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.

Did you know that you could add another toolbar to Firefox without needing to install an add-on? This customization feature is often overlooked and can come in handy if you need some extra space to store your buttons or any other toolbar elements you have added to Firefox.

The first thing you will want to do is right-click on your navigation toolbar and select "Customize…". Next, click on the button that reads "Add New Toolbar".  You will then want to give your new toolbar a name.  Once you have done that – you will see a new toolbar space added to your Firefox toolbar layout.  Simply drag the icons over that you want to add to this new toolbar and hit the button labeled, "Done".

Here is the new toolbar I created with the Cut, Copy and Paste buttons added to it:

To hide your custom toolbar from within Firefox, just right-click on the navigation toolbar, and uncheck the custom toolbar you created. If you no longer want your toolbar then go in to customize your Firefox navigation layout again and drag all of the buttons you have added to that toolbar off.  This toolbar should then disappear.

Hope that helps you get a little more out of this feature of Firefox that you do not hear that much about!

How do you quickly scroll to the top or the bottom of a webpage?  While we might often think of the mouse’s scroll wheel as a pretty default “duh-like” answer – there are other and maybe better ways to get the job done in Firefox.

Keyboard Tip – The first scrolling tip I have to share with you is related to the pictures you see above.  You can hit the Home key on your keyboard to go to the top of a webpage, and the end key on your keyboard to navigate your way to the bottom of a webpage very quickly.

Now, for the super handy extension to save the day.

The Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox gives you a few more ways to do this same task.  You can either do it from the buttons in Firefox’s navigation toolbar or you can go up and down from the right-click menu.

You can pick up the Scroll to Top/Bottom add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons website.

So, now it is your turn.  Tell me how you quickly go from the top of a webpage to the bottom (or the other way around) in the comments.

So leave your thoughts in the comments.  Is the home button still relevant in your day to day browsing, or have you ditched it?

Ever wonder what parts of the Firefox browser navigation get used the most? Mozilla has released a heat map detailing the information they were able to get from Test Pilot submissions back in May of 2010.  Here are the top ten more popular spots in the interface.

Did your favorite part of the Firefox interface make it onto the list?

• 95.6% – Location Bar

• 93.1% – Back

• 89% – Scroll Vertical Bar

• 73.2% – Reload

• 67.9% – Search Bar

• 58.4% – Bookmarks Bar Item

• 54.1% – Forward

• 42.8% – Scroll Horizontal Bar

• 39.2% – Stop

• 37.6% – Home

To check out the full list and more pictures/details about the data they collected, be sure to check out the Mozilla Labs page.

There is a lot you can do with Firefox when it comes to the mouse.  Now, most of the time people focus on all the keyboard shortcuts you can do with Firefox – however, the mouse shortcuts are equally as cool. 

Here are six of my favorite Firefox mouse shortcuts for you to remember:

• Middle click on a link (will open in new tab)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling down (takes you to the previous page)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling up (takes you to the next page)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scrolling up (increases text size)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scroll down (decreases text size)
• Middle clicking on a tab (closes that tab)

Have any other Firefox mouse shortcuts you hold near and dear to your heart?  Leave them in the comments and let us know your favorites that you use in your everyday browsing.

What does does this extension for Firefox allow you to do?  Well, if you can navigate forward if you right-click with your mouse on the Firefox border too. If you are using tabbed browsing, middle-click on the left border to close the current tab, or rotate the mouse-wheel to cycle through your current tabs.

To learn more about how to tweak this add-on, check out this tutorial:

• MileWideBack Customization – mozdev.org

So if you are looking for way to make your browsing experience more user friendly or unique, MileWideBack is well worth your time.  Give it a shot, and let me know if you find browsing this way is better or worse than your more traditional methods.

By introducing this feature into the browser, for those minimal theme users, you can ditch the backward and forward browsing buttons in your navigation toolbar arrangement.  Via the options, you can set it to display the current page title in history menu if the current tab hasn’t had history yet, and also disable the history popup when the the Shift, Ctrl, or Alt keys are being pressed.

With the Tab History Menu extension installed, you can cut down on your browser’s navigation clutter or get one more way to browse your history.  It is a great addition to Firefox, no matter what way you use it.

Get More Toolbar Space in Firefox

I think I have a pretty optimized Firefox setup. Personally I don’t think anybody needs more than two toolbars in Firefox at all times. How can you cut down on the clutter and keep everything accessible with just a few clicks here and there?

Clean Up Your Right-Click Menu

From the creator of Colorful Tabs, we have yet another handy and helpful Firefox extension.  FfChrome, for Firefox, is an add-on that trims and slims your context menus.  After installing too many add-ons, your right click menu might get a little cluttered.  FfChrome is here to clean things up.

Clear the Clutter from Your Status Bar

Messy status bars make for bad browsing. Ok, maybe that is not true. They do make for a temperamental and somewhat anal Firefox guru though. Mike wants to know if there is a better way to organize the status bar in Firefox.

Hide Your Menu Bar

Now when it comes to using a browser, some people like a lot of open space and others like to have a plethora of tool bars. Personally I find myself in the first camp – most of the time. That is why I was happy to see this new Hide Menubar extension roll my way.

Compact Your Menu Bar Even More in Firefox

One add-on I keep adding on is Tiny Menu, due to the fact that I like to have a minimalist browsing experience.  However, I have found one extension that does an even better job than Tiny Menu at compacting the standard menu bar down to one small popup menu, Compact Menu 2.

(Bonus) More Ways to Shrink Down Your Menu Bar

Is your menu bar taking up too much wasted space? Well you could hide it, shrink it, or just not use it. How can you get that done? Thankfully others have run into this same issue before and there are a slew of Firefox extensions to help you minimize your Firefox menus.

Have another method that works better for you?  Feel free to share in the comments!

When you middle-click a bookmarked item in the bookmarks (or in the history) you will open that web page up in a new tab, and the menu stays open, so you can do more clicking inside of it.  You can then click all the links you need to click and open up.  Once you are finished, hit the Esc button to close the menus (or you can click somewhere outside the menu, as well).  Here is one more handy tip from the developers:

Toggle the about:config value of extensions.stayopenmenu.useCtrlMeta from false to true to enable usage with Ctrl-click. See the homepage for more detailed instructions on how to turn on the Ctrl-click option, and further information about using with the Smart Location Bar.

For more help and support for the Stay-Open Menu extension, be sure to check out this thread:

• MozillaZine – Stay-Open Menu Support Thread

You can pick up the add-on via Firefox’s Add-on site or learn more about it via the official web site.  It might not be an add-on for all, but if this is a pet peeve of yours, you now have a solution.