How-To Geek
Customize Firefox 4.0′s UI to Create a Unique, Personalized Browser for Your System
The new UI in Firefox 4.0 is sleek looking and easy to use, but what if you want to customize it to a whole new degree? Using the Stratiform extension you can change how the UI looks and make it blend really well with your favorite themes or preferred layout style.
To access Stratiform’s settings look for the Extension Icon in the lower right corner on the Add-ons Bar and click on it. The settings will open in a new tab with four distinct UI areas to choose from. The first one focuses on the Toolbar area and allows you to customize the styles for all of the buttons.
The second area focuses on the Tab Bar and mainly affects how the tabs themselves will display, such as the active tab versus non-active tabs. You can be as specific as you like when customizing colors, and if you are unhappy with the results it is very easy to reset to the default.
The settings for the Add-on Bar are simple, so we focused on the last area of the UI settings here. If you are so inclined you can even change the text on the Menu Button as seen in our first screenshot above. Your imagination is going to be the only limit with this extension!
Whether you only change one setting or all of them, the Stratiform extension will certainly help you have a unique and fun looking Firefox to browse the web with. Have fun!
Note: Windows only (unfortunately), works with Firefox 4.0b12 – 4.0.*
Download the Stratiform Extension [Mozilla Add-ons]
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Comments (15)
Akemi Iwaya (Asian Angel) is our very own Firefox Fangirl who enjoys working with multiple browsers and loves 'old school' role-playing games. Visit her on Twitter and Google+.
- Published 03/24/11
I’m tryin that as soon as I get home from work!
@Atomsk – I was pleasantly amazed at just how much you can do with it. ^_^ This will definitely warm the hearts of anyone wanting to really finesse how Firefox looks. ^_^
This looks interesting. Too bad it only works with Windows, could look gorgeous on Mac! Is this an intensive add-on? FF 4.0 still takes up a lot of resources, and I don’t have many add-ons installed.
@Brian – I do not believe that it is resource intensive at all…mainly does some “temporary until changed’ hacking to the user chrome settings and such from what I can see. I have seen no adverse effects from it at all. ^_^ And one of the best features of it is the Reset Function…that was definitely a great thing to have included. ^_^
I prefer using this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-caption-titlebar-plus-sma/
Perhaps give it a try and see?
i believe that too much customization is just going to make FF4 slower, so
i prefer the traditional look. thank you very much
I tried using it. The first thing I noticed was that my navigation bar was gone! Even when I checked Navigation Bar in the View menu, it would not come back! I couldn’t input URLs. So I removed it and restored default settings right away.
Isn’t there something like this for Chrome?
I think I found the perfect layout (for me, at least) and didn’t have to install anything at all (except for Personal Menu). I doubt I’m going to change it anytime soon…I’m really happy with it. :)
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj153/arkelanya/mozy02.png
Yes, I’m one of those minimalist lover. I like to have my spacious screen free of trash (I’m kinda anal about it…but hey, no one is perfect).
Though I have to admit that extension looks rather interesting. I might give it a go.
Hi, can you please tell me how you added that anime picture in the top border? I would really like to add a custom picture there, but I’m having trouble finding the option. thanks in advance.
@Jeremiah W – Actually that is a Personas Theme and can be found here:
VOCALOID – Hatsune Miku
http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/89606
Just pop over to the page and click “Wear this Persona”. ^_^
Personas Themes are the reason I keep the top part of my browser larger pixel-wise…they may take up more space but my browser feels so cheerful. ^_^
This is an awesome add-on. I’m running FF4 on XP, and while I still can’t get the Opera-style menu bar, it is nice to skin the other elements. I don’t think this adds much memory-wise. It adds as much overhead as having a webpage background color be gray, rather than not set and default to white. The add-on is styling the elements that are already there with CSS.
You can’t install it if on Linux which sucks! Doing some css coding, might work? Not sure though
Won’t download on 64 bit IE9.
missa likein it