User:Dmcritchie/Firefox priorities: Difference between revisions

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# '''Bookmark selections''',  need ability to export selections of bookmarks  and/or bookmark folders.  For use by others, for documentation, and to combine and recombine sections of bookmarks.
# '''Bookmark selections''',  need ability to export selections of bookmarks  and/or bookmark folders.  For use by others, for documentation, and to combine and recombine sections of bookmarks.
# '''Distinguish Tabs'''  active/read/unread with styling up to the user.  [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=480813 Bug 480813], [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=487242 Bug 487242],  [[User:Dickvl/TabVisited | TabVisited]], [http://userstyles.org/styles/24728 Style 24728]
# '''Distinguish Tabs'''  active/read/unread with styling up to the user.  [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=480813 Bug 480813], [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=487242 Bug 487242],  [[User:Dickvl/TabVisited | TabVisited]], [http://userstyles.org/styles/24728 Style 24728]
# '''Document Outline''' (table of contents of a page) why is this not builtin to Firefox, it is coded into so many pages such as MozillaZine KB, it would be so useful to all users.  I would choose "Headings Map" over "Document Map" extension only because the first includes additional areas in frames.
# '''Export individual or multiple bookmark folders''' for sharing with others, and such that the keywords can be imported as well from such selections -- keywords are actually in the full bookmarks export to bookmarks.html files exported and imported by all browsers so were always considered important by at least Firefox structure and Opera.
# (almost fixed —) '''Find needs to be improved to place the first hit  in the center of the page''' as in Opera and continue down from there until forced to start on another view to show lines above and below so resumes in the middle of a page for next hit.  Firefox lacks matching on whole words, letter-case, and a "[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7299 Find All]" in syntax list (which could be improved even more for tables).    It took many years to get "Highlight all" added, which is barely a start.  [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/239 Context Highlight] for highlighting multiple search strings with different colors would also be welcome.  ''Firefox 12.0 has put each Find smack dab in the middle, which is not quite as bad at at the very bottom, but is almost as insane.  Call it stupidity or job security, either way it has not been redesigned for usability -- it is certainly NOT parity with Opera.  Smack dab in the middle makes it very difficult to see where you are, and there is no beep or notification when you reach the end and start over again.  Easily tested with a  find of "the" and the word occurs several times on the screen the viewing window should not change until the next word/string "the" is outside the current view ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78833 Bug 78833], [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171237 Bug 171237], [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=440198 Bug 440198]).''  — '''Most''' of preceding has been fixed via bug 171237 except for looping back to top without audible cue or other means, see [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=266338 Bug 266338], [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=468651 Bug 468651]
# '''Document Outline''' (table of contents of a page) why is this not built-in to Firefox, it is coded into so many pages such as MozillaZine KB, it would be so useful to all users.  I would choose "[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7203 HeadingsMap]" over "Document Map" extension only because the first includes additional areas in frames.
# Tabs opening next to parent tabs should never have been done before item #4 as in Firefox 3.6, but not only was it done, but 3.6 wiped out the ability of extensions and styles to distinguish the same.  It also had no clear means to users installing 3.6 as to how to remove the new feature.
# Tabs opening next to parent tabs should never have been done before item #4 as in Firefox 3.6, but not only was it done, but 3.6 wiped out the ability of extensions and styles to distinguish the same.  It also had no clear means to users installing 3.6 as to how to remove the new feature.
# Tags should not have been introduced before items #1 is firmly in the bookmark addition properties and  item #3 where users can share bookmarks.  Instead a developer removed keyword thinking it was the same as a tag,  keyword was restored the next day but it still was hidden.  Tags on the other hand are very confusing to new users particularly when implemented with an additional drop-down detracting from the ability to add a bookmark into a particular folder or a recently added to folder.
# Tags should not have been introduced before items #1 is firmly in the bookmark addition properties and  item #3 where users can share bookmarks.  Instead a developer removed keyword thinking it was the same as a tag,  keyword was restored the next day but it still was hidden.  Tags on the other hand are very confusing to new users particularly when implemented with an additional drop-down detracting from the ability to add a bookmark into a particular folder or a recently added to folder.
# Pinning (docking) dialogs to a Window should be avoided, the worst case is proposal to further mess up bookmark dialogPinning the bookmark dialog means that one cannot scroll down the page or visit other tabs to help fill in information while creating or modifying a bookmark.   Combine that with a three column webpage, and bookmarks sidebar and you have nothing to work with.
# Firefox on Androids: Tablets do not have a keyboard so if the Android version of Firefox is to succeed then Firefox must have both user created gestures (like in Dolphin), and must have keyword shortcutsBoth must be immediately available in any bookmark when created or updated. Individual bookmarks and groups of bookmarks must be selectable and easily transferable to documentation and other users.


===Keywords, Tags and other bookmark properties===
===Negative priorities - priorities that are harmful, but Firefox Developers are working on anyway===
# Pinning (docking) dialogs to a Window should be avoided, the worst case is proposal to further mess up bookmark dialog.  Pinning the bookmark dialog means that one cannot scroll down the page or visit other tabs to help fill in information while creating or modifying a bookmark.  Combine that with a three column webpage, and bookmarks sidebar and you have nothing to work with when attempting to fill in the dialog.
# Changing toolbars, hiding Edit menus.  This is very bad because it hides important information from new users,  for experienced users many of us know what the keyboard shortcuts are, but we have extensions that add into the menus and need to be associated with the Firefox menu items, and we can use "[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/710 Menu Editor] " extension to arrange menus as we see fit.  Changing things around on use just make more work for us, and in fact might even make it impossible to use efficiently.  See my webpage [http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/toolbars.htm Toolbars] in answer to [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Sprints/Windows_Theme_Revamp/Direction_and_Feedback Windows Theme Revamp/Direction and Feedback].  Actually what is shown now is even worse as it has tabs on top making them further away from the article being viewed.  The only time I have tabs at the top is in full screen mode where that is the only toolbar shown because that is what I need quick access to.  Moving cursor through the top or Ctrl+L or Ctrl+K will get me to input or show toolbars -- don't need more grief added to the Firefox experience.  I don't need nonsense of having a home button moved to the tabs bar, where I need every pixel I can get on one line, and so would have to find a way to eliminate it and be forced to use keyboard such as Alt+Home or a keyworded shortcut of "home:" -- <code>javascript:window.home();</code>  The discussion for this is at mozilla.dev.apps.firefox authored by Alexander Limi (2010-02-09 Firefox UX Team update: Ramping up for the next Firefox release;  and 2009-05-04 brainstorming ...).
# Showcase (thumbnails) of tabs seem to be popular with developers, but I know what each tab and window is and consider this to be useless and extremely annoying, please option each of these features where such things will be tolerated/disallowed.  ''On Android Tablets that have no keyboard there is a little justification for this, but not in random arrangements.  I have a web page with lots of frequently used links that I include as the first window in "Dolphin Browser" new tabs and/or homepage in such browsers as there not much sense in 9-25 pictures of tabs.''
# ''So much usability has been lost since even before Nov 2011 that Firefox is no longer pleasurable to use.  JavaScript usage from bookmarks and from the location bar has been severely impaired or outright prohibited and possible consequences to justify this are so trivial and the loss of functionality is so great.  This has had a severe impact on my use of [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/kws.htm keyword shortcuts] that are required for usability and to save time.''
 
