Firefox Customizations, Add-ons, Extensions

Firefox, my web browser of choice (which ouught to be yours, too — ) has a very large number of possible customizations. You can install Firefox Add-on's (previously called Extensions) to add additional functions or revised functions to firefox.

You can also customize Firefox by adding additional Themes. A theme can change the look of the Firefox windows and dialog boxes. It can also change the look of Firefox's icons on its toolbar.

This week, reader Valerie Mitchell wrote about some problems she was having with Firefox — and with the screenshots that I had shown in a recent newsletter. Hers were different...

Hi.I Was trying to adjust my cache as per your recent news letter. I've never been able to figure out why your toolbar on Firefox looks different than mine. As you can see from the screen shot of mine (attachment)....my privacy button doesn't look like yours and does not give me the same options as yours. I have the latest version of FF 2.03.
Do you know why this is?
Thanks you


Valerie sent this screenshot of her Firefox Options dialog box for me to see. Compare that with the standard theme and you'll see how it as immediately confusing...

I wrote back to Valerie to tell her that I use the default Firefox theme. Since she had a black background, that's a good hint that she had changed her theme. The button shapes are part of the themes, which can also change the dialog boxes' looks in Firefox's own internal dialog boxes.

To change themes, open the Add-ons dialog box (on the Firefox menu bar, select Tools and then Add-ons. At the top are two buttons for selection — Extensions and Themes.

It's easy to keep your favorite Add-ons up-to-date. When Firefox starts, it checks to see if there's a newer version of Firefox available. It also checks to see if there are updated versions of the installed Add-ons.

If either a newer version of Firefox or a newer version of an installed add-on is available, Firefox gives you a chance to install it.

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