Mozilla Firefox - Plugins and Extensions - View Pages Rendered in Firefox and Internet Explorer

SUMMARY: Use the "IE Tab" add-on to see webpages rendered via Internet Explorer.

Do you access online banking and other applications that were not written to support Mozilla Firefox? Or, are you a website designer and tired of switching between Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox to see how webpages look in the different browsers? Wouldn't it be convenient if you could view your websites inside one browser, yet have tabs that show how the same page renders differently, one in Firefox and one in Internet Explorer?

(Note that most extensions are from third party developers. Installation and use of extensions are solely at your own risk.)

1. Select "Tools" - "Add-Ons".

2. The "Add-Ons" dialog box appears. Click the "Get Add-ons" button.

3. In the search box, type ie tab and press the magnifying glass.

4. The IE Tab extension is displayed below. Click the "Add to Firefox" button.

5. The "Software Installation" dialog box will eventually appear. Click "Install Now" as soon as the button is enabled.

6. Once the add-on has installed, click the "Restart Firefox" button. Depending on your configuration, Firefox may note that it will try to restart your windows and tabs.

Now, when you open a webpage, if you want to switch its rendering engine from Mozilla Firefox to Internet Explorer, right-click on the tab in question and select "View Page in IE Tab".

The page will now render in Internet Explorer though the browser will remain as Firefox, and an Internet Explorer icon will appear at the bottom-right of the browser in the status bar. You can click this icon to change the rendering back to Firefox.

You can also use this status bar icon to switch the rendering to Internet Explorer without using the right-click tip mentioned above.

There are many other options available including adding the ability to open an external application to render webpages. Right-click the IE Tab status bar icon for these options.