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.

To see the add-on bar in Firefox 4, all you need to do is right-click on the navigation toolbar, and select Add-on Bar to be seen from the selection of toolbars you can hide or unhide from your default view:

Once selected, you will see a new toolbar across the bottom of your window that will be home to some of your add-ons that wish to live there.  For example, this is what AdBlock Plus looks like in the new add-on bar.

Now, I know this is not a perfect fix – however it does give you a place to keep some of your add-ons that you like to keep handy at all times.

Is there an add-on to give us the old status bar back?

Yes, there is.  Thanks to Ben from the comments, I found the add-on named Status 4 Evar.  This extension will bring the status bar widgets and progress indicators back to Firefox 4. 

Personally, I think I will try to live without the status bar or add-on bar for a while and see if I can get used to it. How about you? Do you like that add-on bar? Want the status bar back? Maybe you enjoy not having anything down there at all?

Need to tweak the Google search interface, and make it look the way you want it to look?  Maybe you want a few more columns of results? Maybe you don’t like the related searches? One great tool to use to tweak your Google search interface is GoogleMonkeyR.  This user script written for the Greasemonkey add-on will have you tweaking Google in just a few clicks.

One installed, the GoogleMonkeyR user script can be configured by clicking the link for it next your your email address at the top of any Google search result page. 

Here is a screenshot of the changes you can make with this fantastic Greasemonkey user script:

As you can see, there is a lot to love about this fantastic little script.  You can pick up GoogleMonkeyR from the userscripts.org website. To learn more about Greasemonkey and how to use it with Firefox, I highly recommend my guide on Greasemonkey usage in the Firefox Facts archive.

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!

Want to make your misspelled words stand out a ‘bit more when composing a message in Firefox?  It is easy to do with this quick about:config tweak.  You can select no highlighting, a dotted line, long dots, a single straight line, a double underline or the default squiggly line.

Here is how you can make your spelling mistakes stand out more in Firefox.

1. Enter About:config in the Firefox address bar. If it pops up an alert, tell it that you know what you’re doing and proceed.
2. Search for ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle. If you find anything, skip to step 5.
3. If your system is like mine, you found nothing. That means you have to add this configuration value. Right-click the main portion of the window and select New > Integer.
4. Now, enter ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle to create a setting by this name.
5. Now you can set the value of this setting to one of several options: 0 for no highlighting, 1 for a dotted line, 2 for long dots, 3 for a single straight line, 4 for a double underline (like you see above – that’s my pick), and 5 for a squiggly line, which is the default.

Once you are done, you will be able to spell check like no other!  Well, ok – that might be a little dramatic, but you will have a more customized misspelled word notification.

Thanks goes to Download Squad for this amazing find!

Ever needed to see your Firefox status bar when browsing in full screen mode (you can get into full screen mode by hitting the F11 key on your keyboard).  If you answered, “Yes, tell me more!” do I ever have that add-on of your dreams.

Simply called Full Screen Status Bar, this add-on for Firefox shows the status bar in full screen mode.  It is a very simple tweak that should make many full screen web browser users very happy.

Pick it up for yourself, and give it a shot at the Mozilla add-ons web site.

All Tabs are Rounded

Want to make all of your tabs more rounded inside of Firefox?  This user style will help you get that look and feel inside of Firefox.

Slightly Rounded Tabs

If you are not that crazy about the idea of having too many rounded edges, you could just round the upper-right of the tab, if needed.

I HATE Rounded Tabs

Now, if you have absolute distain for the idea of rounding off your tabs, I have a user style for you too.  With this one, you can make the tabs less rounded, and more square.

Only Round the Selected Tab

Last, but not least, you could also decide to round off only the selected tab.  The reason for doing this is to help visually make it different from the others so that you can pick it out from the crowd of tabs in your tab toolbar.

You now have more than a few ways to make your tabs stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Flagfox – displays a country flag depicting the location of the current web site’s server

PingPong – start up a game of pong, anytime you feel the urge

FoxyMeter – how far have you surfed?

GA? – Is Google Analytics Installed – checks to see if Google Analytics is installed on any given page

Cookie Monster – gives you easy access to how cookies are used in your browser

Linkification – converts text links into genuine, clickable links (get more here)

infoRSS – displays RSS, Atom, parsed HTML and NNTP feed in a scrolling area in the status bar

Server Spy – indicates what brand of HTTP server (e.g. Apache, IIS, etc.) runs on the visited sites

Status-bar Scientific Calculator – a calculator that is very scientific!

Html Validator – adds HTML validation inside Firefox

Browse Images – browses all linked images of a page one after another or at once

QuickZoom – adds two icons to the Firefox/Thunderbird status bar which enable quick access to the “Enlarge Text Size” (Ctrl++) and “Reduce Text Size” (Ctrl+-) menu commands

MoneyQuake – displays your real-time earning statistics

whos.amung.us Users Online Counter – shows how many people are currently on your web site in accordance with the whos.amung.us widget

Converter – contextual unit and time zone conversion on any web page

QuickPageZoom – another quick page zoom add-on for the status bar

PhishTank SiteChecker – gives Firefox users a way to bring the community judgment of PhishTank

Forecastfox -  get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar

NoScript – allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and clickjacking attacks

Download Statusbar – view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing

FoxyTunes – lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser

Greasemonkey – allows you to customize the way a web page displays using small bits of JavaScript

Stylish – customize the look of the application and of web sites with Stylish, a user styles manager

Gmail Manager – allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications

Turn it Off? – The last would be to turn the status bar off.  To do so, go to View (in the menu bar) and then click on Status Bar.  Doing so will turn it off.  Repeat the same steps to turn it back on.   So now, after doing 50 tips to tweak your status bar – which did I miss?

If you want to disable this feature, follow these steps:

Step 1: In your address bar, type in about:config

Step 2: If given a warning, tell Firefox you promise to be nice.  Now type this into your Filter search box at the top:

browser.chrome.toolbar_tips

Step 3: Now only one result should be showing up.  Right-click where it says “browser.chrome.toolbar_tips” and select “Toggle”.  You want to turn this from True to False.  (If you want them back, just toggle it again to turn this feature back on).  Now you can go ahead and get back to your browsing.

There you have it, no more annoying popup tips coming your way getting in the way of your browser thanks to our good ol’ buddy, about:config.

Gotten use to the AwesomeBar yet?  This is the new stylish name for the Firefox 3 address bar.  Any ol’ browser can have an “address bar” only one can be awesome though.  Here are a few tips and tweaks you can do to make your awesome bar even more awesome…er?

oldbar – Oldbar makes the location (URL) bar look like Firefox 2.  If you need another alternative to this, try out Old Location Bar.  Why two add-ons that do the same thing?  I don’t know either.

Hide Unvisited – You too can hide pages (bookmarks) that you haven’t visited (since deleting or clearing history) from showing in the AwesomeBar.

Enter Selects – This Extension allows you to press enter in the AwesomeBar to select the first result (without pressing down).

Hidden Places – Stop URLs from specified domains being added to places and the AwesomeBar.

Edit Middle – Show AwesomeBar results when editing in the middle (not just at the end).

For a bonus tip, be sure to head over to Mozilla Links.  Over there they have nine more configuration tweaks you can do to configure you AwesomeBar till you get it just the way you want it.