===Nonsense or crap===
# "New Tab" in minefield copied from Google Chrome instead of "(Untitled)" is misleading and just plain incorrect.  Open several links within same tab, then use BACK button, then use "about:blank" in the address bar.  It is marked as "New Tab" and it is in no way a new tab.  WRONG!  WRONG! WRONG!.  There is no way that Showcase junk is going to be used within my tabs so "Top Sites" as in Safari would also be incorrect.
# Justifications for wasting space on the left site like  "based on the current theme and the additional horizontal space that is available on most monitors..." -- the monitors are not larger the numbers are deceiving the wider screen have less space for Firefox, the font will be smaller, and you more easily look at two windows at once  (WinKey+arrowkey).
# Flyout sidebar menus like the old grippes gadgets are a pain.  I use "Split Browser" and use the option to drag to the sides, but it also interferes many times.  The Windows-7 taskbar display windows is 95% done in error even after taking steps to delay such flyout by 10 seconds, tooltips appear at about 5 seconds).    Grippes were useless as the stacking of hidden bars grippes was random.
# Adding pages to sidebar that could have been done better with keywords and sidebar indicator in bookmarks, that has been made disfunctional see [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215175 Bug 215175 -- bookmark keyword cannot be used to open bookmark in sidebar] .
# New Addons Manager -- list wastes space can only see 4 addons at a time compared to 10 before,  I have about 125 addons on or off,  and this is where I change options, so this is poor design,  context menus is really crappy compared to context menus in place in 3.6.*, and the "Show More" is slower and less useful than before though it does now show the size.  The addons list is now a tab rather than a detached list -- no end in sight for continued bad user interface designs.  "Your add-on updates have been downloaded" -- well that's really NOT informative -- what is going to be changed.  Nice to be able to sort on Name, Size, Updated and unfortunately that is the ONLY way you will know what was updated -- what if you didn't want to update an item this time around.  BAH HUMBUG! From developer "people loved it" -- I'd guess most users hate it.  Would seem Developers tend to have very few addons because they tend to break things -- isn't that what Betas are to test.  If you click on "More Information" there is no BACK button you have to invoke addons list all over again.
#* as a tab which I hate and consider useless, the favicon should match that on the status bar and upper left corner, BACK button should function
#* Bad user interface: wastes space, inefficient interface
#* Good items: added "about:addons",  nice to be able to sort on Name, Size, Updated
 
===Bugs of destruction===
* Tabs on Top and all of the problems that that causes - mostly fixed by settings and extensions
* Removal of Status Bar and all the problems that that caused - fixed by an extension well several times that extension had to be changed to be more specific.
* Changes trying merge back/forward button indicators into a grotesque useless mess again.  Silly nonsense, would wipe out a terrific extension that actually tells how many there are in each direction.  I basically only use them to know if there are any to back or forward to, as I use mouse buttons for Back and Forward.
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=465673 465673 -- tabs opened from links should appear next to the current tab (instead of at the end of the tabstrip)].  More wasted time.  Fixed by configuration options.
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=487242 487242 -- Regression: in userChrome.css no longer possible to distinguish between unvisited tabs, visited tabs, and the selected tab]  Needs to get fixed, so can be tested again without having to install TabVisted xpi to get back usage.
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=565541 565541 – Web sites shouldn't be allowed to resize main window] (Firesizer extension suggested solution is BS, I have 27 keyworded bookmarklets that used to  get me exactly what I want and where I want it placed.)
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=656433 656433 - Disallow javascript: and data: URLs entered into the location bar from inheriting the principal of the currently-loaded page]  This is the one that was "fixed" that messed up things.
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=755593 755593 – Remove tabs-on-bottom mode], what the developers intend to do is ambiguous and contradictory, if this actually prevents tabs on bottom that would absolutely make Firefox unusable to me.
* Mozilla Firefox developers often don't know what is available before destroying Firefox features, and do not listen to users in beta, users once released, experienced users and extension developers.  I think this is best summed up in the following, where real sorting of thousands of  bookmarks in 4 seconds will no longer be available to users with "SortPlaces" extension which was [http://www.andyhalford.com/index.html removed] by its author Andy Halford. 
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=755646 755646 – Hide UI for toggling tabs on top unless the user disabled tabs on top] (another disaster about to happen, actually some of it did happen in Fx 23.0.1, but could be overridden with a configuration option for now)
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=767709 767709 – Implement option to have the Navigation Toolbar in the Title Bar, when tabs are at the bottom] (another disaster about to happen, that is not something that I could work with at all unless I'm given another tool bar to put things back like they are now.  But why should people have to spend 30 hours to fix things every time there is an update.  My toolbars are full they have five times as much stuff as default toolbars in 3/5 ths of the space as default toolbars, see pictures earlier.) 
* JavaScript option was removed.  Discovered just after disabling to fix a malware problem caused by a Script and tracking page ads,  that came at the same time as Firefox update, after I fixed the problem by disabling JavaScript then  blocking a website, went to reenable JavaScript after restarting to make sure everything was actually fixed and the option was gone, nice going, now how are we supposed work around such malware in the future.
* Bug [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=851702 851702 – Remove "Enable JavaScript" checkbox from Prefs]
===Summary===
'''It is an improved bookmark dialog that is wanted that always shows keyword and is resizeable that is wanted''' -- not an attached sidebar for bookmark properties (useless).  The resizing of dialogs and of the addition of the properties to be displayed is already built into Firefox something that can be turned on and off but is still not made available by default, and resizeability was in the 3.6 beta but removed from production.  A few lines of styling code is all that is needed to display keywords and descriptions, or even to hide tags yet we do not have a choice in options and new users suffer greatly without these features being readily accessible.  The gyrations of going to properties (in addition to the star) after bookmarking a page are time consuming and hide the true usefulness of Firefox over other browsers.
 
Keywords are just as important as the AwesomeBar and used together even better than either alone.  Keywords have been in Firefox since the beginning and have been hidden by design, evidently because people complain about it not being available and not going through the right channels, so even when they reword as an enhancement they get flung into year 2004-2005  bugs as duplicate won't fix.
 
==Keywords, Tags and other bookmark properties==


There seems to be a lot of confusion among the developers working on Tags as what Keywords are.  The main point is that they are not the same.    All of the items can be modified by the user.
There seems to be a lot of confusion among the developers working on Tags as what Keywords are.  The main point is that they are not the same.    All of the items can be modified by the user.


'''Title''' resides in each primary bookmark record and is filled in automatically when bookmarking a page from the webpage TITLE.
'''Name'''/Title:  resides in each primary bookmark record and is filled in automatically when bookmarking a page from the webpage TITLE.
 
'''Location'''/URL:  the address to locate a page (Universal Resource Locator), but they do not have to be an absolute address, they can have JavaScript  making them more powerful.  If used with keywords they can also make use of substitutions.  Firefox includes automatically when bookmarking a page.
 
'''Keyword'''/Alias:  resides in each primary bookmark record and as such can be considered an alias, which is exactly how they are treated in Opera.  But Firefox goes far beyond mere aliases by having substitutions available in bookmarks (%s and %S) combined with a keyword one can directly access a single article from a multitude of articles, such as one's own pages,  a definition of a specific word.  Both of those are simple to create and use.  Only when you combine JavaScript do they get more complicated to create, but they are still simple to use.  Just do a search anywhere on bookmarklets (or favelets) and any one of them could have a keyword to invoke the bookmarklet directly without going through bookmarks.  A user must fill in the Keyword to have it available. 


'''URL''' the address to locate a page (Universal Resource Locator), but they do not have to be an absolute address, they can have JavaScript  making them more powerful. If used with keywords they can also make use of substitutions.  Firefox includes automatically when bookmarking a page.
:'''Developers should be encouraging others to use keywords rather discouraging their use.'''   


'''Keyword''' resides in each primary bookmark record and as such can be considered an alias, which is exactly how they are treated in Opera.  But Firefox goes far beyond mere aliases by having substitutions available in bookmarks (%s and %S) combined with a keyword one can directly access a single article from a multitude of articles, such as one's own pages, a definition of a specific wordBoth of those are simple to create and useOnly when you combine JavaScript do they get more complicated to create, but they are still simple to use.   Just do a search anywhere on bookmarklets (or favelets) and any one of them could have a keyword to invoke the bookmarklet directly without going through bookmarks.  A user must fill in the Keyword to have it available.
:'''Reduce clutter on you bookmarks toolbar''' by using folders and by using '''[http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/kws.htm Keyword Shortcuts]'''.  I keep most of my keyword shortcuts out of sight in a single folder ("K") on my bookmarks toolbar.  Keyword shortcuts are only available in Firefox with all of the following features.
:# Used as bookmark alias to invoke a specific bookmark or bookmarklet.  '''[http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/kws.htm kws:]'''<br>and that is as far as Opera goes with Alias (which import/export to  Firefox as a Keyword).
:# Used as a bookmark alias with substitution to invoke a search with arguments. '''[http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox%20keywords++++-hth+-vbulletin+-inurl%3Aforum+-training.available+-shop.now&num=100 g: firefox keywords]''' (Google Search) <br>or for a MozillaZine Knowledge Base search    '''[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&num=100&newwindow=1&q=site%3Akb.mozillazine.org+-intitle%3Atalk+-inurl%3A%22%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D%22+-inurl%3A%22%2Findex.php%253Ftitle%3D%22%2Bdevelopment&btnG=Search&tbs=&lr=&as_filetype=&aq=f&aqi=&oq= :: development]'''    (symbols can be used within or as keyword);<br>likewise, you could even use a "?" as a keyword to simulate  the  search indicator as in Google Chrome.
:# Reduce the number of bookmarks needed by supplying the filename as the substitution to bring up at a site.  '''[http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/kws.htm ff: kws.htm]''(another way of getting my Keyword Shortcuts page)    <br>Same thing for a bug report, using the bug number  '''[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404507 bug 404507]''' (cut and paste to the location bar from a text report -- Ctrl+C, Ctrl+L, Ctrl+V, Enter)
:# Used with JavaScript as bookmarklets to bring up several pages and apply the same parameters or search terms for each page. '''Shopping:online GPS'''   (see my  [http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/kws.htm kws.htm#shopping] page for a demo)
:# Keywords are anything you want them to be they can be the initials of your bank or company, abbreviations and the concept is a lot easier to implement by users than tags -- if they have keyword in all of their bookmark dialogs. An assigned '''keyword must be shown in all bookmark dialogs''' so that users do not accidentally delete important bookmarks with the keyword thinking it is a duplicate of another bookmark that doesn't have a keyword or might even have a  different keyword (alias).


