256872 - Bookmark Manager Toolbar Should Be Customizable

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement)

Description

[Kevin Driver]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040823 Firefox/0.9.1+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040823 Firefox/0.9.1+

When opening the bookmark manager, the user is presented with a window with a
toolbar consisting of large icons with textual descriptions underneath.  This
toolbar should be customizable like the navigation toolbar in Firefox.  There
should be small icons and the option to remove text.  Thunderbird implements
this correctly in the "Compose" window (you are able to customize that in
addition to the main TB toolbar).

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks
2.Right click or click "View"
3.No customize option present.

Actual Results:  
I am unable to customize the bookmark manager toolbar.

Expected Results:  
This toolbar should be customizable like the navigation toolbar in Firefox. 
There should be small icons and the option to remove text.

Comment 1

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

Only project drivers should be setting blocking flags; at best, you can request
a bug be looked at for flagging with ?.  This isn't PR material, and
unfortunately might not even be 1.0 material.

Comment 2

[Kevin Driver]

This bug applies to the 1.0 branch and to the trunk firefox builds.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Not a blocker.  I don't know if there's value in this, non-primary windows don't
really need extra customization UI.  But in any case, not something that we're
going to make time for now.

Comment 4

[Kevin Driver]

I understand the point about non-primary windows, but it seems like if
Thunderbird does it, then shouldn't Firefox?  

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

That's a weak argument.  What another app doesn't set the rules for Firefox.

The Read/Compose windows in Thunderbird are primary windows in a sense, also
there's additional UI elements that aren't on by default, so customization of
what is a much more complex UI is more important.

There isn't extra buttons to be had for BM, and I can't think of anything that'd
be really useful anyway.  In fact, the current UI isn't that great to begin
with, but its what we have.  I don't see the value in customizing toolbars for
managers etc.  Why not have UI for customizing the prefwindow while you're at it?

As a note, small icons are a false economy.  Fitts' Law is a truth we need to
balance at all times.

Comment 6

[Kevin Driver]

I don't mean to be argumentative, so I hope you aren't taking it that way.  I'm
not asking for "extra buttons" for the BookmarkManager UI.  I just want to be
able to turn off text and shrink the icons like I can in the main firefox
window.  Just for consistancy's sake.  I understand the argument that this is
not a "primary window" so the user might need the labels and large buttons to
understand what's going on, but at one time you COULD remove the text and shrink
the icons in the BookmarkManager, so I view not being able to do that anymore as
a bug.  

Plus I think that for a "non-Options" window, you should be able to do that to
have a consistant UI.  The options window is a dialog rather than something that
accomplishes a task like the browser window or the bookmark manager.  That's
just my opinion on the matter.  

There seem to be at least a few others interested in this bug, so perhaps they
could offer their opinions on why they are watching it.  

Comment 7

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Consistency is overrated.  Small icons, no text, was never an option that I can
recall in Firefox/Firebird/Phoenix.  Its not something we would have spent time
removing without making the UI better in the meantime.

Bookmarks Manager isn't going to be used enoguh to benefit from customization by
the _vast_ majority of users.  I could of course see a viable
extension/userChrome hack that achieves this, but carrying extra code/graphics
for this doesn't seem viable/useful to enough people.  Improving the UI to a
fixed setup seems far more viable to me.

Note that Help Viewer currently does allow this, but I intend to whack this in
the medium-term future.

Marking WONTFIX, I just can't justify the extra theming/css/code that would be
required to support this.

Comment 8

[Kevin Driver]

Attachment: Shows inconsistency in UI of toolbar buttons.

Comment 9

[Kevin Driver]

Sorry for the emails that went out with the image attachement.  I didn't realize
it would do that.  I was just looking back through some bugs and added a picture
to this one for posterity.  

Comment 10

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

*** Bug 317531 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Elmar Ludwig]

*** Bug 323538 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Kevin Driver]

I think this bug should be re-examined now in this time-frame, in light of the new theme changes.  

It applies to the new theme as well.  

Comment 13

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Customization isn't necessary here, the original decision was not related to the theme, and there is no reason to change this because we've revved the theme.

Comment 14

[Ryan Hayle]

I would argue that this should be re-opened as an RFE, at least.  I -don't- think the bookmarks menu should be customisable, I just think that it should follow the value that you specifically set when you customised the Firefox toolbar to begin with.  If that is set to no text labels, then bookmarks should not show them either.  This doesn't require any other theme or css changes, even if you don't include an extra set of small icons.

It should be a trivial change, shouldn't it?  The lack of consistency DOES look bad and unpolished.

FYI--this is a dupe of bug 190411 which has 20 votes.

Comment 15

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs, filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change