Web Developer extension for Firefox

I do a lot of work on the web, and tools that make web work easier are great. Tools that are free and open source are even better. So this morning I thought I’d tell you about Chris Pederick’s fantabulous Web Developer extension for Firefox.

When you install Web Developer, it creates a toolbar and a menu under the tools menu. Both contain the same options. The Web Developer toolbar is great. It breaks its functionality down into 12 separate categories with many, many options within each category.

Basically, the 12 categories allow you to get at different aspects of a website that you’re viewing. For example, you can view all the JavaScript from a page, display <div> order, or outline all the table cells on a page. You can easily validate the HTML or CSS of any page, show HTML comments, or view the contents of cookies issued by a site. You can also display image dimensions, display title attributes, or view the page source.

That is just scratching the surface, which is to say that there is a ton of control and functionality in the Web Developer extension. It’s more like a toolbox of tools useful for web developers than just a single tool. I’ve found the extension to be very handy, and you might too. It’s freely available at Chris Pederick’s site or from the Firefox Add-ons site.