'''Tags'''  (recently added to Firefox) are additional words added to classify a bookmark,  they can be very powerful, but are most likely to be misused.  Each tag requires additional bookmark records for each bookmark they are attached to.  If you don't have a consistent plan to begin with retagging bookmarks would be very time-consuming especially for a typical set of 7,000 bookmarks.  In fact for an individual user tagging bookmarks if pretty much redundant as they could have changed the title to help find a bookmark later.    A user must fill in Tags to have them available.  Ideally they could be filled in from web pages, but web authors abuse tags (from a keyword list in a webpage) that that it would be impractical as evidenced by some web search engines outright ignoring them.
'''Tags''': (recently added to Firefox) are additional words added to classify a bookmark,  they can be very powerful in the hands of some users, but are most likely to be misused.  Each tag requires additional bookmark records for each bookmark they are attached to.  If you don't have a consistent plan to begin with, retagging bookmarks would be very time-consuming especially for a typical set of 7,000 bookmarks.  In fact for an individual user tagging bookmarks is pretty much redundant as they could have changed the title to help find a bookmark later.    A user must fill in Tags to have them available.  Ideally they could be filled in from web pages, but some web authors abuse these in pages to the point that some web search engines outright ignore them.  But if a page is worth bookmarking it is worth the effort to verify that the entire bookmark is as wanted.


The primary distinction between keywords and tags is that there can be only one bookmark associated with a keyword, and that for a tag there can be many bookmarks associated with a tag, and many tags associated with a bookmark.
The '''primary distinction between keywords and tags''' is that there can be only one bookmark associated with a keyword, and that for a tag there can be many bookmarks associated with a tag, and many tags associated with a bookmark.


'''Description''' is a part of every bookmark record, it is automatically filled in with the "Open Book" extension and with styling so filling in is already in Firefox to fill in from a webpage's own description,  but is not automatic.  Descriptions could be included in searching  with the awesomeBar, and bookmarks, if not also history but they are not.   
'''Description'''is a part of every bookmark record, it is automatically filled in with the "Open Book" extension and with styling so filling in is already in Firefox to fill in from a webpage's own description,  but is not automatic.  Descriptions could be included in searching  with the AwesomeBar, and bookmarks, if not also history but they are not.   


''''resizability'''' of bookmark dialogs is a part of the "Open Book" extension it works fine there.
''''resizability'''' of bookmark dialogs is a part of the "Open Book" extension it works fine there.


What really bugs users the most is that developers make changes to Firefox without any knowledge of the features they break on purpose, even when told beforehand.  Here's one summed up in user comment #14 in [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404507 Bug 404507 – Can't assign bookmark keywords from &quot;Add Bookmark&quot; dialog].  Somewhere else was written that keywords are hidden because they can be confused with tags (only by a developer), I don't hear them attempting to suppress tabs because they sound like tags.  Or check this one out can't tell the difference between size and shape [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=524071 Bug 524071 – Places UI (3.7): Bookmark contextual dialog should be detachable into a persistent sidebar]  Or that keywords are not important see my list earlier, or do an add-ons search for:  keywords simple,  which will produce the maximum 200 hits which I expect are mostly from frustrated users.
What really bugs users the most is that developers make changes to Firefox without any knowledge of the features they break, and in other cases on purpose, even when told beforehand of the problems.  Here's one summed up in user comment #14 in [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404507 Bug 404507 – Can't assign bookmark keywords from &quot;Add Bookmark&quot; dialog].  Somewhere else was written that keywords are hidden because they can be confused with tags (only by a developer), I don't hear them attempting to suppress tabs because they sound like tags.  Or check this one out can't tell the difference between size and shape [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=524071 Bug 524071 – Places UI (3.7): Bookmark contextual dialog should be detachable into a persistent sidebar]  Or that keywords are not important see my list earlier, or do an add-ons search for:  keywords simple,  which will produce the maximum 200 hits which I expect are mostly from frustrated users.
 
==Keyword as an advanced feature==
Finally found out where use of keyword is considered an advanced feature in [http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/tips/ Firefox Browser | Tips &amp; tricks to help you get the most out of the Web], which is now a rather useless page compared to the page before  that was like [http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#userContent  Customizing Mozilla] that used to contain real Tips and customizations.  The replacement page looks more like a presentation outline before someone downloads Firefox  rather than a page offering help.  If it's a Help page where are the links.  Even so why are developers destroying keyword usage, and how did they get charge of modules that they don't even know what the features are or the file structures.  (Perhaps because none of the three original developers are there anymore)
 
==Counts==
A Firefox developer collected statistics on use of keywords and tags, I've never seen the results, you ran something and it created some summaries, can't locate where that was from, or who it went to.
 
Here are my counts based on [[Counts_-_Counting_bookmarks_history_links_and_other_data_-_Firefox]]
* Count of bookmarks, search on colon (":") --  5,213 
* Count of bookmarks with a Keyword -- 1,107
* Count of bookmarks with tags -- 0
* Count of bookmarks with a Description -- 1154
* Count of bookmarks with JavaScript  -- 511
* Count of bookmarks with substitutions (%s OR %S) -- 285
 
The usefulness of Keyword is hidden from these counts because they do not show up in any count statistics on bookmarks, and a single bookmarklet with a keyword of  "ff:" can be used to access directly any of over 500 files, and I have several other such bookmarks.  Similar substitutions can be used in place of listed search engines.  Keyword shortcuts are also used to search a current site, or  within the directory of a current site if Google (or other search engine) has indexed such pages.
 
I will not risk my over 5,000 bookmarks on my Firefox desktop by synching them with other versions, with other browsers or with other devices.  What is needed is the ability to export/import specified folders.  I will miss the only decent and reliable bookmark sorting, "SortPlaces", that had been available in an extension, never exceeding 3 seconds to sort all of my bookmarks.[http://www.andyhalford.com/index.html]


==Customization==
==Customization==
Put the customization of Firefox back into Firefox.  When I started Firefox, within two clicks of installing Firefox you came upon a page to customize Firefox via userChrome.css and userContent.css that was nice, to the point and not wasteful of machine cycles.  The user was a part of the dynamic.  One of the best features was a single line change to include keyword in the add bookmark dialog, that ability was removed from Firefox, but that page can be --[http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#userContent Customizing Mozilla].  After a loss of over one year during betas one can use styling again to add keyword (Style [http://userstyles.org/styles/9029 9029]).  Now users only see extensions and themes and are directed to many of the worst choices as "Recommended" extensions.   Styles offer a user the ability to install as is or to modify them for a more customized look via the "Stylish" extension and many styles on userstyles.org
Put the customization of Firefox back into Firefox.  When I started Firefox, within two clicks of installing Firefox you came upon a page to customize Firefox via userChrome.css and userContent.css that was nice, to the point and not wasteful of machine cycles.  The user was a part of the dynamic.  One of the best features was a single line change in userChrome.css to include keyword in the add bookmark dialog, that ability was removed from Firefox, but that page or one like it can be seen at [http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#userContent Customizing Mozilla].  After a loss of 4-6 months use of keyword customization during Firefox 3 (Places) betas one can once again use styling to add keyword (Style [http://userstyles.org/styles/9029 9029]), but keywords should be in Firefox without any need for customizationInstead developers for Firefox 3.6 have again tossed keywords practically out the window and try to force people to use Tags and try to tell users and other developers that that are the same.  New users are directed to customization only see Extensions, Themes and Personas and are directed to many of the worst choices as "Recommended" extensions. What they do not see is the configuration changes (about:config) Styles offer a user the ability to install as is or to modify them for a more customized look via the "Stylish" extension and there are many styles available on userstyles.org which can be tested and implemented without restarting Firefox.


