Converter
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Converter -- At a glance
Unit conversion on any web page for Firefox users — welcome to the Converter project!
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The Converter is an easy to use Firefox extension which performs on the fly, contextual conversions between the most common units of measurement. The main target is the Imperial/metric divide, but some unusual, counter-intuitive units are also converted to more intuitive values (e.g. m/s, meters per second).
The Converter is a no-thrills tool. It aims to be intuitive for the average user during regular text reading. You can't specify the precision. You can't tweak the resulting units. You don't get the results in several formats. If you need any of that fancy stuff for scientific purposes you should probably use another tool.
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How it works
The operation is as simple as possible, and it works in two distinct ways:
- Single conversion on selection
- Select a piece of text containing a measurement and right click: the converted value will be shown in the resulting popup menu.
- Page conversion
- Make sure you do not have any selection at all, right click to show the popup menu, and click on "Convert the entire page"—all measurements found by the converter in the page are converted like so: from "1 ounce" to "1 ounce (1 oz = 28.3 g)". While using a little more space than strictly necessary, the fact that the original value is shown in the brackets tells you what the converter "understood" from the text in the page—this is helpful on one hand to confirm you that the converted value makes sense in the context, and on the other it allows you to identify potential problems with the current version, which you are encouraged to report in order to enhance this extension.
Copy the URL of this page, click here to install the Converter, restart Firefox, paste the link, select this whole paragraph and right click: 0.1 in = 2.54 mm is shown in the popup (that's because "0.1 in" is the first dimension encountered in this paragraph).
Features
Here's a comprehensive list of converter's main features:
- Large number of units and formats: Take a look at the examples page for a quick overview of the formats and units the converter currently understands. More units will be supported in future versions.
- Small footprint: in spite of the relatively large assortment of units supported by the converter, the final package is no larger than a few kilobytes (currently under 17 KB). Whatever your internet connection speed, you can definitely download it in a second as long as you could surf to this page.
- Flexible code, thoroughly documented: Want to add a new conversion? Few things can be simpler than that, take a look at the source code for yourself! Then just send us a diff on the mailing list and you make history.
- Fast, smart, intuitive operation: As this tool aims at day-to-day, contextual operation, it performs quite a few tricks to come in handy with as little hassle as possible:
The selection doesn't have to be accurate in the single conversion mode, just make sure you include the dimension you want converted, but you can include surrounding text as well: the converter will identify the first dimension in there and convert it.
The results are intuitive. For example the converter doesn't simply convert metres to feet: 1,000,000 metres are converted to 621 miles.
The input format is flexible. Some use the period as decimal separator, some use the comma. The thousands separator is even trickier: not only it can be either, but it's also optional. The converter makes as many attempts to identify the proper format as possible, and only in really ambiguous situations it defaults to the de facto Internet standard, with period as the decimal separator.
The units are flexible. The converter can identify several notations for the same type of unit: m, meter, meters, metre and metres all identify the same unit and trigger the same conversion.
The values can use fractions. Many texts include dimensions as fractions, for instance 1/10 m—the converter evaluates fractions in the input.
The wacko imperial technical format is supported. Yes, 1'10-3/16" is properly converted. Take a look at the examples page for all the supported formats.
You get feedback on what's being converted. With all the code interpreting your input, you may sometimes wonder what the converter understands from the input. Don't worry, the converter always shows you what it understood from the input before showing you the conversion.
Ambiguous input is converted both ways. Take 15 degrees for instance—are those centigrades or Fahrenheit? The converter shows you both interpretations and converts both to the other.
