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.

Barlesque is a Firefox 4+ extension that will do the job.  Once installed, make sure you have the Add-on Bar turned on (by going to View > Toolbars > Add-on Bar under the Firefox button).  You should then see that the Add-on Bar is no longer across the bottom of the window.  It is now collapsed into the corner of the screen.  This way the add-on bar will only take up a fraction of your overall screen real estate.

You have the option to place the icons from the Add-on Bar either to the bottom left or bottom right parts of the screen too.

You can pick up Barlesque from the Mozilla Add-ons website.

Page zooming is a Firefox feature that is often overlooked.  It was a new feature added to Firefox 3, which in turn allowed you to increase or decrease the size of a web page to help improve the readability. So, how can you take advantage of this magnificent feature inside of Firefox?

The most common way would be to hold down the Ctrl key and then scroll up on your mouse wheel to zoom in, and scroll down on the mouse wheel to zoom out.

You can also get the same effect with just the keyboard too.  To zoom in, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then press the + key. To zoom out, press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard, then press the – key.  To reset the view back to normal, all you need to do is press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then press the 0 key.

The last way you can zoom in and out via Firefox is through the menu.  You will want to go to View > Zoom.  You can select “Zoom In”, “Zoom Out”, or “Reset” from there.  If you choose “Zoom Text Only” then only the text will change size, and the rest of the web page elements will stay the same.

It should also be said that most of these shortcuts will work on a Mac too. Just substitute the Ctrl key for the Cmd key instead. I hope this refresher in Firefox’s awesome zoom feature comes in handy then next time you find a website with tiny print.

The exciting Firefox feature to be added in the release of Firefox 4: Beta 2 was App Tab support.  The idea behind App Tabs is simple.  You are able to keep a favicon only tab open and pinned to the browser at all times.  Now yes, you can do this with the help of add-ons in Firefox 3, but I am excited to see this feature make its way into Firefox 4.

Here is a quick video to help you see why this is such an awesome innovation to the browser:

Firefox 4 is shaping up to be an exciting new browser.  If you have been playing with the beta releases, let me know what you like or don’t like about it thus far in the comments.

Pinned tabs are shifted to the left side of the tab bar where their tab will be changed to just show the favicon for the web site in question. Thanks to the Pin Tab add-on for Firefox, you can bring that functionality to your favorite browser.

Another neat feature of this Firefox add-on is when you type something in the address bar, or select a result in the address bar while a pinned tab is selected, the address you selected will open in a new tab – leaving your pinned tab alone.

How do you pin a tab?

You can also pin a tab by dragging it to the left of already pinned tabs.

How do you un-pin a tab?

You can unpin a tab by dragging to the right of unpinned tabs.

Overall, this simple extension, once added to Firefox, will help you save space in your browser.  By shrinking down those web sites you keep open all the time, you can also add a little more organization to your daily browsing routines – which is something I am always in favor for.   Pick up Pin Tab for Firefox, on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Update: Looks like Mozilla might have taken this plugin down, not sure for the reasons why.  If you still want to pick it up, an alternative link and a little more backstory to the situation has been posted here:  Pin Tab Thread on mozillaZine.org

• TinyUrl Creator
• URL Shortener
• Tiny.pl
• URLKick
• Jmp2.net Toolbar

The winner (and best URL link shortener) would have to be Shrinkify.

It not only shrinks your URLs via Firefox, Shrinkify also gives you a pretty interface when doing so. Out of all the URL shrinking extensions, this one is the best, hands down.

Here is a little more about the Shrinkify extension from the developers:

The Shinkify Firefox extension makes long, unwieldy URLs shorter with the Shrinkify.com web service. Using either a toolbar button, right-click menu item, or tools menu item, you can submit your current url to the Shrinkify web service. The shrinkified URL will then be copied into your clipboard.

Also might be worth noting that the Shrinkify extension came in 8th in this year’s extend Firefox competition.  So if you are looking for a simple way to shrink your URLs built right into the browser, Shrinkify is your best solution.

Tiny Menu – Replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup.

Hide Menubar – Supports to hide your Mainmenu Toolbar automatically, you can press the ALT key to show it temporarily.

Personal Menu – With the Personal Menu, you can hide the menus in Menus Toolbar (even the Menus Toolbar), and design your own menu with just few settings.

Menu Editor – Rearrange or remove menuitems from the main context menu (right-click menu) and main menubar (File Edit View etc.)

MenuX – MenuX was designed for laptop/tablet use where maximum screen realestate is desired. Adds the ability to collapse any toolbar.

Have another one that deserves to be on the list? Drop in a comment and let us all know about it.

Well I got my first request, and I am going to do my best to get it answered. Chris in Georgia writes:

When I’m forced to use IE, I use a ‘skin’ called Greenbrowser. It includes a great feature that allows me to hotkey it to minimized, using “CTRL `” I’ve searched and searched for something like it for Firefox (including searching on Firefox Facts). I’ve also searched for the ability to set up custom hotkeys in FF, to no avail. Do you know if this exists? If not, where could I put this as an extension suggestion for those out there who do extensions?

Yes, this can be done with the Firefox extension MinimizeToTray. Install this into your browser and you will be able to send Firefox down to the system tray to keep it from taking up task bar space. How can you bring it back up? Well you could use your mouse and click on the icon or you could use the keyboard combo Ctrl+Shift+M.

Have another feature request or suggestion you’d like to see built into Firefox by default or added by an extension? Let me know about it and I’ll feature it on Firefox Facts and maybe even find you a solution to your problem (if you have one).

You’re a power web surfer, so of course you use Firefox. But while the Firefox team has done a great job of creating an interface that accommodates most web surfers, you’re not most surfers. There are bunch of unnecessary buttons, menus and doodads in the Firefox control area (the “chrome”) that you don’t need, taking up space you could be using to see and do more with your web pages and tabs.

+ Read More About Consolidating Firefox’s Chrome!