Bookmarks Bar always shown on NTP

[Andi]

Hello. I opened this ticket in the issue tracker, but it was closed as duplicate of another ticket.

Can someone explain why bookmarks bar (with bookmarks) should ALWAYS be shown on NTP page even if the user EXPLICITLY hides this (Menu > Bookmarks > Uncheck Show bookmarks Bar)? The option is checked/uncheck when users click it but nothing happens on NTP page.

[avm99963]

Hi! If I understand correctly, it's explained in the issue which your issue was duplicated into.

I think, however, that this should be discussed in the chromium-discuss list, since chromium-dev is a technical list. I'll CC chromium-discuss@ so we can continue the conversation there.

Cheers :-)

[Andi]

Well, this is also a technical question (also I can't post in the other group), as the logic triggered on NTP page when hiding bookmark doesn't take into account the kShowBookmarkBar pref which usually handles bookmark visibility. I wanted to know if this is on purpose or if it is indeed a mistake. 

[avm99963]

In this case sorry about CCing chromium-discuss, I've removed it from the CC list now :)

As mentioned in https://crbug.com/941196 (the issue you were merged into), this is made on purpose. The conversation held in that issue led to the following change: https://crrev.com/c/1529312.

However, I just realized that in comment 13 it is mentioned that the wording should be changed from "Show bookmarks bar" to "Always show bookmarks bar", but that wasn't changed in the end. Do you think this would be useful in clarifying its behavior in the NTP?

Cheers :-)

[Andi]

I don't think that changing  "Show bookmarks bar" to "Always show bookmarks bar" will clarify the behavior. Because you will have the same issue, "Always show bookmarks bar" will be UN-checked but the bookmarks bar will still be shown on NTP. So for that button a name like "Show bookmarks bar on non-NTP pages" :) (which doesn't sounds good and it's too long), will reflect the actual behavior better. Maybe somewhere in some FAQ page this should exist: "Bookmarks bar is always shown on New Tab page", if this is indeed expected (no code changes will be needed). 

Imagine I want to do a screenshot/screen share and I don't want people to see my bookmarks. I don't have a way to do this on NTP page. So it would be nice if we could hide it there also.

[avm99963]

I agree with you. Regarding your suggestion about the FAQ, maybe this could be added as a comment in this article. I've just sent this suggestion through Google Feedback, this is what I sent:

The bookmarks bar is never hidden (on purpose[1]) in the New Tab Page regardless of the "Show Bookmarks Bar" option, and this confuses some users.

Suggestion: as mentioned in [2], a comment could be added next to this paragraph mentioning that the bookmarks bar is always shown in the NTP. Something like: "To turn the bookmarks bar on or off, click [...]. The bookmarks bar is always shown in the New Tab Page.".

Thanks!

[1]: https://crrev.com/c/1529312

[2]: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-dev/c/8l8QAzhUCUI

Cheers :-)