FireFix, or how I got the latest FireFox to more or less behave...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

It turns out you can modify the menus & icons in the latest release of FireFox, if you try.

I still cannot get the tabs where I want them (I am used to them just below the quick-links toolbar, but now they are at the very top, just under the word-menus).

I have no problem with vertical space-- I have a 21 inch monitor, with 1050 pixels of resolution to play with (and nearly 6000 pixels of horizontal room).   Not an issue for me.

So the first thing, I enabled the word-menus, that is the ones that use words instead of stupid little cryptic images-- it turns out that right-clicking on the title-bar itself (the one Windoze will force onto all windows within it's space, and is color-coordinated with your current color schema, which for me, is a kind of semi-transparent red) -- right-clicking on the title-bar causes the menu bar to show itself, where you choose VIEW and then enable/disable the various tool bars as you like.  I turned'em all on, for starters.    Later, I turned off "Add on bar" as I don't see what it actually does...

Hey!  In writing this up, I was reminding myself of how/what I did, and I spotted a nice little "Tabs on top"-- unchecking that put my tabs back where they belong, just above the actual Internet window-space.  Nice.

Anyway, that helped, but did not fix everything-- some of my buttons were still missing:  back and forth was there, discovered by playing with them, but none of the rest were. 

Okay, under the same menu:  View-->Toolbars was Customize.   That one was not really clear what it was doing-- you had to watch carefully! 

It had an obvious box/window of buttons you could drag here or there, but the ones I wanted were not in that box/window at all... frustration ensued.   Then, looking back at the original so-called "Navigation toolbar", I noticed that only when the Customize window was showing, so were the missing buttons-- only at the extreme left!  As soon as you closed the "Customize" window?  They vanished!   WTF?   Who was the idiot who thought that was a good idea?

Anyway, with the Customize window open and only then, all buttons on the Navigation toolbar are movable-- you can drag them hither-thither as you please.  I drug away the one I never used-- down to the window where it stuck-- and then put the refresh/close back where they belong.  My NoScript button has been moved up there too (from it's former spot on the bottom, status bar, which is now completely gone-- I rather miss it, as it had useful information which was not duplicated anywhere else... stupid "update" anyway.

But that's that:  I'm now running the latest, more or less looking as my old one did.   Good enough for now.

[Opsa]

Clever you.

Firefox keeps asking me to update and then tells me I'm on an antiquated system. The teases!

[Aggie]

Thanks, Bob... that helped.

I have a problem for you to solve, since you are handy with such things:  I've got one of those Google search boxes (well, it's selectable via the dropdown box, but I use Google) on the right side of the URL box.

Here's the trouble: I use Google Canada as my homepage, and I'd like to use it on that search box. However, as far as Google's concerned (on my Google account settings) I'm in the US, because I prefer to use the US version of Google Finance - the US market is more relevant, for the most part.

Is there any way to have the Google search bar do its searching via google.ca instead of google.com? This allows me to click 'pages from Canada' to winnow the results. Otherwise, I have to manually change the .com to .ca and re-run the search. It's not always relevant, but when I'm doing a quick search, I usually use the bar instead of taking the extra click to load my homepage.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Okay, this one was a bit ... hidden shall we say?  

To get at the default search engine in FireFox do this:

In the address bar space (where you'd see toadfishmonastery.com for example) key in this:

Code Select Expand

about:config

This brings up the "hidden" controls for FF.    Now you could poke around in this until you see what you want, but here's the setting you need to change:

Code Select Expand

browser.search.defaultenginename

They are in alphabetic order, so you ought to be able to find it quickly.

Now double-click on it, and change it to suit your fancy.   Don't forget to exit FF and re-start.

This ought to work.... if not?

You could look for an ADD ON (on Mozilla's site) that lets you choose or modify search engines in FF-- I've seen several.

[Aggie]

Hmm... I can't figure what to punch in for a value to use as the default.  The actual URL, Google.ca and Google Canada all returned the usual google behaviour.

There certainly are other-country googles in the add ons, but apparently not Canada.  Little Brother always gets forgotten.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

That sucks... I assume you put in www.google.ca into the "search engine name" spot?

Hmmm...... let's see what I can find in Add On's

This looks promising:  Choose your search engine.   It may work to let you pick google.ca.  I suppose you'd have to figure out how to add that one in, though. 

This one does too:  Reset Search Bar

Now this one is for Argentina Google Argentina but looking at the source code ought to be informative.  It theoretically ought to be possible to modify it to become "Google Canada" somehow.... no?

[Griffin NoName]

In IE you can set a button/icon on the toolbar to go to a particular search. Mine is set to http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search?hl=en

  I LOVE IE 

[Aggie]

In IE you can set a button/icon on the toolbar to go to a particular search. Mine is set to http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search?hl=en

Yes, I have that button... it's the one with the little house on it. I'm trying to avoid using it.  My usual habit is to type what I want to search for in the search box, to avoid having to go to google.ca and re-target the search entry box in the middle of the page.

That sucks... I assume you put in www.google.ca into the "search engine name" spot?

I tried the full url, google.ca and Google Canada.... no dice. Just tried www.google.ca, too.

This looks promising:  Choose your search engine.   It may work to let you pick google.ca.  I suppose you'd have to figure out how to add that one in, though.  

That is specific for the location bar, which I am loath to use for searches. It reminds me of a cloaca (in the biological sense)...  too many functions packed in a single hole.  Actually, apparently the search function is not working on my 'awesome' bar at the moment.   UPDATE: Changed the about:config back to Google, and the bar now works again.  

I'm looking to modify the search box/bar to the right, not the place where the URLs go.

