Firefox Guide for Minimalists

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This is a guide on how to customize Firefox – using extensions – to minimize the amount of space the GUI consumes, therefore, giving you more space to view web pages. So, without further ado, here is a list of extensions to help to do so.​

Download Statusbar – This simple extension appears at the bottom of the browser (above the main statusbar) when you download something. It displays progress while saving you from switching between Firefox’s main window and its Download window.

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EM Menu – This extension adds a menu in Tools menu that lists all of your extensions. From that menu, you can access each extension’s settings and even disable, enable, and uninstall them.

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FaviconizeTab – This allows you to set certain tabs to only display the favicon on the tab, and not the tab’s title. You can also set certain websites to always only display the icon.

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GButts – No, it’s not quite what it’s name suggests. Instead, it provides a button for each Google web service. So how is this a minimalistic extension? Well, if you have any Google related bookmarks, these buttons can replace them.

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Menu Editor – This is a truly fantastic extension that, unlike GButts, does exactly what its name suggests. It allows you to show and hide menu items and even entire menus. You can also alter the order in which they appear.

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MultiSidebar – If you ever find yourself needing to have more than one sidebar, this extension provides the functionality. For instance, it’s great for viewing your buddy list/ignore list in the sidebar without opening a new window.

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No Go Buttons – Like Menu Editor, this does exactly what the title says. It hides the Go button from the location bar. Simple as that.
Smart Bookmarks Bar – This is one of my favorites. It allows you make your bookmarks display only the favicon, instead of displaying the text and icon (on the Bookmark toolbar).

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Tab Mix Plus – Generally, you wouldn’t call this a minimalistic extension… but one of its many settings is worthy of mentioning. You can make it so that it shows the progress bar on each tab, therefore hiding the progress bar in the statusbar.

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Tiny Menu – This extremely simply extension groups all of your menus (File, Edit, View, etc) into one menu called “Menu”. Creative, huh? It saves space nonetheless.

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Matt

 

Nice work, Matt! I found and installed Tiny Menu awhile back to permit the entire range of options selected in ForecastFox to display.

 

Without using EM Menu, FF already lets you disable/uninstall your extensions so I don't see the need for that?

Also I find less extensions can help

Finally, lower mem usage with the default skin

FaviconizeTab looks intriguing though

 

Yes, it just lists them in a simpler way. (Easier to quickly browse through - in my opinion.)

Also, that is the default theme.

I'm going to add links in a second here...

Matt

 

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate knowing about FaviconizeTab now, but Tools > Add-ons is hardly an effort to adjust settings for your extensions!

Edit: Just tried it. I quite like it, but it is very important for people to know they can close a faciconized tab via wheel click

Also, seems a shame it is manual? By that I mean remember what sites to faviconize? - unless I am missing something

 

Whoa!!!!

Nice Job, Matt!!! :smile:

 

Another way to increase real estate within the fox is to get rid of the bookmarks toolbar. I used to think that was indispensible, but a week after removing it, I completely forgotten about it, and haven't used it since.

 

I use the Download Statusbar extension. It's great.

 

Nice writing,Matt

I must have to try Download Statusbar (because i hate floating windows ) and FaviconizeTab (50 tab/ windows--> hard to manage well )

 

I unchecked the box under the main options so that the downloads window just does not show.

 

Awesome work, Matt! :nods:

(I know, this is chit-chatty )

 

Wasn't this a sticky???

 

Keep in mind that it doesn't always clear your download history properly, so over time, downloading may become ridiculously slow (I've had the browser freeze for 20 seconds every time I tried to download a file)
The solution is to manually open the "old" downloads window, and clear your download history.
It's still a great extension though. I always use it despite this.

Another handy extension is Searchbar Autosizer which resizes the search bar as needed. You can set it as small as you like by default, and as you type in it, it'll resize to fit the text.

And of course, given the minimalist theme, remember that extensions are the main cause of memory bloat, memory leaks and slowdowns in Firefox. So be careful which (and how many) extensions you install.