Need more space in your Firefox toolbars and menus? If you want to eliminate some dead space in the browser, then you need the Tabs Always in Titlebar add-on for Firefox. This extension for Firefox will bump your tabs up a level – giving yourself a little more minimalistic view of your default Firefox GUI.

Once you install this restart-less add-on, it will bump your browser tabs up to the same level you see the Firefox button.  I have been looking for a simple way to do this since Firefox 4 came out – and now that we are already on Firefox 5 – I am happy to see somebody got around to creating an add-on to meet my needs.

If you are using a netbook, this is an excellent add-on to add because it gives you more room to check out the content you want to see.  You can pick up Tabs Always In Titlebar add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.

To get started, make sure you have the Stylish extension installed for Firefox, and then head on over to the userstyles.org website.  You can choose from these four sizes when installing.

• 60px
• 80px
• 120px
• 150px

Once you select the minimum width you want your active tab to be (for reference, the default size is 100px) hit the button labeled, "Install with Stylish" and follow the on screen instructions.

Sometimes it is the little tweaks that are the most impressive.  You can pick up FF3+ Increase active tab minimum width from the userstyles.org website.

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.

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!

First, you will want to right-click on the Navigation Toolbar.  Next, select or un-select the "Tabs on Top" option.  When you do so, the tabs will either switch back to the top of the website viewing area or to the top of the window. 

So no matter if you are more of a traditionalist (and enjoy your tabs in the old location) or you are ready for new and exciting things (and want to put your tabs on top) there is an option for both in Firefox 4.

So what are some of the Firefox settings and details you can tweak?

• Move Status Bar icons to any location
• Use Movable Firefox Menu Button (puts Firefox Menu Button in toolbar button so you can move it wherever you want)
• Display Page Title in Title bar while using Firefox Menu Button
• Add "New Tab" Option to Tab Context Menu

I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more add-ons for Firefox like this one.  Firefox 4 is leaps over bounds better than the version before, however the one thing that will hold it back will probably be the number of complaints about the user interface and how people like the older design better. Thankfully, Mozilla makes it easy for tweakers like us to fix or change things to look and feel the way we want them to.

You can pick up the Firefox 4 UI Fixer from the Firefox Add-ons website.

What is so Bad About Switch to Tab?

Now, to set things up.  When you try to open the same webpage twice, rather than letting you do just that (in one or multiple running browsers) Firefox will suggest that you switch to the tab where you already have that webpage open. While some might find this useful, I find it to be a pain.  Sometimes I like to have multiple versions of the same webpage up and running.

So here is the fix. Lets say I want to open my review of Tab Scope up again in a separate tab. I type "tab scope" into the address bar and select the review from Firefox Facts.  No Firefox, I don’t want to switch to that tab, I want to open it again.

Now, to disable the "Switch to tab" feature, simply hold down the Shift button and you get this instead:

Click on the link in the address bar or hit the Enter key to open this webpage in another tab, rather than switching to the tab where the webpage is already open.

Hope this comes in handy, and hopefully when Firefox 4 goes public – they will have an easier way to disable this annoying feature.

Need help distinguishing which tab is which in Firefox? OK, maybe telling where one tab ends and another begins really is not that hard.  However, it would help if each tab was colored.  ColorfulTabs, one of my favorite add-ons for the Firefox browser – does that with style. 

Once installed, your tabs are automatically transformed from bland vanilla tabs to colorful and easily distinguishable tabs.  The colors really don’t interrupt the overall look and feel of the Firefox navigation experience either.  Some of the features included are:

• Beautiful colors — We promise you’ll fall in love with these colors.
• Unique Hues — Unique hues help you easily differentiate between various tabs and intuitively remember each tab. It’s surprising to realize how it just works.
• Coloring by site domain — Color each tab depending on its server/domain for identifying the website. You can tell which site is in which tab by just looking at the colors.
• Custom tab color — And just incase you prefer to tag the tabs with a custom color feel free to give your tabs a color of your choice right from the context menu of the tab.
• Generate colors on demand — This mode allows you to color only the tabs you want colored. The rest start the default shade.
• Enhanced tab highlighting — While we are theming the tabs how about some transparency effects? Fade the background tabs to as much as you want to highlight the currently selected tab. Let’s go a step further — place a beautiful background-pattern on the tab-strip for an enhanced effect.

