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How to move address bar (navigation bar) to title bar in Firefox 29?

  • 23 replies
  • 118 have this problem
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  • Last reply by DimiSp

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How to move address bar (navigation bar) to title bar in Firefox 29?

What I'm trying to achieve is to have only one bar visible in Firefox. New Firefox interface is a waste of vertical screen space for me in its default configuration. Up to Firefox 28 I could drag and drop everything to title bar with additional adjustments in userChrome.css.

I tried to use https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ but it didn't work for me. I don't want older theme anyway, I just want the same amount of customization available.

How to move address bar (navigation bar) to title bar in Firefox 29? What I'm trying to achieve is to have only one bar visible in Firefox. New Firefox interface is a waste of vertical screen space for me in its default configuration. Up to Firefox 28 I could drag and drop everything to title bar with additional adjustments in userChrome.css. I tried to use https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ but it didn't work for me. I don't want older theme anyway, I just want the same amount of customization available.

Chosen solution

Solve:

https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/?src=search

With this addon you can move the new menu button and has many other fixes. I'm trying it rith now. :-D

Read this answer in context 👍 5

All Replies (20)

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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-oneLiner/?src=external-labs1

It works for me on Mac and Firefox 29. It needs some fixes but it's ok.

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Thank you for your fast answer!

It works for me, there in one exception though. The new menu button is missing. When I get into 'Customize' mode, it remains on the bar where the url container used to be. I can't drag and drop it.

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That happens to me too. I thought it was because I use Mac. It also happens for some others icons.

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I modified OneLiner extension to add menu button to title bar. Too bad it's only an ugly hack. It breaks when 'Customize' button is clicked (it steals menu button back) and probably in other unexpected ways.

Sadly OneLiner add-on seems abandoned so I don't expect it fixed.

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Same problem, can not move the navigation bar.

I tried the add-ons "tabs on bottom" and "classic theme restorer". Now moving is possible - but it leaves an empty line under the tabs, where the navigation bar was. Still a (lesser) waste of vertical space!

edit: Solution found: Go to the settings of classic theme restorer (menu: extras). There you can "hide navigation bar" - this will hide the empty line where the navigation bar was (which is now on top beside the menu to get the most vertical space...read above)

I am still asking: You can move the search bar to the menu or title bar without add-ons, why not the navigation bar?? Mozilla, please make it possible to move the navigation bar to the menu in firefox 29! And please offer the missing symbols to customize the title/menu bar.

Modified by martin0reg

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Chosen Solution

Solve:

https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/?src=search

With this addon you can move the new menu button and has many other fixes. I'm trying it rith now. :-D

Modified by sarahsophie3000

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Settings for the Classic Theme Restorer extension are easily accessed through the menu bar: Tools->AddOns->Extensions->Classic Theme Restorer.

I am happy. I must admit, I do like the "sculptured' tabs, but the "old" tabs definitely take up less vertical space. And checking the "Hide navigation bar" box did the trick. I'm back to having title bar, menu bar, and tabs; a clean space with all that I need.

F11 Full Screen works just fine with this extension. (I use that a lot, too.)

I'll keep you posted if I have a problem.

One suggestion: Add underlined "speed keys" to your Options dialog; ALT+N maybe for "Hide navigation bar. (I'm much more productive without the mouse...!)

Thank you sarahsophie3000 for some good work.

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Thank you for sarasophie3000, mvsmith & others for work on solving this.

Just in case anyone else stubles here in search for the solution: you must have two add-ons installed:

  1. Classic Theme Restorer
  2. Tabs on Bottom

This way you can get both search-bar and address-bar to the menu-bar and get a single-line user interface to waste minimum vertical space, especially important on ultrabooks etc. with small(ish) widescreen display

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Only one more thing: Can we get CTRL+L to work again? I always used it to open a URL instead of using the location bar... for many, many, years. Don't know why it has been disabled.

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For me the CTRL+L works just as it used to: changes focus to the location bar and selects the whole address already there. So by just typing a new address it can be opened. For me this has been a consistent behavior for the time I've used FireFox.

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To motojapi: I don't display the location bar, and I recently installed the extensions "Classic Theme Restorer" and "Tabs on Bottom" to make that happen, giving me more vertical space in which to display webpages.

In previous versions of Firefox — and without displaying the location bar — I was always able to get to a website through CTRL+L, which displayed a dialog allowing me to type in a website, browse files, and decide whether I wanted Firefox to open in current tab, new tab, or new window. I think more than just myself would like that function restored to the current version 29.

I'm becoming more unhappy with v.29 as I see what it doesn't do.

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Thanks for all the posts here about how to undo the latest "Improvements" to FF. This last update to 29 was a real hoser.

Wow, thanks to all the FF developers for forcing that big fat toolbar on us. Such an "improvement".

These developers must actually work for another browser co... Seriously... How else do you explain this idiocy?

"One of the great things about Firefox is how customizable it is. " HA HA HA, that is until the developers come along with an update that undoes all your tweaks... What does it take for the FF developers to get the message?

Thanks again for the workarounds everyone.

