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How can I make the URL address bar smaller?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

Orrymain
Orrymain
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All of a sudden, my address bar for the URL is taking up too much space. It's over half the page. It was smaller. I have add on icons to the right that I need to be able to see and because the URL bar suddenly expanded, I can't see all of them. I have looked at the custom options, but none of that information says how to shrink the URL bar. I am not a techie so don't know about codes and such. I am not sure why it suddenly expanded, but this is very frustrating. I really need to be able to see all of my icons and I have 3 blocked from view because the URL suddenly grew. Help.

All of a sudden, my address bar for the URL is taking up too much space. It's over half the page. It was smaller. I have add on icons to the right that I need to be able to see and because the URL bar suddenly expanded, I can't see all of them. I have looked at the custom options, but none of that information says how to shrink the URL bar. I am not a techie so don't know about codes and such. I am not sure why it suddenly expanded, but this is very frustrating. I really need to be able to see all of my icons and I have 3 blocked from view because the URL suddenly grew. Help.

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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I'm not aware of an interactive way to change the width of that bar. There is an entry in the difficult-to-read-and-edit file xulstore.json similar to: 

"urlbar-container":{"width":"969"}

which you might be able to edit (preferably when Firefox is closed), but I haven't experimented with it myself. If the file becomes messed up, you can rename or delete it and Firefox will start a new one.

If you don't get any better suggestions and you want to have a play, here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then right-click xulstore.json and choose Edit or Open with a good text editor. Use Find in your editor to look for urlbar once or twice until you get to that width setting. Then try editing the value to a smaller size like 700 and save the change.

Start Firefox back up again. Does that have any effect?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Can you attach a screenshot?

  • Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot
  • Make sure that you do not exceed the maximum size of 1 MB

You can place the mouse pointer between the location bar and the search bar and it will become a resize icon that you can drag right or left with the left mouse button pressed to change the relative width of the two bars. The total size stays the same and only the relative sizes change. You need to do that in normal mode (i.e. not in Customize mode).