==Documentation==
# Keep page layouts simple (pertains to Support pages),  don't make us look at three unrelated columns on a page, it's a waste of space.  It doesn't make a difference how big our screen is.  Let us choose to put up six or more overlapping windows on the screen even if you think we should only be looking at one window.  Windows-7 has a nice feature that helps us work with multiple Windows to place a window on left or right side, maximize or minimize (WinKey+arrowkey) useful for dual window display/comparisons the windows are docked to the sides but can be moved around in the normal fashion.  Hiding links makes it difficult to use links, that's what happens when style overrides useability.
# Thank goodness for the Adblock Plus extension, without which these pages would take forever to load.  I have recently doubled the memory on my laptop from 2GB to maximum of 4GB.


==Real Estate==
==Real Estate==
# Keep page layouts simple,  don't make us look at three unrelated columns on a page, it's a waste of space.
# Keep toolbar heights to a minimum size without distorted icons.  The Navigation Toolbar takes almost 3 lines of toolbar space.    Some examples of how it can be reduced in size based on vertical space of the toolbar [http://userstyles.org/styles/18864 Navigation/Location Bar BIG Presentation Height | userstyles.org], [http://userstyles.org/styles/9349 Navigation/Location Bar Minimal Height | userstyles.org], [http://userstyles.org/styles/10881 Navigation/Location Bar Presentation Height (DM*) | userstyles.org].  You do not even need the drop-down as you can use right-click context menu.
# Keep toolbar heights to a minimum size without distorted icons.  The Navigation Toolbar takes almost 3 lines of toolbar space.
# Keep the menus, these are the primary route to learn how to use an application, has a hierarchical outline with keyboard shortcuts.  They can be modified by users using extensions to add directly into menus with related items as the user sees fit.  Lacking decent built-in facilities the "[https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/710 Menu Editor] " extension provides exactly what is needed to customize menus.  
# Keep the menus, these are the primary route to learn how to use an application, has a hierarchical outline with keyboard shortcuts.  They can be modified by users using extensions to add directly into menus with related items as the user sees fit.  Lacking decent built-in facilities the "[https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/710 Menu Editor] " extension provides exactly what is needed to customize menus.
 
 
==Images==
[[Image:Firefox_priorities.png|(picture of toolbars with scaling grid)]]


