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Any idea how to lock URL bar on top, bookmark bar in middle, and tabs on bottom?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have resisted for years updating firefox when I get one that seems to work the way I like it. Now I'm updated to ff 46.0.1 in the portable version. Normally, I have URL bar on top, bookmarks in the middle and tabs on bottom. I've had it this way for years. It makes complete logical sense to me to have it this way.

So with ff 46, it takes the bars and puts the tabs on top, url bar in the middle (I think), and the bookmarks on the bottom. I need to get back to the original state because this makes me tear my hair out. I downloaded the "tabs on bottom" add-on and that put everything back to normal the first time I ran it. But every time I've started up since then, the url bar goes to the middle and the bookmarks on top. I hit "menu" -> "customize" -> "exit" and it goes back fine again. I don't understand why the menu-bar positions won't stay locked in. Is it because I'm using a portable version of firefox? Is there a fix in about:config for this?

Any help or ideas would be appreciated because this is putting me off using the internet altogether. I kid you not. There should be no reason why the upper toolbars shouldn't be user-configurable. Its neither here nor there how someone wants to configure the program for it to work for them. As far as I remember, these positions were configurable in older versions of about:config. Thanks for any advice anyone can render. All the best! :)

I have resisted for years updating firefox when I get one that seems to work the way I like it. Now I'm updated to ff 46.0.1 in the portable version. Normally, I have URL bar on top, bookmarks in the middle and tabs on bottom. I've had it this way for years. It makes complete logical sense to me to have it this way. So with ff 46, it takes the bars and puts the tabs on top, url bar in the middle (I think), and the bookmarks on the bottom. I need to get back to the original state because this makes me tear my hair out. I downloaded the "tabs on bottom" add-on and that put everything back to normal the first time I ran it. But every time I've started up since then, the url bar goes to the middle and the bookmarks on top. I hit "menu" -> "customize" -> "exit" and it goes back fine again. I don't understand why the menu-bar positions won't stay locked in. Is it because I'm using a portable version of firefox? Is there a fix in about:config for this? Any help or ideas would be appreciated because this is putting me off using the internet altogether. I kid you not. There should be no reason why the upper toolbars shouldn't be user-configurable. Its neither here nor there how someone wants to configure the program for it to work for them. As far as I remember, these positions were configurable in older versions of about:config. Thanks for any advice anyone can render. All the best! :)

All Replies (2)

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Firefox 4 moved tabs to the top with a preference to turn that off, but when the toolbar area was overhauled in Firefox 29, that preference stopped working.

There are various extensions to modify the toolbar area. For example, the following came up in a search (I don't use any of these myself). It sounds like you tried the first one. Are you sure you have the latest version?

Note: Classic Theme Restorer is the "Swiss Army Knife" of UI rollbacks, but if this is your only issue, it's almost certainly overkill, unless it's the only thing that still works.

There are some UI modifications that might run "too late" for the current window, but if you launch a new window (Ctrl+n) everything is fine. If you are starting up to your home page and that works, you might try that as a workaround for now. Seems faster than using Customize (unless you are a keyboard person and can key the sequence Alt v t c Esc more quickly than launching a new window).

Finally, I should mention that from time to time someone posts a custom style rule you can add to a userChrome.css file to rearrange the bars, if you absolutely cannot add an extension. Not sure where to find one that works in Firefox 46.

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You can look at the userChrome.css solution I posted in this thread to move the tabs to the lower position just above the browsing area without using an extension.

  • [/questions/1049464] Bookmarks toolbar POSITION resets to the very top after closing firefox

Add code to the userChrome.css file below the default @namespace line.


@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */

#navigator-toolbox toolbar:not(#nav-bar):not(#toolbar-menubar) {-moz-box-ordinal-group:10}
#TabsToolbar {-moz-box-ordinal-group:1000!important}

The customization files userChrome.css (user interface) and userContent.css (websites) are located in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.

  • create the chrome folder (lowercase) in the <xxxxxxxx>.default profile folder if this folder doesn't exist
  • use a plain text editor like Notepad to create a (new) userChrome.css file in the chrome folder (file name is case sensitive)
  • paste the code in the userChrome.css file in the editor window
  • make sure that the userChrome.css file starts with the default @namespace line
  • Make sure that you select "All files" and not "Text files" when you save the file via "Save file as" in the text editor as userChrome.css.
    otherwise Windows may add a hidden .txt file extension and you end up with a not working userChrome.css.txt file

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder: