This morning I have been working on my comprehensive Bitwarden user guide. It’s coming but it has been growing. While working, I stumbled onto something you may want to know how to do. I needed to reinstall a plugin for the “Bitwarden Guide” and that means removing the working plugin, and then installing it again (Just so I know I have the steps right, and so I can grab some screenshots).
Browser plugins are called Safari Extensions in “Apple speak”, and they can be quite useful. Look at this screenshot, I don’t have a lot of extensions enabled but the ones I do have, I use a lot.
Bitwarden
My password manager of choice at the moment. Having the icon in the browser gives me a visible cue that I have a password for a site. It lets me practice good password security.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media posting manager. It lets me quickly post links and articles to multiple social media networks. I don’t use this from Safari much on my Mac. I use it mostly with the iOS share extension and the Buffer app. I do a lot of social m
Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing aid that is like a spell check on steroids. It does what a spell checker, evaluates your spelling and grammar in context. It works pretty well.
Spillo
I use a service called pinboard to keep links together for projects, articles, interest, etc. It works pretty well. Spillo is an Mac and iOS client that lets me browse the links, search them and they have a browser extension that adds links to the database. It is great for finding information you need to save without crowding your bookmarks in the browser. I try to keep browser bookmarks clean and only for sites are absolutely needed for daily, or weekly use.
Disabling a browser extension
To disable a browser extension, goto preferences (press command key and , at the same time) and uncheck it. Why would you do this? The extension is behaving poorly. The best example of this, is sometimes Grammarly will seem slow – most of the time, it is because the internet connection is slow, disabling it lets me type quickly, and I can turn it back on when I am done and check my writing at the end. I leave Grammarly turned on most of the time because, It is not usually a problem.
Uninstalling a browser extension
To uninstall a browser extension, goto preferences (press command key and , at the same time) and select the extension you want to uninstall and look for the uninstall button in the main panel. It is usually right under the extension’s icon. Why uninstall? Browser extensions can make your internet experience slower, although I have had quite a few more extensions installed than what I currently have and have not really experienced the slowing. A good security practice is to keep extensions installed to a minimum, and only from a reliable service you have a relationship with the provider. Plus a crowded browser bar just bugs me aesthetically.
Side Note
Just had a graphic designer email me and tell me she accidentally installed a flash player that has hijacked her safari browser. Be careful what you install through your browser. The internet can make us incredibly productive, and you should not fear taking advantage of it – but be careful. Don’t install software from any site you don’t trust. Always go directly to the publisher’s site to download and install software. Treat every link that wants to install something with suspicion. I will post what I find out about this browser hijack. I don’t really clean computers (virus removal, etc) but I am all about keeping my clients moving forward and using their tech productively.
