Compact Your Menu Toolbar into a Single Button in Firefox

Do you wish there was a way to reduce the user interface in Firefox to get some precious screen real-estate back? Now you can with the Compact Menu 2 extension.

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)

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This article was originally written on 10/21/09 Tagged with: Firefox

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Comments (6)

1. October 21, 2009 1:37 am
   **Juanito**

   Great! I use Tiny Menu. More options and very customizable

2. October 21, 2009 2:23 am
   Enzer Milliard

   I had dragged all my buttons and bars up to the “menubar” where the file, bookmarks, etc are (I did this a long time ago, so it looks like the after picture but with the file, bookmarks, etc still there) and it disabled it, but a quick right click and rechecking of the “menubar” in the list and a quick customization and I’m liking the new look. I use the All-in-One Sidebar, so I tend to not use those buttons to often and it’s quite nice to have them gone (even though I have a high resolution monitor so space isn’t an issue).

   What I would really like is a way to make the top bar, the tabs, and the status bar (perhaps even the scrollbar, seeing as I have a scroll wheel on my mouse and even if I notice it’s not there I subconsciously scroll anyway sometimes) all disappear, but I want to keep my taskbar (I know pressing F11 does this, except the taskbar disappears). Maybe even something that replaces quicksearch (if you randomly start typing on a website you’ll start searching) with a quick addressbar… okay now I think I asked for everyhing lol.

   Bottom line: it works, and works well (as of a few minutes of using it), I approve.

3. October 21, 2009 12:17 pm
   biesiad

   I like it.

4. October 21, 2009 2:42 pm
   0zSpitt

   this is a cool one. i use hide menubar but this saves having to hit alt to show the menubar

5. October 21, 2009 6:25 pm
   AltruiSisu

   My menu bar since FF3 hit: http://i37.tinypic.com/1zg5gzt.jpg

   (puzzle piece is ‘addons’ and the star is a button drop-down menu for my bookmarks)

   I love being able to keep things simple and out of the way. Good tips here, Geek, especially for those who didn’t know they could do this.

6. October 26, 2009 3:33 am
   nate_rio

   If you’re a fan of cleanliness then you might appreciate Menu Editor 1.2.6 (available as an extension for Firefox). I use it to remove the crap that I have buttons for so I don’t have to scroll through menus. Removing them is nice because they’re usually available somewhere else easier or I simply never use them and they clog up my browser with useless messiness. I also remove items from my right-click context menu so it doesn’t stretch the full length of my screen and force me to scroll up and down for the few things I use from it.

   I would like to see How-To Geek review it sometime.