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Four addons to combine Firefox UI elements and save space
Personal Menu
Nix that needless file-edit-view menu with this addon. Personal Menu can take the whole mess and cram it into three (or fewer, if you like) tiny icons on Firefox's navigation toolbar. I wrote about it recently, and it's become one of my must-install addons.
Stop-or-Reload
Combines the two buttons so that stop is displayed while a page loads and reload once it's fully displayed. This addon is old - it hasn't been updated since November 2006. Nevertheless, it works as well as or better than other FF addons designed to do the same thing, it's not experimental, and it works just fine in new versions.
Back to Close
Suppose you've backed up as far as you can go in a particular tab's history. A grayed-out back button really isn't that useful anyway, so why not replace it with a close button? That's precisely what this addon does, and it also works with mouse gestures and the alt + left arrow hotkey.
Fission
Firefox addon irony, thy name is Fission. Contrary to what the dictionary tells you about fission splitting things into smaller bits, this addon takes your Firefox status bar and merges it with the address bar. Fission also provides you with a few customization options like selectable color or background image. One downside: it may ugly up your theme a little bit by spilling outside the borders of the address bar.
Comments
17
Subscribe to commentsKeenIsDeadFeb 26th 2009 12:18PM
Great article. This really helped me save alot of screen real estate of my netbook.
Personally, I prefer the 'Hide Menubar' addon to 'Personal Menu' but that's just me.
MikeFeb 26th 2009 5:06PM
I prefer hide menubar also. Seems to do most of this all in one addon.
Level 5Feb 27th 2009 9:18AM
I definitely second Hide MenuBar. Splendid stuff!
FredFeb 26th 2009 1:01PM
Awesome. I installed all but the last, and it makes a big difference on my netbook. Thanks!!!
bccarlsoFeb 26th 2009 1:42PM
Pretty cool tips. Personally I just remove all buttons because keyboard navigation is ultimately more useful than mouse navigation. So all I have is the URL bar, search bar to the right, tabs below, and status bar. (Does Fission show you where a link is going to go when you hover over it? I also use the Firebug button in the lower right of my status bar, so might need to keep it.)
RyFeb 26th 2009 4:03PM
Yeah, one of the options is to show a hovered-link's URL in the address bar.
LungkisserFeb 26th 2009 2:43PM
Definitely appreciate Stop-or-Reload having switched from Safari to Firefox 3.
BillFeb 26th 2009 2:45PM
All but the first of these can be done without addons.
1st, I use TinyMenu as an alt to Personal menu.
2 & 3 can be achieved with simple chrome edits.
4 doesn't require anything at all... simply right click on your navigation bar, hit customize and drag and drop your awesome bar one row up.
RyFeb 26th 2009 4:04PM
I don't think you really understand number 4...
The point is to move the progress bar from the status bar into the address bar.
BillFeb 26th 2009 4:32PM
lol... you're right... I didn't. I obviously thought they were just trying to move the address bar up to the menu bar's level.
apFeb 26th 2009 7:02PM
Indeed, why use an extension when userchrome can do it? I guarantee I have a more compact FF than Lee here.
MattFeb 26th 2009 3:07PM
You guys should really do a userchrome.css roundup to complement this article. I use TinyMenu in conjunction with a disabled Bookmarks toolbar and a bunch of userchrome tweaks to get a single toolbar 24px high on a 1920x1200px monitor and that's without even shrinking the font or toolbar padding.
MikeFeb 26th 2009 5:06PM
they're not that technical they don't have a clue what you said lol
MedlirFeb 26th 2009 7:22PM
Here here for Tiny Menu!
JynFeb 26th 2009 7:14PM
Hide Caption:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9256
Removes the window title bar, and puts close, minimise and maximise on the address bar instead.
aniuMar 11th 2009 5:19AM
Thank you very much. I hate the windows title bar so much. Finally, I know how to remove it.
Thank you so much.
John L. GaltFeb 26th 2009 11:49PM
As Bill said above, most of this can be performed with chrome edits.
#1 is a slight workaround to what you see in personal menu, but I like the way it works:
=====begin code=====
/*::::::::::::::Invisible Menubar::::::::::::
How to use it: Move all your Navigation Toolbar items (back/forward buttons, address bar, search bar etc. from the navigation toolbar to the Menu Bar, either on the right side or left side of the Menu Items. Now past this code in userChrome.css and restart your browser. You will no longer see the menu items. Now hover at the right/left edge of the menu bar (whichever side the menu items were on) and the menu items will appear. You can now hide the navigation bar and save vertical space
::::::::::::::*/
#menubar-items {
padding-left: 5px !important;
}
#menubar-items > #main-menubar {
margin-left: -9000px !important;
}
#menubar-items:hover > #main-menubar {
margin-left: 0 !important;
}
#menubar-items:hover {background-image: none !important; padding-left:0 !important;}
======end code======
This achieves a menu bar that auto hides itself to the left of your Fx (and off screen).
#2 is exactly the same as in the extension:
=====begin code=====
/* Show Stop and Reload buttons smartly*/
#stop-button[disabled] { display: none; }
#stop-button:not([disabled]) + #reload-button { display: none; }
======end code======
#3 is similar in scope but extends it to the forward button as well, only displaying *either* when either options are available and not displaying anything when nothing is present, and displaying only the appropriate button when any history with the associated tab is present (IOW< show back when there is something to go back to, and forward when there is something to go forward to):
=====begin code=====
/* Show Stop and Reload buttons smartly*/
#stop-button[disabled] { display: none; }
#stop-button:not([disabled]) + #reload-button { display: none; }
======end code======
As for #4, Since I use TabMixPlus as an extension, it allows you to set the progress bar on the *tab* itself - so if multiple tabs are loading you can easily see the progress. It also (optionally) can remove the progress bar in the status bar. Since I am constantly working with multiple tabs and the session saver features of Fx 3, this makes it a lot easier than having to visit each tab to see if it is still loading or not.