How to Change the Color of the Loading Bar

You may, or may not enjoy the default loading bar color for Firefox 3. If you may want to change it, you may do so using the following option:

1. Locate the userChrome.css file in your profile folder (more information may be found here).

2. Add the following code to the userChrome.css file:

/* Change the progress bar color */
.progress-bar {
-moz-appearance: none !important;
background-color: #660000 !important; }

3. You may change the color in bold to your prefered color. You may see the colors here.

How to use Plurk in your Sidebar (without an extension)

Plurk has become on of the best social networking sites out there. It is used by many people to “Plurk” and get more Karma! Here FirefoxGeeks will show you how to do such:

1. Drag and drop the following link into your “Smart Bookmarks” bar:

http://www.plurk.com/m

2. Right-Click on it and select “Properties.”

3. Click “Open in Sidebar.”

4. Now, all you need to do is click the link and Plurk mobile should load in your sidebar!

Stylish - Tweak Firefox

Stylish is a really neat extension similar to Greasemonkey. It allows you to install certain scripts created by others to make websites and different pages look the way you want them to look. One “userstyle” called “Google Web Search - Dark Blue Redesign” obviously changes Google to be dark blue and adds some other cool looking functions to the Google homepage. (Note: This only works with Google. You may edit the address in notepad to make it work for google.co.uk or such if you like.)

You may see all of the other “userstyles” here, or even create you own!

(Image from http://www.firefoxfacts.com/2008/07/22/turn-google-a-little-blue-just-for-you/)

How to Stop Windows From Resizing

It can become completely absurd when windows are continually resized and possibly messing up other tabs. Here we will show you how to prevent windows from automatically resizing.

1. Type about:config in the address bar.

2. Locate dom.disable_window_move_resize

3. Double-click it to set it to true.

How to Remove the Stop, Back, and Forward Buttons

You may want to conserve toolbar space or possibly just do not enjoy seeing the stop, back, and forward buttons at different times? Well here we will show you how to do that to make Firefox just that much better.

Locate your userChrome.css file in your Firefox profile, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[profile name]\chrome

Add the following code to the file for each button. (Note: The stop button should appear when a page is loading and should disappear when the page is not loading. The Back button should only appear when there is something to go back to. etc.)

Stop Button

#stop-button[disabled="true"] { display: none;}

Back Button

#back-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

Forward Button

#forward-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

DownThemAll, FlashGot, and Ctrl-Tab

Here is a list of three more add-ons I highly recommend downloading:

1. DownThemAll - DownThemAll downloads selected, or all, sections of a webpage to allow you access to any of the content. It includes many features that can be used in different methods to allow for maximum downloading.

2. FlashGot - FlashGot is similar to DownThemAll, yet it downloads everything in a different manner. It allows users to download anything on a webpage quickly, efficiently, and in a manner that is nearly guaranteed to work.

3. Ctrl-Tab - Ctrl-Tab is an extension that replicates Windows’ Ctrl-Tab feature, except it seems to be more design oriented. I highly recommend it if you commonly have a large amount of tabs. It allows for options such as tab view, grid view, etc.

Use Gmail in Mailto: links

Previously, Firefox did not support the option to allow users of web-based email to have mailto: links sent to their web-based email providers. Now, you may tweak Firefox to allow mailto: links to be redirected to your web-based email. Here is how to do it with Gmail:

1. Type about:config in the address bar.

2. Find gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost and set it to True by double-clicking it.

3. Copy and Paste the following code into your address bar:
avascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(”mailto”, “https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”GMail”)

4. You should be asked to verify you want to use Gmail as your default for mailto: links.

Speed Up Firefox

Firefox is most certainly the fastest browser available, yet it can get even faster.

1. Type about:config in the address bar.

2. Find the following entires:

network.http.pipelining

network.http.proxy.pipelining

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

3. Set network.http.pipelining to True.

4. Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to True.

5. Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 30 or somewhere around 30.

6. Right-Click and select “New,” “Interger” and name it nglayout.initial.delay. Set it to 0.

Now, you should be able to load websites much faster!

Top Firefox 3 Extensions

A large part of Firefox are the extensions. We here at FirefoxGeeks enjoy them a large amount - and probably have way too many. Anyway, here I will show you some of the top Firefox extensions that will allow you to customize Firefox in any manner possible. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. SecureLogin - SecureLogin is an essential add-on for those who have a large amount of places around the internet they need to log into. It remembers your passwords and allows users to simply click on the icon for SecureLogin next to the address bar and automatically log into the site.

2. WOT - WOT (Web of Trust) is an add-on necessary for web security. It integrates the entire community of users that vote on the security of the website by the following criteria: “Trustworthy,” “Vendor Reliability,” “Privacy,” and “Child Safety.”. You may see their 2-minute intro video here. I highly recommend it.

3. McAfee Site Advisor - McAfee Site Advisor is another necessary Firefox extension that allows for much better web security while surfing the internet. It adds a small icon at the bottom right of the screen that is labeled green if the site is safe, yellow if it may not be safe, and red if it is dangerous. While searching, search results are given with a small, green checkmark for safe, yellow exclamation point for possilby not safe, and a red X for dangerous. You may hover your mouse over the image to see more information on the website.

4. Undo Closed Tabs - Undo Closed Tabs is a great, small, add-on. It, obviously, opens tabs that have been accidentially closed.

5. Tabs Open Relative - I really enjoy this extension. Tabs Open Relative opens tabs relative to the tab currently open - to the immidiate right of the current tab, instead of at the far right. It really assists in finding tabs that you are working on, especially when you have a large amount of them.

6. Firefox Personas - Firefox Personas is an incredible Firefox extension. If you enjoy a large amount of themes, or do not enjoy installing themes, etc. Personas for Firefox is a great extension. It allows users to open Firefox and change the theme any time you like without installing a new theme everytime you want a new theme. It is currently in the testing phase, but works fine. It does not contain regular themes, but contains the themes that are available through Personas - they must be special themes. There are a large amount of themes, though, and I am sure you will find one you enjoy.

7. PicLens - PicLens is one of the most incredible Firefox extensions existant. It adds a 3-D wall while searching on popular image search sites and allows users to see these images in an incredible format. It is currently only available for Windows.

(More Coming Soon…)

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