==Add-ons  addons.mozilla.org==
==Add-ons  addons.mozilla.org==
# Remove large banners
# Page banner picture was removed but the pages still have an excessive page weight compared to text content.
# Remove large icon
# Remove large icon
# Display the download size next to each  "Install" button.
# Display the download size next to each  "Install" button.
Line 50: Line 122:
==What should be included in Firefox==
==What should be included in Firefox==
See [[User:Dmcritchie#Facilities that should be built-in to Firefox as seen in these Extensions]].  This would eliminate problems of incompatible extensions as these features are really needed by all users.  Unfortunately when such things are adopted into Firefox they never get done correctly, or do only one small part of the extension.
See [[User:Dmcritchie#Facilities that should be built-in to Firefox as seen in these Extensions]].  This would eliminate problems of incompatible extensions as these features are really needed by all users.  Unfortunately when such things are adopted into Firefox they never get done correctly, or do only one small part of the extension.
==Mozilla stated goals==
* [http://beltzner.ca/mike/2010/05/10/firefox-4-fast-powerful-and-empowering/ Firefox 4: fast, powerful, and empowering » beltzner] (2010-05-10), primary goals for Firefox 4
* [https://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2010/03/03/mozilla-developer-preview-now-available-with-out-of-process-plugins/ Mozilla Developer News » Blog Archive » Mozilla Developer Preview Now Available With Out-of-Process Plugins] (2010-03-03), plug-in not part of Firefox will not terminate Firefox and will be self recovering.
==Watch list for 3.7a4pre failures/problems==
"Menu Editor" extension complete tab context failure, see
::http://dlstatusbar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menuedit&action=display&thread=1669
:Bug 554991  - allow tab context menu to be modified by normal XUL overlays  [RESOLVED FIXED] fix is cause of problem
:https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554991
Aero Glass effects caused toolbars to be unreadable night of 2010-03-30, partially fixed on 2010-04-01 and problem with unreadable Stylish edit dialogs and menu icon stuff was fixed on 2010-04-04, so usable again.[http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.apps.firefox/browse_frm/thread/c2c0e876f21aa64b]. 
Probably Thunderbird issue but Shawn posts with a PSP signature on/after 2010-01-02 and using a list server instead of a newsgroup causes his replies in the above thread are hard to read as I have to read each of his from within an attachment or headers, and it also produces  errors.
: Window Live Mail:  There was an error decoding this message.  The message header contains invalid data.
The content is certainly not plain text as it has been placed into an attachment.
:Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature";
==Watch list for 3.7a5pre failures/problems==
* (Fixed) Double-click to open a New Tab is opening TWO tabs instead of one new tab -- changed double-click on tab bar to do nothing in  "Tab Clicking Options" extension to solve part of problem, extension still needed to close a tab with double-click.
* New Tabs open with incorrect wording of "New Tab" instead of more correct wording and unambiguous former wording of "(untitled)".  Wording of "New Tab" is simply wrong -- close last tab and it is not a "new tab" but is simply an  "(untitled)"; likewise use about:blank which adds another level of to tab it is not a new tab, add more levels to tab and then back off,  it is still not a new tab but should be shown as "(untitled)" back off more into earlier tabs and titles.
* [http://userstyles.org/styles/24728 Tab Color Underscoring active/read/unread (Fx3.6) | userstyles.org] (Not working) should -- color the bottom border of a tab with RED for active tab, BLUE for a normal tab, GREEN for a still unread tab, MAGENTA(FUSHIA) for loading/reloading tab.  Among other problems such as Tab height,  probably need a new version of "Tab Visited" extension mentioned on the style page.
* [http://forum.userstyles.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=19049 Stylish no longer works properly with latest Minefield Trunk 3.7a5pre - userstyles.org], existing styles work, but can't view list;  therefore,  can't edit, add, delete, etc. -- there is a disable all styles which I will not touch, but it probably would not do anything, but not going to try.&nbsp;  Coincidence of not the horrible/butchered new Firefox addons manager that resides in a tab and uses prodigious quantities of real estate is unusable and almost certainly affects "Stylish" and "Stylish Custom" usage.
==Status Bar and other Toolbars==
'''Status Bar'''
* Can't move items to other toolbars
* Dysfunctional  large wasteful empty area on "add-on" bar
* Extension "McAfee Site Advisor" now inaccessible with status bar item missing
* Extension "Headings Map" transparent background on menu
* Link url message gone up to location bar
* Status bar messages gone, hard to see whats not there, error console don't work, awkward
* Status Bar replaced with a semi functional add-on bar
* Too few items to justify a toolbar
* Too many items to distribute onto other toolbars
* Transparent background for menu on
* User interface stinks
'''Find Bar'''
* Find entry area too small to see what typed, like you're only going to type single small word fx25 to at least #fx27.0a2.[http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox-problems.htm#fx25]
More on '''Misguided Ergonomics''' and '''eyeball studies'''<br/>
Mozilla and Microsoft have done eyeball studies, I'm sure at great expense, and with all the wrong conclusions and goals.  The worst is the Microsoft Ribbon, and Firefox is incorporating much of that bad design with lots of extra clicking in hard to find/use menus (the ribbon is a picture oriented menu).
'''Everything in your face''', '''nothing to be seen''' and '''very little that is usable'''.<br/>
If nothing is wrong there is no waiting and no need or time to wander or go looking for problems,  as what one wants to see would already be in view. &nbsp; All of the so called studies seem very flawed to me, put something new on the screen and people are going to look at it.&nbsp;  But it is not a matter of having to  look directly at something, as long as it is within an immediate area of where one expects something to be the exact placement is not important. 
Early ergonomic studies included hunt and peck typing -- there was essentially no one without some familiarity with a querty keyboard and all they had to guess at was within one key of where a key actually was, keep in mind that typewriter keys do not move around.  So even a person that did not know where any keys actually were did better than on a keyboard with an alphabetical arrangement.
Adding confusion such as moving toolbars around may take some time to get used to, and older people or animals may never fully adjust,  but put them back to where they first learned things and there is no loss of time in adjusting.
How long you expect the menu bar with combined Firefox and Extension functionality to remain around after all of the work is being focused on separating the two and adding a couple levels to get to the menus.
If you don't know a lot of keyboard shortcuts and alternate ways of doing things, you will probably be at a great disadvantage unless your mind and usage follows that of a left-handed graphical artist.
==Users should be main concern==
The best users are those that make use of features and can tell others how do use them.  Instead what I see is developers who often don't understand their own product, make changes for the sake of making changes but not to help users.  Documentation left to users rather than developers being the primary source for documentation, which instead is relegated to to those who have to figure out why things don't work.  This is the difference between Specifications (SPECS),    Reference (HELP)  as opposed to a guide with more specific usages (Usage GUIDE), and of course for new users in particular TUTORIALS.
So many things have been made non functional in Firefox, or reduced to barely working,  this has wasted a lot of my time and it frustrating to most users many of whom just give up. 
My particular interests are
* keyword shortcuts particularly with substitution and JavaScript.  Was introduced to JavaScript in Internet Explorer, but the substitution was new to me in Firefox.
* Streamlining toolbars without loss of features by removing wasted space.  The new toolbars with each version or release have never ever saved any space compared to simply removing the wasted vertical and horizontal space, and removing several useless toolbar buttons.   
A very great number of keyword shortcut have been made useless because they can't be entered on the location bar. That is where keyword shortcuts are entered.  Specifically the last group were those that resize /move the window for a security problem that isn't a serious problem, and which can be (was blocked) in options when needed.  In fact no other browser has blocked such usage that I am aware of.
Other bookmarked keyword shortcuts involved having to make policy changes in order to use them,  again they are my own bookmarks not code in an external web page trying to access my hard drive. 
Then of course many extensions, many of which require compatibility to be turned off or find another one.  The good extensions where the author is no longer around but get marked incompatible.  The problematic extensions  almost all of which I never installed because they are obviously poorly designed and need a lot of attention, but they are widely used because the configuration options are so hidden and annoying for users to change.
When I started Firefox within about three clicks after installing Firefox, I was introduced to configuration options and what to change..  That is when Firefox was more friendly. 
With each new release or version , one has to change several defaults back to previous settings, or add new configuration variable to retain old settings,..
You want examples, I expect you can find several hundred in the following, plus some individual examples.:
*  The developers who make preposterous claims based on interpreting data which does not contain the information they claim it does.  In other words self fulfilling prophesies
* [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites New Tab Page – show, hide and customize top sites | How to | Firefox Help], at least this one was mentioned in Version 13 What's New with a fix to get back to normal.
* [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox-problems.htm Firefox Problems &amp; Issues (Notes)]
* [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox.htm Firefox Customizations (Notes)]
* [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/kws.htm Firefox Keyword Shortcuts]
* [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/tabs.htm Tabbed Browsing in Firefox]
* I could provide lots of examples to counter project managers claim that not many people use keyword shortcuts and how that attitude really made Firefox useless in order to promote tags which by comparison are utterly useless.  In fact it destroyed beta testing for a year while Firefox 3 was being worked on.  Only one good thing came out of 3.0 and above and that was the "Awesome Bar" functionality for searching bookmarks and history.including direct usage in sidebars as well. (this would add about another 100 items).
* Parity with Google Chrome for tabs, what a disaster and what a bad browser to emulate.
* Parity with Opera for Find,  that would have been great, if developers really looked at what Opera actually does.  Opera highlights all uses and only changes view of page if the next/previous Find in not on the same view which provides the very best of context reference. <br>[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78833 78833 – find in page does not scroll selection to correct screen position].<br>[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171237 171237 – Find in Page: highlighted result should be at the middle of the page (vertically centered) instead of last line/bottom of page] 
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=248955 248955 – search box should be tab-specific (content should not persist when switching tabs)] another disaster about to happen.  The change would never be useful to me and I hope there is a configuration change immediately available to put it back the way it was long before it actually gets released.
===Firefox usage summary===
Basically Firefox on Windows has been made more frustrating to deal with, and none of my friends are using it anymore, except to check out their web pages on different browsers. 
==Android Firefox==
I do not really use the Android version of Firefox as there is nothing of practical use for me in it.  Even if I used a keyboard and could use keyword shortcuts, I can't because they have been made to no longer function.  The Android version will never amount to anything without its keywords and that will not be enough because it also needs gestures especially for when a keyboard is not used.
Private Browsing hides close checkmarks on right side due to gray screen and screen glare.  The background on checkbox must be white in order to be seen.
When I attempt to use a bookmarklet from from bookmarks for a current web page, I end up in a Google search box, or on another tab.  I cannot use the "Remember Password"  bookmarklet with or without a keyword shortcut.
The use of bookmark and tabs is very complicated for users used to desktop computers, or to other Android browsers with tabs for that matter.  I don't really care, as I don't use the Android version of Firefox at all except for comparisons to other Android browsers.  Not having an actual home web page is a bit frustrating as well as having only six items in the Speed Dial (top sites home screen).  The only way for people to really make use of an Android is to design and have there own web page with their links, the speed dial type pages are okay for some things but not when you can't easily scroll easily through bookmarks or web pages .  My tablet has a resolution of 1024 x 600 which is not much different from what most people were recently using on desktops.  Firefox needs to have gestures as well as keyword shortcuts for each bookmark on both Android and on new desktops with touch-screens.  Glad to see tags were scrapped on Android would wish  the same would happen on desktop so that keywords, which are important could then be made always visible on bookmarks.  I am currently on Firefox 24 on desktop.  I have the Android versions 24.0 and 25.0 beta on my Android, but use another Android browser instead that has gestures and is better suited to an Android.  Features most missed on all Android browsers are scroll bars with fast scrolling to any exact point, drag and drop,  selection (especially regards to bookmarklets), keyword shortcuts, and a decent "Find".
===Bugs of destruction (on Android)===
Making Android not work at all
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=703378 703378 – Native Fennec executes javascript: urls pasted or typed into the awesome bar]
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=733327 733327 – javascript: URLs are listed in AwesomeBar]
Resulting damage:
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=725609 725609 – Bookmarklets don't work in Fennec Native]
* [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=762155 762155 – bookmark keywords do not work (search bookmark keywords do)], Regardless of being marked fixed, keywords do not work
===Summary (of Android version of Firefox)===
Keyword shortcuts were the main thing that Firefox had that other Android browsers lacked, and now that keyword shortcuts no longer work, Firefox is just another Android browser.
* The bookmarks themselves are hard to use compared to other Android browsers and to the bookmarks on the desktop version.  One needs a [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/android/android_browsers.htm road map] just to bring up bookmarks in the Android version, very unintuitive even for experienced users.
* No bookmark folders, unless perhaps synchronized from desktop version.  (synchronizing is something I personally would not do between desktop and Android)
* Can't sort groups of bookmarks into alphabetical order (no folders, no groups)
* Can't scroll through bookmarks

Latest revision as of 14:11, 7 November 2013

Firefox Priorities

It seems all too often to me that Firefox is being changed for the worse based on what looks pretty to a graphics designer rather than what is useful for browsing. This is my list of priorities in order of importance that should or should have been implemented in Firefox, many of them ages ago.

Priorities for Developers

  1. Keyword bookmark property, should be seen in all bookmark dialogs for Adding, modifying or deleting bookmarks. Keyword is essentially an alias for a bookmark, there can be only one bookmark for a keyword. This is one of the fundamental features of Firefox. [1] [2] [3]  Additional references mainly to Keyword Bookmarks
  2. Description bookmark property, should also be seen in all bookmark dialogs for Adding, modifying or deleting bookmarks.
  3. Bookmark selections, need ability to export selections of bookmarks and/or bookmark folders. For use by others, for documentation, and to combine and recombine sections of bookmarks.
  4. Distinguish Tabs active/read/unread with styling up to the user. Bug 480813, Bug 487242, TabVisited, Style 24728
  5. Export individual or multiple bookmark folders for sharing with others, and such that the keywords can be imported as well from such selections -- keywords are actually in the full bookmarks export to bookmarks.html files exported and imported by all browsers so were always considered important by at least Firefox structure and Opera.
  6. (almost fixed —) Find needs to be improved to place the first hit in the center of the page as in Opera and continue down from there until forced to start on another view to show lines above and below so resumes in the middle of a page for next hit. Firefox lacks matching on whole words, letter-case, and a "Find All" in syntax list (which could be improved even more for tables). It took many years to get "Highlight all" added, which is barely a start. Context Highlight for highlighting multiple search strings with different colors would also be welcome. Firefox 12.0 has put each Find smack dab in the middle, which is not quite as bad at at the very bottom, but is almost as insane.  Call it stupidity or job security, either way it has not been redesigned for usability -- it is certainly NOT parity with Opera.  Smack dab in the middle makes it very difficult to see where you are, and there is no beep or notification when you reach the end and start over again. Easily tested with a find of "the" and the word occurs several times on the screen the viewing window should not change until the next word/string "the" is outside the current view (Bug 78833, Bug 171237, Bug 440198).Most of preceding has been fixed via bug 171237 except for looping back to top without audible cue or other means, see Bug 266338, Bug 468651
  7. Document Outline (table of contents of a page) why is this not built-in to Firefox, it is coded into so many pages such as MozillaZine KB, it would be so useful to all users. I would choose "HeadingsMap" over "Document Map" extension only because the first includes additional areas in frames.
  8. Tabs opening next to parent tabs should never have been done before item #4 as in Firefox 3.6, but not only was it done, but 3.6 wiped out the ability of extensions and styles to distinguish the same. It also had no clear means to users installing 3.6 as to how to remove the new feature.
  9. Tags should not have been introduced before items #1 is firmly in the bookmark addition properties and item #3 where users can share bookmarks. Instead a developer removed keyword thinking it was the same as a tag, keyword was restored the next day but it still was hidden. Tags on the other hand are very confusing to new users particularly when implemented with an additional drop-down detracting from the ability to add a bookmark into a particular folder or a recently added to folder.
  10. Firefox on Androids: Tablets do not have a keyboard so if the Android version of Firefox is to succeed then Firefox must have both user created gestures (like in Dolphin), and must have keyword shortcuts. Both must be immediately available in any bookmark when created or updated. Individual bookmarks and groups of bookmarks must be selectable and easily transferable to documentation and other users.

