The Ultimate Tweaker's Guide To Firefox3

One of the main reason why Firefox has been so successful, is that you can tweak it to match your needs. Though there are another 12 million Firefox users out there, still you can make your Firefox installation unique, matching your personality.
This short guide gives you a myriad of options that can be tweaked in Firefox 3. Read along.

1. Auto complete in the address bar as you type an address.
   Majority of the people out their seems to have a love-hate relationship with the Firefox3's new address bar (that Mozilla likes to call as the awsome bar). In a humble attempt to tame this address bar we give you some hacks that can reform the smart bar to become the real smart bar.
   
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.urlbar.autoFill into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true to enable autofill.
   Now, as you type in an address, you can see that not only the drop down list is shown, but the address bar itself is auto completed for you.
   
   
2. Enabling spell check in text-fields
   By default Firefox does spell checking only in multi-line text boxes. If you want the Firefox to spell check the single line text entry fields too, this hack is for you:
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter layout.spellcheckDefault into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to 2.
     
   
   
   
3. Tweaking the full screen mode
   By default Firefox 3 hides the location bar and tab bar when you enter the full screen mode. Here is how to disable this behavior.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.fullscreen.autohide into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false to disable hiding of location and tab bar.
   • If you just want to disable the hiding animation, set browser.fullscreen.animateUp to 0.
     
   
   
   
4. Turn On Color Profile Support
   
   The Good news is that (unlike Firefox2) Firefox3 contains a built-in advanced color profile support, which makes Firefox 3 compete easily with any desktop image viewers/editors in terms of color support. The bad news is that this mode is disabled by default. This is what you should do to enable the color profile support.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter gfx.color_management.enabled into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true to enable color profile support.
     
   
   
   
5. Always display the go button
   By default Firefox 3 displays the Go button only when you are editing the address in the location bar. This is how you can display it always.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #go-button { visibility: visible !important; }
   • Restart Firefox.
   If you don't want to tamper with the userChrome.css file, here is an extension that does the same for you.
   
   
   
6. Make the location bar display only typed addresses
   Dont want the location bar to show entries in your bookmark or history? Here is what you should do.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button
   • Enter browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to true.
   
   
   
7. Change the number of suggestions displayed in the Location bar menu
   By default Firefox 3 displays upto 12 results in the drop down list as you type an address. Here is how to change this number.
   • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
   • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
   • Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to any positive number.
   
   
   
8. Hide RSS feed icon from the location bar
   If you feel that little rss icon is taking up your precious screen real estate, you can easily disable it.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #feed-button[feeds] { display: none !important; }
   • Restart Firefox.
   
   
   
9. Hide the star icon from the location bar
   You may be a keyboard junkie or you may be too used up to the old ways that you'll never use the star icon sitting up in the location bar. If you never use it, why let it be there? Here is how to remove the star icon from location bar.
   • Open userChrome.css file in your profile directory using notepad.
   • Add the following line to the end of the file: #star-button {display: none !important;}
   • Restart Firefox.
   
   
   
10. Disable single-click-select-all in the location bar.
    One of the real pain in the neck feature of Firefox is that it automatically selects the entire address in the location bar if you click anywhere near it. You just wanted to correct a typo in the address, but instead of putting the cursor at the clicked location, Firefox selected the entire address. Without looking into the screen, you corrected the typo and now the entire address is gone. Now buddy, start typing again, says Firefox. Here is how to make the behavior more 'humane'.
    • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
    • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
    • Enter browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false.
    
    
    
11. Reduce the size of the back button
    
    This may not be that evident at first, but will soon reveal to be a no-brainier once you know it. This is all you have to do: Right-click on Firefox's toolbar, and choose Customize. In the dialog box, select "Use small icons."
    
    
12. Disable blinking text
    Sorry, Mr. Blinking Text, you are not welcome. Here is how to stop all blinking text:
    • Enter about:config into the address bar and hit enter.
    • Click on "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
    • Enter browser.blink_allowed into the Filter text box. Double click on that preference value and change the value to false.
    
    
    

What other tricks and tips have you found on Firefox 3? Share with us in the comments.