Table of Contents
Your Internet browser is something on your desktop or laptop you spend a lot of time using, so why not make it feel more personal, and add some functions you may not have thought existed. Below we'll discuss a few different ways you can modify Firefox with add-ons, themes, and extensions.
If you are not familiar with Mozilla Firefox (aka Firefox) it is a free, open-source web browser, developed by the Mozilla Foundation / Mozilla Corporation and is available on almost all operating systems, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Firefox can be set up to sync your desktop or laptop settings to your mobile device, it also currently ranked as the second most used web browser worldwide second only to Google Chrome.
Customizing the Appearance of Firefox on Windows.
There are so many fun and great ways to customize the look and feel of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. The first way is to install themes as they are the easiest and offer a lot of options without having to do very much. The hardest part will be choosing the ones you like. To begin open Firefox, then in the top right-hand corner click the 3 large horizontal lines just below the close window icon, then go to Add-ons. Inside this menu is where all the endless appearance changes and extensions can be added to change the look of your browser and add some clever little functions.
To change the base Firefox theme click Appearance on the left-hand side of the window. Next, looking back over to the right-hand side of the window, you will see a search bar, in this search bar type Firefox themes, this will bring up a few of the options available.
To view all of the available options, scroll down and click the little blue link that says show all 8000+ themes, this will bring you to the main Add-ons page. Alternatively, you can get to this page by doing a simple Google search for Firefox Add-ons, it will almost always be the first link Google delivers. When you find the add-on you want, click the big green +ADD button and it will almost instantly install on your browser.
Note: If you hover over the theme for a second or two it will show a quick preview of how it looks.
Customise Website Themes For Facebook, Youtube, Google etc.
As well as customizing the look of your browser, there is also an awesome way to customize the look of certain websites. To do this, go back to the same place you picked out your theme, then at the top underneath the big Add-ons sign, click Extensions, then search for an extension called Stylus. This great add-on lets you set custom themes for websites.
Once you have installed Stylus, a little icon with the Stylish symbol will be available at the top right-hand side of your browser page. To start using it simply go to a website that you wish to set a theme for, Facebook, Google, Youtube, it doesn’t really matter. A good portion of the popular sites you visit will have a good selection of themes available. Again the hardest part will be finding something that you like, I usually like to black pages out.
Now that you are on a website, click the icon and scroll down to find styles for this site. Firefox will open a new page and show you all the available theme options. Again just click on the one you like and install it, it's quick, easy and hassle-free.
Note: This article was originally using the extension Stylish, however, after the recent news regarding its data collection tactics, we have removed it from the article and replaced it with its open source competitor Stylus. Although Sylus uses Stylish's theme catalog, it's safe to use.
A Quick Look at Few Less Obvious Firefox Add-ons.
Firefox has endless add-ons available for download to make things easier or change the layout and function of just about anything. If you think it might exist, try a search for it, there is a possibility someone has already had the same thought.
Download YouTube Videos as MP4 By ialc
An extension that adds direct links to download YouTube videos as MP4 and FLV. It has a simple interface and it downloads videos directly from YouTube. The extension integrates with YouTube's interface and adds a download button below the player.
YouTube High Definition 49.3 By Baris Derin
YouTube High Definition is a powerful tool that will let you automatically play all YouTube videos in HD (High Definition), turn off annotations, change video player size, auto stop videos, auto mute videos, control embedded videos and much more.
S3.Google Translator 5.26 By Oleksandr
S3.Google Translator adds the power of Google Translate’s automatic translations to your browser! It supports the translation of selected text, entered phrases or whole web pages between any of the 80+ supported languages.
DownThemAll! 3.0.8 By Nils Maier, Federico Parodi, and Stefano Verna
The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox! DownThemAll is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want! Be in full control over your downloads, dedicated speed and the number of parallel connections at any time. Use Metalinks or add mirrors manually to download a file from different servers at the same time.
Lightshot (screenshot tool) 5.1.1 By Serg at SkillBrains and Andrej at SkillBrains
An easy to use and convenient screenshot tool, allows you to make screenshots of any selected area (video and flash too).
