Firefox Customization

[Mike Connor]

Hmm, unless I missed something, that only adds a background to a new tab, not the bare background. Actually, that is one of the reasons that I installed the Classic Opera add on, to be able to get rid of the automatic new tab.

The "New Tab" is not automatic as such, it only appears when you have set "Tab Mix Plus" ( or some other addon), NOT to close the browser when closing the last tab. This loads a new blank tab instead, and keeps the browser open. If you don't set this, the browser will close when you close the last tab.


The "background addon" adds a background to the whole browser, but you only see it when the page or tool you are using allows you to see it. Most pages simply overwrite the background. There must be some blank space for the background to occupy or you wont see it. In "New Tab" the page is blank by default and so you see the background.

If you want to load something else in the "New Tab" you have to specify it;





Whatever you specify here will then be applied to any "New Tab" you open.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[seekermeister]

Okay, but I don't want to add any background to a new tab, only the background that is visible when there are no tabs open. Of course, this is only possible to see when the Classic Opera addon is installed. Your add on does not add anything to that.

 

[Mike Connor]

Also, if you right click on a page with a background image;



And select "View Background Image" Then that background image will be displayed in a new tab.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

Okay, but I don't want to add any background to a new tab, only the background that is visible when there are no tabs open. Of course, this is only possible to see when the Classic Opera addon is installed. Your add on does not add anything to that.

That is the point, unless you add a background, or some addon uses a default background, there is none, You simply have a solid colour page ( "Blank" would actually be the monitor default "colour", and the colour is whatever you specify in the CSS.


There is lots of stuff for customising things like this, this is quite popular it seems;

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxtab/

But I don't use any such add-ons. I prefer a basic layout without any bells and whistles as far as decorations go.


Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

I loaded the "Fox Tab" addon, set a couple of defaults and a background image, and loaded three sites,. this is the result;





Regards....Mike Connor

 

[Mike Connor]

Something else you might like to consider while you are setting up, and even afterwards, is this add-on;

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stop-autoplay/

It will prevent the execution of embedded media, ( Like You-tube etc), until you click to allow it. You can load several You-Tube tabs for instance, and only allow them to play when you want to. This saves a lot of messing about.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[seekermeister]

I just tried Tab Mix Plus, since I recall you mentioning it, and because it sounded as though it had a couple of features that I would like...Particularly duplicating a tab, or as Opera would put it, cloning a tab. However, it not only seemed to override my Classic Opera add on, in that it returned the tab width to the original size, it also seemed to lock the active tab, so that when you selected another tab, it would only focus on it as long as you held the mouse button down. Releasing the mouse button caused it to immediately return to the locked tab.

I really doubt that is by design, not only because it doesn't make sense, but also that I read one user's comment on the add on's webpage, saying that this add on doesn't work on FF 4. Is there a way that I can have tab cloning available without this problem or conflicting with the Classic Opera add on?

EDIT: I reversed the options and disabled Classic Opera, and reenabled Tab Mix Plus, and that fixed the problem with locked tab focus, so I guess the two add ons are not compatible. I would like Tab Mix Plus just fine...if I could shrink the width of the tabs.

 

[Mike Connor]

I just tried Tab Mix Plus, since I recall you mentioning it, and because it sounded as though it had a couple of features that I would like...Particularly duplicating a tab, or as Opera would put it, cloning a tab. However, it not only seemed to override my Classic Opera add on, in that it returned the tab width to the original size, it also seemed to lock the active tab, so that when you selected another tab, it would only focus on it as long as you held the mouse button down. Releasing the mouse button caused it to immediately return to the locked tab.

I really doubt that is by design, not only because it doesn't make sense, but also that I read one user's comment on the add on's webpage, saying that this add on doesn't work on FF 4. Is there a way that I can have tab cloning available without this problem or conflicting with the Classic Opera add on?

EDIT: I reversed the options and disabled Classic Opera, and reenabled Tab Mix Plus, and that fixed the problem with locked tab focus, so I guess the two add ons are not compatible. I would like Tab Mix Plus just fine...if I could shrink the width of the tabs.

Sorry, missed this post. Some add-ons are just not compatible with each other. You could try Tab Utilities instead:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-utilities/

I have obviously not tried all the possible combinations of course. Once I find an add-on that does what I want and works well with the others I use, I stay with it. It also takes time to find one's way around all the setups and settings, and if one continually changes add-ons then this becomes a major chore, and wont help much. About six months ago I spent a week making a new plan for how I wanted my Firefox to look and function, and searching for the add-ons that would allow me to set it up like that. I tried lots of them and discarded them again unless they did exactly what I wanted. There is really no other sensible way to go about it, you can go crazy if you just add random add-ons and they mess up others, or don't do what you expect.

You can adjust the tab width in Tab Mix Plus;



Regards....Mike Connor

 

[seekermeister]

Perfect! I had gone through the settings for Tab Mix Plus, and obviously must have had a blind spot for the tab settings. Thanks

 

[Mike Connor]

My pleasure.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[oreo27]

Something else you might like to consider while you are setting up, and even afterwards, is this add-on;

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stop-autoplay/

It will prevent the execution of embedded media, ( Like You-tube etc), until you click to allow it. You can load several You-Tube tabs for instance, and only allow them to play when you want to. This saves a lot of messing about.

Regards....Mike Connor

I'll seriously consider using this extension. I'll be testing it and letting you know how it goes. Thanks for the tip.

 

[seekermeister]

I'm revisiting this thread in the attempt to get the Linux version of FF to look and behave in the same fashion as it does in Windows, but it appears that is not going to be possible. I will probably revert back to Opera when on this platform.

 

[oreo27]

Something else you might like to consider while you are setting up, and even afterwards, is this add-on;

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stop-autoplay/

It will prevent the execution of embedded media, ( Like You-tube etc), until you click to allow it. You can load several You-Tube tabs for instance, and only allow them to play when you want to. This saves a lot of messing about.

Regards....Mike Connor

I'll seriously consider using this extension. I'll be testing it and letting you know how it goes. Thanks for the tip.

Well, I'm using it now and it works great!