problems with search and address bar size, website pages look odd

Hi. Finally Firefox 5.0.1 has downloaded successfully thanks to MajorGeeks. Now have some other problems. I have always had just one large, long narrow window at the top of the page from which I could search. I just type in a word or phrase and off I go. Then a page comes up with results. Just upgraded browsers because of some problems, and both IE7 and Firefox 5.0.1 have a large address bar, and a tiny search box to the right, both at top of page. I need only a search box. How can I get a large,long narrow search box at the top of the page, and eliminate or at least minimize the darn address bar. The address bar seems to me to be superfluous, but there it is, far larger than the search bar.I do alot of information researching, and this does NOT work for me at all. Also, in IE7 if you don't type in the right address in address bar, bing or msn take over your search, inspite of google set as my default search engine.
As well, in both browsers my web pages look weird; for example, on this site the letters are tiny, and I can't find anything to change website fonts on the browsers.
Would appreciate any help.
Thanks, Sheena

 

Maybe something like the Fx Add-on "Omnibar": https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/ might fit the bill. If you want to try it, you will need to open that page in Fx and click the "Download Now" button to install it.

I haven't tried this particular add-on so can't say one way or the other if it would work for you.

Pressing the [Ctrl] and the [+] keys will enlarge the font, [Ctrl] and the [-] keys will make it smaller and [Ctrl] and the [0] keys will set it back to default size. That [0] is a zero not an oh.

 

In my FX 5.0 (actually PaleMoon), if I click and hold the separator between the Address and Search boxes, I can drag and modify the size of both. Drag to the left, Search gets bigger, drag to the right and the Address bar increases.

 

A much better solution indeed. Many thanks satrow, because of your suggestion I found a similar feature in Opera.

Sheena, some Fx add-ons you might want to take a look at.

• NoSquint to deal with your "my web pages look weird" issue. This works great for setting the font size on a site by site basis and keeping those settings long term(session to session).
• Since you're doing "alot of information researching", the W.O.T.(Web Of Trust) add-on, while not infallible, is at least a moderate indicator of which sites are safe to visit.
• NoScript can be troublesome at first but stick with it. NoScript is a big plus in your security arsenal.:major