Even More! Firefox Tricks For Your Firefox Needs

[Saint_Michael 3]

You could say that this topic was a reason why this topic is here. So I did some web surfing and found this awesome website that really gets some good customization to your Firefox browser.

 

Just a small note that you will be working mostly in the about:config page so just open a new tab and of course open this topic up or the website that this info is coming from.

 

Sessions

 

Session restore

 

Fx 2.0 only: As a blogger and web mail user, it breaks my heart to recount how many times I've composed a long post or email message, then accidentally closed the tab or browser and lost all my work. No more! With Firefox 2, set the browser.startup.page key to 3 to restore your browsing session - with form entries intact! - every time you start your browser or undo close tab after a wayward click. Note: By default, Firefox 2 automatically restores your session if your browser crashes - but this does it every time you restart your browser normally. Thanks for the tip, Arun!

 

* Key: browser.startup.page

* Modified Value: 3

* Default: 1 (open your specified homepages)

 

If you read the comments about little tweak you could say it somewhat pointless since you can do other ways, but hey the more I know about the browser the more I get out of it. Also I hate trying to retype emails forgetting what I say as well, and of course if you a regular poster here on trap and your writing a good post and you accidentally close the tab just do a undo close tab and all your data is there.

 

Tab width before scrolling kicks in

 

Fx 2.0 only: The biggest interface changes in Firefox 2 involve tabbed browsing. Power surfers who open more than a dozen tabs will notice that Firefox 2 minimizes tabs to a certain width, then sets the excess to scroll off the tab bar with left and right arrows. As someone who often has more than a dozen tabs open, not being able to see them all made me crazy. One solution is to reduce the minimum tab width so that more tabs fit in the bar before the scroll kicks in. The default is 100 pixels; I found that 75 worked better for me - page titles were still readable, but more tabs could fit. Compare 100 width, which fits 7 tabs across at this size (click to enlarge):

 

 

To 75, which fits 10 across at this size (click to enlarge):

 

 

To disable tab scrolling entirely, set the value to 0.

 

* Key: browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

* Modified Value: 75 (fit in more tabs before overflow enables scroll)

* Alternate Modified Value: 0 (disable scroll entirely)

* Default: 100

 

Tab close buttons

 

Fx 2.0 only: Another tab interface change in Firefox 2 is the addition of a close button on each individual tab. I happen to love this, but some hate it, saying it causes them to accidentally close a tab when just trying to switch to it. If you're a hater, revert to the Firefox 1.5 behavior by changing the browser.tabs.closeButtons value to 3. This will not display close tabs on individual tabs, and turn on a single close tab button at the right end of the tab bar.

 

* Key: browser.tabs.closeButtons

* Modified Value: 3 (revert to Firefox 1.5 behavior)

* Alternate Modified Value: 2 (don't display any close tab buttons)

* Default: 1 (display close buttons on all tabs)

I like this one especially since now I can get a few more tabs in my browser without the need to scroll or close tabs to get to the other one.

 

Fetch only what you click

 

Fx .6 and up: Firefox has this wacky little feature that downloads pages from links it thinks you may click on pages you view, like the top result on a page of Google results. This means you use up bandwidth and CPU cycles and store history for web pages you may not have ever viewed. Creepy, eh? To stop that madness, set the network.prefetch-next key to false.

 

* Key: network.prefetch-next

* Modified Value: false

Don't get that one as I haven't notice it myself since using firefox 1.5, and if anyone has shed some light on this tweak.

 

Turn off chrome tooltips

 

fxtooltipblock.png

 

All versions: I have an irritating Firefox problem on my Mac. When I try to drag a bookmark into one of my bookmark toolbar folders, the tool tip gets in the way and prevents the drop from working. Argh! Like you, I already know what all the buttons on my browser chrome do, so the tool tips aren't necessary. To turn them off, set the browser.chrome.toolbar_tips key value to false. Bonus is, it solved my Mac's bookmark drag and drop problem.

 

* Key: browser.chrome.toolbar_tips

* Modified Value: false

Never really ran into that problem, but I would say screen resolution could have something to do with this but I doubt it.

 

layout.spellcheckDefault = 2 turns on Firefox 2's spell-checking in input fields as well as textareas.

 

YEAH!!! no more typo's on the shoutbox or topic titles ever again, which means do this tweak and when your typing your topic titles and you get a error right click the error and BAM!!

 

browser.urlbar.hideGoButton=true turns off the rarely-used Go button at the end of the address bar.

 

Heck I never use it of course why both disabling it either.

 

Of course I nearly ruin my computer with drool when I found this website, as it is a wiki pages for everything you need to know about the about:config page. So now everyone can become a Firefox master .