FireFox Tip: How To Set A Minimum Tab Width
Firefox tab browsing has always been a favorite feature to make browsing the Internet a multi-tasking experience. But sometimes tabs can get out of control and out of sight. Like when you have many tabs open and you need to navigate using the tab scrolling arrows. I don't mind using the arrows, but since the default tab width is too wide, it reduces the number of tabs displayed to just a few. Here's a quick fix to set the width of tabs, so they can still be identified by text or website icons, and allow more tabs to be displayed.
- Open Firexfox and type about:config in the Address Bar.
- In the Filter Bar type browser.tabs.tabMinWidth (this will display just the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth parameter)
- Double click on browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and in the Enter integer value pop up window, change the number (Value) to anything under 40 ( I have mine set to 20). Click OK to set the new Value.
- Exit Firefox and re-open.
Now when you surf the Internet and open many tabs, you will have a lot more tabs showing then when the width of the value was set at 100.
Other extensions exist that are available and may provide better solutions, but if you have a lot of extensions loaded (which causes performance problems with Firefox), then this fix provides an easy solution without performance issues.
Filed under Firefox and Internet Explorer Tips, Internet Technologies by 
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Comments on FireFox Tip: How To Set A Minimum Tab Width
Nice one! Thanks for that, should help loads
Thanks! I set my Min and Max both to 150. That way, as I'm closing tabs, they don't get sized differently and I close the wrong tab.
I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Firefox and I can't adjust the tab width.
The above routine has worked fine with previous versions (much thanks) but this type – nada.
I've tried resetting a few times using 8, 10 and 20 character settings. When I return to the Width box my last setting is displayed but when I restart FF the width remains "too wide".
Help?
In latest Firefox 4/5, add the settings to the 'userChrome.css' file:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default\chrome\userChrome.css
.tabbrowser-tab[fadein]:not([pinned]) {
min-width: 0px !important;
max-width: 30px !important;
}
may need to adjust the path to suit your system and the pixels desired. The above will show just the tab icon, which I find enough to identify them. Plus they're placed consistently instead of shrinking & expanding depending on when more/less tabs are open.