browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enableWideLayout set to false is not working
In FF60 the New Tab Page top sites increased from 6 per row to 8, which I disliked as I had the 12 sites I wanted pinned as two rows of 6, and did not want to have to have 4 more pinned or 4 random top sites. I wanted it like it was. I then discovered that there was a new pref in about:config browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enableWideLayout, set to true by default, and setting it to false returned me to the 6 sites per row as previously and which I liked and wanted.
Today the update to FF61 happened, and the 8 sites per row were back. I thought that maybe the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enableWideLayout pref had been set back to true by the upgrade, but it hadn't been - it was and still is set to false. So why have I got 8 sites per row again, and how do i go back to 6 per row?
Krejt Përgjigjet (6)
I don't have any matches for enableWideLayout anywhere in about:config. Possibly that is an obsolete setting that no longer exists in Firefox 61.
(Firefox will remember customized settings even after they no longer have any effect; you can flush them permanently at that point using right-click > Reset.)
You could try using the following extension to modify your new tab page layout:
Nothing in the Firefox source code as well.
See also:
- bug 1443649 - [Shield] Pref Flip Study: Activity Stream wide layout (60 Beta)
(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)
So a preference that was introduced in FF60 is obsolete in FF61?
I had exactly 12 sites I wanted links to on my home/newtab page, and as two rows of 6 tiles I could glance and find and click the right one without actually really focusing or reading. In Chrome - which I maintain updated in case something makes me want to go back to it after moving to FF quite a few years ago - I can have any number of rows and columns of site link tiles on my home/newtab page, but I choose to have two rows of 6, exactly the same as I've had in FF these past few versions. It is ideal for me.
Two rows of 8 is too much: it's too busy, too much crammed into the space, and I can't just glance and click, a glance just shows a muddle of colours. I have to actively focus and read and interpret. It's horrible.
I thought Firefox was supposed to be about user choice. I was quite happy with a CHOICE of the 'wide' (8 tile topsite) being offered to those who might like it (even as default) even if I didn't want it myself. But no, it's not adding choice, it was just preparing to force a change for no good reason whether users want it or not. This isn't like the changes needed by Quantum - they could have left the wide-or-not choice, but instead just ram a change down everyone's throats.
This makes me furious, and considering going back to Chrome again. At least Google don't pretend to be all about choice while actually ripping it away.
One very very unhappy, and quite possibly about-to-be-ex user
You probably realize that support volunteers can't change Firefox. We can offer workarounds such as settings (if any), extensions (if any), or custom style rules (if applicable).
To see whether a suitable workaround is available, it would be helpful if you could request the kind of layout changes you want. For example:
Scenaro #1
- Narrow the layout of the Top Sites section so 6 tiles fit across, same size, same spacing, still centered
- Hide any additional tiles beyond two rows of 6
- Keep the wider layout for the other sections
Scenario #2
- Enlarge the Top Sites tiles so only 6 fit in the available space
- Hide any additional tiles beyond two rows of 6
Scenario #3
- Other ideas?
Also, I noticed that the layout is responsive, so if you zoom the page (the percentage varies depending on your resolution), it eventually flips from 8 tiles to 7 tiles to 6 tiles. (There also are fewer tiles per row in a narrower window.)
I would like it exactly as it was in FF60 where the preference browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enableWideLayout could be set to false, and it caused the last 4 topsite tiles to be hidden , leaving 12 - two rows of 6 - visible and centred. Along with that the search bar was of a width to match the rows of 6 topsites. i neither know nor care what the topstories section looks/looked like as I have that switched off.
I notice, using inspect Element, that in the Inspector panel of the Developer Tools the first 12 topsites are:
class="top-site-outer"
while the last 4 are:
class="top-site-outer hide-for-narrow"
which makes me think it should still be possible to edit something or add something somewhere to set the display to narrow all the time, as it was in FF60 with the browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.enableWideLayout pref. Perhaps something in that custom css file one can add. Unfortunately, while I knew HTML back in the 1990s, I have been left way behind, and have never learnt css.
(I do not have FF fullscreen, but full height and about 90 percent full width; the newtab page only auto-adjusts down to rows of 6 when the window is way, way narrower than I want.)
Having given the choice of Wide Layout in FF60, I just don't understand why they then had to remove the old option, removing the choice. I read that bugzilla link on the study about how some people wanted to make fuller use of the space, both with the topsites and the topstory cards, and the further references to Github etc. Fair enough that those people be given that choice; but why force it on everyone, including the people who do NOT want a crammed, busy display? For me the Wide Layout with 16 pinned sites literally makes me go dizzy and my eyes unfocus when it appears, which is very unpleasant, and I have to squint and force myself to focus to pick out a tile I want (I am, BTW, disabled, and permanently on brain affecting medications, and anything visually too 'busy' has this effect.) Whereas the 'narrow' display of rows of 6 is fine and useable for me.