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Why can't the menus from the menu bar be moved to another toolbar?

  • 28 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by TheOldFox

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Hi,

In previous versions of Firefox, I used to move all the navigation bar items to the menu bar.

But now that the tabs can be at the very top of the window, which saves some useless space (great work there guys), I have to hide the menu bar to use it (and use the Firefox button).

Since I cannot find all options that I used to find in the menus in the Firefox button (it has less details and I have an additional module - ScrapBook - adding a menu to the traditional menus), I tried to move the menus to the navigation bar so I can use both at the same time. It seems that I cannot move the menus anywhere else than in the menu bar... Why? I don't see any reason for the menus not to be moveable as other items.

It would give a possibility to use both old (and extensive) menus and the new button at the same time.

Thanks.

Hi, In previous versions of Firefox, I used to move all the navigation bar items to the menu bar. But now that the tabs can be at the very top of the window, which saves some useless space (great work there guys), I have to hide the menu bar to use it (and use the Firefox button). Since I cannot find all options that I used to find in the menus in the Firefox button (it has less details and I have an additional module - ScrapBook - adding a menu to the traditional menus), I tried to move the menus to the navigation bar so I can use both at the same time. It seems that I cannot move the menus anywhere else than in the menu bar... Why? I don't see any reason for the menus not to be moveable as other items. It would give a possibility to use both old (and extensive) menus and the new button at the same time. Thanks.

Chosen solution

teagish:

tagish said: I am not seeing an image in your latest post so I will assume you changed the one from the "29/11/13 12:47" post.
Answer: That is the image that I was referencing.

Here is a broad overview of Australis as it stands now (there is little other information available as we are almost half a year from Release and the Release date can always be pushed back if needed) - https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2013/11/australis-is-landing-in-firefox-nightly
To download Australis - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-ux/

  • Set up a separate profile for each version of Firefox including Australis to avoid corrupting your profile -

Keep in mind that Australis is in a pre-Alpha stage, is not intended for the average user, is for testing purposes only at this time, is not totally stable or secure for daily use, and is subject to changes on a nightly basis.

Keep in mind that anything, including the answers that I have given you above this post, within this post, and below this post (if that should occur) are subject to change as developers receive feedback and if they decide to make a change.

I would suggest that you wait until the Australis interface is closer to release to ask specific questions; perhaps wait until it is in the Aurora channel in a few weeks, then download and install it, and use the Firefox menu Help > Submit Feedback to send your comments to the developers. They will NOT respond to your comments, but they will read them.

  1. The throbber is no longer available. Maybe an add-on will be developed later.
  2. Moving supplied Home, Download and combined Bookmark this page/Display bookmarks is possible and they may be moved to the left of the URL/Location bar. It appears that the 3-bar button (with user-customizable content) is NOT movable and can NOT be hidden. Note that the Bookmark this page/Display bookmarks button is current "paired" and can only be moved as a unit.
  3. URL/Location Bar and Search Bar can NOT currently be removed or hidden. In fact, the Navigation Toolbar can no longer be hidden. It is my understanding that the URL/Location bar is now a single unit that includes the Go/Stop/Reload button and the Back/Forward button and the Go/Stop/Reload button components and the Back/Forward button can NOT be separated from the URL/Location bar. There have been many questions on the forum where users have hidden or removed those items and it causes huge problems for them.
  4. Read carefully as I have included in one of my previous posts. Currently the default installation of Australis places the Menu Bar at the left end of the Windows title bar with the minimize, mazimize, close buttons at the right side of that title bar. The Menu Bar is NOT currently movable but may be turned off and temporarily displayed by pressing the ALT key or the F10 key in Windows. The Menu Bar may be replaced using the Classic Theme Restorer add-on (click on link where mentioned in a previous post above) to show the Firefox button. It is supposed to show the Firefox button in the title bar, but currently shows it below the title bar, thus taking one more vertical line of space. Currently the Menu Bar, when displayed takes up a few more pixels vertically than it needs; hopefully that will be fixed.
  5. The default installation currently displays the Menu Bar (where the left part of the Windows title bar was previously), the Tabs, and the Navigation Toolbar.

Some add-ons will most likely be developed to allow users to change some, but not all, of the interface changes. Classic Theme Restorer has already been mentioned above and I have used it to change the look of my working installed version of Australis 28.0a1.

Let's please wait and see what develops rather than guessing what might happen and/or making decisions based on the current pre-Alpha of Australis.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (20)

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Hit the Alt key when you want to see the Menu Bar.

