Forum Response - Tabs below the URL bar

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  • Revision id: 153385
  • Created:
  • Creator: AliceWyman
  • Comment: replaced link to show file name extensions, other edits (see discussion)
  • Reviewed: No
  • Ready for localization: No
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Firefox's style or appearance can be modified by creating a chrome folder inside your Firefox profile folder and then placing a userChrome.css file inside, that includes a custom style rule. The rules you put in the userChrome.css file will override the default styles in Firefox.

Note: Custom style rules might not work every time because of other factors (such as incompatibility with other custom style rules) beyond the Mozilla community's control. Your custom style rule might also stop working each time a new Firefox release comes out.

Here's how to modify Firefox so that tabs are shown below the address (URL) bar instead of at the top:

If your Firefox profile folder already has a chrome folder containing userChrome.css:
Go to https://www.userchrome.org/what-is-userchrome-css.html and copy the CSS rules under the "Move the Tab Bar Below the Other Toolbars" example here into your userChrome.css file. After saving your changes and closing the file, you should turn on your Firefox title bar or menu bar on Windows. (The CSS rules you copied include other suggestions as comments.)

Otherwise, follow these instructions:
(See this help page and our community member's video starting at 8:45 for more information.)

  1. Open your currently active profile folder: Type about:support in the Firefox address bar and, under the "Application Basics" section next to "Profile Folder", click Open Folder (Windows) Open Directory (Linux) or Show in Finder (Mac).
    • On Mac, a folder will open that contains your profile folder. Open the selected profile folder (it will be named something like xxxxxxxx.default for a default profile).
  2. Create a new folder named chrome inside the profile folder.
    • Create a desktop shortcut to the chrome folder, if you wish, for easier future access.
  3. Download and save this file, then move it into that chrome folder:
    https://www.userchrome.org/samples/userChrome-tabs_on_bottom.css
  4. Rename the file to remove "-tabs_on_bottom" from the file name:
    • If the file you saved was named "userChrome-tabs_on_bottom.css" rename the file userChrome.css
    • If the file you saved was named "userChrome-tabs_on_bottom" (the .css was missing) rename the file userChrome
      Important: Windows is set to hide file extensions by default so be careful that you don't end up with a file named "userChrome.css.css" that won't work. To view file extensions, see this Microsoft article for Windows 7 and these articles for Windows 8 and Windows 10.
  5. Restart Firefox, which will discover the new userChrome file and apply the rules.

Tip: Turn on your title bar, or the menu bar on Windows, after you've made these changes.