# Tip for Mozilla users who don't like the narrow layout! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 15, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571 "2004-01-15T11:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/1 "2004-01-15T11:31:04Z")
Put this in your **userContent.css** file and reload Mozilla. (Works with Netscape too.) **div.page[style=“width: 760px; text-align: left;”] { width: auto ! important; }** There’s a slight chance this will affect layout on other sites, but I tried to make the selector as restrictive as possible. I always wanted to customize certain pages like this, but I never got around to it. I figured this was a good time to start. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/2 "2004-01-15T11:41:13Z")
I tried that but it didn’t do anything. I don’t actually have a usercontent.css though, just the example one. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/3 "2004-01-15T11:45:19Z")
You have to put it in a file called userContent.css in your profile’s chrome directory. This directory should already have a file called userContent-example.css. It took me a while to find mine. Here’s where I eventually found it: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\ah0e9fbz.slt\chrome I suggest you search your computer for directories called “chrome”. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/4 "2004-01-15T11:59:44Z")
I did that, sorry, I should have been more clear. I made a blank file, called it userContent.css and put what you did in and it didn’t do anything. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/5 "2004-01-15T12:02:32Z")
Oh! Did you reload Mozilla? I don’t mean reload the page, I mean close the program and start it up again? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/6 "2004-01-15T12:05:33Z")
Works for me…many thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/7 "2004-01-15T12:09:50Z")
I did reload Mozilla – my chrome directory seems to be in C:\Program Files\[mozilla.org](http://mozilla.org)\Mozilla\defaults\profile\US\chrome … sound ok? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/8 "2004-01-15T12:14:57Z")
Aha, no that’s not right. That’s the default profile directory. When you create a new profile, files get copied from that directory to start a new one. Your profile directory will be somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/9 "2004-01-15T12:21:41Z")
I don’t actually have any profiles but the default one on here – on of the advantages to being the only person to use this computer :). ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/10 "2004-01-15T12:23:12Z")
Works for me as well (using Firebird 0.6). What OS do you have, Silentgoldfish? That would help us tell where your user settings are. In Win9x, I believe it is something like C:\windows\application settings… ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/11 "2004-01-15T12:27:03Z")
Ah hah! I found out what I was doing wrong! It wound up being in almost exactly the same place in Achenar’s. I got confused because there’s two almost identical directories. The wider forum looks a lot better. Ta! ---
**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/12 "2004-01-15T15:29:03Z")
Oh, it worked it worked it worked! Thank you! That narrow format was driving me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/13 "2004-01-15T15:52:51Z")
Woohoo, it worked! Using Mozilla 1.5 on Windows 2000 here. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Parallax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Parallax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parallax)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/14 "2004-01-15T16:05:53Z")
What would be really nice is if the boards included some of the other styles that come with vBulletin that expand to full screen width. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/15 "2004-01-15T16:23:39Z")
Yeah, this is just temporary. When they’re done making modifications, the line I posted probably won’t work anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/16 "2004-01-15T16:58:58Z")
Just wanted to say that it works with Firebird 0.7 on Windows XP also. The only difference is that you need to place the userContent.css in: C:\Documents and Settings\*\_\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\default\*\.slt_\chrome. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/17 "2004-01-15T21:14:48Z")
I’m using Firebird 7.0. I have no idea where I put that line, but it worked. That sure made a big difference. [indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]…;)…[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent] [indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent] **Thanks!** [/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent] ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/18 "2004-01-16T01:02:01Z")
All it did for me was eliminate the background. The width stayed the same. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/19 "2004-01-17T00:31:45Z")
I’ve been messing around some more. Nothing as useful as widening the tables, but some kind of fun things. This line makes usernames appear normal size in threads instead of 14pt: **td.alt1 \> table a[style=“font-size: 14pt;”] { font-size: inherit ! important; }** And these lines replace the vBulletin logo with a little box that says “STRAIGHT DOPE MESSAGE BOARD”: **img[alt=“Straight Dope Message Board”] { width: 0; height: 0; } img[alt=“Straight Dope Message Board”]:after { background: blue; color: yellow; font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none; content: attr(alt); padding: 0.2em; text-transform: uppercase; }** And there are ways to keep things you want to get rid of from displaying, but I don’t need to go into too many details there. 🙂 Anyway, this was mostly just an exercise, but I wanted to let people know that there’s plenty of potential for customization. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571/20 "2004-01-17T15:37:11Z")
AAAAAaaarggghhh!! No success whatsoever. Could someone please post a step-by-step instructional guide to performing this task. You know, one of those “Idiot’s Guide to…” format. I am having no luck at all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-for-mozilla-users-who-dont-like-the-narrow-layout/224571.md?page=2)