Hello dear visitors. Today I will tell you about one extension that will decorate and make your browser functional and very convenient. This extension adds visual bookmarks to the browser.
This extension is relevant for browsers Google Chrome And Mozilla Firefox. Those who use a browser Opera, they know firsthand about such a convenient thing as visual bookmarks.
IN Google Chrome And Mozilla Firefox Of course, there are their so-called “ Home pages«.
But in my opinion they are not so convenient and so I found an alternative for them. Install this add-on for Google Chrome You can follow this link, and for Mozilla Firefox.
After installation, when you click on the “New Tab” button, visual bookmarks, in which you can save your favorite sites. This ensures quick access to them. The plugin functions are the same for both browsers. The only difference ( which at least I noticed) is that in Google Chrome dils (visual bookmarks
) have a sort of oval appearance and resemble 3D windows. Here's what they look like.
Now about the settings.
Page interface with visual bookmarks from FVD Speed Dial can be roughly divided into 4 parts.
Groups of visual bookmarks- a very convenient thing. This function gives us the opportunity to create as many groups as we like, in which you can save the sites you need. Groups allow you to divide sites according to different criteria. For example, I have a group " Social media“, in which I have saved the most popular sites in this segment ( Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, FaceBook, Google+, YouTube and Twitter ). You can also organize the division of sites into groups at your discretion. You can add a group by clicking the button at the end of the groups in the form + . A window will open in which we enter the name of the group and click OK.
A new one with your name will appear at the top next to the already created groups.
At the top right there is a panel with various options and settings.
The first three icons on this panel are buttons that switch modes between Speed Dial (visual bookmarks
)-Most Popular (most frequently visited pages)-Recently closed (most recently visited pages).
The fourth icon is sync button. It means synchronization ( saving and, if necessary, subsequent restoration) bookmarks and plugin settings. To be honest, I didn’t even try to synchronize, because I think it’s safer to create backup files using proven means, namely using the utility MozBackUp or using the add-on Firefox Sync (These solutions are only relevant for Firefox). Those who are not familiar with these methods can learn about them by reading the articles "" and "". However, users Google Chrome They can try it themselves, fortunately everything here is in Russian.
The next fifth icon is settings. There are quite a lot of settings here. They allow you to arrange visual bookmarks to your liking. We will look at the settings point by point below.
The next sixth icon is a button Power OFF and the button " Show/Hide". I will talk about their functions below when analyzing the settings. It seems like I listed all the icons/buttons. Now about the settings.
When you press the button " General settings
"A window opens with 9 separate settings items (9 icons).
The first icon contains two tabs " Basic
" And " Decor
«.
In the " Basic
“It doesn’t really cost anything to change.
The only interesting function, but not particularly necessary in my opinion, is the “ Blocked domains
". By clicking on the " Control"A window will open where you can add blocked pages and sites. This function does not block access to the site, but simply prevents the blocked site from being added to the speed dial, i.e. to a visual bookmark.
Tab " Decor
» is richer in tools for changing the appearance of the speed dial page.
But, from all that was proposed, I only chose to change the size of the dil and made them larger. You can choose the optimal settings for yourself.
I will skip the next three settings icons, since there is practically nothing to change there. These are the settings of the modes I have already mentioned “ speed dial
«, « Most Popular
" And " Recently closed
«.
The next, fourth and fifth, settings items are very interesting and allow you to globally change design of visual tabs.
The first of these two tabs (4th item) allows you to set the background color if no picture is specified as the background, or allows you to set any picture as the background. To install a picture, click on the line where it says “ No image
" and select one of the proposed items. I selected the item " Fill". Immediately below, a field appears where you can select either a local image ( located on your computer) or a picture on the Internet.
The second of these two tabs (5 point) allows you to change the colors and sizes of various texts and headings accompanying visual bookmarks (for example, the color of the website URL, under the dil).
By choosing the right colors, you can look very beautiful. create visual bookmarks
.
I will also skip the next sixth point, since here, again, we are talking about about synchronization and backup. I have already given you links to proven backup methods.
