5 Advanced Firefox 2.0 Tips

After a quick trial of Firefox 2.0, let's now introduce some advanced tips for FF 2.0.

First, enter "about:config" in the address bar to access Firefox's advanced settings.

1. **Session Restore**:

* Preference name: browser.startup.page

* Change to: 3

* Default: 1 (opens only the homepage)

Firefox can automatically restore your browsing session after an abnormal shutdown (crash, system restart, power outage). However, if you accidentally click the "X" to close Firefox, the previously viewed web pages will not be restored automatically unless you change the value of "browser.startup.page" from its default "1" to "3". This also has the advantage that if you are editing a Blogger post or writing an email in Gmail, the content being edited can also be restored (so you don't need the Auto Save Forms GreaseMonkey script). No wonder Tab Mix Plus was abandoned in FF 2.0.

2. **Show More Tabs**:

* Preference name: browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

* Change to: Any value (if set to "0", all tabs will be displayed)

* Default: 100

The enhanced tab browsing feature is one of the biggest improvements in FF 2.0. However, if you open too many tabs (by default, a screen with a resolution of 1280x1024 can display up to 12 tabs), you will need to use the left/right arrows or the "Show All Tabs" drop-down menu on the right to find a specific tab. You can control the minimum width of tabs by changing the value of "browser.tabs.tabMinWidth" to show more/less tabs. Of course, setting it to "0" is ideal, as it eliminates the hassle of flipping through tabs to find the one you want.

3. **Tab Close Button**:

* Preference name: browser.tabs.closeButtons

* Change to: 3 or 2 ("3" for Firefox 1.5 style; "2" to hide the button)

* Default: 1 (each tab has its own close button)

This setting allows you to customize the appearance of the close buttons on tabs. Setting it to "3" reverts to the Firefox 1.5 style, while setting it to "2" hides the close buttons entirely. The default "1" gives each tab its own independent close button.