Negative priorities - priorities that are harmful, but Firefox Developers are working on anyway

  1. Pinning (docking) dialogs to a Window should be avoided, the worst case is proposal to further mess up bookmark dialog. Pinning the bookmark dialog means that one cannot scroll down the page or visit other tabs to help fill in information while creating or modifying a bookmark. Combine that with a three column webpage, and bookmarks sidebar and you have nothing to work with when attempting to fill in the dialog.
  2. Changing toolbars, hiding Edit menus. This is very bad because it hides important information from new users, for experienced users many of us know what the keyboard shortcuts are, but we have extensions that add into the menus and need to be associated with the Firefox menu items, and we can use "Menu Editor " extension to arrange menus as we see fit. Changing things around on use just make more work for us, and in fact might even make it impossible to use efficiently. See my webpage Toolbars in answer to Windows Theme Revamp/Direction and Feedback. Actually what is shown now is even worse as it has tabs on top making them further away from the article being viewed. The only time I have tabs at the top is in full screen mode where that is the only toolbar shown because that is what I need quick access to. Moving cursor through the top or Ctrl+L or Ctrl+K will get me to input or show toolbars -- don't need more grief added to the Firefox experience. I don't need nonsense of having a home button moved to the tabs bar, where I need every pixel I can get on one line, and so would have to find a way to eliminate it and be forced to use keyboard such as Alt+Home or a keyworded shortcut of "home:" -- javascript:window.home(); The discussion for this is at mozilla.dev.apps.firefox authored by Alexander Limi (2010-02-09 Firefox UX Team update: Ramping up for the next Firefox release; and 2009-05-04 brainstorming ...).
  3. Showcase (thumbnails) of tabs seem to be popular with developers, but I know what each tab and window is and consider this to be useless and extremely annoying, please option each of these features where such things will be tolerated/disallowed. On Android Tablets that have no keyboard there is a little justification for this, but not in random arrangements. I have a web page with lots of frequently used links that I include as the first window in "Dolphin Browser" new tabs and/or homepage in such browsers as there not much sense in 9-25 pictures of tabs.
  4. So much usability has been lost since even before Nov 2011 that Firefox is no longer pleasurable to use. JavaScript usage from bookmarks and from the location bar has been severely impaired or outright prohibited and possible consequences to justify this are so trivial and the loss of functionality is so great. This has had a severe impact on my use of keyword shortcuts that are required for usability and to save time.

Nonsense or crap

  1. "New Tab" in minefield copied from Google Chrome instead of "(Untitled)" is misleading and just plain incorrect. Open several links within same tab, then use BACK button, then use "about:blank" in the address bar. It is marked as "New Tab" and it is in no way a new tab. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!. There is no way that Showcase junk is going to be used within my tabs so "Top Sites" as in Safari would also be incorrect.
  2. Justifications for wasting space on the left site like "based on the current theme and the additional horizontal space that is available on most monitors..." -- the monitors are not larger the numbers are deceiving the wider screen have less space for Firefox, the font will be smaller, and you more easily look at two windows at once (WinKey+arrowkey).
  3. Flyout sidebar menus like the old grippes gadgets are a pain. I use "Split Browser" and use the option to drag to the sides, but it also interferes many times. The Windows-7 taskbar display windows is 95% done in error even after taking steps to delay such flyout by 10 seconds, tooltips appear at about 5 seconds). Grippes were useless as the stacking of hidden bars grippes was random.
  4. Adding pages to sidebar that could have been done better with keywords and sidebar indicator in bookmarks, that has been made disfunctional see Bug 215175 -- bookmark keyword cannot be used to open bookmark in sidebar .
  5. New Addons Manager -- list wastes space can only see 4 addons at a time compared to 10 before, I have about 125 addons on or off, and this is where I change options, so this is poor design, context menus is really crappy compared to context menus in place in 3.6.*, and the "Show More" is slower and less useful than before though it does now show the size. The addons list is now a tab rather than a detached list -- no end in sight for continued bad user interface designs. "Your add-on updates have been downloaded" -- well that's really NOT informative -- what is going to be changed. Nice to be able to sort on Name, Size, Updated and unfortunately that is the ONLY way you will know what was updated -- what if you didn't want to update an item this time around. BAH HUMBUG! From developer "people loved it" -- I'd guess most users hate it. Would seem Developers tend to have very few addons because they tend to break things -- isn't that what Betas are to test. If you click on "More Information" there is no BACK button you have to invoke addons list all over again.
    • as a tab which I hate and consider useless, the favicon should match that on the status bar and upper left corner, BACK button should function
    • Bad user interface: wastes space, inefficient interface
    • Good items: added "about:addons", nice to be able to sort on Name, Size, Updated

Bugs of destruction

Summary

It is an improved bookmark dialog that is wanted that always shows keyword and is resizeable that is wanted -- not an attached sidebar for bookmark properties (useless). The resizing of dialogs and of the addition of the properties to be displayed is already built into Firefox something that can be turned on and off but is still not made available by default, and resizeability was in the 3.6 beta but removed from production. A few lines of styling code is all that is needed to display keywords and descriptions, or even to hide tags yet we do not have a choice in options and new users suffer greatly without these features being readily accessible. The gyrations of going to properties (in addition to the star) after bookmarking a page are time consuming and hide the true usefulness of Firefox over other browsers.

Keywords are just as important as the AwesomeBar and used together even better than either alone. Keywords have been in Firefox since the beginning and have been hidden by design, evidently because people complain about it not being available and not going through the right channels, so even when they reword as an enhancement they get flung into year 2004-2005 bugs as duplicate won't fix.

Keywords, Tags and other bookmark properties

There seems to be a lot of confusion among the developers working on Tags as what Keywords are. The main point is that they are not the same. All of the items can be modified by the user.

Name/Title: resides in each primary bookmark record and is filled in automatically when bookmarking a page from the webpage TITLE.

Location/URL: the address to locate a page (Universal Resource Locator), but they do not have to be an absolute address, they can have JavaScript making them more powerful. If used with keywords they can also make use of substitutions. Firefox includes automatically when bookmarking a page.

Keyword/Alias: resides in each primary bookmark record and as such can be considered an alias, which is exactly how they are treated in Opera. But Firefox goes far beyond mere aliases by having substitutions available in bookmarks (%s and %S) combined with a keyword one can directly access a single article from a multitude of articles, such as one's own pages, a definition of a specific word. Both of those are simple to create and use. Only when you combine JavaScript do they get more complicated to create, but they are still simple to use. Just do a search anywhere on bookmarklets (or favelets) and any one of them could have a keyword to invoke the bookmarklet directly without going through bookmarks. A user must fill in the Keyword to have it available.