The next item in the settings (8 item) is also a rather interesting function. These settings are for the button Power Off
which I touched on above. She allows hide
(turn off
) all yours visual bookmarks
. To configure this function you need to enter password And Email, to recover your password in case you forget it. After you have entered your password, this function will work in full force. Namely. Clicking the button Power Off
visual bookmarks plugin FVD Speed Dial
becomes unavailable, i.e. all yours visual bookmarks are hidden (disabled). To restore them ( inclusion) you must already enter the password that you set when setting up this function. This feature will be useful if you do not want anyone to see your personal data.
Last 9
The settings item is intended to assist the developers of this add-on. You can send them your suggestions for improving the plugin, as well as report errors and bugs if you find them.
That's basically all about the settings.
There is basically nothing to say about the search string (field), except that it displays search results immediately on the quick access page. That's all.
Afterword:
I'm at home and at Google Chrome and on Mozilla Firefox I installed the extension described above and have never regretted it. But, computers with weak hardware may experience some slowdowns when opening a new tab in the browser (especially Firefox), because the expansion is quite voluminous. But this is not so noticeable. I think this addition will decorate more than one user’s browser. Let's wrap this up, friends.
See you again on the pages of our website.
Author of the publication
Hello!
This post is spontaneous. More precisely not planned...
I receive a lot of comments on this article
I try to answer some questions immediately in the comments. Sometimes I make additions directly to the article. In one of these additions, I wrote that I had found a replacement for the old (new) Yandex visual bookmarks and attached another video. This is a short overview of the functions and design of the Speed Dial extension.
Sergey asked a question in the comments: “ Is it possible to save these bookmarks somehow? I didn’t understand something.”
Thank you for your question... I’m answering specifically Sergei, as well as everyone else who hasn’t figured it out synchronization settings bookmarks for Chrome Speed Dial.
And so we installed visual bookmarks for Chrome Speed Dial - New Tab Page, 3D, Sync. Now we need to open the settings panel in the upper right corner and click on the “synchronization” icon
After that, we are transferred to the general settings, to the synchronization tab.
Here we are offered to install another browser extension that will synchronize and save our bookmarks. Click “Install from Chrome Web Store”
Now we find ourselves in the Chrome store. Directly to the page with the required extension Ever Sync.
Install Ever Sync:
After installing Ever Sync, another icon appears in our browser. This is quick access to synchronize our visual bookmarks. This is what it looks like:
We click on it, and we are transferred to the synchronization settings.
In order for Speed Dials to be saved and synchronized, we need create an account in Ever Sync.
If you have an account in Google + then everything is much simpler. You simply click “Sign in with Google”. That is, log in using your account.
If you don't have Google mail, then you need to go through a simple registration. Enter address his email, create a password and enter the captcha.
Have you filled everything out? OK. Then click “Register”
After registration is completed, we log in with our email (which we entered during registration) and get to the menu.
The Ever Sync extension can sync and save not only Speed Dial bookmarks, but also standard Google Chrome browser bookmarks (favorites).
(I did not use this function and did not test it. Because it seems that if you enable synchronization of regular bookmarks, they will be deleted from the browser. I don’t understand for sure)
Let's get back to saving visual bookmarks. Go to the SpeedDial tab:
We need to click on the middle button Overwrite server data - which translates as - overwrite server data.
Click “Upload” and copy the data from our computer to the server.
We will be asked if we are really ready to do this? We say “Yes”
This procedure must be performed only after those cases when you log out of your account and then log in again. Logging out does not occur automatically, so you won’t have to do this often.
When we click “Ok”, the first synchronization will occur. After 3 green checkmarks light up, the window will automatically close.
All. The initial settings have been completed.
Now we can move on to setting up and organizing our bookmarks.
SpeedDials do not synchronize themselves, so from time to time you need to do this yourself.
You will see three green ticks. This means that your changes have been saved on the server.
That's it, you can sleep peacefully!
Now, if you suddenly reinstalled Google Chrome or removed and reinstalled the operating system, then simply install two extensions Speed Dial and Ever Sync.
