While I understand the need for adding the left-right arrows on the tab-strip when there are many tabs open, I reckon Firefox 2.0 switches to this solution too quickly which bugged me to bits.

Luckily, there’s a fix for that:

1. Go to the Firefox’s ‘behind-the-scenes’ configuration screen by typing ‘about:config’ in the URL bar.
2. Search for the property ‘browser.tabs.tabMinWidth’
3. Change its value from the default to 80 (you can experiment with this value and see what fits your comfort).
4. Restart Firefox
5. You should now have tab-strip that will fit in more tabs before reverting to the left-right arrow trick
6. If you want to revert to the default value, simply right-click on the property and click on the ‘reset’ option.

On my 1280×1024 screen the visible tab count increased from twelve tabs to fifteen, yet enough of the title of the page is visible. A lower ‘browser.tabs.tabMinWidth’ value means more tabs visible but less of the title for you to see.

If you want to read more about this property, this mozillaZine knowledge-base article will tell you all you need to know.

Technorati tags: mozilla, firefox, usability

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