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[guide] Firefox for small screens (EEE, Wind, 4211, Aspire One etc)

  • 09-09-2008 11:51pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭


    Ok, I'll be the first to admit that the 1024 x 600 screen on my EEE 1000H is a tad small. However, there are some ways you can get better value for your screen real estate in the Firefox browser, which I assume many of you use.

    Before I tell you the addons I've used, let me show you a before and after ;)

    Before:
    suysuh.png

    After:
    qsuw6q.png.
    Please forgive the operating system change! It's the same steps for Windows or Linux.

    Now, the addons.
    Fission - This puts your loading progress bar in your location bar, in a similar fashion to Safari. In fact, if you want it to have the same appearance as Safari, save this gradient to your computer and input that to the Fission addon. Fission can also display the link of a hovered-over URL in your location bar if you wish, as this function is lost in hiding the normal status bar.
    Tiny Menu- See that "Menu" in the top left of the After image? That's all the File, Edit, Tools, Bookmarks etc inside one space saving drop-down menu. I rarely use things in these menus so it's a very handy tool for saving screen space.

    After you have installed these addons, there are still several things left to do. First, right click your Firefox's Navigation Bar - the one with the Forward, Back, Home buttons. Click Customise. First thing you want to do is click "Use small icons" in the bottom left. This saves some space and also makes the button layout look much better, in my opinion. Note, if you are using Firefox on Linux, as I am, you can install the Vista buttons, which look much nicer than the GNOME ones, here. After this, you want to merge your bookmarks bar, your location bar, and your navigation bar, all into one.This can be easily done by selecting and dragging each item.
    One thing you may have noticed is that I have no Google Search to the right of my Location bar. This is because I discovered a very handy feature in Firefox called "Quick Searches". Or at least, it was called Quick Searches in Firefox 2, but it seems to have dropped the moniker in FF3. Anyway, what a Quick Search basically means is that on [pretty much] any page with a search function, you can access this search function from anywhere through your Location Bar.
    How to do this:
    Navigate to a page that you frequently use the search function in.
    Right click the search field, and click Add A Keyword For This Search..
    20ptugw.png
    Fill in the name of the Site you are searching, and then click down to Keyword. What this keyword basically is is the prefix you have to enter in your Location Bar to search that site. For example, if I type
    g msi wind
    into my Location Bar, and hit Enter, it will search Google for "msi wind", as "g" is my keyword for Google. Similarly I have "y" setup for YouTube, "i" for Google Images, etc.
    By removing the Google Search box we have freed up some space, so I suggest you put your Bookmarks Toolbar there. You can now right click the area beside your Location Bar and uncheck Navigation Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar.
    Your Bookmarks Toolbar is obviously going to take up a lot of space if you have plenty of bookmarks, all of which will reduce the size of your Location Bar. So what I do is, in the Organise Bookmarks window, create a new folder called Bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar, and drag all my bookmarks into that. This will be displayed, like the Menu top left, as a drop down menu when clicked.

    And you're finished! 4 Lines - Menu Bar, Navigation Bar, Bookmarks Bar, Status Bar - all consolidated into one.

    Hope some of you find this useful :)
    Feedback appreciated.


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 5,297 ✭✭✭Ron DMC


    Nice guide.

    Will definitely play around with some of those addons on my 900 this evening.

    I'll let you know how I get on.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    Great guide. Thanks!


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    I also recommend AdBlock Plus for removing junk that's clogging up your favourite webpages, but most people probably know of it already ;P


  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,041 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    I don't have a netbook and I don't use firefox anymore (loving chrome) but fair play. Very cool.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    Firefox doesn't have Adblock and Stylish though, does it? ;)
    Thank you for the "Thanks".


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,300 ✭✭✭CiaranC


    sweet!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,222 ✭✭✭Scruff


    nice guide, will try it later. Is it not a bit like pressing F11 (fullscreen) when Firefox is active??
    I also recommend Flashblock. Get rid of those horrobile animated ads and banners that clutter the screen and distract and replaces them with the Flash icon. If you want to view the Flash just click on the icon or you can add sites to a whitelist.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,055 ✭✭✭Four of a kind


    i got the 4211 during the week and would like to have some more screen space....would this guide work for me? I'm using internet explorer as my browser on it, which I presume is'nt ideal for a small screen.

    can anyone give me some guidelines to increase the screen space if this quide wou'dnt be suitable?

    Thanks


  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,041 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    i got the 4211 during the week and would like to have some more screen space....would this guide work for me? I'm using internet explorer as my browser on it, which I presume is'nt ideal for a small screen.

    can anyone give me some guidelines to increase the screen space if this quide wou'dnt be suitable?

