Customization in the new Firefox
29 April, 2014 § 5 Comments
Customization has always been a strong point for Firefox. From installing add-ons and themes to rearranging the controls in the toolbars, Firefox leads the pack in providing the best customization capabilities of any browser out there.
Providing user choice is central to Mozilla, and that is reflected strongly in Firefox. With our new and improved customization mode, users can now change what widgets will appear in their Firefox toolbar as well as the Firefox menu.
For example, users that often click on the “Save Page” button now have the ability to move the button to their toolbar in only two clicks of the mouse.
Conversely, users who sparingly use the Search box can now move it to the Firefox menu or remove it entirely. If you used Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on Mac) as a shortcut to access the Search box before, Firefox will still react to the shortcut even if the Search box has been moved to the Firefox menu.
Firefox offers two easy ways to customize the browser. Simple customizations such as moving an item between the toolbar and the menu can be made by right-clicking on the widget that you wish to move. Deeper customizations can be made by entering the customization mode, accessible through the Customization button in the Firefox menu.
Our new customization mode even supports touch-sensitive screens, bringing customization “to your fingertips”:
With the new Firefox, you can now customize your toolbar and menu to make Firefox yours. If you’re already running Firefox, it will automatically update to the latest version. If not, you can download Firefox now, always free and always open.
JAWS 
Hi Jaws!
This is all great, except for the fact that you have included the reload page button inside the address bar. Those who want to refresh the page othen, are now only able to locate the icon on the right of the bar. Why not have the button as a separate option for those who want to? there should be some more flexibility on this one.
Thanks for the feedback. We need to rethink some of the ideas behind the Reload button.
Why you made url bar unmovable? I liked when I could customize FF as I wanted to – puttin urlbar and tabs on same row (I have big monitor, I can afford)
Plus, when Firefox is isn’t maximed, so much wasted horizontal space under close buttons (in your gif is clearly visible).
Could you explain those two, please?
We didn’t make the location/URL bar unmovable, we simply removed that ability from the default install of Firefox. The setup you are describing is still possible through the use of themes or add-ons. When Firefox was first released, one of the main goals was to ship a browser that was lightweight and wasn’t bloated with tons of features, while at the same time allowing for users to extend the capabilities of Firefox through a rich add-on ecosystem. The UI tweak that you are describing falls in to this category, as it can be better served by add-ons and was only used by a tiny percentage of users.
The space between the close buttons and the navigation toolbar is unfortunate, but we are left with a trade-off. If we pushed the tabs higher up so that the space you are asking about is shorter, then there will be less area that can be used to drag the window when you have multiple tabs open. The other option is to increase that space even more so that tabs can fit under the buttons, but then it will look even worse if you don’t have multiple tabs open and there is no tab underneath those buttons.
Thanks for explanation. If you claim that customization is still there, then perhaps you could help me find the “lost feature”.
In previous Firefox versions you could combine two toolbars by drag’n’dropping one in other (f. ex. put address bar in tab bar). Is there a way to do that using CSS?