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Hum that is interesting... But not exactly what I was searching for.

Is there any reason to forbid menus to be moved from the menu bar, like any other item?

Thanks again.

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I have never used it, but you can try the following add-on:


You need to check and update your Plugins as needed.

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Thanks for the hint but even the addon tells that it is possible to do what I want I was not able to move the menu items...

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You can do the opposite and drag other items on the menu bar to the left or right of the current items.

Note that you can not hide the menu bar anymore because you can't click buttons if you bring up the hidden menu bar via Alt or F10.

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Thanks for your answer but what you describe is what I was previously doing.

But when doing this, the tabs cannot be moved to the top of the window like they are when the menu bar is hidden, which takes more space since the tab bar has its own line in the UI.

With this question, I am searching a way to use the new UI (tabs in the window bar) *and* have the menus at the right of the navigation items.

I am just wondering why can't the menus be moved to other bars than the menu bar, like any other item... This would definitively allow me to do what I want to do.

In a customizable design I think that being able to move any item anywhere would be the logical way to go but maybe I am missing something.

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You would have to use an extension to have the menus on another toolbar.

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Yeah this was suggested previously by TheOldFox.

At the moment, it doesn't seem to work. Maybe it will work with an update...

Anyway, since there does not seem to be a reason for the actual behaviour, I think that this question becomes a suggestion to the developers to enable menus to be moved from the menu bar for future versions.

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Don't wait for an update to have a feature like that to be added to Firefox, just be thankful for the customize features that are now present in Firefox 25. Come Firefox 28 (or 29) when the new Australis user interface hits Release almost all the current customize functionality is going away.

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Hum that is regrettable. I think that customization gave a great advantage of Firefox over other browsers (it was the only one really customizable).

I also though that it was something that Firefox was bragging about.

I hope that, over time, customization options will get back over the new Australis user interface too.

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teagish:

The image below shows the default interface for Australis with no extensions added. The Menu Bar is in the title bar along with the minimize, maximize, close buttons in standard windows interface. Be forwarned, the default interface could change before the release of Australis.

I wanted some of the other items currently present in Firefox 25-27, so I installed the add-on Classic Theme Restorer .

  • It helps restore configuration that I am accustomed to, like
    • ability to add a toolbar in the top display for add-on icons so that the Navigation Toolbar in Firefox 28 is not so crowded
    • the add-on bar at the bottom
    • the Firefox button in the upper left
    • I currently have the windows title bar also in Australis with the Firefox button under it which may be caused by another add-on that I installed

According to the page for Personal Titlebar , it is currently compatible with Firefox 23 forward. No guarantee that it will stay that way, though.

Modified by TheOldFox

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Thanks for the hints. I hope that it is still possible to have only two toolbars visible with Australis (i.e. put the tabs or the location items in the windows title bar), this is what I like of the current layout.

I am a bit nervous to see what "improved customization" means (seen on http://getaustralis.com ), after having read the answer from the-edmeister. I hope it is not a marketing way to say that the old customization we like is not possible anymore but that there are still (less) customization possible.

Anyway, we'll see.

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You can still do some customizations and move things around and place items on the menu bar, but you can't create new toolbars.

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Ok. Then I hope that the menus can be moved outside of the menu bar, like I wanted into this question! ;)

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teagish:

Please look at the image that I posted again. The menu bar has been moved in the Australis default installation into the space previously occupied by the title bar/Firefox icon. The Firefox icon is no longer displayed even with the menu bar turned off in Australis. What will you need to move? Australis will limit or prohibit the installation of many or most 3rd-party toolbars into the Australis interface. There may be future add-ons that could allow changes to the interface.

Just a correction to a previous comment by someone else, you CAN create one blank toolbar line with Classic Theme Restorer that the user may place add-on icons, and possibly other icons on. I have already done that, and it works.

Modified by TheOldFox

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In Australis you have instead of the Firefox menu button a special 3-bar button at the right end of the Navigation Toolbar that open a customizable menu where you also can place icons that you do not need to have directly on the toolbar.
This special drop down menu also has the Quit/Exit and Customize menu entries.

Note that you can still press the F10 key or tap the Alt key to bring up the hidden "Menu Bar" temporarily.

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Hi guys,

Thanks again for your feedback.

To TheOldFox: I am not seeing an image in your latest post so I will assume you changed the one from the "29/11/13 12:47" post.

