When you’re using Firefox, the toolbar at the top of the screen is a great place to keep all your tools organized. You can see all your open tabs, bookmarks, and passwords in one place. But sometimes you want to keep some of your tools hidden away from view. That’s where compacting your toolbar comes in. compacting your toolbar will make it so only the tools you need are shown on the main screen, and it will also make it easier to find what you’re looking for. To compact your toolbar, open Firefox and click on the three lines in the top left corner of the main screen. This will take you to a menu where you can choose between compacting everything or just the toolbars that interest you.
Note: This extension can be especially nice to have for those using Netbook Computers.
Setup
Here is our example browser before installing the extension with the “Menu, Address, Bookmarks, & Tab Toolbars” showing.
After installing the extension and restarting Firefox, you will see the following message window. Select “Yes” to start enjoying that extra screen real-estate.
Once we selected “Yes” on the message window, here is how our example browser looked. The UI is already looking less cluttered!
A closer look at the new “Compact Menu & Icon”…
Curious about the mention of the “Customize Toolbar Window” in the message window? Here is how things look after selecting to display the “Compact Menu Icon”.
You can make additional changes to what displays in the “Compact Menu” using the check boxes. Notice the additional toolbar buttons that were also mentioned in the message window.
Options
The only option for the extension is for those who would like to use a different icon for their compact menus… This can be great for anyone who may have a favorite image of their children, pets, etc. that they would love to use.
Just for fun we decided to choose a custom icon for our example browser.
Note: Icon size in your toolbar may vary based on the image selected…so you may need to experiment with a few icons/images to find the one that best suites your personal needs and style. Smaller = better…
Here is our example browser after hiding the “Bookmarks Toolbar” and adding our custom button icon. Nice and compact!
Conclusion
The Compact Menu 2 extension can be a great addition to Firefox for anyone who is wanting additional screen real-estate or simply does not want to have the Menu Toolbar displayed.
Links
Download the Compact Menu 2 extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
