Include the ability to revert to non-minimal mode in FF4
Kevin Ar18
Someone requested that I bring up this discussion on the mailing list.
Fact: FF4 is switching to a minimal style by default.
About: What I am proposing is a way to revert back to non-minimalistic style. To do this, would require adding feature(s).
Why?
Well that depends completely on what feature we are talking about. Here's a list of the key issues I noticed:
1. Removal of the file menu
2. Tabs on top
3. Removal of a status indicator at bottom of the page (not talking about the "status bar" -- just the link/load indicator).
Some of the features are nice, some are annoying... it depends on the person and the use case; in fact, it seems the devs have recognized people have different needs and offer the ability to customize some of them (except for the last one -- a status indicator).
Why would someone want non-minimal mode? A few possibilities:
* They have a computer monitor with the screen space.
* They use the features a lot, that is more effort to hide them.
* They need the info to be visible at all times instead of hidden.
* The minimal mode is too cluttered for some things (status indicator, load indicator, as examples).
* They need/prefer a bigger and less cluttered target.
What I am proposing
1. By default, Firefox 4 should have all the features to display a non-minimal mode.
2. If it makes sense, include an all-in-one window with all of these key non-minimal settings.
POINT #1
Most of the features are still around in FF4, except for #3: a status indicator. I have filed this under Bug 610429. There may be other, more minor areas that I haven't spotted yet; but, as far as I can tell, the 3 I listed are the main ones.
POINT #2
After seeing results like "Bring back the status bar" and the more questionable "Keep it different!" it seems like there could be some negative reaction to minimal mode. It seems the devs recognized that people will want some of the non-minimal features and gave options for some of them. However, trying to change them requires a little digging.
Consider this example for someone that wanted to restore non-minimal features:
Let's assume for a moment that Feature 610429 gets added in. In order to restore Firefox to non-minimalist mode, you would have to search around through many menus and dialogs. First, you would have to stumble onto the Options -> Menu Bar feature in order to restore the menu bar. Then, with feature 610429, you would have to figure out how to customize the toolbar, then add the status indicator, then then lay it out correctly.
This is not that bad, but it's not ideal either.... Anyways, maybe a single dialog that let's you
toggle on/off the various minimal/non-minimal features would be helpful.
Example
However, you want to do it... perhaps the first time someone switches to FF4, they see this dialog... or whenever they click on the one of the minimal/non-minimal options in the menu. They might be presented with a dialog like the following:
-----------------------
Firefox 4 was designed to use as little monitor space as possible. For people with larger monitors or who need extra information, this window allows you to enable various features.
Menu
(x) Minimal/Hidden menu [ - here is a graphic to show current selection - ]
( ) Visible menu "File - Edit - View - etc..." [ ]
Status Indicator
(x) At top; in address bar [ - here is a graphic to show current selection - ]
( ) At bottom (like older versions) [ ]
Tab On Top/Bottom
(x) Tabs above address [ - here is a graphic to show current selection - ]
( ) Tabs below address [ ]
.... and, of course, you can add more entries if there are other minimalist/non-minimalist migration issues ...
A key feature: Each entry shows a graphical preview so the user knows what it means
-------------------------------
What am I trying to accomplish?
-------------------------------
1. I hope that Feature 610429 will be seriously considered. I tried to provide some reasons for it in the report.
2. I wanted to offer a suggestion to help make switching between minimal/non-minimal mode easy. The reasons for this include:
* to reduce complains and make it easy on people switching
* to make it easy to configure Firefox on new systems (for such a big UI difference)
- I don't consider the need for such a dialog as necessary as say Bug 610429, but thought I might offer it up for discussion/consideration anyways.
- Bug 610429 would probably be blocking for this feature (if accepted).
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NOTES:
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I wanted to mention that I will not be reading replies or posting replies to this message. As I noted in Bug 610429, I don't really feel like arguing over this; but, as someone suggested, I am bringing it up for discussion.
Lastly, there may be other issues that I have so far missed. (I only mentioned 3 changes that I noticed.) Further study may reveal that other item(s) should be added to this list of toggleable minimal/non-minimal features.
Anyways, I hope this gets taken in a good spirit,
Kevin
Dan Dascalescu
http://firefox.uservoice.com/forums/57440-firefox-4-beta/suggestions/1217833-bring-back-the-status-bar:
As far as I understand, the status bar was removed in order to gain
more vertical display space for the actual page content (about 16px,
the height of the status bar).
However, in the place of the status bar, we now have the addon bar, of
the same height. Addons like Foxyproxy, ABP or NoScript use about 16px
each, in the rightmost edge of the bar. Meanwhile, over 90% of the
addon bar is unused.
Seems to me there is no net gain in screen real estate, and there is a
loss of security because users can't see the entire link target when
they hover the pointing device over a link.
I would suggest having a "Status text" widget that could be added to
the addon bar. That way, users who need more vertical space could hide
the addon bar, and users who want more security could display it.
--
Dan
http://wiki.dandascalescu.com
Neil
>I would suggest having a "Status text" widget that could be added to the addon bar. That way, users who need more vertical space could hide the addon bar, and users who want more security could display it.
>
My guess is that this will become available... as an addon...
--
Warning: May contain traces of nuts.
Dale [:cuz84d]
Thats really quite interesting to think about a FF setting that puts
the layout back to FF3.6 .. to think that maybe there could be a
preferences option to check this. The only option we have is restore
defaults to the FF4 theme default layout. You could create another
theme that's duplicated as such to show FF3.6 mode (but u would need
the status bar elements to be in the core to make it complete) the RSS
widget is now movable and wouldn't be back in the location bar I
guess. There has also been talk of dropping bookmark widget and
history widget too. Which ever way, you could probably review the
1.9.2 branch theme code and get it to apply onto 4.0 theme code. But
then again, maybe somebody already built a 3.6 theme and posted it to
the addons site. The thing with creating so much default code is that
you end up wasting more time with legacy code when only a small subset
of your userbase will actually benefit from it, and that is when
addons make the most sense.
Alternatively you can use Stylish and change your Userchrome.css file
to do such things, as the people at www.mozillazine.org have been
playing with since the new theme changes have been landing.
David McRitchie
>> Fact: FF4 is switching to a minimal style by default.
>> About: What I am proposing is a way to revert back to non-minimalistic style.
>> To do this, would require adding feature(s).
Exactly.
Unfortunately the minimal style is bigger for me and shows less for the upper
toolbars when it is made usable that what was properly engineered in menus
before Firefox. The problems it is supposed to address could have been solved much easer
with existing stuff like choice of seeing everything, Full Window, or Full Screen
and not confuse users with a disfunctional pattern that doesn't help people
learn and use keyboard shortcuts so it the were good they could work with
a full window (similar to full screen but window size dosen't change)..
There is an extension to bring back the status bar, I'll point you to my page
so you can see how to set it up as several people thought it didn't work.
Status-4-Evar Addon Bar Customization
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/status4evar.htm
The big question is how many people can spend the time to decrappify
the new appearance or to install large wasteful themes or extensions.
--
HTH,
David McRitchie, extensions I use are briefly documented on my site
Firefox Custom: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm