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Two address bar problems

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Mike Janus

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I'm using Windows 10 on one computer and Windows 7 on another need a solution which will work for both.

When I upgraded to Firefox 72, I think it was, I had a problem with the tabs which I wanted to show below the address bar. Someone from this forum helped by guiding me to a userChrome change and a userContent.css file. That worked fine and the tabs were below the address bar.

The next time I upgraded Firefox to 75 I think it was, the address bar wasn't working the way it used to. I wanted to be able to have the whole address bar selected when I clicked on it so I could type over what was there and enter a new address. Again, someone on this forum very kindly helped me by showing me how to change the settings on browser.urlbar.OpenViewOnFocus and 3 others and the problem was solved.

Now I come to Firefox 77 and the tabs are showing above the address bar again AND the address bar is no longer working as I wanted it to.

The OpenViewOnFocus settings are the way they I was advised to change them, but the tabs are still above the address bar. Someone acknowledged that changing the OpenViewOnFocus will no longer correct the tab locations and suggested a userChrome.css change. But I've already got one program in the userChrome.css file that I used the fix the address bar program.

Can I have two different programs in the userChrome.css field?

If so, can anyone help with the userChrome.css program that would take care of both problems? and do I still need the userContent.css file?

Why does Firefox keep doing this?

I'm using Windows 10 on one computer and Windows 7 on another need a solution which will work for both. When I upgraded to Firefox 72, I think it was, I had a problem with the tabs which I wanted to show below the address bar. Someone from this forum helped by guiding me to a userChrome change and a userContent.css file. That worked fine and the tabs were below the address bar. The next time I upgraded Firefox to 75 I think it was, the address bar wasn't working the way it used to. I wanted to be able to have the whole address bar selected when I clicked on it so I could type over what was there and enter a new address. Again, someone on this forum very kindly helped me by showing me how to change the settings on browser.urlbar.OpenViewOnFocus and 3 others and the problem was solved. Now I come to Firefox 77 and the tabs are showing above the address bar again AND the address bar is no longer working as I wanted it to. The OpenViewOnFocus settings are the way they I was advised to change them, but the tabs are still above the address bar. Someone acknowledged that changing the OpenViewOnFocus will no longer correct the tab locations and suggested a userChrome.css change. But I've already got one program in the userChrome.css file that I used the fix the address bar program. Can I have two different programs in the userChrome.css field? If so, can anyone help with the userChrome.css program that would take care of both problems? and do I still need the userContent.css file? Why does Firefox keep doing this?

Modified by mikejanus

All Replies (2)

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  1. userChrome.css is specific to the Firefox Profile in which that css file is located. And different versions of the same operating system may be different enough that Win7 tweaks may not work exactly the same as with Win10.
  2. Wrong place to ask for help with userChrome.css - https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/ is a better source.
  3. Typically user Content.css is for styling content of web pages and some internal browser pages, such as the older chrome:/ 'pages' that are built into Firefox along with the newer xhtml internal pages.
  4. Firefox has been undergoing a continual rewrite of internal code to move away from XUL and moving towards xhtml code for a few years now. And lately css has been broken in small pieces and sometimes with every version release that comes out. Firefox 75 and then again with Fx 77 happened to affect the address bar. Plus some of the preferences that were added for Fx75 were temporary and were removed with Fx77, something that the developers have been doing from time to time for a couple of years now.

Personally, if I were a software programmer I would have started with a clean sheet of paper with building Quantum rather than deciding to "fix" the code base in this piece-meal fashion, which is taking too long (too many years thus far, with no end in sight) to reach the end with a "new Firefox". I said that that 20 version releases ago with Firefox Quantum 57 and still feel so now even more so. IMO, too many "self-inflicted" small injuries will eventually "kill the patient" as exsanguination would, just takes much longer and is more painful as it slowly happens.

Overall, imo userChrome.css is now is expected to far more that what it was intended for back in the early days of Netscape, then the Mozilla Suite from which Firefox was derived. I have only been a user since 9/2002, before the name Firefox was placed upon this web browser in 2004, and I started employing a userChrome.css file in late 2003 for very minor tweaks and later to hide context menu items that I didn't even use, to pare the contextual menu down to keep it from "bouncing off the bottom of the browser window" with the number of extensions that I was using back in those days.

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Edmeister, Thanks for this background, but I still don't know how to move the tabs to below the address bar and how to have the address bar act as it did previously.