Clippings and Panic Button with Firefox ESR 60

Many users on Firefox ESR 52.x have upgraded to the latest ESR release, version 60. This blog post summarizes compatibility info with Clippings and Panic Button for those users who have not yet made the leap.

Clippings

Clippings 6 is compatible with Firefox ESR 60.x.  Users of Firefox ESR 52.x should make a backup of their clippings before the upgrade; you should be seeing reminders to do this in the Clippings context menu and in Clippings Manager if you have version 5.5.x installed.  Once you have upgraded to Firefox ESR 60, upgrade Clippings to the latest release (version 6.0.6 at the time of this writing), where you will be prompted to upload your backup file.

There are a few differences between Clippings 6 and the legacy versions of Clippings. The biggest change is that the shortcut key prefix for pasting a clipping with the keyboard is now ALT+SHIFT+Y (Command+Shift+Y on macOS). There are plans to allow users to change the shortcut key prefix in an upcoming release.

Many users have been syncing their clippings between Firefox and Thunderbird by setting the data source location to a folder on their system that is accessible to both applications. Automatic syncing of clippings is not yet possible in Clippings 6. For now, you will need to sync your data manually, using the import and export actions in Clippings Manager.

After installing Clippings 6, it is a good idea to back up your clippings on a regular basis to keep your clippings data safe from unexpected data corruption. Unlike past releases of Clippings, the WebExtension version is unable to save backups automatically.

Note that Clippings does not work when Private Browsing is turned on in Firefox.

Panic Button

Panic Button 4 is compatible with Firefox ESR 60.x. Once you have upgraded, install the latest version of Panic Button (version 4.0.3 at the time of this writing).

The Panic Button action of hiding all browser windows and showing a floating toolbar with a button for restoring your browsing session is no longer available. But you can still hide your browser window and replace it with another window showing a web site of your choice. Also, it is no longer possible to be prompted for a password when restoring your browser sesssion.  The "Hide and Replace" action doesn't work when Private Browsing is turned on in Firefox.