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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Open URLs and send emails with ease using Text2Link

Recently installed this nifty add-on in Firefox & Thunderbird – makes me miss Opera even less :).

Installing the Text2Link Add-on in Firefox & Thunderbird enables features similar to Opera’s Go to Web Address, but with better implementation IMO.  Allows you to select & open a link, even if the URL is not marked with HTML tags & is simply posted as text.

Why better than what Opera does

  • You get the option of selecting where you want the URL to open – same tab, new tab or a new window.
  • You also need not highlight the exact URL to open it
  • If a URL is anchored around a text it allows you to copy the text with a single click.

Take for example this link provided on this page.

Text2Link add-on

The URL provided in the page is posted as simple text. Having Text2Link lets you open the page by simply highlighting the part containing the URL & then choosing whether you’d like to open the page in a new/same tab or window.

Text2Link Add-on

Similarly, the add-on for Thunderbird, allows you to just highlight the email id & select the option to send the address an email, thereby opening up Thunderbird’s compose window, even if the address does not follow proper email address syntax [though there is a limit to which it can recognize email ids not following proper syntax].

A useful add-on as it is, a welcome addition to its features would be the ability to open multiple  URLs by simply highlighting them & choosing the option to open them – have mailed the developer about this :).

Add-on for Thunderbird

Add-on for Firefox

Godspeed

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