Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars

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Firefox's toolbars provide easy access to common features. This article explains how you can customize those toolbars to make Firefox work the way you do.

How do I show and hide the different toolbars?

It's your browser — most toolbars can be shown or hidden depending on your needs:

  • Menu Bar: This is the top toolbar that contains the browser menus (File, Edit, Help, etc.). To hide the Menu Bar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and uncheck Menu Bar.
  • Navigation Toolbar: This is the toolbar that contains website navigation buttons, the Location Bar, the Search Bar and the Home button. To hide the Navigation Toolbar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and uncheck Navigation Toolbar.
  • Tab Strip: This is where your tabs are displayed — it can't be hidden.
  • Bookmarks Toolbar: This is the toolbar that contains your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder bookmarks (for more info see, Bookmarks Toolbar - Display your favorite websites at the top of the Firefox window). To hide the Bookmarks Toolbar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and uncheck Bookmarks Toolbar.

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  • Menu Bar: This is the top toolbar that contains the browser menus (File, Edit, Help, etc.). On Windows Vista and 7, the menu bar is hidden by default and its features are contained in the Firefox button. You can switch between the Firefox button and the traditional menus by right-clicking on an empty section of the Tab Strip and unchecking or checking Menu Bar. You can also make this switch temporarily by pressing the Alt key.
  • Menu Bar: This is the top toolbar that contains the browser menus (File, Edit, Help, etc.). You can switch between the traditional menus and the Firefox button by right-clicking on an empty section of the Tab Strip and unchecking Menu Bar.
  • Tab Strip: This is where your tabs are displayed — it can't be hidden. By default, the Tab Strip is above the Navigation Toolbar. If you want it below, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and uncheck Tabs on Top.
  • Navigation Toolbar: This is the toolbar that contains website navigation buttons, the Location Bar, the Search Bar, the Home button and the Bookmarks button. To hide the Navigation Toolbar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and uncheck Navigation Toolbar.
  • Bookmarks Toolbar: This is the toolbar that contains your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder bookmarks (for more info see, Bookmarks Toolbar - Display your favorite websites at the top of the Firefox window). On new installations of Firefox, the Bookmarks Toolbar is hidden by default. To show the Bookmarks Toolbar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and check Bookmarks Toolbar.
  • Add-on Bar: This toolbar is located at the bottom of the Firefox window and contains buttons associated with your extensions (if they are made available by the add-on developer). To show or hide the Add-on Bar, right-clickcontrol-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and check or uncheck Add-on Bar. See The Add-on Bar gives you quick access to add-on features for more information.

Customize Toolbar - Win1

Adding, removing, and rearranging items

Firefox allows you to customize toolbars that appear in the browser to include additional tools, re-arrange spacing, and more. Customizing toolbars lets you re-arrange, organize, add, remove buttons or fields, and add toolbars to change your Firefox experience to suit your needs.

Items can be added or removed from the toolbars:

  1. On the right of the Tabs Bar, right-click and select Customize....On the menu bar, click View, go to Toolbars, and then select Customize.... The Customize Toolbar window will appear.
  2. Drag and drop items. For an explanation of each item, see Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.
    • To add an item to a toolbar, drag it from the Customize Toolbar window onto the toolbar where you want it to appear.
    • To remove an item from a toolbar, drag it to the Customize Toolbar window.
    • To move an item in a toolbar, drag it where you want it to appear.
  3. When you are finished making changes, click Done to close the Customize Toolbar window.



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Note: To restore the toolbars to their default settings, click Restore Default Set.


Adding, removing Toolbars

There are enough space in existing toolbars to add many items. Nevertheless, if you need more space, you can add toolbars:

  1. On the right of the Tabs Bar, right-click and select Customize....On the menu bar, click View, go to Toolbars, and then select Customize.... The Customize Toolbar window will appear.
  2. At the bottom of the Customize Toolbar window, click Add New Toolbar. The New Toolbar window will open.
  3. In the New Toolbar window, enter the name of the toolbar.
  4. Click OK to close the New Toolbar window. The toolbar will appear above the Bookmarks Toolbar.
  5. Add items to the toolbar as described above.
  6. When you are finished adding items to the toolbar, click Done to close the Customize Toolbar window.
Note 1: To show/hide it, right-click on the right of the Tabs Bar and select toolbar name.
Note 2: To remove it, you need to restore all the toolbars to their default settings by clicking Restore Default Set.


Toolbar appearance options

At the bottom of the Customize Toolbar window, there are additional options for changing the appearance of the toolbars:

  • Show. From the Show drop-down, you can choose what to display in the toolbars: Icons, Text, or Icons and Text together. By default, Firefox shows Icons.
  • Use Small Icons. To conserve screen space in the toolbar, select this option to display tools using smaller icons.


Troubleshooting

For help troubleshooting problems, see these articles.