496848 - Minimize vertical space taken up by Firefox chrome

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 499204

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Gordon Grigor]

Several platform designs for Firefox Netbooks are using 1024x600 displays, which have minimal vertical space on the display.

Reducing the number of rows at the top of the Firefox UI will contribute to the visible space for the web page on the display.

This bug is tracking this feature to have a single row of features including the menu's buttons, and URL, reducing the number of rows at the top of Firefox from 4 to 2 (i.e. one for window bar, 2nd for menu's / site navigation).

Comment 1

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

There are a couple of things we can do easily; we could change the defaults to:

  - Use small icons for the toolbar
  - Move the bookmarks into the menu bar (to the right of the menus)
    - or, merge the menu bar and the location bar/toolbar

That would drop us down to 2 small strips at the top instead of 2 small and 1 large at the top.

Tabs take up another chunk of vertical space... I'm not sure what to do there, other than putting them to the side.

Beltzner, any thoughts on who should look at figuring out the UI changes here?

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Attachment: Maybe somthing like this?

Something I had done earlier, maybe something kinda like this?

Comment 3

[u88484]

That resembles IE way, way too much.  Also, there would be huge backlash for moving the tabbar above the location bar (unless bug 347930 if fixed prior so we could move it back to the bottom)

Comment 4

[u88484]

I've searched and searched for the bug but I remember Alex talking about getting rid of the statusbar...which would save at least 25 pixels.

Comment 5

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

oh yeah, I agree it looks like IE. And I don't even mean exactly like that. The tab bar can be over or under (I like it over, doesn't matter). I should have more pointed out the menu icons next to the addressbar.

Comment 6

[u88484]

Won't bug 456535 solve most of this?  The patch is just waiting for a checkin.

Comment 7

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

(In reply to comment #6)
> Won't bug 456535 solve most of this?  The patch is just waiting for a checkin.

No, this has nothing to do with vista (or the menubar).

But the suggestion in comment #2 is in the right direction, though not so much like IE, and putting the tab bar in the right place.  This needs UX input first, the actual coding work won't be that difficult.

Comment 8

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Attachment: maybe this?

this uses the tabs in the bottom, and text, not icons (just to avoid the whole text vs. icons debate, doesn't really matter, just a minor change)

Comment 9

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

This work was completed in bug 499204