Friday, April 24, 2009

Firefox Tweaks

Firefox is an open source web browser and allows several customizations and configuration settings to be changed as desired. Useful tweaks are discussed in this article which may extend your experience using Firefox.
 
Firefox is one of the most famous and commonly used web browsers. It comes up with defaults settings and configurations appropriate for majority of the users. However, sometimes computer savvy people do not like the things as they are by default; rather they try tweaking them as they desire. Similarly, Firefox can be tweaked in different way for different purposes. In this article, few useful tweaks are discussed.
All is needed to edit the configuration settings for Firefox which can be done by typing about:config in address bar and changing the desired preferences.

Firefox Configuration Setup

Tabs Display

By default if there is only a single instance of the webpage (the only single tab) is opened in a window then it does not displays the tab bar. However, if multiple tabs are initiated then the tabs bar is displayed. You may force Firefox to display the tabs bar even if the only single webpage is opened (only one tab is there). It can be done by editing the configuration settings by filtering the configurations for the preference name browser.tabs.autoHide. Following two properties can be set for it.

True – Tabs bar will be displayed all the time (even for a single tab)
False – Tabs bar will be displayed if there are two or more tabs


Tab Close Button

In each tab there is a default close button which can be tweaked as desired. Someone might wish to remove this button or to display it all the time. It can be done by editing the configuration settings. In the filter bar in configurations window search for the preference name browser.tabs.closeButtons and double click to edit its value which can be either of the following.

0 – Displays close button in active tab only
1 – Displays close button on all tabs
2 – Displays no close button
3 – Displays a single close button on the left edge of the window in tabs row


Tab Minimum Width
Each tab has a fixed width which is 250px and if you have opened several tabs then it brings horizontal scrolling in the tab bar which is sometimes annoying. This scrolling can be eliminated by lowering the minimum width of the tabs. It can be done by editing the configuration settings. In the filter bar in configurations window search for the preference name browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and double click to edit its value which can range as the following.
38-100 – Default width is 100px and the minimum length is 38px

Scrolling can be avoided until the width of each tab approaches 38px when you have so many tabs opened and setting lower than 38 will make no difference.

Auto Fill URL
By default the URL/Address bar requires each URL to be typed or to select from history list that is displayed when you type the URL. However, it can be more accessible or convenient if Firefox loads the desired URL itself as you start typing the already visited URL. It can be done by editing the configuration settings and filtering for preference name browser.urlbar.autoFill. Following two properties can be set for it.

True – URL bar will be filled itself
False – URL is to be typed completely or to be selected from the list


Close Download Manager
Whenever you download something using Firefox download manager it displays a download manager dialog showing the progress. It remains on the scene even if the download is finished. It can be directed to close when download is completed. It can be done by settings up the configurations settings. In the filter bar in configurations window search for the preference name browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone and double click to edit its value which can be either of the following.

True – Download manager will close when download completes
False – Download manager will remain present when download is complete


The above mentioned are just few of the so many tweaks which can be made to Firefox. It is being an open source web browser allows most of the configurations and customization as desired by the user. One can do it with even little knowledge about the Firefox and setting up various preferences by hitting about:config in address bar.


[Reference: Firefox Tweaks]

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