Developers should be encouraging others to use keywords rather discouraging their use.
Reduce clutter on you bookmarks toolbar by using folders and by using Keyword Shortcuts. I keep most of my keyword shortcuts out of sight in a single folder ("K") on my bookmarks toolbar. Keyword shortcuts are only available in Firefox with all of the following features.
  1. Used as bookmark alias to invoke a specific bookmark or bookmarklet. kws:
    and that is as far as Opera goes with Alias (which import/export to Firefox as a Keyword).
  2. Used as a bookmark alias with substitution to invoke a search with arguments. g: firefox keywords (Google Search)
    or for a MozillaZine Knowledge Base search :: development (symbols can be used within or as keyword);
    likewise, you could even use a "?" as a keyword to simulate the search indicator as in Google Chrome.
  3. Reduce the number of bookmarks needed by supplying the filename as the substitution to bring up at a site. ff: kws.htm (another way of getting my Keyword Shortcuts page)
    Same thing for a bug report, using the bug number bug 404507 (cut and paste to the location bar from a text report -- Ctrl+C, Ctrl+L, Ctrl+V, Enter)
  4. Used with JavaScript as bookmarklets to bring up several pages and apply the same parameters or search terms for each page. Shopping:online GPS (see my kws.htm#shopping page for a demo)
  5. Keywords are anything you want them to be they can be the initials of your bank or company, abbreviations and the concept is a lot easier to implement by users than tags -- if they have keyword in all of their bookmark dialogs. An assigned keyword must be shown in all bookmark dialogs so that users do not accidentally delete important bookmarks with the keyword thinking it is a duplicate of another bookmark that doesn't have a keyword or might even have a different keyword (alias).

Tags: (recently added to Firefox) are additional words added to classify a bookmark, they can be very powerful in the hands of some users, but are most likely to be misused. Each tag requires additional bookmark records for each bookmark they are attached to. If you don't have a consistent plan to begin with, retagging bookmarks would be very time-consuming especially for a typical set of 7,000 bookmarks. In fact for an individual user tagging bookmarks is pretty much redundant as they could have changed the title to help find a bookmark later. A user must fill in Tags to have them available. Ideally they could be filled in from web pages, but some web authors abuse these in pages to the point that some web search engines outright ignore them. But if a page is worth bookmarking it is worth the effort to verify that the entire bookmark is as wanted.

The primary distinction between keywords and tags is that there can be only one bookmark associated with a keyword, and that for a tag there can be many bookmarks associated with a tag, and many tags associated with a bookmark.

Description: is a part of every bookmark record, it is automatically filled in with the "Open Book" extension and with styling so filling in is already in Firefox to fill in from a webpage's own description, but is not automatic. Descriptions could be included in searching with the AwesomeBar, and bookmarks, if not also history but they are not.

'resizability' of bookmark dialogs is a part of the "Open Book" extension it works fine there.

What really bugs users the most is that developers make changes to Firefox without any knowledge of the features they break, and in other cases on purpose, even when told beforehand of the problems. Here's one summed up in user comment #14 in Bug 404507 – Can't assign bookmark keywords from "Add Bookmark" dialog. Somewhere else was written that keywords are hidden because they can be confused with tags (only by a developer), I don't hear them attempting to suppress tabs because they sound like tags. Or check this one out can't tell the difference between size and shape Bug 524071 – Places UI (3.7): Bookmark contextual dialog should be detachable into a persistent sidebar Or that keywords are not important see my list earlier, or do an add-ons search for: keywords simple, which will produce the maximum 200 hits which I expect are mostly from frustrated users.

Keyword as an advanced feature

Finally found out where use of keyword is considered an advanced feature in Firefox Browser | Tips & tricks to help you get the most out of the Web, which is now a rather useless page compared to the page before that was like Customizing Mozilla that used to contain real Tips and customizations. The replacement page looks more like a presentation outline before someone downloads Firefox rather than a page offering help. If it's a Help page where are the links. Even so why are developers destroying keyword usage, and how did they get charge of modules that they don't even know what the features are or the file structures. (Perhaps because none of the three original developers are there anymore)

Counts

A Firefox developer collected statistics on use of keywords and tags, I've never seen the results, you ran something and it created some summaries, can't locate where that was from, or who it went to.

Here are my counts based on Counts_-_Counting_bookmarks_history_links_and_other_data_-_Firefox

  • Count of bookmarks, search on colon (":") -- 5,213
  • Count of bookmarks with a Keyword -- 1,107
  • Count of bookmarks with tags -- 0
  • Count of bookmarks with a Description -- 1154
  • Count of bookmarks with JavaScript -- 511
  • Count of bookmarks with substitutions (%s OR %S) -- 285

The usefulness of Keyword is hidden from these counts because they do not show up in any count statistics on bookmarks, and a single bookmarklet with a keyword of "ff:" can be used to access directly any of over 500 files, and I have several other such bookmarks. Similar substitutions can be used in place of listed search engines. Keyword shortcuts are also used to search a current site, or within the directory of a current site if Google (or other search engine) has indexed such pages.

I will not risk my over 5,000 bookmarks on my Firefox desktop by synching them with other versions, with other browsers or with other devices. What is needed is the ability to export/import specified folders. I will miss the only decent and reliable bookmark sorting, "SortPlaces", that had been available in an extension, never exceeding 3 seconds to sort all of my bookmarks.[4]

Customization

Put the customization of Firefox back into Firefox. When I started Firefox, within two clicks of installing Firefox you came upon a page to customize Firefox via userChrome.css and userContent.css that was nice, to the point and not wasteful of machine cycles. The user was a part of the dynamic. One of the best features was a single line change in userChrome.css to include keyword in the add bookmark dialog, that ability was removed from Firefox, but that page or one like it can be seen at Customizing Mozilla. After a loss of 4-6 months use of keyword customization during Firefox 3 (Places) betas one can once again use styling to add keyword (Style 9029), but keywords should be in Firefox without any need for customization. Instead developers for Firefox 3.6 have again tossed keywords practically out the window and try to force people to use Tags and try to tell users and other developers that that are the same. New users are directed to customization only see Extensions, Themes and Personas and are directed to many of the worst choices as "Recommended" extensions. What they do not see is the configuration changes (about:config) Styles offer a user the ability to install as is or to modify them for a more customized look via the "Stylish" extension and there are many styles available on userstyles.org which can be tested and implemented without restarting Firefox.

Documentation

  1. Keep page layouts simple (pertains to Support pages), don't make us look at three unrelated columns on a page, it's a waste of space. It doesn't make a difference how big our screen is. Let us choose to put up six or more overlapping windows on the screen even if you think we should only be looking at one window. Windows-7 has a nice feature that helps us work with multiple Windows to place a window on left or right side, maximize or minimize (WinKey+arrowkey) useful for dual window display/comparisons the windows are docked to the sides but can be moved around in the normal fashion. Hiding links makes it difficult to use links, that's what happens when style overrides useability.
  2. Thank goodness for the Adblock Plus extension, without which these pages would take forever to load. I have recently doubled the memory on my laptop from 2GB to maximum of 4GB.

Real Estate

  1. Keep toolbar heights to a minimum size without distorted icons. The Navigation Toolbar takes almost 3 lines of toolbar space. Some examples of how it can be reduced in size based on vertical space of the toolbar Navigation/Location Bar BIG Presentation Height | userstyles.org, Navigation/Location Bar Minimal Height | userstyles.org, Navigation/Location Bar Presentation Height (DM*) | userstyles.org. You do not even need the drop-down as you can use right-click context menu.
  2. Keep the menus, these are the primary route to learn how to use an application, has a hierarchical outline with keyboard shortcuts. They can be modified by users using extensions to add directly into menus with related items as the user sees fit. Lacking decent built-in facilities the "Menu Editor " extension provides exactly what is needed to customize menus.


Images

(picture of toolbars with scaling grid)

Add-ons addons.mozilla.org

  1. Page banner picture was removed but the pages still have an excessive page weight compared to text content.
  2. Remove large icon
  3. Display the download size next to each "Install" button.
  4. Move the user comments to the end after Developer descriptions and Developer comments.
  5. Collections are going to become a nightmare if that hasn't already happened.

What should be included in Firefox

See User:Dmcritchie#Facilities that should be built-in to Firefox as seen in these Extensions. This would eliminate problems of incompatible extensions as these features are really needed by all users. Unfortunately when such things are adopted into Firefox they never get done correctly, or do only one small part of the extension.

Mozilla stated goals

Watch list for 3.7a4pre failures/problems

"Menu Editor" extension complete tab context failure, see

http://dlstatusbar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menuedit&action=display&thread=1669
Bug 554991 - allow tab context menu to be modified by normal XUL overlays [RESOLVED FIXED] fix is cause of problem
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554991

Aero Glass effects caused toolbars to be unreadable night of 2010-03-30, partially fixed on 2010-04-01 and problem with unreadable Stylish edit dialogs and menu icon stuff was fixed on 2010-04-04, so usable again.[5].

