Of all the Firefox extensions I use, ReminderFox has proven to be the one I would be most lost without.

This is the first post in a series about some of my favorite Firefox extensions.

I was not in a hurry to even try Firefox.

After a particularly bad version of Netscape, I’d switched to Internet Explorer and stayed there. For many years, I was a dedicated IE user. I can’t remember what finally got me to try FireFox, but now you’ll hear me complain whenever I have to use Internet Explorer. I hope you are not the webmaster of a site that would be forcing IE use on me! There are too many. It is like having to take the bus instead of driving a Porsche.

ReminderFox was the answer to a particular problem I had.

ReminderFox is easy to use.

When I only used Microsoft Windows, I used Office Outlook’s tasks to remind me of dates, especially recurring ones like paying the many bills I have every month. Outlook worked for the job because I nearly always started it to read email (not all my email accounts were in Outlook, but enough to get me to load it). I did loath starting Outlook. It is a resource hog that always brought computer use to a standstill while it loaded. Task reminders would pop up and freeze the screen till it loaded fully. Outlook also mixed up the Hotmail accounts, switching the mail between them and then completely failing to load the other.

When I began to switch to using Linux, I had a problem finding a substitute for Outlooks tasks.

Evolution (Ubuntu’s default email client) does not handle tasks as I would like. While there are plenty of calendar and task management programs available, these additional programs have the problem of needing me to start them in order for it to work. I find that I tend to not be very reliable at starting these things.

A search of FireFox extensions turned up ReminderFox.

ReminderFox has turned out to be the ideal solution. If there is one program I can nearly guarantee I’ll use regularly, it is a browser (particularly FireFox). Now I get the important reminders much more reliably.

I have found ReminderFox very easy to use.

You can set reoccurring tasks just as easily as Outlook. Reminders can be set over several days. I needed this feature for those online bills that still claim they need a couple working days to post the payment to the account. This way I get a warning before the bill is due so I can prepare for it.

Just a pet peeve:

I have seen credit cards that want a couple business days to acknowledge a payment. Add a weekend and a holiday and you need to make a payment five days before it is due to be on time. You could mail a check faster! I have canceled accounts with companies that do this but sometimes, you just have to work with morons like this. Just as annoying is finding out you paid too early and missed a monthly payment because it was credited a month early (a month that the balance was paid off also). I only hope the current banking problems will clear up stupidity like this, but it looks like our dear government leaders in Washington feel stupidity needs funding with our tax dollars. So, those companies that charge me extra fees because of their stupidity are not spending my tax money to do it.

ReminderFox can make a little pop up when a task is due.

This works just like Office Outlook’s pop-up warning for tasks, except it does not lock up the program on loading.

ReminderFox itself, lives in the toolbar in FireFox.

Hovering the mouse over it will show due or upcoming tasks. You can also add an audio warning for tasks that are due and choose your own audio file.

I have not mastered ReminderFox yet.

I still need to experiment to find out all the things it is capable of doing and all the features. Basic use is simple enough to figure out quick and I have not need to learn much more to do what I need.

If you need a good way to keep track of dates conveniently, ReminderFox may be just what you need.

Because it is run with FireFox, you see the reminders and don’t need to run a separate program. I’ve found it perfect for my needs. It makes my life easier.

I’ll try to make this short.

I think my blog posts are way too long.

I actually write a great many more posts than actually make it onto this blog. Maybe you have noticed that many if not most of my posts tend to be fairly lengthly by most blog standards.

Take a post about Firefox I am working on for example.

Long winded and boring?

A few weeks ago I started working on a post about my favorite Firefox extensions. Now, I could just make a list of them and leave it at that. But no, not me. I have to write a post that takes up several pages of the notebook I wrote it in. This post will take me an hour to type in. After that, I still need to create graphics and add the links. I am looking at several hours of work just to publish a post that I have already written.

Add to this the fact that I can be lazy sometimes.

Especially when I have already done a lot of the work and still have the fiddly stuff to do. You can see how this is going. If I ever want you to see that post (and many others suffering the same fate) I need to adjust the way I blog and publish posts.

So, look for shorter posts here from now on.

This way, I can do my writing with pen and paper, the way I think best. Then I can publish it without too much trouble. I should be able to get more of my scribbles out for the world to see. One small post at a time.

Now my problem is I need to break up that Firefox extension post.

Do you as a reader prefer shorter or longer posts?

Not just here but at other blogs.