Firefox 23: Bookmark Star button moved and merged with bookmarks icon

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 28, 2013
Updated • May 4, 2013
Firefox
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If you are running Firefox 23 or newer on your system and use the bookmark star (bookmark this page) frequently you may have noticed that Mozilla moved it away from the browser's location bar. I ran into that issue a couple of days ago when I noticed that my bookmarks icon was gone from the browser's navigational toolbar. The only option that I had in the browser's customization menu was to either add the sidebar opening bookmarks icon to it, or a new icon that is a combination of the bookmark star and the icon that I wanted to restore.

As you can see on the screenshot below, Firefox displays the bookmark star, that is the icon that you can click on to bookmark a page right away, and the bookmark menu next to each other. There is no option in the browser to split the two apart again, and as of now, there is also no option to bring back the bookmark star to the address bar.

Why the change? Australis of course. The theme has become synonymous with changes that irritate at least part of Firefox's user base, and this one is no different from other changes that Mozilla plans to make to the browser.

firefox new bookmarks icon

Merging the buttons can cause quite a few problems. First, you are wasting space on the toolbar whereas before you were able to use the address bar for the bookmark this page icon instead. Since they are close to each other, it happens that you accidentally click on the wrong icon, so that you end up with a bookmark that you do not want.

What would have been a better course of action? Mozilla could leave things as is which would have pleased all users of the browser. Since that does not seem to have been an option, it could have at least separate the two icons as before and include options to move the icons back to their original position.

Ken Saunders mentioned in a comment that you can get the single bookmarks menu button back by installing Classic Bookmarks Button. While that adds the single button back, it does not re-add the star icon to the address bar.

old bookmark icon

If you have installed the extension in the browser click on Firefox > Options > Toolbar Layout and move the new icon back to the toolbar that you want to use it on.

Will there be an add-on or CSS hack to bring back the star as well? I honestly do not know yet. Maybe when the change is exposed to the Aurora, Beta or Stable channels if it is technical possible that is.

How can you bookmark pages now in the browser?

  • Use the shortcut Ctrl-D.
  • Click on the bookmarks menu and select Bookmark this page.
  • Tap on the Alt-key and select Bookmarks > Bookmark this page.
  • Select Firefox > Bookmarks > Bookmark this page.

What is your take on this latest change?

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Comments

  1. Sören Hentzschel said on May 6, 2013 at 3:12 pm
    Reply

    Hi,

    there is a new bug “Bug 867343 – Back out star button UI changes”.

    “Our plan is to construct a partial back-out patch for 23 Nightly that reverts
    the surface changes of bug 748894, while keeping the architectural
    improvements. The patch will also introduce a migration that will revert the
    new bookmark star button back to the bookmark menu button for Nightly profiles
    that have gotten the star.”

    And “Bug 855805 – Create the Bookmarks widget with subview” says:

    “Replace the bookmark split menu button with something more akin to this:
    http://shorlander.dropmark.com/118810

  2. Bill said on April 29, 2013 at 3:33 pm
    Reply

    Personally, I like the new merged button. I also like a lot of the changes made over the last few years to get rid of stuff that just takes up permanent space in the browser window or in a tool bar — e.g. the status bar.

    Try it, you’ll like it. And if you don’t, some disgruntled user will create an add-on to make you happy again ;-)

  3. greg said on April 29, 2013 at 3:31 pm
    Reply

    I use Ubuntu and the bookmarks icon isn’t displayed because of global menus (which I like a lot better than the icon). Anybody know if Ubuntu users have to do without the icon now?

  4. solidstate said on April 29, 2013 at 2:02 pm
    Reply

    I always just drag and drop the tab into whatever bookmark folder I feel it belongs in. Does no else do that? I find it’s much faster than trying to tackle down what sub-folder I wish it to go into via a folder dialog box.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 29, 2013 at 3:44 pm
      Reply

      I usually push all in the unsorted folder and open them using the address bar.

  5. Phillip said on April 29, 2013 at 10:52 am
    Reply

    Last time I tried palemoon, which was version 15 I think, its performance was actually bad. I compared it to normal firefox 18ish and pcxfirefox 18ish and both outperformed palemoon in just about every online browser speed test I could find. So I don’t see what all the hype is about.

  6. neal said on April 29, 2013 at 10:36 am
    Reply

    @Ken Saunders, totally agree. I am still a layman, but isn’t palemoon at its core its a recompiling Firefox? There are a ton of people who do this, so I don’t think Palmoon is anything special and the speed imagined or real is negligible, or you have to use benchmarks to see. You can also tweak the chrome file and about:config to do a lot if not all the things he did in regards to the menu and download manager.

    I was also amused when I saw that he used a addon from the Mozilla addon site to to bring back the status bar. I’ll be very curious to see what the pale moon guy does when Austrailes comes, and the Mozilla actively rip out the code for the old GUI. Probably like with the status bar, he will use off the shelf addons.

  7. Ken Saunders said on April 29, 2013 at 3:15 am
    Reply

    “There is these days no need for Firefox anymore, i said it already again and again.. Palemoon is…”
    Without Firefox, there is no Palemoon unless Palemoon where to be based on something other than Firefox’s source code.

    “in terms of Addons and Themes there is quite a high compatibility :)”
    Because they’re written for Firefox.