In Ever Sync, log in to your account and on the SpeedDial tab, click “Download”
And all your saved sites return to their places.
This is a simple way to synchronize and save Chrome Speed Dial browser bookmarks.
That's all for today.
Allowing you to display your bookmarks in a convenient form. This add-on will be an excellent alternative to standard visual bookmarks.
Instead of an inconvenient list of bookmarks, 9 specified sites with visual previews will be displayed (the number of icons can always be changed). And to quickly go to the desired site, just click on the miniature image of the page or press the hotkey combination Ctrl+X, where X is the number of the site icon.
Installation and configuration of Speed Dial.
Installing Speed Dial, like any other add-on for Firefox, is done in two steps:
2. Click "Install Now" and restart your browser. 
3. After rebooting, you need to make some minor adjustments to the Speed Dial. If you previously installed visual bookmarks from other developers, for example, the company, you need to disable them in the “Add-ons” menu.
Now let's move directly to the Speed Dial settings. Go to the Firefox menu and click Settings. 
4. Opposite “When Firefox starts” check the box "Show home page", and in the home page column enter the address ya.ru. Click OK. 
5. Go to the Firefox menu and click Add-ons. Open Speed Dial settings. 
6. Check the boxes next to "In the new empty windows" And "In new empty tabs". Click OK. 
7. Now open a new tab and right-click on any free area. Select Change Group. Here you can set row and column metrics, as well as a different background color (or your own image). Also click OK. 
8. There's just a little bit left to do. Click on any empty icon and enter a new bookmark address. 
9. Almost immediately your miniature website page will load. 
10. Speed Dial has the ability to create groups of bookmarks. This function allows you to create any number of groups and group sites at your discretion. To create new groups, go to the “Add-ons” section in the browser menu, open the Speed Dial settings and click “Manage Groups”. A new window will open, in which click “Add” and give the new group a name. After this, a new group will appear on the Firefox home page, in which you need to add new sites in exactly the same way. 
The Speed Dial setup is complete. Enjoy!
If you have used or are using Yandex Browser, then you probably know about its main feature - visual bookmarks. Alas, there is no such usefulness in the Google Chrome web browser, but this can be fixed. You need to install the Speed Dial extension for Google Chrome, and we’ll talk about how to do this today.
FVD Speed Dial for Google Chrome is a plugin that allows you to create convenient bookmarks in the form of thumbnails on the main page of the browser, as is implemented in Yandex Browser, and this is not the only add-on feature.
You can completely customize the main window as you wish: set the background, fonts, and the maximum number of thumbnails. The appearance of each bookmark can be customized thanks to the built-in editor, for example, set a name, preview, and so on. In addition, the plugin has synchronization functions, that is, you can easily transfer your bookmarks to other devices with a Google browser installed. The extension is suitable for users who want to customize the main browser page, as well as each thumbnail on it, down to the smallest detail.
Now let's figure out how to install Speed Dial for Google Chrome. This is quite easy to do:
After installation, a completely natural question arises: how to configure and use the Speed Dial extension. Everything is very simple:
1. Restart your browser or create a new empty tab and you'll see a refreshed browser home screen.
2. Several bookmark display modes are available: normal and 3D. To switch between them, right-click in an empty space of the main window and select “View”.
3. To add a thumbnail to the main page, right-click on the “+” icon.
4. The bookmark creation wizard will open, where you need to specify the site address, name, select a preview and set the period for auto-updating information about the resource.
5. You can create groups of bookmarks and switch between them. To do this, click on the “+” icon in the upper left part of the interface of the main Google Chrome window.
The plugin has many settings, which can be opened by clicking on the corresponding icon, where you can set the parameters of the background, fonts, synchronization and other things.
Advice! To use the synchronization feature, you need to install the EverSync add-on, which can also be found in the Chrome extension store.
This plugin undoubtedly has many advantages, for example, customizing the background of the main page, bookmarks, synchronization, etc. It is very convenient and has an intuitive interface, so it is unlikely that anyone will have any difficulties working with it.