The good part about this is that I discovered a new FANTASTIC addon = Classic Theme Restorer. The "Hide Navigation Bar" option is now on the "Main" tab of the Classic Theme Restorer options. The "Tabs on Bottom" addon was not needed for me.

Everything now on 2 thin bars.

Modified by ggg3

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I've been going back and forth about getting the "Open Location" dialog restored to FF29. Maybe sarahsophie3000 or someone else could add this enhancement as an extension? I wrote this as part of my thread about the loss of this feature:

My issue is with the FF 29 "improvements". The Open Location dialog — whether access through the File menu item or CTRL+L —has been a useful part of Firefox for many years, through more than twenty upgrades. For the developers to suddenly decide that everyone must use the location bar is a case of them not following the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The dialog was easy to use, clean in appearance, easy to navigate through, worked for opening local files as well as network locations, and disappeared when you press enter (clicked OK). Clean. Simple. Useful. Consistent.

If one of the DLLs still contains the code for the Open Location dialog, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for someone (not me, sorry) to develop an extension that would restore this. But the best solution is for the Firefox developers to restore the Open Location dialog to the next interim or minor-version release. Put it in the File item of the menu bar. Restore CTRL+L to this OpenDialog function or assign something similar.

I have done some programming in the past, but have neither the time or expertise to deal with it now.

I will also post this reply on the CTR thread. Maybe someone can take it and run with it.

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>> "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."... FF developer choices for 29 go beyond this to a kind of blatant indifference.

For example, the Addon Bar removal. Just who's experience are they trying to improve? For the new FF user, it would make little difference -- just place their addon icons elsewhere. For the loyal FF user, its like someone grabbing your PC and rearranging all your desktop icons -- WTF.

They could have just made OTHER alternatives available, but they did not do it that way, not at all.

And what did removal of the Addon Bar accomplish? Really? For anyone??

And what does forcing a big fat Navigation Bar on everyone accomplish? Other than to stick ppl with a less usable, gaudy appearance.

Hate installing addons just to compensate for developer incompetence, but at least Classic Theme Restorer is a really great addon to have.

Modified by ggg3

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the only trouble free, and permanent solution is to go back to FF28.

every "new and improved" version breaks something which requires more and more add-ins, this one takes the UI to a "my way of the highway" attitude.

its time for me to begin a hunt for another browser instead of steadily patching this one.

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Classic theme restorer does work to change the navigation bar to be on top (you need to go to it under Addons and change it there) , but why would a browser which is popular (the best in my opinion) due to customization, change such a basic thing without an option to revert it?

Anyway, FF is still far better than Chrome, etc. for power users (esp. with multiple tab rows, with TabMixPlus, the single more important ext), though its problems with "compatibility" now extends into supporting what was not made to be compatible (and excluding supporters of the original developer).

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If you have a 64bit system (hold down the Windows key and tap Pause/Break to see) you could try Waterfox 28.0.

To run more than one instance of Firefox then you need to r. click on the icon, hit Properties>Shortcut and add -no-remote -p to the end, as in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote -p "C:\Program Files\Waterfox\waterfox.exe" -no-remote -p

Then create a new profile, or choose another one you already had. You can find your Profile by going to Help>Troubleshooting information and Show folder

But you can only use one Profile at a time, therefore you make more than one. Using MozBackup you can make them the same.

Hope this does good.

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PeaceByJesus:

Question: If I run only either Firefox or Waterfox at any given time on my computer, then I don't need to add the parameters you mentioned to the program command line, right? I'm guessing that these command line parameters are only if the user is running both programs at the same time. I'm also assuming that Waterfox uses the same profile folder and files that Firefox uses from the same location on the hard drive (or does one of the command-line parameters take care of that?)

The Waterfox download page warns that both programs use the same profile (in my case, I have only one profile and have no need to add another). If I run both with the command parameters you suggest (which, I'm hoping, I can put directly into the Start Menu item Preferences command line, rather than that in the desktop icon shortcut), can I just copy my entire profile folder to whatever location Waterfox creates? (Don't worry; I'm pretty savvy at using QuickFinder, or even on occasion the good-ol' command line [did a lot of that in the DOS days... ah, those were the days.)

My major problem is with Adobe Flash and, I'm pretty sure, Java (I'm running Win8.1... ugghh!!!! which doesn't seem to Java the same way previous versions of Win-OS did), and I'm hoping that 64-bit versions of these two plug-ins combined with Waterfox will fix that problem. Memory allocation by Mozilla rather than Java also seems like it might be a plus.

And it'll be good to have my Open Location dialog back again, too...  :-)

But I don't want to chance a poor installation on my part. I would like to wait for a response from you about the above before proceeding. In addition, if you could, please define what each of the command-line parameters does.

Many thanks!

Modified by MarkVictor

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It is not recommended to use the same profile folder with different Firefox versions, so best is to create a separate profile for Waterfox.

See:

You can add -no-remote to the command line to open another Firefox instance with its own profile and run multiple Firefox instances simultaneously.

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Thank you for the recommendations and links. I should be able to take it from here. Let's see how I do...  :-)

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