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My next suggestion for those of you wanting to set up your own Wordpress blog, is to download the Firefox browser and switch to it. Aside from the fact that Firefox renders web pages more accurately to web standards (Internet Explorer 5 & 6 are the worst offenders here), Firefox offers many other advantages:

1) Tabbed browsing. You can have more than one page open in a window. I use this all the time. I open a link on a page in another tab, while still staying on the page I’m reading. I can then go over later and read the new page.
2) Pop up blocking. Need I say more?
3) Better security and protection from spyware. (with Firefox on my Mac, I’ve NEVER gotten spyware. Knock on wood. Knock on wood again for good measure.)
4) Firefox offers search suggestions in their search bar. If you start typing something in, a drop down list appears for you to choose from. Or you can finish typing it in yourself. I have to say, I use this often for things I’m not sure how to spell!

5) If a web page hangs up your browser, Firefox comes up when you reopen it with the option to restore the previous session. Which will open with your tabs all set like they were before you crashed.
6) The Firefox search comes loaded with Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Creative Commons, and ebay.
7) Most web sites look better in Firefox. I know my blog does. I’m tired of doing hacks to make the website look okay in the different versions of IE which don’t follow the web standards.
8) Firefox has many, many add ons you can use.

The one we’re going to use in developing our Wordpress blog is The Web Developers Toolbar. This toolbar allows easy access to the source code for a site, outlining various elements on a site, as well as looking at the CSS file and trying out different changes to the CSS. (if you don’t know what any of this is yet, don’t worry. I’ll explain it as we go along.)

So go here and

Install Firefox, then download the Web Developer’s Toolbar and install it.

In my next post we’ll download a free FTP program and we’ll download Wordpress.

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Tags: How to Blog, Wordpress, Wordpress Setup Series //