Visual tabs for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Firefox Bookmarks Menu: How to Remove Unnecessary Items

Jan 11 2016

Firefox Bookmarks Menu: How to Remove Unnecessary Items

One of the nicest features of Firefox, which sets it apart from most modern browsers, is the bookmarks menu. Hidden behind a button on the toolbar, it allows you to quickly access your favorites, but unlike bookmark bars, it doesn't take up valuable screen real estate.

Almost everything in the Firefox bookmarks menu is good, except, perhaps, for an excessive number of elements that are already present there initially. Take a look at the screenshot:

“Show sidebar”, “show Pocket list”, “subscribe to news feeds” - have you ever used one of these or any other command present in this menu? We're willing to bet that at least some of them are definitely superfluous for you. At the same time, they take up space in the menu that could be useful for the bookmarks themselves.

There are several ways to clear the Firefox bookmarks menu of unnecessary folders, shortcuts, and other items. We suggest choosing the simplest one and using the miniature extension Simple bookmarks menu. Follow the link and install it from the official Mozilla directory.

As a result, after installation, the bookmarks menu will look like this:

In our example, the extension was installed on “clean” Firefox, where there were no custom bookmarks yet. If you have them, don't worry, the Simple bookmarks menu, of course, won't do anything with them.

By the way, if you wish, you can make the menu completely empty. Unlike the others, the three remaining items can be deleted (or moved) manually, without resorting to the help of an extension.

When the menu is completely clean, you can start adding your own ones there, either individually or in entire folders:

The contents of unfiled bookmarks can be transferred directly to the menu if necessary. New bookmarks can also be placed directly in the menu:

If you miss some feature that was on the menu before, you can easily return it. Open the extension manager and enter the Simple bookmarks menu module settings:

Few users know, but Mozilla Firefox, like Google Chrome, has a convenient bookmarks bar that will allow you to quickly find and go to the page you need. This article will discuss how to configure the bookmarks bar.

The bookmarks bar is a special horizontal browser panel, which is located in the browser header. Your bookmarks will be placed on this panel, which will allow you to always have important pages “at hand” and literally go to them in one click.

How to customize the bookmarks bar?

By default, the bookmarks bar is not displayed in Mozilla Firefox. To enable it, click on the browser menu button and in the lower area of the window that appears, click on the button "Change" .

Click the button "Show/Hide Panels" and check the box next to the item "Bookmarks bar" .

Close the settings window by clicking the cross icon on the tab.

An additional panel will appear immediately below the address bar of the browser, which is the bookmarks bar.

To customize the bookmarks displayed in this panel, click on the bookmarks icon in the upper right area of the browser and go to the section "Show all bookmarks" .

All existing bookmark folders will be displayed in the left area of the window. To move a bookmark from one folder to the “Bookmarks Toolbar” folder, simply copy it (Ctrl+C), and then open the “Bookmarks Toolbar” folder and paste the bookmark (Ctrl+V).

You can also immediately create bookmarks in this folder. To do this, open the “Bookmarks Toolbar” folder and right-click in any free area of bookmarks. In the context menu that appears, select "New bookmark" .

A standard window for creating a bookmark will be displayed on the screen, in which you will need to enter the name of the site, its address, and, if necessary, add tags and a description.

Unnecessary bookmarks can be deleted. Just right-click on the bookmark and select "Delete" .

To add a bookmark to the bookmarks bar while surfing the web, by going to the desired web resource, click on the star icon in the upper right corner. A window will appear on the screen in which you must in the column "Folder" must be marked "Bookmarks bar" .

Bookmarks located on the panel can be sorted in the order you need. Simply hold down the bookmark and drag it to the desired area. As soon as you release the mouse button, the bookmark will be fixed in its new location.

Bookmarks are one of the oldest elements that appeared in browsers and have been used for a very long time. The role of bookmarks is obvious - with the help of them, the user has the opportunity to save the page they like in order to return to it later and not lose the information contained there. Thanks to bookmarks, you can quickly navigate between your favorite sites, especially if there are a lot of them.

Adding a bookmark

Before you set up bookmarks in Mozilla, you need to learn how to add them. FireFox provides several ways to do this. The first of them requires the user only:

Go to the desired page on the Internet.
Click on the button with an asterisk next to the address bar, or press the key combination “Ctrl” + “D” on your keyboard.

If for some reason you cannot find the above button, then in the latest version of the browser it looks like this:

Advice! Instead of using a keyboard shortcut or clicking on this button, you can simply drag the page you want and “drop” it onto the favorites button, which will automatically add it to the Mozilla FireFox bookmarks bar.