    Thanks
    Yeah that guide will work on the advent, it works on any laptop. It just gives you more screen dedicated to the website and less to the browser itself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,055 ✭✭✭Four of a kind


    thanks!! nice one!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,055 ✭✭✭Four of a kind


    I followed this guide and its a good help. Everything working fine, except when I click on an icon I don't hear the "click" sound. I tested it back on Internet explorer and I hear the click when I press an icon or press return.

    What could be the problem with this on firefox 3.0?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭Soundman


    Cheers dude. Only using the Tiny Menu add-on. It's all I need but works a treat.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    Will be making use of this, thanks!

    What other tweaks can be done that benefit user experience on a Wind/EEEpc/etc?

    There's a tweak as well to stop firefox from precaching pages, i'll look for it in a sec.

    EDIT:

    Disable Precaching in Firefox
    If you're going to install and use Firefox, it's best to disable precaching. To make itself "faster," Firefox's default behavior is to look at links on a page, go to each of them "behind the scenes" and start caching files. This way, if you click on one of those links, some of the items at that URL (like the page body itself) will already be downlaoded and cached and browsing will be sped up a bit. On a platform with limited drive space and memory like the Eee (especially if you disabled the page file) this can cause a problem, as Firefox will soon start eating up a lot of memory by precaching pages.

    To disable this, open up Firefox and in the address bar type about:config and press Enter. Scroll down until you find the line that says "browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers." Double click on that line and change the value from -1 to 0 and click Ok.

    49vm1.jpg

    Close Firefox and re-open it and precaching will be disabled.

    From i64X.com which also has a how to for a custom xp install on your EEEpc


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    Baza210 wrote: »
    Firefox doesn't have Adblock and Stylish though, does it? ;)
    Thank you for the "Thanks".

    Obviously meant to say Chrome.. musn't've been concentrating :D

    Oh, another thing, which isn't really related to screen space, but is related to about:config, is disabling animated GIFs. Just type in image.a into the search filter, then change the image.animation_mode value to 0.
    I followed this guide and its a good help. Everything working fine, except when I click on an icon I don't hear the "click" sound. I tested it back on Internet explorer and I hear the click when I press an icon or press return.

    What could be the problem with this on firefox 3.0?

    I'm not sure if Firefox has a sound pack.. but I always considered the "click" to be an annoyance in IE anyway..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,281 ✭✭✭Ricky91t




  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,041 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    ricky91t wrote: »
    Considering the times they were posted at, I assume Brian and Baza are one and the same.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,281 ✭✭✭Ricky91t


    Considering the times they were posted at, I assume Brian and Baza are one and the same.

    Yeah but look how long we were left in the dark while the others were enjoying bigger browsing space :D
    Thanks anyway,find this handy on my laptop 15.4" screen


  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,041 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    It was only an hour.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,281 ✭✭✭Ricky91t


    OH CRAP!
    I was reading his join date!:pac:
    Apologies


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    Accepted, haha. I also posted it on ubuntuforums.org, but that forum's so busy it wasn't taken much notice of.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    I can't get the menu or bookmarks bar next to my back/forward arrows, they just wont move when i drap them?

    Using firefox 3.0, maybe i should update :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    jozi wrote: »
    I can't get the menu or bookmarks bar next to my back/forward arrows, they just wont move when i drap them?

    Using firefox 3.0, maybe i should update :rolleyes:

    Could you show me a print screen of what your toolbars look like when you right click on an empty space in the location bar's toolbar and click Customize?

    It may just be a case of you dragging all the objects onto the wrong toolbar :p


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    I missed the step where i had to keep the customise window open :o All is working fine and looking good now. Thanks


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,391 ✭✭✭jozi


    Actually, how do i get rid of the very bottom bar, above the taskbar? Apart from that everything looks good.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    jozi wrote: »
    Actually, how do i get rid of the very bottom bar, above the taskbar? Apart from that everything looks good.

    Menu > View > Status Bar.


  • Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    Just did this now. Really nice space saver. Just wanted to say thanks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,699 ✭✭✭Brian


    Ta. No problem.


  • Registered Users Posts: 385 ✭✭stopped_clock


    Just followed this too (on my 4211). Thanks!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Scruff wrote: »
    nice guide, will try it later. Is it not a bit like pressing F11 (fullscreen) when Firefox is active??
    I also recommend Flashblock. Get rid of those horrobile animated ads and banners that clutter the screen and distract and replaces them with the Flash icon. If you want to view the Flash just click on the icon or you can add sites to a whitelist.
    +1
    Just press F11, when you hover your mouse over the top of the screen it displays the address bar and other tabs.


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  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,041 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    Just used this on my new 4211. I'd thank you again if I could. Cheers man. :)


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