Loading ...Reduce Firefox 3 location bar autocomplete menu
Published: December 23rd, 2007
Some beta and nightly users of Firefox 3 are finding the new location bar autocomplete menu too obtrusive for their liking.
Fortunately it is very easy to adjust:
- Enter about:config in the location bar to access the advanced preferences. Confirm you want to access them.
- Enter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field to reach this preference.
- Double click on it and change it to the number of items you want to see in the autocomplete menu. I have set it to 10. (The screenshot shows it set to just 5)
You will need to restart Firefox for the change to take place.
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December 24th, 2007 at 4:54 am
is it possible to use page zoom without zooming in the images? thanks.
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December 28th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
What if I’d like to return to the old location bar behavior?
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January 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
ok, I can’t find how to leave tips… I noticed that the ZOOM function now automatically enlarges images as well as text. I prefer the text being enlarged while the images remain the same size–because 1) the images become ‘pixelated’ when enlarged, and 2) the images widen the window, causing one to use the left/right arrow to view the window’s margins.
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February 17th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Putting a ‘zero’ eliminates the obnoxious thing completely. I don’t like the ‘oldbar’ either, regardless of the number displayed.
To me this is just another of the ‘we’ll add as much crap as we think necessary to make it a real bloat application. I am slowly finding the ‘new features I don’t like and for a few, ways to put them back. No! I won’t document it! Too much typing, AND I won’t be responsible for messing up things for someone else.
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February 20th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thanks for nothing, Joe B.
Personally, I find the behavior desirable contextually, but the implementation obnoxious. There are certainly SOME CIRCUMSTANCES when I want to search my history via the location bar, but there are others when I would not. Some of the complaints here: http://www.beltzner.ca/mike/archives/2007/11/30/almighty_bar.html are useful; searching on a single letter is dumb, for example.
My preferred behavior would be if there were some extremely simple way to toggle history searching and the old-school behavior (e.g., waiting several seconds, requiring spaces in the string, having an easy key-sequence/button I can use to toggle its mode mid-search).
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February 24th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
THANK-YOU! This new location bar is hands down the feature I HATE MOST about Firefox 3. I set the value to “ZERO” and it’s thankfully completely gone. I guess I am in the minority but I only use the location bar when I know where I want to go. If I wanted to see my bookmarks, call me crazy but I use the bookmarks pull down. When I don’t know where I want to go, I use a thing called search. Sheesh!
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March 21st, 2008 at 2:06 am
That’s doesn’t do much for the size. It just shows less results.
They really need to add customization options for there many browser features.. Like the option to toggle on/off the new type of location bar. And to also set the font size in the location bar results. Cause that text looks like it was made for half blind people.
I would assume the majority of people, including me, prefer the old Firefox location bar, because we merely use it as a faster way to access sites we’ve been to. It’s rarely used to actually search threw your history for a site.. Cause that’s what your damn History page is for.
It was perfect how it was… For example: I’ll type “wik” with one hand and click on http://wikipedia.com with the other hand. Or use that method to go back to certain forum posts and pages that aren’t important enough to bookmark.
It’s efficiency at it’s best. They shouldn’t have tried to improve on perfection.
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April 25th, 2008 at 10:45 am
What if I’d like to return to the old location bar behavior?
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May 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
New location bar is cool! If you don’t like it, ask for your money back.
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May 31st, 2008 at 8:52 am
I hate that thing, covering 1/3 of your screen, and showing each address in two lines…
But using google pays back and so i found this:
https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/6227
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June 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Check this website, you might like the suggestion.
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/03/tweak-the-location-bar-autocomplete-menu/
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June 17th, 2008 at 6:24 am
The normal visit to a website is to go to the front page and then click on the news, updates, games, videos, … all the new stuff they are featuring on the front page.
That means the front page will never be the last on you visited, although it is almost always the first one you want to visit next time.
Now the FF3 url bar will ALWAYS give the the sub-pages as results instead of the front page, because they will always be the last ones that you visited.
It actually forces you to type the complete url now. It is impossible to make it bring up the front page of a website, unless the front page is the only page you have even visited.
The only thing it is good for now, is url history SEARCH, which really should belong in the url history window. For just typing your regular url’s and getting them quickly, it is now completely useless.
I use to open most web pages by typing in the first 2 or 3 letters of the url, and the right url would be right there on top of the list. For this, the new behavior is completely useless.
So unless they offer a choice, I am going back to internet explorer.
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June 18th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Setting the value to 0 does not remove the autocomplete menu. It still lists one bookmark. How the heck to do you turn this “feature” off?
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KakkoiiJune 19th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Checkout this add-on.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Please bring the old location bar drop-downs back. Firefox = slimware. IE = Bloatware. We don’t want to provide ammunition for IE lovers.
Thanks
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July 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Use this add-on to get the URL bar back to the old style.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227
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August 26th, 2008 at 12:08 am
What if I don’t want items from Bookmarks to be suggested?
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September 19th, 2008 at 12:23 am
The new bar is bad. “Oldbar” is slightly less bad, but still bad. I just want it to be exactly like the old one - where the drop menu on the address bar shows what was typed into it recently. No searching bookmarks, no searching history, none of that crap. The new FF looks stupid too. It’s harder to read the tabs with the black on dark gray. Also, did we really need the silly little star for bookmarking? apple + b (or alt or whatever on pc’s) works just fine.
Now, something that would have been nice to have fixed, is the problem I have with FF crashing once every three hours or so. That’s still here though.
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