Mozilla Firefox is a flexible browser-designer that can be supplemented with various functionality using built-in extensions. This functionality includes an express panel of visual bookmarks for quick and convenient access to users’ favorite sites.
Mozilla Firefox comes pre-installed with quite powerful functionality for working with regular bookmarks, including the ability to quickly add favorite sites to the browser collection, sort bookmarks into thematic folders, as well as export, import and create backup copies. But the pre-installed visual bookmarks that open in a new browser tab leave much to be desired - the number of cells for selected sites is limited, and adding new thumbnails is possible only after removing old ones from free cells. In this case, free cells are filled only by automatically adjusting new sites from the browser history to them.
Let's look for more impressive and practical express panels of visual bookmarks for the Fire Fox in the extension store. Let's look at the best of them.
How to equip the browser with various extensions, including specifically Mozilla Firefox, is described in the article “”.
Top-PageThe Top-Page extension is a cross-platform solution that will certainly be of interest to those who constantly change browsers or computer devices.
The Top-Page.Ru web service offers a completely free service for storing user bookmarks in the online organization of an express panel of site thumbnails.
Once you set up the express panel and organize your favorite sites on it, you can instantly access visual bookmarks from any browser window, on any device - be it a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. To do this, you just need to first register in the Top-Page.Ru web service and then log in.
The Top-Page express panel for visual bookmarks is not the best masterpiece of design, it is far from the most advanced functional product, however, it is possible to change the background image and adjust the number of thumbnails of selected sites by width.
To add a site to your Top-Page visual bookmarks, click the empty cell with the plus sign and enter the web address. If you are too lazy to enter the name, you don’t need to do this. The name will be generated automatically.
Another cross-platform option for organizing an express panel of visual bookmarks in the Mozilla Firefox browser is Atavi Bookmarks from the free Atavi.Com web service.
But these bookmarks, unlike all other express panels presented in this review, are installed not from the Mozilla Firefox extension store, but from the Yandex Elements website.
Fast Dial is a custom extension for Mozilla Firefox.
In its settings, the number of visual bookmark cells displayed on the page can be adjusted by setting any numeric value for width and length. The size of the bookmark cells themselves can also be adjusted.
In Fast Dial settings
You can set your own background image for the visual bookmarks express panel. You can also choose the design of the cells, the font of the inscriptions and other design details.
To add a new visual bookmark, click on an empty cell and enter the web address of your favorite site. Each visual bookmark can have its own logo, as well as assign hot keys for quick access.
Fast Dial is one of the most beautiful express visual bookmark panels in the Mozilla Firefox extension store.
But, at the same time, it is somewhat inferior to the next participant in the review - the FVD Speed Dial express panel for visual bookmarks.
FVD Speed DialFVD Speed Dial is perhaps the most beautiful, most impressive, most functional, most customizable express visual bookmark panel for Mozilla Firefox.
But, at the same time, it is also the heaviest.
The effects and functionality of the extension may slow down the browser on weak computer devices. Alas, you always have to sacrifice something.
FVD Speed Dial contains a lot of settings, thanks to which the design and organization of the express panel can be finely tuned to your taste - choose a beautiful background image, adjust the font of the inscriptions, set the transparency of the buttons, specify the size of the cells, etc.
FVD Speed Dial allows you to organize visual bookmarks into thematic groups, thereby preventing the express panel from becoming cluttered with bookmarks. In this case, a group of popular bookmarks from regularly visited sites is formed automatically. Switching between groups is very convenient; their links are neatly lined up at the top of the express panel.
To add a new visual bookmark, we traditionally click on the empty cell with a plus sign on the express panel, enter the web address of the site, and we can assign a group, title, and image from among those suggested for the bookmark.
Despite the fact that FVD Speed Dial is far from being an accomplice to the performance of Mozilla Firefox, the advantages of this express panel of visual bookmarks are obvious - beauty will save the world.
Users of low-power netbooks and older PC builds can, for example, abandon the bulky background image, leaving the preset background of the Express panel white, so as not to burden the browser.
