Panic Button 5.0 release candidate 1 released!

A release candidate build is now available for Panic Button, the Firefox extension from AE Creations that hides your browser windows from curious eyes with a click of a button. Unless there are any last-minute showstopper bugs, this may become the official release of Panic Button 5.0.

Read on to learn more about what's new in this version of Panic Button, and how to get it!

What's New

• Improvements to some of the built-in Panic Button icons
• Enhanced keyboard navigation in the extension preferences page, Change Icon dialog, and the Restore Session page
• Other behind-the-scenes improvements to ensure compatibility with future versions of Firefox

Things You Should Know About

• Panic Button 5.0 requires Firefox 115 or newer. 
  
• The version number of this release candidate build will appear as 4.999.1 in Add-ons Manager.
  
• Panic Button won't work if Firefox is set to "Never remember history" in Privacy & Security settings.

How to Get It

To install this preview release, head over to the Panic Button 5.0 release candidate 1 page on GitHub. Look for the link to panicbutton-5.0rc1.xpi, then click on it to install.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Panic Button should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

If you find a bug, you may file a bug report on GitHub. Please search the issues list first to confirm that your issue has not already been reported.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Crowdin contributor jeleniogorzanin for translating Panic Button into Polish!

If you are fluent in English and another world language and would like to help update or add a new translation, consider contributing a translation in Crowdin. Localizations in other languages are always welcome, and will be added in future releases.

Clippings 6.5.3 released!

An update to Clippings 6.5, the Firefox extension from AE Creations that lets you save frequently-entered text for later pasting into web page forms, has been released, and is now available from Firefox Add-ons and the AE Creations website. Clippings 6.5 requires Firefox 102 or newer.

If you already have Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Add-ons Manager (Tools → Add-ons), click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Check for Updates.

What's New

• Bug fix: Unexpected change in appearance of checkboxes and drop-down menu buttons in Firefox 124 (issue #442)
• Other fixes and improvements
  

Things You Should Know About

• Thunderbird Users: This version of Clippings is designed for Firefox and is not compatible with Thunderbird. Get Clippings for Thunderbird, which is compatible with Thunderbird versions 102 and 115.
  
• Some features may not be available when Firefox is in Private Browsing mode, or if the browser privacy settings are too restrictive.
• If you want to use Sync Clippings, download and install the Sync Clippings helper app. More information and download links can be found on the Sync Clippings page on the AE Creations website.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Read Next 1.1.4 released!

An update to Read Next 1.1, the reading list extension for Firefox from AE Creations, has been released and is now available from Firefox Add-ons and the AE Creations website. Read Next 1.1 requires Firefox 102 or newer.

If you already have an older version of Read Next installed, it will be updated for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Add-ons Manager (Tools → Add-ons), click on the entry for Read Next in the list of installed extensions, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Check for Updates.

What's New

• Bug fix: Unexpected change in appearance of checkboxes and drop-down menu buttons in Firefox 124 (issue #81)
  

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Read Next should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Panic Button 4.4.6 released!

An update to Panic Button 4.4, the Firefox extension that quickly hides your browser windows from curious eyes with a click of a button, has been released, and is now available from Firefox Add-ons and the AE Creations website.

If you already have an older version of Panic Button installed, it will be updated for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Add-ons Manager (Tools → Add-ons), click on the entry for Panic Button in the list of installed extensions, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Check for Updates.

What's New

• Bug fix: Unexpected change in appearance of checkboxes and drop-down menu buttons in Firefox 124 (issue #91)
  

Things You Should Know About

• The Hide and Replace action won't work if Firefox is set to "Never remember history" in Privacy & Security settings.
• The Hide and Replace action is unable to restore any browser tabs displaying Firefox pages such as Add-ons Manager and Firefox Settings.
  
• Any downloads in progress will continue in the background if clicking the Panic Button to hide or minimize all windows. If Close All Windows was selected in extension preferences as the Panic Button action, downloads in progress will be canceled.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Panic Button should be posted to the AE Creations Help and Support forums, now hosted on Groups.io.

Updates to AE Creations extensions for Firefox 124

Firefox version 124, which is planned for release on Tuesday, March 19th, changes the appearance of some user interface elements in the extension preferences page and other extension pages, dialogs and windows. This change will affect all Firefox extensions by AE Creations.

The UI appearance changes are unexpected and unwelcome, and a minor update for Clippings, Panic Button and Read Next is needed to revert them. The plan is to get them out a few days in advance to give all users time to update before Firefox 124 is released. The release timing for Clippings will be a bit tricky due to it requiring review by a Firefox Add-ons editor, since it is a Recommended Extension.

Make sure to turn on automatic extension updates in Add-ons Manager, and watch this blog for release announcements.

Monthly update: March 2024

I'm making progress on migrating the remaining legacy XUL-based user interface code in Clippings for Thunderbird to the MailExtensions API. There's still one feature remaining to migrate, as well as removal of remaining code that uses legacy APIs.

I recently released a minor update to Clippings 6.5.2 to fix an issue that caused it to stop working when pasting a clipping into the message composer in X, the website previously known as Twitter. A new update for Clippings will be released soon, at around the same time as the next release of Firefox, to make some minor updates and improvements before I begin migrating Clippings to Manifest V3 (MV3).

The preview release of Panic Button 5.0 has been out for a while, and there have been no new issues reported. It's time to make it official -- a release candidate will be out soon, so watch this blog for the release announcement. Updates to localizations for Panic Button are still very much welcome; if you would like to help, consider contributing a translation in CrowdIn.