New option for users of Firefox 97 and higher: Restoring the Page Setup dialog to the file menu. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1373471#answer-1523526

Hi Cobalt, I'll give you two workarounds with the details to follow:

(1) Become comfortable with entering header/footer detail in the Advanced Configuration Editor (about:config) screen.

(2) Roll back to the old school Firefox approach of separate Print/Preview/Page Setup displays.

Left, Center, and Right Header and Footer Preferences

Headers and Footers are split into three parts each of which can contain free-form text and placeholders that Firefox replaces with values computed at print time. The placeholders are:

• Title => &T (placed in Header-Left by default)
• URL => &U (placed in Header-Right by default)
• Page number of total (x of y) => &PT (placed in Footer-Left by default)
• Page number (x) => &P
• Date/Time => &D (placed in Footer-Right by default)

Here is how you can update your header and footer content for particular printers or all printers:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

Headers

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste print_h and pause while the list is filtered -- you'll see something like the first screenshot (the exact number of custom preferences depends on how many different printers you have used)

The following three preferences are the default, but any printer-specific value overrides them, allowing you to customize individual printers:

• print.print_headerleft
• print.print_headercenter
• print.print_headerright

To edit a default setting, double-click in the implicit second column (wide area to the right of the preference names before the pencil button) or click the edit button. After making changes, press Enter to save your change, or click the blue checkmark button.

To modify a setting for a particular printer (for example, print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_headerleft), you have two choices:

(A) To have Firefox use the default setting, delete the current custom setting using the trash can at the right end of the row for the custom setting.

(B) Edit the custom setting as desired.

Footers

(3) In the search box in the page, type or paste print_f and pause while the list is filtered

As with headers, the following three preferences are the default, but any printer-specific value overrides them, allowing you to customize individual printers:

• print.print_footerleft
• print.print_footercenter
• print.print_footerright

Edits work the same way for footers as they do for headers.

Roll Back Printing Changes

This preference may be removed in the future once everything is fully debugged, but it's still available for now:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste tab_mo and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the print.tab_modal.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false

After that, Print Preview and Page Setup should return to the File menu, and, well, you'll be very familiar with it.

jscher2000,

Thank you very much. Option #1 helped out when I figured out that there was a slight modification I needed to make.

• print.print_headerleft -----> print.print_headerleft.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.print_headerleft
• print.print_headercenter -----> print.print_headercenter.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.print_headercenter
• print.print_headerright -----> print.print_headerright.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.print_headerright
• print.print_footerleft -----> print.print_footerleft.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.footerleft
• print.print_footercenter -----> print.print_footercenter.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.print_footercenter
• print.print_footerright -----> print.print_footerright.Microsoft_Print_To_PDF.print_footerright

Yes, each printer can have its own settings. I should make that clearer.

Edit: I see the problem: I forgot the screenshot! Added now.

Is Firefox deeming these two workarounds as the solutions, or is work being done to bring the header/footer options to the new UI?

SDSchramm: "Is Firefox deeming these two workarounds as the solutions, or is work being done to bring the header/footer options to the new UI?"

I'm pretty sure this isn't an official Firefox workaround. Jscher2000's profile doesn't give any indication that he works with Mozilla from the quick look that I took. I'm not sure Mozilla is aware of this issue as I didn't know if this was just an issue for me or for many people and did not even think to report the issue to Mozilla yet.

I think someone needs to file a new bug. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

This is really ridiculous. So the new Save as PDF feature, which is very nice, cannot be used when the print interface is "rolled back," but unless you roll it back, you have to manipulate the page setup by hand in about:config? This really is not an improvement.

The very existence of the tab_modal option indicates that this was a deliberate decision by the developers, but I hope they quickly re-implement a UI for margins, headers, footers, and so on.

I will check out bugzilla.

Thanks!

Bugzilla has a report, but it looks like it's being misinterpreted. I'm still trying to get my Bugzilla account reactivated, but I did see that support was asking forum users to tag problems with "feedback" tags. I don't think that's available to common users like me, but maybe a mod could do it for this issue.

Thanks!

Bugzilla has a report, but it looks like it's being misinterpreted. I'm still trying to get my Bugzilla account reactivated, but I did see that support was asking forum users to tag problems with "feedback" tags.

This thread has a "PrintUI2021" tag which I mean someone is keeping track of it, since that's not one of the usual things we see.

I am new to this Support feature of Mozilla. But in reviewing several postings, on several different topics, I have frequently noted answers like the following:

"Roll Back Printing Changes - This preference may be removed in the future once everything is fully debugged, but it's still available for now:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste tab_mo and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the print.tab_modal.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false

After that, Print Preview and Page Setup should return to the File menu, and, well, you'll be very familiar with it "

So, in this context, several individuals (myself included) have expressed dissatisfaction with new changes added to the Printing Feature (and Reader View) of Firefox. Answers almost always provide what seems to be a somewhat elaborate way to return to the previous version, but with the clear provisos that these band-aid fixes "may be removed in the future once everything is fully debugged." Is this always the case and, if so, what's the point of submitting observations, requests for previous versions, etc. if they will never be acted on?? If I've misunderstood the intent, please clarify. Many thanks.

So, in this context, several individuals (myself included) have expressed dissatisfaction with new changes added to the Printing Feature (and Reader View) of Firefox. Answers almost always provide what seems to be a somewhat elaborate way to return to the previous version, but with the clear provisos that these band-aid fixes "may be removed in the future once everything is fully debugged." Is this always the case and, if so, what's the point of submitting observations, requests for previous versions, etc. if they will never be acted on?? If I've misunderstood the intent, please clarify. Many thanks.

There was a developer reviewing these threads for a couple of weeks to prioritize changes to the new interface. I don't know whether feedback is done being collected and what will end up happening in the end. Everyone has too many demands on their time so it's not very safe making predictions.

Thanks for your reply. The following was particularly insightful: "Everyone has too many demands on their time..." This is a good reminder for users (particularly new ones) that this product is supported by people volunteering their time. But perhaps that is all the more reason why caution should be exercised before implementing changes (and I don't even know how that process works, i.e., whether developers respond to specific requests to modify/revamp various features, or whether creativity spurs developers to implement changes for what is assumed will be the best.) Regardless, I understood from the outset that "it's not safe making predictions," and I have no problem with that caveat per se. My question was really the larger one, i.e., whether there is any point in submitting preferences IF the process does not accommodate them. Your first two sentences make a good run at trying to address that question and are appreciated.

These changes should not be put into production until they have feature parity with the existing/old way of doing things. For example, if Firefox changed the interface of the Print UI and it had all the same features (like changing the header and footer) then most people probably wouldn't care. Instead, Firefox changes the UI, takes away features, and then rolls it into production and waits to see who complains. That is not acceptable.

These changes should not be put into production until they have feature parity with the existing/old way of doing things. For example, if Firefox changed the interface of the Print UI and it had all the same features (like changing the header and footer) then most people probably wouldn't care. Instead, Firefox changes the UI, takes away features, and then rolls it into production and waits to see who complains. That is not acceptable.

I agree emphatically.