Howto Improve bookmark menu layout -mouse efficient- Solved

[canbyte]

Very often I find that my mouse opens the wrong sub or subsub-menu which means I have to start over at the main bookmarks menu. This is exacerbated by some bookmark headings being short and others long which forces a wide dropdown menu, which means that as I mouse along the relevant line, I inadvertently slip into the next or previous line which brings up a different sub menu than the one i want.

This happens in most browsers I try. I'm hooked on FF because of a quote text addon (quotes URL along with text). Slacko uses the Nightly version so that's the one I want to deal with. Also I don't want to change the font size to force a wider line to mouse within.

The solution I'm looking for is to force the first bookmark menu to open on the right, the submenu on the left, the subsub menu on the right and so on, alternating sides. This means the cursor only moves a short distance and the chance of bringing up the wrong menu is reduced. Also easier on the eyes.

Right now I 'force' the desired behaviour by moving the browser window as far right as it will go and reducing the width to about 2/3 of screen width or about 15". The main bookmark menu is about 8 inches wide which doesn't leave much room on the right so unless the sub menu has only short titles, thus the submenu is forced to open on the left as desired. This solution does limit the size of my window which was ok a few years ago but not now since many pages demand full width windows. (Why do we often go backwards on such things?).

Anyway, I'm hoping someone will be able to suggest how to control how the sub-menus open. Thanks in advance.
PS. I tried looking in 'about:config' but didn't see any related setting

EDIT: jump to last post for howto

[Keef]

Why not just rename the bookmarks to something shorter?

[canbyte]

Hi Keef. Too many is the answer, especially for a procrastinator! I've been thinking of doing just that for so long that I've changed keyboard and updated Puppy 3 times. Bookmarks are like basements. You put stuff there and never take it out. Besides, I'm at the age when I need the extra words to remind me what it's for. But maybe I should be going to the Mozilla board although I'm sure there's a long wait time if it's not already built in?? Hmm.

[Monsie]

canbyte,

Have you thought about trying a bookmarks add-on for firefox? I found a page for MyBookmarks add-on right here which might work for you. The bookmarks layout is different than what you want, but from the screenshot it looks like all of the bookmarks are easy to read and organized well.

Monsie

[canbyte]

Hi Monsie. Thanks for the idea. I took a look but it seems not much different than opening the bookmarks.html file in a new tab which sort of requires me to manage my tabs instead of just reusing them for something else. I guess this seems more like something Mozilla should answer but I thought I'd start the hunt where the real genii hang out!
Cheers.

[Semme]

Yeah- Mozilla might be a better place to voice your request.

[canbyte]

Sigh, Mozilla gives users but 200 characters to explain an idea, which I only realized after a nice detailed outline didn't go through. Somehow, I think they don't really want any input, unless perhaps I'm willing to join their ranks of volunteers, something i'm hardly qualified for. Oh well, I've been muddling along so far, so I guess I'll just continue. Thanks for dropping by.

[Semme]

The real course of action <for the time being mind you> is to break your task down into *manageable* chunks, say.. five to ten minutes a day allocated for bkmrk shortening. You'd be <and- I know YOU know> surprised how quickly it goes.. Just think of all the ones you'll find irrelevant..

[canbyte]

The solution was sitting under my nose all the time. Simply add all the bookmarks into a new folder placed on the bookmarks toolbar (which you select to be present in the View/ Toolbars menu). Add some other bookmarks above/ to the left of your BOOKMARKS folder so as to move the folder 2/3 the way across the page. The first dropdown will be to the right, near the right border which forces the next dropdown to be to the left, which solves most of the problem. You'll have to become accustomed to going to the new location instead of the bookmarks menu at the top, but I think/ hope you'll prefer the new arrangement for it's efficiency.

If you have short bookmark names, then either force the folder over more or add one long name to each sub folder to force the same action.

Enjoy.