Been busy trying to help get stuff ready for the Halloween party here, so not had much to say here, or time to say it. I have been watching the World Series, and have been enjoying it greatly. GO CARDS!
Speaking of parties though, this week saw the launch of Firefox 2, and all the fanfare that received. If you're a long time Firefox user though, you may have some nitpicks with the interface changes. I know for me, I hate the individual close buttons on each tab. To me, middle clicking on a tab to close it, just seems so much quicker and easier. (Ya hear that google? Take those fancy studies and shove them.) Now, I'll be trying to help those to return Firefox to how it used to be, without the use of extensions that might end up being problematic later on down the line.
Ok, first up, getting rid of the close buttons so you can use middle click to close tabs again. For this, go up to your address bar and type in about:config then hit enter. No http:// or anything before it, just about:config and nothing else. Once that is done, you'll see a page that has a bunch of crap on it, so why don't we narrow it down by going to the filter bar and typing in "tab". See stuff really narrow down in a hurry, eh? The thing you'll want to look for first is "browser.tabs.closeButtons". You'll notice it will have a value of like 1. There are 4 possible options that can be put in; 0, 1, 2, and 3. 0 allows it so they each have individual close buttons, but only are visible if that tab is active. 1 is the default, and has them all up all the time. 2 is what I use, and has no close buttons what so ever, so you can middle click to your heart's content. 3 is how Firefox 1.5 and earlier had it, where there is just one close button and its at the end of the tabbar. Personally I do not like that in FF2 since it clashes a bit with the default theme, plus I just never use it. To change it, just double click on browsers.tabs.closeButtons and a box will popup, in which you can type in the number you want. Easy eh?
Next up, if you're like me, you'll probably want to get rid of the dumb dropdown menu that shows every single tab available, including the visible ones. For doing this, its a bit more tricky, but still very easy. All you need to do is add a short entry to your userChrome.css file. If you do not have this file, or do not know where it is, it isn't a big deal. In side of your profile folder for Firefox, there is a directory named "chrome", and edit a textfile with that name. For the main profile directory, in linux goto ~/.mozilla/firefox/Profiles/, OSX its ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/, and on Windows it is C:Documents and SettingsyouruseridApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfiles. Go there, and inside will be some directory with a name that looks like jibberish (will look like fie3j82b.slt or sd34ng9z.default), and there should be one that corresponds to your profile directly (Firefox can support multiple profiles, for multiple people, but if there is only one, then there should be just the one). Once inside, you'll see your chrome directory. Jump in, and if you don't have a userChrome.css file, no biggie, just make a text file with that name (making sure the extension is .css and not .txt) or copy userChrome-example.css and rename it. To finish up, open it up in the text editor of your choice, and paste in the following.
/* Remove the dropdown button for all tabs */
.tabs-alltabs-stack { display: none !important; }
tabbrowser tabs > hbox { display: block; }
The last thing that I did, is change the number of visible tabs that may be allowed on the tab bar at any given time. By default in Firefox 2, the tabs cannot be any smaller than 100 pixels, which on an average size screen limits you to no more than 10 at a time. Sucks, don't it? If you still have about:config open (which hopefully you do), look for browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and then type in how wide you want them to be. I found that if it is shorter than 46 pixels, there is a nasty effect where the lines showing the separation between tabs would disappear, making them appear to all merge into one. Set it to about 50 or so (I used 46, but some people like an nice round number), and you'll now have double the amount of viewable tabs allowed before stuff gets scrolled off the tab bar.
Now, only thing left to do is restart firefox, and all your settings are ready and included.