Settings

Once a new bookmark has been added, it is automatically placed in the Unfiled folder. By clicking on the button next to the star, you can access all your saved links, including this folder.

Inside the drop-down menu, you can freely drag objects, delete them, add separators, and rename them. However, it is much more convenient to do this in a separate window, which appears by clicking on the “Show all bookmarks” menu item or by executing the command “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “B”. This is the window where you configure bookmarks in Firefox:

Links placed in “Favorites” can be displayed in two modes, both separately and simultaneously. For example, you can access your sites using a button on the toolbar, as well as through a separate bookmarks bar. You can enable the bookmarks bar in Mozilla from the menu next to the address bar, namely here:

Enabling the bookmarks bar

By activating this feature, you will see all your saved pages on the left side of the browser window, and you can always access them without opening additional menus.

Important! If for some reason your browser does not display the favorites button, then right-click on the toolbar and select “Edit”. In this mode, you can independently configure the location of all controls in the browser, including making sure that the Firefox bookmark button is in its place.

That's all the features associated with working with bookmarks. I repeat that in order to add a page to your favorites, you only need to click the corresponding button or drag the tab by the title. You can always return to an interesting article later and never lose it.

Launch Firefox. If the shortcut is still not added to your desktop or Quick Launch, look for the program in the Start menu (Windows) or Applications Folder (Macintosh).

Click on the View tab in the menu bar. Select Sidebar and then Bookmarks.

A sidebar will appear on the left side of the Firefox window.
Here you will see at least 3 sections: “Bookmarks Toolbar”, “Bookmarks Menu” and “Unsorted Bookmarks”.
The "Bookmarks Bar" is a strip along the top of the browser, below the address bar. Use it for websites you visit regularly so you never have to search for a link to them.
The “Bookmarks Menu” is what you see when you click on this label, and is likely the largest concentration of your current bookmarks.

Add bookmarks to the Bookmarks Bar. This will make it easier to access sites you frequently visit: quickly and without fuss.

From the list of bookmarks you have collected, drag the 5 main ones to the “Bookmarks Panel”. You can add more if you wish, but the most effective way to use the Bookmarks Bar is to include a limited number of sites that you visit regularly.
Create folders on the Bookmarks Bar. If you frequently visit a large number of interconnected sites, then instead of using toolbar space for each individual site, put them all in a bookmarks folder and then add it to your Bookmarks Bar.
The menu option “Open All in Tabs” will load all the bookmarks contained in a given folder simultaneously in separate tabs.

Create folders. To host the rest of your bookmarks, you will need to create a management system. Most likely, you currently have about a few dozen bookmarks saved, so there will be a much smaller number of categories for them. We will create those located next to the “Bookmarks Menu” folder. Here are some options for naming your folders by category:

Entertainment
News
Computers
Purchases
Tools
Sport
Trips

Create a new folder. Right-click on the Bookmark Menu folder (or use the Control-click function). Select “New Folder...” from the context menu

Give the folder a name. In the “New Folder” window, enter its name, and, if desired, a description or note about what is inside. The new folder will appear in the sidebar inside the folder you clicked when you created it.

Repeat the above procedure until you get what you want. This will be a good start for your bookmark management system. Remember you can always add more!

Move your old bookmarks to the new folder. Now begins the process of sorting through the great many of your bookmarks and determining what will go where.

If you come across a bookmark that seems to fit into multiple categories, add it to the very first folder you think of.

Select the source folder. Click on the folder that contains your bookmarks.

Drag the bookmark to the new folder. Click on the bookmark you want to move and drag it into the new folder. Release the mouse button to place the bookmark in the folder.

Repeat this procedure until all your bookmarks have been distributed. You may need to create new folders for categories you missed. Plus, you may end up with sections that you don't use at all.

Sort your bookmarks. You can do this automatically or manually, or a combination of both.

Automatic sorting.

Right-click on the folder containing the bookmarks you want to sort.
Select the Sort by Name option from the context menu.
The content will be sorted by type and then by name. Alphabetically sorted folders will line up at the top, followed by individual URL links, also in alphabetical order.

Like any other browser, you can save pages in Mozilla, that is, create bookmarks. Firefox's bookmarks bar is disabled by default, so if you want to always have a list of sites you visit frequently at your fingertips, turn the bookmarks bar on first. Where, by the way, does Firefox store data about saved sites? We will also consider this issue.

Where is information about saved sites stored?

Where are bookmarks stored in Mozilla Firefox? Such data is located in the profile folder. You can open it in Windows Explorer in the system drive.