    I haven’t said anything about Palemoon because I don’t have anything at all against the project or the developer, in fact, I think that it’s cool in a way because it shows how great open source is and it’s an example of what I’ve said in the past which is that if people are that unhappy with Firefox anyone can take the code and do what they want with it, but, when individuals frame forks like Palemoon as something totally different and better than Firefox, I’m compelled to point out the facts and the facts in this case are that Palemoon -is- Firefox with different branding, and overall it’s just a highly customized version of Firefox.

    To oversimplify it, and a good comparison is, I could take a build of Firefox, put in all of my personal customizations, tweaks, etc, rename all instances of Firefox, and offer it up for downloading as Ken’s Super Browser.
    Even Palemoon’s status bar isn’t the return of the old Firefox status bar, it’s a tweaked version of the Status-4-Evar add-on.

    Again, I’m not putting down Palemoon at all, I’m just pointing out the facts.

    1. Compuitguy said on April 29, 2013 at 5:45 am
      Reply

      well said and totally agree

  8. Budley said on April 28, 2013 at 9:31 pm
    Reply

    Just decided to fire up Pale Moon again and see if I want to seriously “make the move” from my beloved FF. After running a quick search I found the profile migration tool, downloaded it and ran it.

    Geez! it’s as if I never left FF. Everything looks and functions exactly the same. No more dodging FF “improvement” upgrades. Pale Moon is my new default browser. Donation sent!

  9. Read the list said on April 28, 2013 at 4:19 pm
    Reply

    It’s not the final design. Read the firefox-dev list comments.

  10. XenoSillvano said on April 28, 2013 at 4:00 pm
    Reply

    I sure hope Mozilla or someone out there intends on releasing add-ons for every alteration made in this transition to Australis.

    1. Orhin said on April 28, 2013 at 4:35 pm
      Reply

      There is these days no need for Firefox anymore, i said it already again and again.. Palemoon is all that what Firefox already has lost.. at least for most parts :) And even in terms of Addons and Themes there is quite a high compatibility :)

  11. Ficho said on April 28, 2013 at 2:12 pm
    Reply

    I am using Palemoon since version 15.4 and I
    am very happy with it.It is my default browser and
    I don’t remember when I used Firefox last time.

  12. Orhin said on April 28, 2013 at 12:40 pm
    Reply

    Mozilla tries anyway to reduce the amount of work they have to put into Firefox, so a stupid move to switch to something like that… to Webkit… is not THAT impossible!

    After all, they try to make things more simple, to make things more “everyday computer’s user” optimized…

    Perhaps we will see something like that at some point… Then Firefox would really be dead…

  13. GD said on April 28, 2013 at 9:46 am
    Reply

    Why dont Mozilla simply dump Gecko and start using Webkit – it will save them alot of time destroying creativity, customization and trying to imitate dumbdown chrome experience.

  14. Seabat said on April 28, 2013 at 8:23 am
    Reply

    Correction: I am currently using Firefox 21 Beta

  15. Seabat said on April 28, 2013 at 8:20 am
    Reply

    FF and I have been friends for about 3 years. Like good friends, we have our differences, and like good friends, we kiss and make up. I am currently using FF 23 Beta. Without going into all the blah-blah, all I have to say is that FF folks should stop putzing around and get serious about their mission. Since it is non-profit, it has the freedom to take long, hard looks at options to IMPROVE. Anyone can turn a wrench to the left or to the right. Find the direction you want to go and make improvements using baby steps, not giant, aimless steps in whatever direction the wind is blowing.

  16. fokka said on April 28, 2013 at 8:07 am
    Reply

    and there i was thinking i drunkenly messed with my config, again. this explains everything. and i’m not a fan of the change.

  17. Orhin said on April 28, 2013 at 7:56 am
    Reply

    http://palemoon.org/

    Anyone wanted a solution.. Here it is :)

    Firefox 1:1 clone with old Downloadmanager, Keyword.url, Statusbar, Custom Bars… Nothing will go, no Australis will come :) And our much loved Star is still there where it should belong in the first place :D

  18. Aram said on April 28, 2013 at 7:56 am
    Reply

    I think Mozilla – Firefox needs to fix the bugs on its plate rather than devoting massive resources to developing new features that most people never asked for and won’t use.

  19. rpwheeler said on April 28, 2013 at 6:27 am
    Reply

    First of all, I use “Add Bookmarks Here” too.

    But I don’t support any changes limiting user’s customization possibilities.

    And I want to repeat once more, that for the 3 years I combat that freaking interface changes, and changes approved by Mozilla for that freaking Australis make me think that I need to switch to other browser.

    It was said may be hundreds of thousands times that FF users don’t need “one more Chrome”, but Mozilla still don’t get it. :(

    1. Dave said on April 29, 2013 at 9:28 am
      Reply

      Amen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  20. IanG said on April 28, 2013 at 5:45 am
    Reply

    Like most people reading this article I have used and enjoyed using ff over the years. However, the last couple of builds are not going in a direction I want to follow. And if Mozilla wants to be more like Chrome; why don’t I just use the thing they’re trying to emulate?

  21. Karl J. Gephart said on April 28, 2013 at 2:32 am
    Reply

    I haven’t seen anything better so far than the “Add Bookmarks Here” add-on. I love just clicking on one of my folders (lined up across my bookmark toolbar) and then clicking on the bookmark icon on the dropdown of bookmarked sites to simply add another one.

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