I few years ago, I even got the chance to speak with the author of this fantastic extension.  You can check out that interview here:

A Chat with the Man Who Makes Your Tabs Colorful

You can pick up the ColorfulTabs add-on for both Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4 from binaryturf.com.

Tabs are a feature in Firefox we all take for granted some times.  It has become so normal for us to uses them, they just don’t seem that exciting anymore.  Well, if you feel like your tab bar has lost some of it’s specialness – be sure to check out these ten terrific tab tweaking tips.

Close Tab With Two Right Clicks

Rather than hunting down the X to close your current tab, what if all you had to do was wish upon a star, and then right click anywhere on the tab you wish to shut down?  I will let you know how to get that done, without the need of the “wishing upon a star”.

Tab Counter

Who doesn’t want a Firefox add-on that counts the number of tabs that are open? Tab Counter is the name, and counting tabs is its game.

How to Duplicate a Tab

Need to duplicate a tab in Firefox, so you can have the same content loaded up in two Firefox windows?  Not sure, you could just copy and paste the URL into both browsers – but who has the time?  I have an easier solution to fix this problem.

Save Your Memory and Organize Firefox Tabs

I can tell you from experience, having too many tabs open can be a real pain.  On occasion though, it is something you have to do, so you might as well find an add-on that will help you navigate through your tabs more effectively.  That is where TooManyTabs comes into play.

Tile Your Firefox Tabs in the Browser

We are all looking for ways to get more done in the browser visually, and at times I would like to look at two tabs at the same time.  Looking for a way to tile my tabs, I found a great add-on that does the job really well.  The Tile Tabs add-on for Firefox does [...]

Close All Tabs in Firefox

Sometimes we all go a little tab-happy when it comes to our Internet browsing ways.  You might be browsing around, one lazy Friday afternoon, and before you know it – you have twenty open tabs and then decide, "hey, maybe I should get back to work!".  Well, have no fear, because I can get all [...]

Tab Utilities

Looking for a Firefox tab extension that does a little ‘bit of everything?  Look no further than Tab Utilities. This add-on for Firefox really is your proverbial utility knife when it comes to controlling, editing or optimizing your browser tabs for better performance.

Firefox Tabs on Top

Tired of seeing your tabs under your navigation or bookmark toolbars? Maybe you just want to see how Firefox would look with tabs on the top?  With the Firefox extension, Tabs on Top – you can easily move your browser tabs to the top of the screen.

Tab Rotator

Have the need to rotate your tabs?  No, I do not mean to turn them upside down. Tab Rotator, an add-on for Firefox, will automatically switch between the open tabs in your browser after a certain amount of time.

Just Put It On My Bar Tab

When you load up a dozen or more tabs all at once, Firefox can slow down to a crawl.  Now, you can either choose to stop overwhelming Firefox with too many tabs or you can grab this helpful add-on for Firefox that will only load up the tab you need at the time, with multiple [...]

Have another tab tweak you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments!

Tired of right-clicking to get a link to open in a new Firefox tab? Well, with the DblClicker installed – that will be a thing of the past.  This simple add-on for Firefox adds double clicking to the list of things you can do in your browser to bring up new links.

This lightweight tab extension for Firefox is pretty cool.  Once installed, it pretty much enables double-click action to a lot of things we do daily.  Here are the amazing features it brings to the table.

• Double-click Link to open in new tab.
• Double-click Bookmark/History to open in new tab.
• Autohide Bookmark/History after selection – according to DblClicker Options.
• Double-click tab action – according to DblClicker Options
• Duplicate Tab – default || Close Tab || None – avoid conflicts when using other tab clicking extensions.
• New tab will open in front/background for Links, Bookmarks/History according to FF preferences/DblClicker Options.

I open links in new tabs all the time, so having this add-on installed is a definate must for me.  Once you get used to double-clicking links, the functionality this add-on brings really feels like second nature.

You can download the DblClicker add-on from the Firefox Add-ons website.