Barlesque 1.14

Barlesque is a Firefox extension that reclaims useful window space by collapsing the wide grey add-on bar into a neat set of add-on buttons. This extension is Firefox 4.x-only, as add-on bar is a new feature (introduced in Firefox 4.0b7).

Extension implements this proposal of Jennifer Boriss from Mozilla user experience group.

Etymology

Name of extension comes from the word Burlesque and the name of addon bar UI element of Firefox 4.

Usage

Barlesque expects user to have the add-on bar switched on ("View" menu -> "Toolbars" -> check the "Add-on Bar").

You'll see the effect of extension immediately after installation; add-on bar won't be the solid horizontal band at the bottom, but will cover only a portion of the space instead. Also, you can quickly hide the add-on bar by clicking on the dark-grey down arrow icon at the left (if add-on bar is bound to the right edge of screen) or right (left edge of screen) side of add-on bar. Later you can expand the add-on bar with the same icon (it will show up-facing arrow).

You can customize some aspects of Barlesque behavior through the options dialog ("Tools" menu -> "Add-ons" item -> "Options" button of "Barlesque"):

 * "Alignment of add-on bar" option allows you to choose the side of screen the add-on buttons are bound to. Default alignment is bottom-right corner of screen.

 * You can switch on and customize the keyboard shortcut to collapse/expand the add-on bar. Default shortcut is Ctrl+X.

 * You can switch on and customize the keyboard shortcut to change the alignment (side of screen) for the add-on bar. Default shortcut is Shift+X.

 Please note that two above options are switched off by default.

 * By default, extension doesn't persist the collapsed/expanded state of add-on bar between browser sessions; "Remember the collapsed/expanded state of the add-on bar?" checkbox changes this.

All changes made through the options dialog take effect immediately.

Usability considerations

Please note that the default bottom-right positioning of the add-on bar may interfere with UI elements of some websites (e.g. Facebook chat). If you're frequent visitor to such sites, you may want to change the positioning of add-on bar through the options dialog (or even refrain from using the extension). You'd probably want to read the comments to the article linked above and this discussion on Mozillazine.

Find box (called with Ctrl-F or "Edit" menu -> "Find") hides the add-on bar - this is done to circumvent some minor (but annoying) UI issues.

Also, there are reports that Barlesque is incompatible with NoScript and Status-4-Evar. These are fixed in the version 1.14 of extension; please click on "View all versions" link at the bottom of this page to see it.


Product's homepage

Requirements:

· Mozilla Firefox

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Fixed compatibility issues with NoScript and Status-4-Evar extensions.
· Other minor fixes.