%brandDTD; %platformDTD; ]>

# Customizing &brandFullName;

In this section:

- Toolbars
- Add-ons (extensions and themes)

## Toolbars

This will tell you how to rearrange, hide, add, and remove toolbars in &brandShortName;. For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology, a toolbar is the (usually gray) box above the area that the web site is displayed.

- Menu Bar: This is the toolbar that contains the browser menus (File, Edit, Help, etc.).
- Navigation Bar: This is the toolbar that contains the Location Bar and the buttons used to navigate web sites.
- Bookmarks Toolbar: This is the toolbar that contains your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder bookmarks.

There are two basic methods of customizing the toolbars in &brandShortName;:

- Rearranging Toolbar Items
- Hiding, Adding, and Removing Toolbars

### Rearranging Toolbar Items

To rearrange the items (icons, buttons, text boxes, etc.) on your toolbar, right-click press &ctrlKey; and click on any part of the toolbar that is not a text box and select Customize.... This will bring up the toolbar customization dialog.

Drag and drop any items you want to and from the toolbars (excluding the menu items). You can also rearrange icons already on the toolbars by dragging and dropping them wherever you wish. When the toolbars and items are arranged the way you want them, click Done.

#### Special Toolbar Items

There are a few special items that are available to you when customizing the toolbar. They are as follows:

- Separators: These allow you to separate items on the toolbars with a small vertical line.
- Spacers: These allow you to separate items on the toolbars with a fixed-size space, usually around 20 pixels on most themes.
- Flexible spacers: Spacers allow you to separate items on the toolbars with a space. These spacers automatically resize to fill all of the empty space on the toolbar. These are good for positioning items on the right of a toolbar.

### Hiding, Adding, and Removing Toolbars

You can hide the Navigation Toolbar and the Bookmarks Toolbar if you do not wish to keep them on your screen. You cannot hide the Menu Bar because you cannot move the menu items (File, Edit, Help, etc.) to a different toolbar, and they must stay on the screen at all times.

To show or hide a toolbar, select View > Toolbars and click the name of the toolbar you want to show or hide.

To add a custom toolbar, select View > Toolbars > Customize. Click on Add New Toolbar (in the bottom of the dialog). This will give you a dialog to enter a name. If you enter a name and click OK, your new toolbar appears. Now you can drag and drop items to it. To remove a custom toolbar, drag and drop all the items from it, and click Done. You can also hide a custom toolbar as described in the previous paragraph.

## Add-ons (extensions and themes)

Add-ons are small pieces of software which change or add to the appearance or functionality of &brandShortName;. There are two kinds of add-ons: extensions and themes.

Extensions
  Extensions add new functionality to &brandShortName;. They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow the application to be customized to fit the personal needs of each user while minimizing the size and appearance of the application itself.
Themes
  Themes modify &brandShortName;'s appearance. They allow you to change the look and feel of &brandShortName; and personalize it to your tastes. A theme can simply change button images, or it can change every piece of &brandShortName; appearance.

### Getting and Installing Add-ons

You can download and install many add-ons from &brandShortName; Add-ons. Internet searches will find many other add-ons as well.

When you click on a link to install an add-on, &brandShortName; displays a dialog asking you for permission to install the add-on. You can choose to allow the download and installation or to cancel the process.

## Using the Add-ons manager

Add-ons are managed in the Add-ons manager. Select Tools > Add-ons to open it.

### Updating Add-ons

By default, &brandShortName; will periodically check when a new version for one of your installed add-ons is available. If any are available, it will prompt you at the next start to install any updates. You can change this behavior in the Update tab of the Advanced panel of &pref.pluralCaps;.

You can check for updates manually by selecting the Extensions or Themes panel and clicking the Find Updates button. If updates are available, the Add-ons manager displays an Updates panel, where you can choose the updates you want to install. Click the Install Updates button to update those add-ons. You need to restart &brandShortName; for changes to take effect.

### Disabling, Enabling, and Uninstalling Add-ons

If you want to get rid of an extension, you can either disable it temporarily, so it is easily available should you want to enable it again in the future, or uninstall it. Themes can only be uninstalled since all themes except the current one are disabled automatically.

To disable or enable an extension, select the extension of your choice and click its Disable or Enable button. To remove an add-on from &brandShortName;, select the add-on you wish to remove and click its Uninstall button. You need to restart &brandShortName; for changes to take effect.

### Further functionality

Further functionality such as Visit Home Page and About is available by selecting the add-on of your choice, pressing &ctrlKey; and clicking on right-clicking the add-on and selecting the respective item from the context menu.

### Tasks specific to extensions or themes

#### Configuring Extensions

Extensions often provide a dialog to configure their functionality. To open the &pref.plural; dialog of an extension, select the Extensions panel, select the extension of your choice, and click its &pref.pluralCaps; button, or simply double-click the extension.

#### Switching Themes

To switch between your installed themes, select the Themes panel, select the theme of your choice, and click its Use Theme button. You need to restart &brandShortName; for changes to take effect.

12 September 2006

Copyright © 2003-2007 Contributors to the Mozilla Help Viewer Project.