help with Firefox and Internet Explorer bookmarks?

[edenfalling]

This afternoon Microsoft automatically updated my browser to IE9. I do not like IE9. I think it's ugly, and I can't figure out how to rearrange the toolbars up top to get my tabs on a different line from the address bar.

So I updated Firefox. I am not wild about the appearance of their newest browser either, but at least the tabs are on a separate line and thus both large and easily visible.

The thing is, I have a LOT of bookmarks (or favorites) in Internet Explorer, while my Firefox bookmarks (which, I think, got copied automatically from IE when I first downloaded Firefox two or three years ago) are horribly out of date. And I use my bookmarks to navigate all the time, partly because they're an easy and non-site-specific way to track writers I like, and partly because they are completely private and I don't always like to advertise my guilty pleasure reading habits.

Is there a way to get Firefox to copy my IE bookmarks and their organization, while overwriting whatever version I already have in Firefox?

Alternately, is there a way to get the tabs on a separate line from the address bar in IE9? (Because that is my main issue with that browser. I hate that layout with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.)

Comments

[edenfalling]

I will now reveal the degree of my computer illiteracy and ask you what a plugin is, and how it works. *sheepish*

[chibirisuchan.livejournal.com]

no problem! To be a total geek about it, plugins are to Firefoxlike when in RPGs you don't like the equipment you have as a rank 1 newbie and you want to upgrade to different gear. (Only as far as I know all plugins are free; you don't need 'Firefox coins' or another game equivalent to get 'em.)

So your browser as automatically installed (either Firefox or IE) is like that rank 1 newbie (or like Academy Naruto). If you want to "level up" Firefox, you can pick whatever plugins you like from https://addons.mozilla.org/ -- just use Firefox itself to surf around; you can't add Firefox plugins to Firefox from inside IE. If you see a plugin description you like, click its "Add to Firefox" button and Firefox will give you some prompts to OK, then add it in. After you restart Firefox, your new plugin will be part of the browser, and you can turn it on or off and in some cases tweak its settings.

So the AdBlock Plus plugin I mentioned earlier is currently profiled on its home page, or there's a straight link to it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

And the weather plugin is here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/forecastfox-weather/

The LJ-login (which installs a little LJ-account logger-inner-or-outer that lives at the bottom right side of the screen in Firefox 3, haven't tried it in Firefox 4 yet) is on LJ itself instead of Firefox's home, but here it is: http://ljlogin.livejournal.com/

And here's IE Tab 2, to be able to launch IE from inside Firefox for Hotmail etc: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-tab-2-ff-36/

Then there's the Themes section that will let you change how Firefox looks: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/themes/

Firefox themes are like Winamp skins, if you remember those. :D (I'm old, I know, I remember MP3 players from before iTunes was a gleam in Steve Jobs' eye.) So if, for example, you wanted to make your browser look like you decked it out in bad 70's woodgrain paneling, there is in fact a theme for that! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/walnut-for-firefox/

You could also use, say, a thesaurus plugin or dictionary plugin for help finding words while writing up a post.

Hope that helps?

[edenfalling]

Yes, that's very helpful! Thank you for the explanation and links.