While browsing through the Mozilla Addons site yesterday I came across the official WALL•E Firefox theme!

Unfortunately the theme is Windows only. However, with a bit of investigating, I was able to extract the jar file and install it on my Mac.

The theme is pretty good. WALL•E is a bit hard to see behind the address bar and I wish the bar was semi-transparent so that he was more visible. It’s also a bit hefty at over 3MB. Other than that, it looks pretty slick and works well. Nothing to extraordinary, but fun none the less. As it makes its way to 1.0, the theme has a lot of potential to grow into something spectacular.

Well, I spent a few hours yesterday trying to figure out how I was going to go about upgrading all my themes to Firefox 3.  So far, I haven’t had any good ideas.

The new theme structure with Firefox 3 is different than Firefox 2.  I knew it would be.  And, at this time, there is nothing out there to help a theme developer know what to change or what to update.  There is a long list of ongoing theme changes, but what does that really mean?  What are the steps to upgrading a theme?

I updated iPox to install on Firefox 3  and took it for a run.  What happened?  Well, lets just say there were a few issues.

I was hoping for an easy transition from Firefox 2 to 3 but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

Once the betas become release clients, then maybe I’ll start theming.  However, this looks like it could be a complete re-code.

MidnightFox has always been a great theme. It’s dark, yet usable and, as stated by others, one of the best dark themes out there. However, I wanted more.

While fixing a few toolbar issue with MidnightFox, I started updating other pieces. I reworked the tabs, the bookmarks, some menus and the the navigation buttons. Taking extero’s icons and leveraging Pixelmator’s menu design, I created much nicer toolbar with icons that ‘pop’ when you roll over them.

MidnightFoxy was first set to replace MidnightFox, however some of the testers were partial to the old buttons. So MidnigthFoxy was born. It’s basically the same theme, only with a more polished toolbar.

If you tried to download the iPhone Facebook sidebar extension or the latest MidnightFox theme beta, you may have noticed the button didn’t properly install the files. Instead it threw some odd error. This is an issue that effects mostly Windows users.

I’ve since been made aware of the issue and included a link to download the theme and extension file directly. Once downloaded, just open your addon’s window in Firefox, drag and drop them in and they should install.

Sorry about the confusion and thanks to those who brought it to my attention.

Tom, a fan of MidnightFox, emailed me the other day about issues surrounding the ugly status bar and other toolsbars in MidnightFox. I don’t see the issues, but some Windows users do. So we worked together to iron out the problems. Along the way, I started tweaking things I no longer liked about the theme.

One of the biggest updates were all new toolbar buttons. I used the same icons I have in extero and I took some direction from Pixelmator for that’s the graphic design program I was using. I also tweaked the tabs and a few other areas to create a darker more polished version of MidnightFox.

It’s that time of the year again. Time to put up the lights, shop till you drop and dress up your Firefox with Tinseltown, a Christmas theme.

I’ve no formal update plans for Tinseltown, so I’m asking you. What would you like to see updated?

I’ve been running Tinseltown for a few days and there are no major issues that I see. But you may be seeing something that I’m overlooking. So please do share.

My latest Firefox theme, extero, has hit version 1.0 and is live and ready for your enjoyment!

extero is a gray theme with bright brilliant icons from Jonas. It was created to be just a little bit different, but nothing overboard.

Checkout extero and see what you think.

PinkHope, a breast cancer awareness theme, has been completely re-vamped and released as version 1.0. The new version goes pink big time.

I’ve been talking about making PinkHope into it’s own unique theme for a while now and I finally did it. It now sports a pink background behind the tool, address, status and tab bars. Even the background of the address and search bars is now pink.

For some, this may be a bit of a shock, but I really wanted to go big and go pink with PinkHope. I wanted something that stood out and could be seen and noticed on your computer with just a passing glance.

iPox Remix has generated a lot of interest in themes, but there are many unanswered questions out there. Here are a few that have come across my email.

1. How do I use a different image/skin for the menu bar and the bar with the address box?
The main menu bar with File, Edit, View ect. can be themed with this code:
#toolbar-menubar {
background:red;
}
#main-menubar {
background:none;
}

The URL bar can be themed with this code:
#nav-bar{
background:red;
}