Customizing Firefox

[Quark]

Sounds like you could use some css editing! For my tips, you will want to go to your profile directory, typically C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default\.

Inside this directory, the key file will be \chrome\userChrome.css. It's a simple text file you can open in any text editor (here's my chance! I recommend Textpad for text editing!)

NUMBER 1
I want to get rid of the "close tab" icon on the right side of the tab bar.  I've installed the Tab X extension (adds a clickable "x" to each tab for easy closure), so the "close tab" icon is worthless to me.

Straight from my own userChrome.css. This was grabbed from Firefox Help before it was merged into the official site. Plenty of nice tips there!

Code:

/* Remove the close button on the tab bar */
.tabs-closebutton {
display: none !important;
}

NUMBER 1-A
I want to add a "new tab" icon to the left of the tab bar.  I know I can add a "new tab" icon in the menu, but I'd rather add it to the tab bar where it belongs.  I also know that I can double-click any blank space in the tab bar to add a new blank tab, but when the tab bar gets full it is awfully tough to find enough blank real estate upon which to double-click.

"DeeBye you are an idiot!" Okay, not completely. You said you didn't want Extensions, and I understand completely. I used Tabbed Browser Extensions before it became the bane of my existance - trashing my profile twice - and have been much happier without afterwards. Firefox is faster and I don't have to deal with crappy written software for only a few things I want. The TBE bugs caused a surge in small Tab extensions, each with a specific purpose, so that people could pick and choose what they wanted.

Tabbrowser Preferences has what you want, but it's also the biggest non-TBE extension last time I checked. Basics is just what you're asking for, but compatibility says 0.9x, so I don't know how 1.0+ will fare.

While I'm at it, I highly recommend miniT. Being able to move tabs is an awesome feature.

NUMBER 2
Is there any way to make the "File Edit View Bookmarks.... etc." text portion of the menu more graphical?  I'd love to able to replace those text icons with something I could cook up in Photoshop.  If it isn't possible to replace the text icons, is there any way to alter the font/size of them?
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I can't be certain, but if it's doable then it's another userChrome.css thing. I'll try to go over this as best I can. Here's another example from Firefox Help:

Code:

/* Remove the Go and Help menus
  (These are just examples. Try changing "Go" to "Edit" or "Bookmarks") */
menu[label="Go"], menu[label="Help"] {
  display: none !important;
}

I have a modified version of this in my .css to get rid of stuff I don't want :)
If you take the basic form "menu[label="Go"] {" and add any CSS rules to it, that could work. "list-style-image: url("chrome://browser/skin/Throbber-small.gif");" might be an example of a command that could work. Change "chrome://..." to "file:///c:/..." to access the image. "background-image: " might also be viable, but then you'd probably need to find a way to hide the text. Use "margin," "border," and "padding" commands to get the size you want. If you can't find an image command that works, basic font commands for CSS should allow you to style the text.

If you don't mind doing a little research, browser.css at lxr.mozilla.org shows how the basic Winstripe theme is styled. You could grab ideas from there. Note stuff like "-moz-image-region" is reading in from a box of the basic graphics files for the theme.