As stated in a previous post, and since nouman expressed interest, here are the tweaks I use for getting some pixel back from Firefox and maximize my screen real estate while I’m surfing.

This is particularly useful for netbooks, like the eeePc (especially the old 7”), but I also use it on my laptop (which has 1280×800).

We’ll use 4 plugins. Be advised, some of them are marked as experimental and will require you to register for an account on the mozilla site in order to be able to download.

Tiny Menu

The menu bar is the only bar you can’t hide by default. And also, honestly, the bar you’re likely to use less. Tiny Menu allows you to reduce the menus to one entry only, containing all the other ones. That way you’ll be able to use the unused space to host the navigation buttons, and the location bar.

First of all, download the extension from here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1455

Then reset Firefox. Now your menu should be reduced to just one entry. Right click on the menu bar (not on the menu itself !) and select ‘Customize‘. Choose Show: Icons and check Use small icons. While you’re there, drag at the right of the menu entry the buttons (back, forward, reload, etc) you use more often from the Navigation toolbar. Also drag there the location bar and the search box.

Close the dialog, right click again on the toolbar and uncheck everything.

If you done everything right, Firefox shuold appear like this:

firefox-tinymenu

Pretty cool, uh ? Lots of space saved. Be honest, how often do you use the menu while surfing ?

autoHideStatusBar

Now that made Firefox look cleaner and saved a bit of vertical space.. let’s save some more !

You can download autoHideStatusBar from here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1530

After you’re done and have restarted Firefox, go into Menu->Tools->Add-ons, look for AHS (green icon), select preferences, and tweak it to your liking. Being a little control-freaky I choose to have it appear instaneously when I hover on a link. Here’s my setup:

autoHideStatusBar setup

Break

If you got till here, you’re basically done. You already have removed a lot of visual cruft from Firefox. What follows are 2 further adjustments that you may like.

Searchbar Autosizer

Let’s try to get things better when we lack horizontal space, now. This plugin will autosize your search box while you type into it. That also means that it will take much less space when it’s empty, to the advantage of the Location Bar.

Download it from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1172

Restart Firefox, then go into Menu->Tools->Add-ons and go into the preferences of the plugin. Select Advanced and make sure those two checkboxes are checked: Shrink SearchBar to Button if empty, Empty search bar when a query is submitted.

Now your location bar will enjoy the widest space available. At the same time, you’ll be able to search like before using ctrl+k, or clicking on the button that appears in place of the search box.

Fuller Screen

Differently from the previous tweaks, that were useful in constrained space situations, this plug in will help you get the most when Firefox it’s already taking all the screen. Better said, this is how full screen should have been by default.

After installing and restarting, the full screen will be a real full screen. No status bar, no tabs, no nothing. Just the web page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4650

DONE !

Here’s how Firefox appears, with all tweaks applied.

Tidyied Firefox

(click the image to enlarge it it)

Oh, by the way

If you like the white theme, it’s a normal theme, which inherits directly from the Gnome one. Here’s how.

Also, if you detest having the Gnome panels always showing, here’s how to get rid of them.