Category Archives: Add-on

Research Add-ons Chart for Lawyers Using IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

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Posted in Add-on, Business Information, Canada, Case Law, Evernote, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Search, U.K., U.S. | Tagged , ,

This page was inspired by a recent conference presentation I saw that focused, like much of this blog, on extensions and tweaks for Mozilla’s Firefox or Google’s Chrome Web browsers.  The legal profession is predominantly using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, however, probably at even greater levels than the general population.  It is sometimes hard to determine what add-ons or extensions work for Microsoft Internet Explorer, because there is no comprehensive central marketplace for available resources.

Here is a chart with a list of free extensions that can help your online research and the browsers for which they are available.  It’s not comprehensive, but it has a number of resources that are available to 3 or more browsers.

I have made a selection for each category and browser but there may be other options.  Keep in mind that the add-on may be for a particular version of the Web browser or require a particular operating system, so they may not install for the version you are running.  You can also go directly to sites like IEAddons.com for Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Add On site, Google’s Web Store (or the old extension site), Safari Addons, and the Userscripts.org site to find tweaks for all major Web browsers.

Feel free to add your own favorite research-related extensions or add-ons in the comments!

  1. Click the icon that matches YOUR browser to go directly to an available extension.  If the icon is grayed out, then I didn’t provide a link.
  2. Hold your mouse pointer over the icon before you click it.  I have added a tool tip for each icon to try to help you before you click away.
Access Internet Explorer-designed Sites without Internet Explorer IE Tab 2 Add-on for Mozilla Firefox IE Tab Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Block Ads IE Adblocker Adblock Plus Add on for Firefox Adblock Add-on for Chrome AdBlock for Safari
Bookmark Synchronization XMarks Add-on for Internet Explorer Bookmark synchronization is built in to Firefox browser Bookmark synchronization built in to Chrome Web browser XMarks Add-on for Safari
Case Law Citation Locator UK ONLY: Justis J-Link Add-on for Internet Explorer US ONLY: Jureeka Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Not available for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Citation Management with Zotero (free) Not available for Internet Explorer Zotero Citation Management Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Zotero Alpha Add-on for Google Chrome Zotero Alpha Add-on for Safari
Diigo Web Highlighter and Research Manager [FLI post on Diigo] Diigo Research Manager Toolbar for Internet Explorer Diigo Research Manager Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox Diigo Research Manager Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Evernote Web Clipper [FLI post on Evernote]

Evernote Add-on installed with Evernote for Windows

Evernote Add on for Firefox

 Evernote Add-on for Chrome Add-on for Safari installs with Evernote for Mac
Google Search Result Term Jumping / Highlighting Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer supports term highlighting and jumping Search WP Add-on for Mozilla Firefox Word Highlight Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Google Scholar Star Pagination for Cases [FLI post on pagination] Not available for Internet Explorer Not available for Firefox Google Scholar Star Pagination Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
Greplin Personal Cloud Search [FLI post on Greplin] Not available for Internet Explorer Not available for Firefox Greplin Add-on for Chrome Not available for Safari
Instapaper Deferred Reading Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Internet Explorer Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Mozilla Firefox Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Google Chrome Instapaper Bookmarklet defers reading for Mac
Readability Not available for Internet Explorer Arc90 Readability Add on for Mozilla Firefox Arc90 Readability Add-on for Chrome Not available for Safari
Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results for Internet Explorer Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results for Mozilla Firefox Surf Canyon Personalized Search Results Add-on for Google Chrome Not available for Safari
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Make Your Right Click Menu Do Magic with Spellbook

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Posted in Add-on, Bookmarklet, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Link Shorteners | Tagged ,

Bookmarks (or Favorites, as they are known on Internet Explorer) enable you to save a link to a page so that you can return to it in the future. A close relative of the bookmark is the bookmarklet.  It usually blends a link to a site with some additional code so that, when you click on it, an additional action is performed.  For example, if you use the Bit.ly sidebar bookmarklet, it opens a window and automatically shortens the URL of the page you are viewing.  As you add these bookmarklets to your research experience, you can organize them in a folder for easy access.  The only drawback to having them in a folder is that you may forget what you have in that folder unless you use them regularly.

One way to keep them more visible, if you use Google Chrome, is to add the Spellbook extension to put them on your right-click menu.  Internet Explorer users since version 7 will be familiar with this concept.  Highlight a word on a Web page, place your mouse beside it and click your right mouse button, and a number of options appear including Internet Explorer Accelerators.  The Accelerators work very much like bookmarklets, in that you can send the text to be translated or inserted into a blog or saved to some other location.

As Lifehacker explains, Spellbook works the same way.  It becomes an entry on your Google Chrome right-click menu, so that once you are looking at a page and right-click, you will see Spellbook in the menu list.  Select Spellbook, and you casee all of your bookmarklets and can select the one you want to use.  How does it know which bookmarklets to use?  You place them in a bookmarklets folder and Spellbook uses that to create its menu.

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Navigate Long Web Pages with On-the-Fly Tables of Contents

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Posted in Add-on, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera | Tagged , ,

Expert Web researchers are familiar with the built-in find function of their Web browser.  Get to a long page, hold down your CTRL key and hit F then type in the keyword you are looking for in the haystack of information in front of you.  Google Chrome users may also know about the Google Quick Scroll extension, which takes your Google search keywords and displays a small pop box so you can quickly navigate to the occurrences of your keywords.

MakeUseOf took a look at another set of extensions that can be helpful when you are looking at long Web pages.  Web pages are often created with visual cues to show the difference between, say, section headers and regular text.  These extensions will analyze the underlying code in a Web page and build a table of contents based on that.  This can be helpful because you can see what the hierarchy of a particular page is and navigate to the area that is most appropriate.  Unlike the keyword-based methods above, it gives you a better overall understanding of the document you’re reading.  The MakeUseOf article mentions a Firefox extension, HeadingsMap, that will generate these tables of contents on the fly.  On page 38 in the book, I also mention Outliner for Firefox (now defunct) and Chrome Outliner for Google Chrome.  Chrome users might also take a look at HTML5 Outliner, an extension which leverages some of the new descriptive tags in HTML5 but also works on older content, or at TableOfContents.  Opera users have two options, either their own HTML5 Outliner or Table of Contents extensions.

Unfortunately for legal researchers, much of the content for which these outliners would be most useful – statutes and cases, for example – are often not marked up in a way that generates a table of contents.  If you add them to your research toolkit, keep your other quick finding tools at hand.

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Search Your Personal Cloud with Greplin

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Posted in Add-on, Document management, E-mail Management, Evernote, File Management, GMail, Screencast, Search | Tagged , ,

I ran across an old New York Times article mentioning Greplin, an interesting cloud search tool.  The site will index your information from online services you use, sites like  productivity tools like Google Docs and GMail and Evernote to social media and research tools like Facebook and Twitter to file storage sites like Dropbox.com and Box.net.  Lawyers who are moving their practice further into the cloud and off their local machine may need a replacement for the desktop or internal search tools they were using.  Greplin is a great option.  Here’s a 4 minute screencast on how it works:

The Greplin index remains on their servers so, like all cloud-based content, lawyers should consider whether the index – which contains the text of files stored the services Greplin searches for you – contains confidential information.  You should review their privacy policy and particularly the section on encryption.

I have had an account with Greplin for awhile and was converted to a free account when they rolled out a premium version.  I haven’t been a big fan because I search from my browser and rarely remembered to go to the Greplin site in order to search.

They have fixed that and rolled out a Google Chrome extension for the service.  Now that I can search from my browser without going anywhere, it is more likely to become an integral tool for me.

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