All images of toolbars shown on this page are actual size for the width of the window depicted. My examples are displayed is a slightly narrower window than the Firefox 3.7 mock-ups, but the concern is mainly on vertical space and that will be ths same regardless of window size. If displayed in a wider window the search bar and location bars will be very noticeably larger, and will likely show almost all of what was last entered there.
Image above is a full size mock-up for proposed Firefox 3.7 toolbars of a window 798 pixels wide, the examples below are also full scale and are from a window width of 709 pixels wide. As you can see the font size is about the same, the total toolbars including the Windows title bar is not as high, and I can even work with a narrower window with wide location bar, and search bar, and have toolbar buttons from extensions. No need to click 2 or three times when once will do, I also have a status bar not shown with 15 toolbar buttons on it. The search bar is wide enough to serve also as a scratch pad as keyword shortcuts can be used without disturbing notes when doing so.
A more reasonable solution without mucking up Firefox (immediately below)
The following are strictly with Firefox 3 and some styling changes to the chrome,
no menus have been harmed. The blue text items on bookmarks menu are folders, and the red items are individual bookmarks (actually bookmarklets). The colors under tabs are red for active, blue for visited, green for unvisited tab. The light violet background color on the menu bar is included to help distinguish the browser window and dialogs associated with the profiles used with different versions of Firefox being tested.
This is what 16 tabs looks like with a Window width of 709 pixels.
About same spacing that 24 tabs would appear on a window 1024 pixels wide.
and this is what 34 tabs looks like with a Window width of 709 pixels.
About same spacing that 49 tabs would appear on a window 1024 pixels wide.
The tabs would still be very recognizable with 60 tabs in the same narrow window
(approx 86 tabs on a window 1024 pixels wide)
The last image was created 4 1/2 months later after being forced onto a smaller font laptop screen 15.7" (1366x768) instead of 15.4" (1024x768) so am using a wider tinted dropdow button
(style 18553).
especially since you can compare the tabs dropdown listed in the same order showing favicons and webpage titles. With a monitor at set to 1280 x 720, you'd have no problem with 108 tabs. (Click on the image seen in the above link to see image full-size) The point being that you do not need multiple rows for tabs. (The examples on this page can be recreated with the toolbars60.htm write-up)
Problems with 3.7 mock-up
The extreme waste of space is a problem with Firefox 3.5.*, the following shows some actual modifications to toolbars but no chrome changes. (with large icons)
Same customization of content (with small icons)
Whether large of small icons a lot of wasted space on the toolbars is due to the navigation toolbar.
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A list of extensions that I use or have used can be found in Extensions Table which is part of my webpage Firefox Customizations (Notes). Extensions actually in use can be found in my InfoLister listing. Some suggestions for users new to Firefox are in Firefox 3 Introduction (Presentation Outline)
Main Firefox pages (on-site): [Customizations, Extensions], [Tabs], [Bookmarks], [Keyword shortcuts], [Context and other menus]
Please send your comments concerning this web page to: David McRitchie send email comments
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