Make Firefox netbook friendly

[Glenn]

Taken from the My Dell Mini forum

Well as we all know the screen resolution of our mini 9 or other netbooks isnt what one would call amazing.... 1024x600 is alot for the size of the screen but its got its limits... Mainly when viewing web pages the lack of vertical viewing always has peeved me.

Well i just started to mess around with firefox and i gained 66 more pixels of vertical space with some simple extensions, a lil tweaking of FF, and of windows xp's title bar. now you may be thinking... so 66 pixels... well if you do the math the original stock firefox and xp title bar allowed for 433 pixels of vertical web page... 66 more is 15% which makes quite a difference!

The cool thing about all of this is no loss in functionality, tab bar is still present at all times, page loading status is safari style (in the address bar) and menus are still there.

So heres how to do it....

Fission - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1951 - this will allow you to get rid of the status bar at the bottom and have a loading bar in the address bar ala safari style.

Install Fission, you can configure it like any other extension in the addons menu. To get rid of the status bar to View > click on status bar to uncheck it.

Tiny menu - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1455 - allows one to make a Tiny drop down menu and move all the buttons to the top bar from the navigation bar... one less bar = more vertical space

Install Tiny menu, restart FF, right click on blank area next to menu and click customize. on the pop up screen if you already havnt check "use small icons" and then simply drag all the buttons in the navigation bar to the top bar next to menu. Click OK on the customize screen and now right click on the blank navigation bar and on the popup menu uncheck navigation bar.

OPTIONAL - install Old location Bar - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637 - i like this on my mini, it makes things a lil faster and neater.

Tweak the Tab bar size. If your like me and use tabs (which id assume most do they are awesome) and whether or not you have the tab bar open all the time this will be an awesome lil addition as well. Simply download the userChrome.zip attached and copy the userChrome.css file to:

FOR XP - C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\PROFILE_NAME\chrome\

What that does is make the tab bar smaller in vertical height. You can use this on other os's as well... but i dont know the directory off the top of my head to put it in.

For XP users - Make the title bar smaller. This not only effects firefox but all other windows as well. Its simple. Right click on the desktop > properties click on the appearance tab, then click on advanced. On the screen that pops up in the item drop down list select "Active Title bar" and change its size down from its default of 25px to 20px. This will not change the text size, just makes the title bar a little leaner.

Tweaks
I also like to do these tweaks in the about:config page (simply type about:config into the address bar and hit enter). Some of these settings will not be present in the about config... to add one simple right click anywhere and select new, integer (any setting with a value with numbers), or boolean (true or false). For settings already present just double click to change the value. These tweaks will make pages load SO MUCH faster its insane.

Setting name ---------------- Value

browser.cache.memory.capacity -------- 65536
content.notify.backoffcount ------------ 5
content.notify.interval ----------------- 0
network.http.pipelining ----------------- true
network.http.pipelining.firstrequest ------ true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests ----- 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining ------------ true
nglayout.initialpaint.delay ---------------- 0
ui.submenuDelay ------------------------ 0

And thats it. Firefox will now be optomized to fit the mini 9's screen much better and be faster..

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-9-discussion/10047-diy-make-firefox-more-mini-9-friendly.html

[kinmel]

 

Thank you very much !

[Rik]

Seconded.

The other thing I do is put the taskbar on the left of the screen, rather than at the bottom.

[Glenn]

  guys

[Sebby]

Excellent guide, Glenn.

[gizmo71]

I'm glad I bought an NC20 now and not an NC10 - 1280x800.

[kinmel]

userChrome.zip attached and copy the userChrome.css file

Glenn,

userChrome.zip can only be downloaded by their own forum members.

Is it possible for you to obtain it for us ?

[Glenn]

I'll have a look

[Glenn]

Here you go

[attachment deleted by admin]

[kinmel]

Here you go

Sorry, but the download I am getting is index.php rather than the zip file

[Rik]

OK here, Alan, do you want me to email the file to you?

[kinmel]

OK here, Alan, do you want me to email the file to you?

Please Rik,  thanks

[Rik]

On its way...