tab in Firefox and type in some text or an image into one of the fields on the main window. Then click on the “launch” button at the bottom of the window. The application will start up immediately and will be able to access all of your favorite online content and tools!
Setup
Once you have installed the extension the first thing that you will need to do is open the “Customize Toolbar Window” and grab the “External Applications Toolbar”. Place it into your browser’s UI in a location that best suits your needs.
Once you have placed it where you want it and closed the “Customise Toolbar Window” you will see a “blank spot” in that location. Do not worry…the toolbar is still there…it is just empty for the moment.
There are two methods for adding an external app to your new toolbar. The first is by using the “Right Click Menu” and selecting “New Button…” which lets you browse for the exe file of the app that you want to add. The second is “drag-and-drop”. For our example we have decided to use the “drag-and-drop” method.
And just like that you can now access an external app with just one click.
As you can see Notepad opened up very nicely…
Here is what the “Right Click Menu” looks like for our new toolbar.
Note: Clicking on “Customise” will open up the “Customise Toolbar Window”.
Clicking on “Properties” will open up the following window for the particular app that you are inquiring about.
Settings
The options are very simple to work with…choose the prefix that you would like for the “Tooltip Pop-ups” for your apps and decide if you want the icons to be size “16 or 32”.
Conclusion
The External Application Buttons mod for Firefox 3.0+ extension can give you quick and easy access to your most needed apps (for taking notes, editing images, saving links, etc.) while browsing.
Links
Download the External Application Buttons mod for Firefox 3.0+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
