Trim Firefox's Bookmarks Bar

One thing that irks me about the new Firefox look (FF 4+) is the bookmarks bar. Just take a look below and you will see what I mean:

There are a couple of unnecessary things here like the Subscribe and View Bookmarks Toolbar options. But what bugs me most is the Unsorted Bookmarks option which appears out of nowhere! You cannot delete or move this element up and out of the way, unlike in Firefox 3.

I do not use Unsorted Bookmarks nor have I ever met anyone who does. The menu item is an eyesore, takes up space, and gets in the way. That’s not to say Mozilla should get rid of this feature all together, but at least allow users the option to customize the bookmarks bar to suit their needs. After all, that is what Firefox is all about – customization.

Fortunately, there is a way to hide these unnecessary bookmark elements; without installing any add-ons and slowing down the fox. We will modify the appearance of the Bookmarks Bar through the userChrome.css file.


1) Navigating To The userChrome Directory
  • Type "about:support" into the Firefox address bar.
  • Click on the “Open Containing Folder” button, which opens the root Firefox profile folder.

  • Create a folder here, called “chrome” if it does not already exist.


2) Creating The userChrome.css File
  • Navigate into this chrome folder and create a new text document (name it temp).
  • Now paste the following code into this text document:
#subscribeToPageMenuitem {display: none !important;}
#subscribeToPageMenupopup {display: none !important;}
#organizeBookmarksSeparator {display: none !important;}
#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu {display: none !important;}
#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu+menuseparator {display: none !important;}
#BMB_viewBookmarksToolbar {display: none !important;}
#BMB_viewBookmarksToolbar+menuseparator {display: none !important;}
#BMB_bookmarksShowAll+menuseparator {display: none !important;}
#BMB_subscribeToPageMenuitem {display: none !important;}
#BMB_subscribeToPageMenupopup {display: none !important;}
#BMB_subscribeToPageMenupopup+menuseparator {display: none !important;}
#BMB_bookmarksToolbar {display: none !important;}
#BMB_bookmarksToolbar+menuseparator {display: none !important;}
#BMB_unsortedBookmarks {display: none !important;}
#BMB_bookmarksPopup menuseparator:nth-last-child(2) {display: none !important;}

  • Go to File > Save As…
  • Under “Save as type” select All Files, and name the file “userChrome.css”

  • Save and close. If you did everything right you should see the following file in your chrome folder. You can now delete the other text file (temp) created at the very beginning of this step.

*SHORTCUT*: If Step 2 seems daunting, then just download this file and move it into the chrome folder.

Results
This is after the plastic surgery:

Note that you can still access the original Bookmarks Bar (without any modifications) through the Firefox menu if you ever need to. Enjoy the clean new look!

Code source: mozillaZine Forums
Modifying the userChrome.css: Ghacks

Do you use the Unsorted Bookmarks feature? If not, do you find it to be an eyesore?

2 comments

2 Comments


  1. When you press alt, and access the bookmarks from there, unsorted bookmarks still shows. Otherwise it works great! I agree it's very ugly and annoying when all you want is to get to your bookmarks.

  2. That's strange, it must be the new update to FF 6. Add the following code:

    menuitem[label="Unsorted Bookmarks"]{
    display: none !important;
    }

    This will also hide Unsorted Bookmarks when you access the bookmarks from the FF menu. It is still visible though when you select "Show All Bookmarks."

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