Probably Thunderbird issue but Shawn posts with a PSP signature on/after 2010-01-02 and using a list server instead of a newsgroup causes his replies in the above thread are hard to read as I have to read each of his from within an attachment or headers, and it also produces errors.

Window Live Mail: There was an error decoding this message. The message header contains invalid data.

The content is certainly not plain text as it has been placed into an attachment.

Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature";

Watch list for 3.7a5pre failures/problems

  • (Fixed) Double-click to open a New Tab is opening TWO tabs instead of one new tab -- changed double-click on tab bar to do nothing in "Tab Clicking Options" extension to solve part of problem, extension still needed to close a tab with double-click.
  • New Tabs open with incorrect wording of "New Tab" instead of more correct wording and unambiguous former wording of "(untitled)". Wording of "New Tab" is simply wrong -- close last tab and it is not a "new tab" but is simply an "(untitled)"; likewise use about:blank which adds another level of to tab it is not a new tab, add more levels to tab and then back off, it is still not a new tab but should be shown as "(untitled)" back off more into earlier tabs and titles.
  • Tab Color Underscoring active/read/unread (Fx3.6) | userstyles.org (Not working) should -- color the bottom border of a tab with RED for active tab, BLUE for a normal tab, GREEN for a still unread tab, MAGENTA(FUSHIA) for loading/reloading tab. Among other problems such as Tab height, probably need a new version of "Tab Visited" extension mentioned on the style page.
  • Stylish no longer works properly with latest Minefield Trunk 3.7a5pre - userstyles.org, existing styles work, but can't view list; therefore, can't edit, add, delete, etc. -- there is a disable all styles which I will not touch, but it probably would not do anything, but not going to try.  Coincidence of not the horrible/butchered new Firefox addons manager that resides in a tab and uses prodigious quantities of real estate is unusable and almost certainly affects "Stylish" and "Stylish Custom" usage.

Status Bar and other Toolbars

Status Bar

  • Can't move items to other toolbars
  • Dysfunctional large wasteful empty area on "add-on" bar
  • Extension "McAfee Site Advisor" now inaccessible with status bar item missing
  • Extension "Headings Map" transparent background on menu
  • Link url message gone up to location bar
  • Status bar messages gone, hard to see whats not there, error console don't work, awkward
  • Status Bar replaced with a semi functional add-on bar
  • Too few items to justify a toolbar
  • Too many items to distribute onto other toolbars
  • Transparent background for menu on
  • User interface stinks

Find Bar

  • Find entry area too small to see what typed, like you're only going to type single small word fx25 to at least #fx27.0a2.[6]

More on Misguided Ergonomics and eyeball studies
Mozilla and Microsoft have done eyeball studies, I'm sure at great expense, and with all the wrong conclusions and goals. The worst is the Microsoft Ribbon, and Firefox is incorporating much of that bad design with lots of extra clicking in hard to find/use menus (the ribbon is a picture oriented menu).

Everything in your face, nothing to be seen and very little that is usable.
If nothing is wrong there is no waiting and no need or time to wander or go looking for problems, as what one wants to see would already be in view.   All of the so called studies seem very flawed to me, put something new on the screen and people are going to look at it.  But it is not a matter of having to look directly at something, as long as it is within an immediate area of where one expects something to be the exact placement is not important.

Early ergonomic studies included hunt and peck typing -- there was essentially no one without some familiarity with a querty keyboard and all they had to guess at was within one key of where a key actually was, keep in mind that typewriter keys do not move around. So even a person that did not know where any keys actually were did better than on a keyboard with an alphabetical arrangement.

Adding confusion such as moving toolbars around may take some time to get used to, and older people or animals may never fully adjust, but put them back to where they first learned things and there is no loss of time in adjusting.

How long you expect the menu bar with combined Firefox and Extension functionality to remain around after all of the work is being focused on separating the two and adding a couple levels to get to the menus.

If you don't know a lot of keyboard shortcuts and alternate ways of doing things, you will probably be at a great disadvantage unless your mind and usage follows that of a left-handed graphical artist.

Users should be main concern

The best users are those that make use of features and can tell others how do use them. Instead what I see is developers who often don't understand their own product, make changes for the sake of making changes but not to help users. Documentation left to users rather than developers being the primary source for documentation, which instead is relegated to to those who have to figure out why things don't work. This is the difference between Specifications (SPECS), Reference (HELP) as opposed to a guide with more specific usages (Usage GUIDE), and of course for new users in particular TUTORIALS.

So many things have been made non functional in Firefox, or reduced to barely working, this has wasted a lot of my time and it frustrating to most users many of whom just give up.

My particular interests are

  • keyword shortcuts particularly with substitution and JavaScript. Was introduced to JavaScript in Internet Explorer, but the substitution was new to me in Firefox.
  • Streamlining toolbars without loss of features by removing wasted space. The new toolbars with each version or release have never ever saved any space compared to simply removing the wasted vertical and horizontal space, and removing several useless toolbar buttons.

A very great number of keyword shortcut have been made useless because they can't be entered on the location bar. That is where keyword shortcuts are entered. Specifically the last group were those that resize /move the window for a security problem that isn't a serious problem, and which can be (was blocked) in options when needed. In fact no other browser has blocked such usage that I am aware of.

Other bookmarked keyword shortcuts involved having to make policy changes in order to use them, again they are my own bookmarks not code in an external web page trying to access my hard drive.

Then of course many extensions, many of which require compatibility to be turned off or find another one. The good extensions where the author is no longer around but get marked incompatible. The problematic extensions almost all of which I never installed because they are obviously poorly designed and need a lot of attention, but they are widely used because the configuration options are so hidden and annoying for users to change.

When I started Firefox within about three clicks after installing Firefox, I was introduced to configuration options and what to change.. That is when Firefox was more friendly.

With each new release or version , one has to change several defaults back to previous settings, or add new configuration variable to retain old settings,..

You want examples, I expect you can find several hundred in the following, plus some individual examples.:

Firefox usage summary

Basically Firefox on Windows has been made more frustrating to deal with, and none of my friends are using it anymore, except to check out their web pages on different browsers.



Android Firefox

I do not really use the Android version of Firefox as there is nothing of practical use for me in it. Even if I used a keyboard and could use keyword shortcuts, I can't because they have been made to no longer function. The Android version will never amount to anything without its keywords and that will not be enough because it also needs gestures especially for when a keyboard is not used.

Private Browsing hides close checkmarks on right side due to gray screen and screen glare. The background on checkbox must be white in order to be seen.

When I attempt to use a bookmarklet from from bookmarks for a current web page, I end up in a Google search box, or on another tab. I cannot use the "Remember Password" bookmarklet with or without a keyword shortcut.

The use of bookmark and tabs is very complicated for users used to desktop computers, or to other Android browsers with tabs for that matter. I don't really care, as I don't use the Android version of Firefox at all except for comparisons to other Android browsers. Not having an actual home web page is a bit frustrating as well as having only six items in the Speed Dial (top sites home screen). The only way for people to really make use of an Android is to design and have there own web page with their links, the speed dial type pages are okay for some things but not when you can't easily scroll easily through bookmarks or web pages . My tablet has a resolution of 1024 x 600 which is not much different from what most people were recently using on desktops. Firefox needs to have gestures as well as keyword shortcuts for each bookmark on both Android and on new desktops with touch-screens. Glad to see tags were scrapped on Android would wish the same would happen on desktop so that keywords, which are important could then be made always visible on bookmarks. I am currently on Firefox 24 on desktop. I have the Android versions 24.0 and 25.0 beta on my Android, but use another Android browser instead that has gestures and is better suited to an Android. Features most missed on all Android browsers are scroll bars with fast scrolling to any exact point, drag and drop, selection (especially regards to bookmarklets), keyword shortcuts, and a decent "Find".

Bugs of destruction (on Android)

Making Android not work at all

Resulting damage:

Summary (of Android version of Firefox)

Keyword shortcuts were the main thing that Firefox had that other Android browsers lacked, and now that keyword shortcuts no longer work, Firefox is just another Android browser.

  • The bookmarks themselves are hard to use compared to other Android browsers and to the bookmarks on the desktop version. One needs a road map just to bring up bookmarks in the Android version, very unintuitive even for experienced users.
  • No bookmark folders, unless perhaps synchronized from desktop version. (synchronizing is something I personally would not do between desktop and Android)
  • Can't sort groups of bookmarks into alphabetical order (no folders, no groups)
  • Can't scroll through bookmarks