To, for example, transfer Firefox bookmarks to the same Firefox browser, but on another computer, just copy this folder to another medium and then replace it with the one located on another PC.

Displaying the panel

The panel with saved sites is hidden by default in this browser. To make it appear on your screen, you need to do the following:
1.Go to the browser menu through the “striped” icon. At the bottom of the small window there will be an "Edit" button. Click on it.

2.In the menu at the bottom there will again be a “Show/Hide Panels” button. Select the “Bookmarks Bar” element.

3.Close the settings tab. How to remove the panel? It's very simple - uncheck the item and it disappears.

Bookmarks in Firefox are located under the browser's navigation bar. Naturally, it will not be able to accommodate absolutely all saved pages. To open the full list, you need to click on the bookmarks icon in the upper right area of the browser and go to the “Show all bookmarks” section.

Also, saved sites can be located in cells on the express panel for Firefox, that is, those that are shown on the browser’s home page.
If there are too many sites, it is recommended to sort them into folders for faster and more convenient search of pages. They can then be transferred from one folder to another through regular copying.

How to save a site?

What to do if you want to save the page?
1.Click on the star on the panel. A window will appear in which you need to select “Bookmarks Bar”.

2.Click on the “Done” button.

In addition, saving is possible in the “Other Bookmarks” section.

Transfer

How to transfer bookmarks from Firefox? For example, to another browser? This function is called export in relation to Firefox. Let's look at how to export saved sites to another browser.

1.In the menu, open the “Show all bookmarks” section.

2.Go to the “Import and backups” block and click on the “Export bookmarks to HTML file” item.

3.Write a name for the future document. We choose its location. Click on the “Save” button.

Detailed instructions on how to transfer bookmarks from Opera to Firefox are in this article. If you want to use Firefox on another device and want all your site lists to be moved to it, use bookmark synchronization. This is much more convenient than making backups.

Removal

How can I delete bookmarks? It all depends on whether you want to remove a specific site from the list or several at once.

Method number 1

To remove one site, go to it first.
Click on the star on the panel. A small editing window will open.
Click on the “Delete” button.

Method number 2

Go to the "Library" window.
Find the folder you need. Open it to view the contents. It will be on the right side of the window.
Select unnecessary sites. Click on Delete on your keyboard. Only those you select will be deleted.

Recovery

How can you make sure that the page you just accidentally deleted is restored? The following method will help you if you did not close the browser after this accidental deletion.

In the menu, click on the “Show all bookmarks” option.
In the window that opens, in the top panel, click on the “Management” section. Click on “Cancel” or press Ctrl + Z.

You can restore bookmarks in Mozilla from backup copies that the browser itself creates from time to time.

Open the “Library” window again. Click on the “Import and backups” section.
Click on the “Restore backup from” item and select the required copy option. Each copy is signed with the date it was made. Click on OK.

It is important to note that with such a restoration, recently added sites are deleted, that is, those that were made after this copy creation date.

If bookmarks are not saved after restart

Changes you make to bookmarks may be lost when you restart your browser. How to solve this problem? First, disable add-ons that have access to bookmarks.

The file may be write protected.

Open your profile folder. Go to Help (question mark in the menu) and select the “Problem Solving Information” section. Click on "Open Folder".
Close the browser using the “Exit” button in the menu.
Right click on the places.sqlite file. Go to the "Properties" window.
In the “General” block there should not be a checkmark next to “Read Only”

Are sites still not added or saved after turning on the browser again? In this case, you need to find the places.sqlite file again, which should be located in the profile folder, delete it and create a new one.

We find the profile folder in the same way as described above. Also exit the browser.
The files places.sqlite and places.sqlite-journal are deleted or renamed.
Next, Firefox will create a new places.sqlite file itself. Firefox bookmarks will be saved, but the browser history will disappear.

Management extension

If you have a long list of bookmarks, the BookMark manager extension will come to your aid. It can be downloaded from the official Firefox add-on store via the link: https://addons.mozilla.org/RU/firefox/addon/online-bookmark-manager-starta/?src=search. Downloading and installing will not take much time. After this you will need to restart the browser.

This bookmark manager allows you to bring order to that messy list of sites you've saved over a long period of time. If there are a really large number of them, copying and deleting unnecessary ones can become very annoying. The extension will solve the problem of bookmark management.

There are many things you can do with bookmarks in Firefox. You can save lists into separate files, transfer them to other browsers, distribute them into folders, and much more. You have the right to arrange an individual order. A bookmark manager can also help you with this.