From this image, the first thing I would try to customize is:

  • Use small icons in the navigation bar.
  • Move the following buttons at the left of the location field (where addresses are entered), in that order:
    • home button
    • stop/refresh button
    • activity indicator (if it still exists)
  • Remove the search field
  • At the right of the location field, I would keep the downloading icon and the 3-bar button and remove other icons (i.e. icons I do not use for navigation).
  • I would move the menus from the menu bar to the right of all icons I kept from the navigation bar.
  • I would hide the menu bar (to keep only two visible toolbars - hoping the windows title bar would contain the first visible toolbar).

I hope my description is clear enough.

Modified by teagish

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You can no longer use small icons on the Navigation Toolbar and also some icons are locked in the location bar container and can't be moved either and that includes the Back and Forward buttons and Stop and Reload buttons.
So you can move items that are customizable to a different position on the Navigation Toolbar.
I.e. you can move the Home button to the far left, but not between the Forward button and the location bar.
You can see what happens when you move the location bar to the tab bar for instance.
The throbber (activity indicator) is gone, so you only have the throbber on the current tab and have a Stop button on the location bar.
The menus can't be moved and you need to access items via the three bar button menu that replaces the old Firefox menu button.
You can bring up the menu bar in the usual way, either via Alt or F10 if you need access.

You can use this extension to have separate Stop and Reload buttons and Back/Forward buttons available in customize mode, see the options of the extension to enable some features.

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Chosen Solution

teagish:

tagish said: I am not seeing an image in your latest post so I will assume you changed the one from the "29/11/13 12:47" post.
Answer: That is the image that I was referencing.

Here is a broad overview of Australis as it stands now (there is little other information available as we are almost half a year from Release and the Release date can always be pushed back if needed) - https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2013/11/australis-is-landing-in-firefox-nightly
To download Australis - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-ux/

  • Set up a separate profile for each version of Firefox including Australis to avoid corrupting your profile -

Keep in mind that Australis is in a pre-Alpha stage, is not intended for the average user, is for testing purposes only at this time, is not totally stable or secure for daily use, and is subject to changes on a nightly basis.

Keep in mind that anything, including the answers that I have given you above this post, within this post, and below this post (if that should occur) are subject to change as developers receive feedback and if they decide to make a change.

I would suggest that you wait until the Australis interface is closer to release to ask specific questions; perhaps wait until it is in the Aurora channel in a few weeks, then download and install it, and use the Firefox menu Help > Submit Feedback to send your comments to the developers. They will NOT respond to your comments, but they will read them.

  1. The throbber is no longer available. Maybe an add-on will be developed later.
  2. Moving supplied Home, Download and combined Bookmark this page/Display bookmarks is possible and they may be moved to the left of the URL/Location bar. It appears that the 3-bar button (with user-customizable content) is NOT movable and can NOT be hidden. Note that the Bookmark this page/Display bookmarks button is current "paired" and can only be moved as a unit.
  3. URL/Location Bar and Search Bar can NOT currently be removed or hidden. In fact, the Navigation Toolbar can no longer be hidden. It is my understanding that the URL/Location bar is now a single unit that includes the Go/Stop/Reload button and the Back/Forward button and the Go/Stop/Reload button components and the Back/Forward button can NOT be separated from the URL/Location bar. There have been many questions on the forum where users have hidden or removed those items and it causes huge problems for them.
  4. Read carefully as I have included in one of my previous posts. Currently the default installation of Australis places the Menu Bar at the left end of the Windows title bar with the minimize, mazimize, close buttons at the right side of that title bar. The Menu Bar is NOT currently movable but may be turned off and temporarily displayed by pressing the ALT key or the F10 key in Windows. The Menu Bar may be replaced using the Classic Theme Restorer add-on (click on link where mentioned in a previous post above) to show the Firefox button. It is supposed to show the Firefox button in the title bar, but currently shows it below the title bar, thus taking one more vertical line of space. Currently the Menu Bar, when displayed takes up a few more pixels vertically than it needs; hopefully that will be fixed.
  5. The default installation currently displays the Menu Bar (where the left part of the Windows title bar was previously), the Tabs, and the Navigation Toolbar.

Some add-ons will most likely be developed to allow users to change some, but not all, of the interface changes. Classic Theme Restorer has already been mentioned above and I have used it to change the look of my working installed version of Australis 28.0a1.

Let's please wait and see what develops rather than guessing what might happen and/or making decisions based on the current pre-Alpha of Australis.

Modified by TheOldFox

more options

You should be able to move the search bar around (I have no difficulty doing this).

If you want to check out the latest developments then you can look at the UX version:

As always, use a separate profile for each version and use a desktop shortcut that launches each version with its own profile (-P "profile name")

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