I can't read the instructions to remove the side bar. It is taking up too much room on my screen.

Hi Diane, do you have the Sidebars button on your toolbar? You can use that to open/close the sidebar.

Starting in a recent version, the sidebar has a new design that has a persistent vertical button bar on the left edge of the browser called the launcher. If you want to get rid of the button bar:

On the Settings page, slowly type side into the tiny search box to filter the listed settings. This should bring the "Browser Layout" section to the top.

Un-check (clear) the checkbox for "Show sidebar". That should remove the launcher.