Thus far, after playing with the add-on in question, I think anywhere from 40 to 50 is a good minimum tab width.  You could go all the way down to 1 though if you really wanted to (however, this pretty much makes the tab bar impossible to use). So why is this so exciting to the masses?  Well,  you used to be able to make this tweak in your about:config settings – however it appears that in Firefox 4 they took this feature out and moved it into the theme’s settings (to give more customization features to theme designers).

Want to pick up Custom Tab Width? You can do so by download it from the Firefox Add-ons website.

This simple add-on for Firefox will give you the old menu bar layout under a single button – so you can kind of mix the best of the old and the new when it comes to using Firefox 4. It adds a compact menu button to the navigation toolbar and then hides the big Firefox button. 

You can fully customize the compact menu by right-clicking on the new toolbar button and selecting "Customize". From here you can drag the menu button to a new location inside of the Firefox navigation layout.

While there are other add-ons that will do the same job – I think Compact Menu 2 might do it the best.  You can pick it up from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Here is a little more about the theme from the designer:

This skin makes Firefox 4 look like Firefox 1.5. Remember the cute skin it was… simply amazing. With this skin, the interface, the tabs, and the download manager were reskinned to look like Firefox 1.5. Useless stuff cluttering the address bar, like the Bookmarks star, the RSS icon and the Go Button have been removed in order to simplify the interface. The ugly green security bar has also been removed.

Personally I think some of the spacing and padding seems to be a ‘bit off, so I can’t use this as my everyday Firefox theme, however I do wish them the best of luck with keeping the old Firefox 1.5 theme alive.

Want to give it a shot? Just head on over to the Firefox Add-ons website to download it or visit realfox.net.

How to Setup Firefox Sync

For those of you who pay attention to my other projects on the web, you might have noticed my post about getting a my first cell phone.  I picked up the Droid X the other day, and one of the first applications I downloaded for it was Firefox 4. The browser experience is simple and very lightweight.  So with Firefox 4 on my desktop and my cell phone, how did I get them to talk to one another?

From your desktop Firefox install, click on the Firefox button and set up Firefox Sync.  You will be asked to fill out your email address, password and fill in a recpatcha to make sure you are not a robot. Now, do the same on your mobile device.  You will want to swipe to Tools > Preferences and tap on Setup Sync. You’ll then be given a unique single use sync code.  Go back to your desktop Firefox and click on the Firefox button, click on Options and then go to the Sync tab. From this window, click on "Add a Device" and enter the code on your cell phone.

Note: If your using an iPhone, the sync process will be a little different for you, since you will have to use Firefox Home instead.  Check here for more details on how to get that set up and running.

Using Firefox sync has made my transition between my new cell phone and my desktop much easier.

Here is a quick screen grab of my own Firefox installation using the old Firefox 3 icons:

I do have to say, I don’t mind the change.  All of the design aspects from Firefox 3 that they decided to keep feel like they fit right in with Firefox 4.  I think I might actually use this theme for a while.

You can pick up the Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4+ over at the Firefox Add-ons website.

FXChrome is a nice mix of both Firefox 4′s theme and Google Chrome’s theme mashed together.  While many people would argue that the themes are pretty similar already – and I might have to agree there – I do like the flat buttons from Chrome that FXChrome brings to the table.

Want to download it and give it a shot? You can grab it on the Firefox Add-ons website.

Definitely not.  You just have to reach it in a different way. 

To bring up a quick list of links you have previously browser to, simply right-click on the back button in Firefox 4. When you do so, the old drop down history list pops back up in all its glory – with up to 10 previous pages you have navigated to. 

Now, I do understand they did this to cut down on the clutter – however if I had not accidently right-clicked the back button to find it, I would have never known the functionality was there. 

You can do it!  All you need to do is type in % into the Awesome bar. 

As you can see in the picture to your right, this is a great way to quickly jump to any tab you currently have open in Firefox. 

Hope this quick navigational tip for Firefox 4 helps you out!

This exceptional tool will let you capture any portion of a website as an image and annote it with rectangles, circles, arrows, blurs, lines and text.  With the built in support for uploading to awesomescreenshots.com – you can have an easy way to show off the screenshot to anybody out there too.

That add-on is brought to you by Diigo, which has really been impressing me as of late.  They really seem to be doing a great job at creating really good note collection tools.  The Awesome Screenshot add-on is just one more great showcase of their awesome abilities.

You can pick up the Awesome Screenshot add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

Here is a little more about the add-on from the developer:

Now you can edit the Firefox Menu and change it to your personal and powerful one! Personal Menu provides you a couple of new helpful items that available to be put into Firefox Menu: Bookmark Items, History Items, Configuration(about:config), Restart. In addition, you may create toolbar-box (let you put toolbar-buttons inside), sub-menus and split-menus to organize your Firefox Menu!

To sum things up, if you are one of those people who thought, "Well, this menu item would be a lot better over here" or "Why is there no easy way to get to that feature" then this add-on was designed for you.  This add-on gives you the most control (in comparison to other add-ons like it) when it comes to really customizing everything that is shown under the Firefox button.

You can pick up the Personal Menu add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.