1409797 - Organisation of Page actions and Customize

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1407972

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, enhancement)

Description

[nicolas m]

The “Page actions” menu of the Address Bar introduced in v57 is very useful and the ability to pin actions as icons in the bar is a nice complement to the traditional Customize features for toolbars. 

Here is what I can see in it right now:
* Bookmark This Page
* Save Page to Pocket
---
* Copy Link
* Email Link
* Send Tab to Device
* Take a Screenshot
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Report Site Issue

They are all contextual actions which has to do with the URL in displayed nearby, so it all makes sense.

But there are other pages actions available in Customize mode:
* Subscribe
* Email Link (again)
* Save Page
* Print

Here it stars to be confusing: while subscribing lives in a toolbar, bookmarking is in the Address Bar? Printing and Take a Screenshot are close enough features, but they are also separated?

(There are also tools that act on the display page content: Find, Zoom Controls, and in some way Edit Controls. A zoom indicator can also appear in the Address Bar. The Reader Mode icon also appear there when useful, though it is nowhere else be it on Pages actions or Customize)

The other items in Customize or already in the toolbars have to do with piloting the browser and opening menus so they are fine there.

I believe some of these items could be moved around so that it all makes sense. Of course while keeping in mind users’ current habits and customizations.

For instance:
* Subscribe, Save Page, and Print can be moved to Page actions and removed from Customise. If a user previously had them in their toolbar, then pin them in the Address bar.
* Subscribe should behave like Reader mode and only appear when available.
* In the Page actions Subscribe and Reader mode may be greyed out if unavailable (making them accessible to pin and unpin to the Address bar) or behave like the current Reader mode button and exist only as occasional icons.

There are many ways to consider, some more radical and logical, some being compromises, but I think some step in these directions would be beneficial. Address bar for every actions about the opened page, toolbars for every actions for browsing.

(the original bug was going to be “Add Subscribe in the Address bar” but got bigger while I was looking into it!)

Comment 1

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

Thanks for these suggestions. Duping to bug 1407972 which has a plan to add page actions to the customize UI. Please add notes there if you think that bug doesnt capture all the detail you have listed here.