Bigger back button extension for Firefox
April 8th, 2005 by 
Phil
A little while ago I wrote some CSS that applied Fitt’s Law to make the back button in Firefox bigger.
At the time, someone said I should make it an extension, and I did (based on Chu Yeow’s “making unred tabs obvious” extension), but forgot all about it.
It wasn’t until my Firefox installation got corrupted and I had to do a clean re-install that I realise how utterly vital it is, and I became really glad that I had made it an extension. Jeez – how do people cope with that insanely small back button? It’s crazy!
So, here it is: Install Fitts’ Back Button.
Nice. Have you created a u.m.o developer account and added this there yet?
Posted by Chu Yeow on July 30th, 2005 at 2:09 pmNo, I didn’t even think about it! I suppose I should do really. I’ll put it on my “todo” list.
Good to see you back
Posted by Pip on July 30th, 2005 at 11:58 pmI didn’t think this extention would be useful. I use small icons and compact themes which makes everything really small, and when I installed this it only made my overused back button bigger – which is FANTASTIC. Good work.
Posted by Caja on August 11th, 2005 at 5:23 pmAny chance you can update it so that it works up through 1.5?
Posted by Andrew Cory on September 10th, 2005 at 1:21 amYes, I’ll do that very soon. Also, if you enabled comments on your blog, I could point out some errors you’ve made in your post about Linux.
Posted by Pip on September 10th, 2005 at 11:24 amWell, if they’re over 10 days old, I only seem to get spam. But if you want to Email me, I’d post them up as a rebuttal…
Posted by Andrew Cory on September 15th, 2005 at 1:21 amI’ve just put up a new version. You should just be able to use the normal extension update system to get it, otherwise you’ll have to uninstall it and reinstall.
Posted by Pip on September 16th, 2005 at 12:15 pmGreat! Thanks. Maybe you should try to add it to the official extensions page.
Posted by wovawi on October 11th, 2005 at 6:53 pmThere is another extension that utilizes Fitt’s law for a similar effect – milewideback.
Posted by Leo on November 9th, 2005 at 3:14 amThe whole left edge of the browser’s window becomes a 1px thin Back button.
It is sadly not availbable for 1.5
Thanks Leo. Yes, I’d seen it when I came to write this extension and it’s a good use of Fitt’s Law; I tried it for a bit but I think I prefer the back button – otherwise I just forget!
Posted by Pip on November 9th, 2005 at 10:25 amVery nice extension for Firefox! I like it very much, but I’m missing it in FF 1.5.
Posted by Anonymous on November 30th, 2005 at 6:11 pmWhen will there be an update, so that the bigger back button will also be availabe in FF 1.5?
Er, it should work in 1.5 already. It may not update itself automatically – I’ve not really tested that part of it very much, but if you just reinstall, it should work.
Posted by Pip on November 30th, 2005 at 6:51 pmGreat extension – I only have a few extensions on my new laptop and this is one of them!
Posted by Anonymous on March 12th, 2006 at 9:41 pmexcellent! that’s really great to hear! it’s always one of the first things I install on a new Firefox installation!
Posted by Pip on March 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm7/14/2006 – I have just updated to the Beta 2.0 of FF. Will you be updating the bigger Back Button for it? (Sometime soon, I hope.)
Posted by rteller on July 14th, 2006 at 8:08 amYes, I just updated to FF2 at home, so I will be updating the extension soon.
Posted by Pip on July 14th, 2006 at 10:22 amYes please.
We need the (so useful) Fitt Back Button for firefox 2.0.
Posted by Anonymous on August 31st, 2006 at 10:29 pmNot compatible with 2.0b2 just released. I miss my back button!!! Thanks
Posted by Anonymous on September 1st, 2006 at 5:10 pmI found a bug when Colorzilla is enabled. If I goto Customise… my toolbar and then save (even if I don’t make any changes to my toolbar), the menu options File etc. are disabled (greyed out).
I can’t even get to Customise… by right-clicking on the toolbar as that option is disabled as well. Strange!
This was in FF 1.5.0.7 at home.
Posted by Anonymous on October 23rd, 2006 at 3:10 pmOf course, I mean this here Bigger Back Button extension WITH Colorzilla enabled together is when I get the bug.
Posted by Anonymous on October 23rd, 2006 at 3:11 pmscary.
no idea why though! will try and recreate tomorrow.
Posted by Pip on October 23rd, 2006 at 4:44 pmHi, I’ve just updated to the newly released Firefox 2, but your extension isn’t compatible
It’s amazing how much I got used to having a big back button and how much I miss it now!
Thanks for such a simple but useful extension. I hope you have time to update it soon!
Posted by Anonymous on November 4th, 2006 at 8:02 pmOK, sorry this has taken me so long to get around to. Installing from scratch or updating by hand should both work now, upgrading you to version 0.12 of Fitts’ Back Button.
Posted by Pip on November 6th, 2006 at 12:07 amVersion 1.02 still doesn’t work over here. I am using a BonEcho build of Firefox 2.0 with the Firefox (default) theme.
Posted by AlexK on November 7th, 2006 at 9:06 amIf you uninstall and then reinstall it really should work.
There’s a possibility of course that you have an older version cached, so you might want to try clearing that out too (that’s been a problem for a couple of people so far already).
Posted by Pip on November 7th, 2006 at 9:43 amHow do I do that cache cleaning? I tried to look for it in the Mozilla Knowledge base but am not sure what is the right procedure.
Deleting the extensions.cache file?
Posted by AlexK on November 7th, 2006 at 10:29 amTools -> Clear private data -> Cache
should do it I reckon.
Posted by Pip on November 7th, 2006 at 12:08 pmNope, that didn’t fix it.
Works with the non-default theme, though.
Posted by AlexK on November 8th, 2006 at 11:18 amIt’s working OK for me… Thanks! I’m running Firefox 2.0 as released on the “Get Firefox” site. Never used a beta version of Firefox.
Posted by markcart on November 13th, 2006 at 12:25 amvery useful and I’ve relied on it for quite a while now…why isn’t it available on the main addons page/
Posted by Anonymous on November 18th, 2006 at 1:50 amBecause I’ve been too lazy. I’ll put it there today, have got an account already.
Posted by Pip on November 18th, 2006 at 11:46 amDude, I’ve discovered that this doesn’t work for Mac FF!
Posted by Chao Xian on April 5th, 2007 at 1:50 pmDamn! You can help me debug it when I get back from holiday.
Posted by Phil Wilson on April 6th, 2007 at 4:46 pmNice extension. Seems to work well on FF 2.0.0.3. Kudos.
Posted by Anonymous on April 26th, 2007 at 2:39 pm