This one does too:  Reset Search Bar

Looks interesting, but I don't think it's what I want, unless I can first crack the about:config first.

Now this one is for Argentina Google Argentina but looking at the source code ought to be informative.  It theoretically ought to be possible to modify it to become "Google Canada" somehow.... no?

My knowledge of 'code' is restricted to Visual Basic, and I can't even remember that stuff.  I don't even know where the lever to open the hood is, let alone poke around under it.

I did find an add-on that does the opposite... makes sure you're searching Google.com instead of a local version.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Now this one is for Argentina Google Argentina but looking at the source code ought to be informative.  It theoretically ought to be possible to modify it to become "Google Canada" somehow.... no?

My knowledge of 'code' is restricted to Visual Basic, and I can't even remember that stuff.  I don't even know where the lever to open the hood is, let alone poke around under it.

I did find an add-on that does the opposite... makes sure you're searching Google.com instead of a local version.

Okay, I'll try and have a go when I get time-- I have messed with FF add-ons in the past, simply by looking at the file itself, and opening it with a text editor.  Most code is logical, and more or less self-explains.  In this case, there has to be somewhere the string "google.argentina" (or whatever it is) is stored, and it's short enough, it won't be compressed or encrypted.  And I need to knock out the Spanish thing too I suppose. 

A real test would be to locate a similar add-on for a different domain, and compare the two-- I'll see if I can find another one. 

By the way, the files in question are stored under your firefox's program profile (which depends on how you installed it-- I'm using portable FF myself, where everything is deliberately placed into a single folder, with sub-folders, etc). 

[Sibling DavidH]

BTW Firefox will give you an easter egg if you ask it nicely.

Open a fresh window and type about:mozilla 

[Sibling DavidH]

Goddammit. double post.

[Aggie]

Okay, I'll try and have a go when I get time-- I have messed with FF add-ons in the past, simply by looking at the file itself, and opening it with a text editor.  Most code is logical, and more or less self-explains.  In this case, there has to be somewhere the string "google.argentina" (or whatever it is) is stored, and it's short enough, it won't be compressed or encrypted.  And I need to knock out the Spanish thing too I suppose. 

I think there's one for google.co.uk which might be good for comparison and better for editing... I'm Canuckistani (and British Columbian for that matter) so I'm good with Britlish.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Thank you Aggie-- I was planning on looking for at least an English one to modify.

I really need to no put that off any longer and see if I can do what I bragged about doing.



Edit:

This one might work out of the box-- it lets you add anything/anysite you like to the search bar-- I haven't tried it yet, but will:  Add To Search Bar

Let me try it and see...  okay looking... looking ... here it is: Install linky

Edit again-- that did not work-- a useful add-on, to be sure,  in that it lets you add to the drop-down list of the search box thingy, any website you like, such as Toadfishmonastery.com (for example)... but it is too "smart" and does not see any difference between Google.com and Google.ca.... so it won't do what we want...

... but, this site looks promising:  Mycroft Project Google... a quick perusal shows several GOOGLE.CA entries... more in a minute

Edit again:  Well.... dammit... I actually found a Google.CA link in there-- but it's broken!  I submitted a "it's broken" review on the two Canada entries.   (Hint-- the site is poorly organized, so search for "google.ca" or "google ca" to take you to the two (yes-- two) entries for Canada).   If more of us submit "it's broken" reviews (click on the REVIEW button) maybe they will fix it?

In any case, I'll keep looking for a plug-in I can modify.

Edit:  I found an Amazon Canada add-on!  What?  It's kinda like google.ca, ain't it?  No?  Dammit...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Okay, new post-- editing that last one is getting tedious.

Here's one that ought to work for older firefox engines:  custom google search

Alas, it won't work on FF 11 (mine) so I cannot test it...


Edit:   eBay Canada?  No?   *sigh*


This one... might work:  Google Global  ... well it successfully installed Google UK to my drop-down list of available searches... not quite what I wanted.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Okay... enough of that.  Under the hood time.

I have FF portable.   Time to dig around in the FireFox folders (most of FF is scripts that can be opened in a text-type editor, like Note Pad Plus (but alas, not notepad itself)).

Okay, here's the dealio:  Firefox actually is a series of program scripts that run underneath the main "engine".  Most of these are not locked-down in any way, and are readable by humans (more or less in English language).

Now, I cannot give you a specific path to follow, but using the Windoze file search on your main drive (C:, usually) should bring up the requisite file:  search.json

Within this file, contains all the search engines you are presented via the drop-down thingy in the search bar-- including Google.com.

All you need is a little TEXT editor that has SEARCH AND REPLACE in it.  

Hint 0:  close Fire Fox first...
Hint 1: make a COPY of this file before you do anything! -- right-click on it, choose COPY and then PASTE it back into the same place-- answer "Keep both" to the pop-up.
Hint 2: notepad isn't it-- there are many notepad replacements available for free that do have.
Hint 3: using WORD will work... with caveats:  DO NOT SAVE IN WORD FORMAT.  Use the "save as" function and save as a TEXT file.  To get it to even see the file, you'll have to drag the file and drop it into the window, or else force it to look for ALL FILES (*.*).  

Okay, you have successfully opened this file in a TEXT editor, with search and replace:  now, search-and-replace "google.com" with "google.ca "  (note the space-- this keeps everything the same length, just in case that matters).

Save as TEXT, and you're done.  Restart FF.

In theory, it ought to work.. .right?  right??



If you made a copy of the file as I suggested?  And it just hoses up FF?  Simply delete your modified file, and restore the copy... (or if you didn't do that, re-install FF...)