287686 - The ability to drag bookmarks from the "Bookmarks Toolbar" to a custom toolbar causes confusion

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, defect)

Description

[Prakash Mehrotra]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050323 Firefox/1.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050323 Firefox/1.0+

This is a design issue. During customization, one can drag the "Bookmarks Folder
Items" from the "Bookmarks Toolbar" or the 'Customize toolbar' dialog to any
other custom toolbar. This is fine, but the consequence of this is that it
causes confusion to the user later.

If now one deselects the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' from View > Toolbars, one still can
see the bookmarks. We know why it is there, but does it make sense?

If the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' is a special toolbar which cannot be deleted and is
bound to the items in the 'Bookmarks Toolbar Folder' which also cannot be
deleted, then why allow bookmarks to be placed on any other custom toolbar.

The attached screenshot gives a picture of this confusion.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Prakash Mehrotra]

Attachment: Toolbar confusion screenshot

Comment 2

[TimoT]

I don't see what's the problem here, the menu item clearly says bookmarks
toolbar, why should it affect bookmarks? It does exactly what it says,
hides/unhides the toolbar.

Comment 3

[Prakash Mehrotra]

Very correct technically; but please think from a normal user perspective.

In the attached screenshot, one can see bookmarks (because they have been
dragged into a custom toolbar), while the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' which is a special
toolbar designed to HOLD bookmarks has been unchecked.

By definition, the 'Bookmarks toolbar' is special and cannot be deleted.

This is no technical BUG, but a design problem. Its a question of what should be
allowed and what not? Why do we have the bookmarks toolbar? Why is it special?
 

Comment 4

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

I don't think the average user creates custom toolbars. Even if they did, what
would be the point of dragging bookmarks into them, and then hiding the original
bookmarks toolbar?
Even if all of this happened, it's not very likely that the user would feel
confused about it, since he/she purposely performed all the actions leading to it.

Comment 5

[Prakash Mehrotra]

Its true that not many people do this kind on things and that is the reason why
this problem persists (because it was not even tried during QA).

A very simple solution is to NOT allow the bookmarks to be dragged from the
bookmarks toolbar. Its fixed because the  BOOKMARKS toolbar IS speacial and so
are the bookmarks. They always stay on the SPECIAL TOOLBAR designed exclusively
for them.

Don't you think this solution would remove all confusion (even if 100 people out
of 81 million attempted to do so) and make FX even better.

Comment 6

[pierre pracht]

Attachment: Not a bug, a functionality

Please, don't change this.

Lost people can hit : "Restore Default Set" button.

Comment 7

[Bjartur Thorlacius]

(In reply to comment #5)
> A very simple solution is to NOT allow the bookmarks to be dragged from the
> bookmarks toolbar. Its fixed because the  BOOKMARKS toolbar IS special and so
> are the bookmarks. They always stay on the SPECIAL TOOLBAR designed exclusively
> for them.
That would simply be bad. I'm an example of an user who dragges the bookmarks from the bookmarks toolbar and to the navbar and disallowing that would be pointless.
Allowing the bookmarks toolbar to be deleted on the hand would allow the user to fix the problem himself (he'll probably be advanced enough).

Comment 8

[Nagy Istvan]

I use this to make smaller the controls and bigger the useful interface. A simple row is the menu, control icons, adress bar, google search and bookmarks toolbar.

If all time when run firefox, go to customize toolbars and close without any modification ff show the toolbar items.

Comment 9

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.3 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode

Comment 10

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.3 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.

Comment 11

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.3 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.