Tip For Firefox Users

[ddillard 2]

Any of you that use Firefox know that the board does not display exactly as it should in Firefox. VBG has been working diligently to correct the issue and possibly create a custom skin for Firefox, but it will take a while. I have however found a solution for the users of Firefox.

 

I came across an extenion that allows you to view IE pages from within Firefox. Once it is setup you will be able to have STF open in a firefox tab but it will actually be viewed using Internet Explorer so that everything appears correctly. It is not a perfect solution and has a couple of drawbacks, one it still uses Internet explorer (enough said there, lol) second if you want to go back to the previous page you cannot use the nice convenient Firefox backbutton or you will end up back at the portal, you can however right click on the page and click back or use the backspace key and it will take you to the previous page without issue. I have put together some instructions for using this below if anyone is interested.

 

Installation Instructions: (Must be completed using Firefox, sorry had to add that in there, lol)

 

1.) CLICK HERE to go to the extension page

 

2.) Click on Install Now

 

 

3.) After the install of the installation has completed close all firefox windows.

 

4.) Reopen Firefox

 

5.) Click on Tools then IE Tab Options

 

 

6.) in the add site box type in http://www.startrekfans.net then click Add then click OK

 

 

That is it then whenever you open a link from stf the addon will be applied and it will open in IE within a Firefox tab.

[Tal 0]

Could be usefull, shame i dont have IE installed on my computer, And dont plan on installing it, Ill jsut wait for VBG cause im in no rush

[APW 0]

The slight problems I have using Firefox aren't really a concern. In fact, I hardly even notice them.

No rush, VBG.

[Yillara Skye 1]

Decided to give it a try just to see how it works :( It is still not a rush but it is interesting nonetheless. It works because some places I tried to go would not load properly, but would if I used IE.

[Dark Reality 0]

I have IE Tab, but STFN looks fine for me. What doesn't display properly is of little consequence for what I do. IE Tab serves other purposes. ^_^

 

A couple other tips for Firefox users here: BBCodeXtra is an extension which adds helpful tools to the context (right-click) menu. Highlight a word in the reply or fast-reply form, right click on it, choose BBCode, and you have a world of options. My favorite use... I'll highlight, right-click, Copy a URL, then type some text, highlight, right-click, BBCodeXtra, Clipboard, Make Selection URL. It's a heck of a time saver.

 

If you're on Dialup, perhaps you know that with any Invision-powered board such as this one, you can go into My Controls and disable Signatures, Images, and Avatars. That's what I've done. Well, another extension will further help here... Adblock. That's right... I don't know if ads are used here or not... I don't see ads. Ever. But what I'm talking about is blocking the board image. It's not that big a deal, but every page load, it loads a new banner... The page loads a little faster if I block it. To do so, just add the following to your adblock filter:

http://www.startrekfans.net/random/random_image.gif

And if you'd like to learn how to block every ad on the Net, or at least 99% of them, read my blog post on blocking ads. It goes into how, as well as the consequences of doing so (don't worry, it's perfectly legal). And just so we're clear... the random images are cool, some of them are really nice... it's just I'm on Walmart's AOL service, and I cut corners where I can to get to the actual content quicker. :(

Edited December 8, 2005 by Dark Reality

[LordOfTheBorg 1]

there is another IE "browser" called crazy browser or silly browser (i dunno if this link is it.. i din't click the link)

 

Personally, i hate IE.. i only use it to go to the microsoft.com update site.. which is.. NEVER!

[Dark Reality 0]

there is another IE "browser" called crazy browser or silly browser (i dunno if this link is it.. i din't click the link)

 

Personally, i hate IE.. i only use it to go to the microsoft.com update site.. which is.. NEVER!

No, the link is to a Firefox extension called IE Tab, which uses the MSIE rendering engine within a Firefox tab to display MSIE only sites within Firefox. Within an IE Tab, none of the page-specific extensions (like BBCode and Adblock) have any effect... it's like MSIE in a tab, literally. This is no magic trick... MSIE is designed to be used in this way. Winamp for example is one program that does the exact same thing.

 

Crazy Browser (see crazybrowser.com) is an MSIE front-end. I can tell you that just by looking at it. Firefox with IE Tab on all the time would be an IE frontend, it's the same idea. A new browser, in fact based on MSIE, that does a few more things. Other MSIE frontends people use are called Maxthon and MyIE 2. Both of these as well as Crazy Browser, as well as IE Tab, are all vulnerable to MSIE's vulnerabilities - that's why with IE Tab, you only want to use it on trusted sites. If you do not like Firefox and you still want an alternative to MSIE, I strongly recommend Opera. It used to be paid or ad-supported, but now the ad-free paid version is free and the ad-supported version is no more. Opera has a ton of features MSIE and Firefox lack. MSIE to Firefox to Opera is like Notepad to Wordpad to Microsoft Word 2003. Opera is LOADED with stuff. But it doesn't block ads and as far as I know it doesn't do BBCode, though I haven't tried it recently.