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BookmarksDropDown Firefox Extension Version 3.1.1

2025.04.20

The BookmarksDropDown Firefox Extension causes a Bookmarks Menu to appear when the mouse pointer is above the Firefox viewport (the area which displays web content).*1

Specifically, after the BookmarksDropDown extension is installed, whenever the cursor moves above the web content, a clickable menu of Bookmarks currently in the Firefox "Bookmarks Toolbar" appears at the top of the displayed page.

After the cursor moves onto the displayed menu, clicking any of the Bookmarks, or Bookmark Folders will cause the appropriate web page or sub-menu to display.
Alternatively, moving the cursor back onto the web content will cause the Bookmarks Menu to disappear.

When the Bookmarks Menu is showing, you can use the normal mouse-click operations to select and open a bookmark in the current tab (left-click), a new tab (middle-click), or open a menu of possible actions (right-click).

Additionally:

Middle-Click or Ctrl-Click on a Bookmark opens it in a new tab and keeps the Bookmarks menu showing.*U3
Middle-Click or Ctrl-Click on a Folder loads all the folder's bookmarks, each in a new tab.*U3
Duplicate tabs will not be created.

Notes:

You must set the Bookmarks Toolbar to "Never Show" (right-click the Tabbar, hover "Bookmarks Toolbar", check "Never Show").
You must turn on the Navigation Bar (if available) in early Firefox versions.
Web Extension add-ons do not work in certain pages (Newtab, about:, *mozilla*, for example).

Options

Beginning with Version 3.1.1, the default menu style is a Vertical Drop-Down selected by the same-named option. Each Bookmark is shown on a separate line.
This differs from the original BookmarksDropDown style, which filled horizontal lines continuously, within the entire viewport width.

Options are available to display Bookmark website "favicons"*U1 with each Bookmark Item, along with the Bookmark Text, or only the favicon, and customize the menu text style, size, and colors (backgrounds, and highlight), which can improve readability for various themes.*U2

Also, you can specify:

How long the menu remains visible after the cursor moves away.
How wide each Bookmark Item is.
Whether a Bookmark Item that is too wide for the current BookmarkWidth is simply cut off (clipped), or Elipsis is shown.

For the Favicons Displayed Only option, the Bookmarks Width value is still applied, allowing space between the icons to be adjusted (presumably in the Horizontal (non-Vertical Drop-Down) layout).

For Bookmark Folders (

) containing multiple bookmarks:

The Folder Load Count option causes loading the website content for the first specified number of bookmarks into new tabs, while only creating tabs for each of the remaining bookmarks (without loading their content).
The Folder Open First option specifies loading and opening (switching to) the first bookmark in the Folder.
The Folder Sort Bookmarks option specifies that when clicked, each Folder's Bookmarks will be displayed in alphabetic sort-order (the Bookmarks Toolbar root menu is never sorted).
If not sorted, bookmarks in a folder are presented in the order they appear in the "Manage Bookmarks" (Ctrl+Shift+O) display of the "Bookmarks Toolbar".
This allows drag/drop arranging for any desired order.

Install

To install the BookmarksDropDown Firefox extension:

Start Firefox and browse back to this page.
Click the following link: BookmarksDropDown
Click the "Add to Firefox" button.
Click any security queries to allow installation.

Changelog

Version	Date...	Comments...
3.1.1	2025.04.20	Repair "setAttribute()" usage
3.1.0	2025.04.18	Repair botched 3.0.0 update (sorry) Add "Favicon Display Only" option Add "Ellipsis Displayed" option
3.0.0	2025.04.14	Default/support Vertical drop-down layout Some code cleanup
2.5.3	2025.03.13	Render "separator" properly as non-clickable space
2.5.2	2020.14.03	Optionally sort Folder Bookmarks
2.4.0	2019.01.11	Fix spelling for subroutine call
2.3.9	2018.10.24	Add "Folder Load Count" option Add "Folder Open First" option
2.3.8	2018.01.11	Allow name to fill Bookmark to specified width
2.3.7	2018.01.11	Middle-Click on Folder opens all contained bookmarks Middle-Click on Bookmark opens page and keeps menu showing
2.3.6	2018.01.10	Refine CSS styling further, yet again
2.3.5	2018.01.09	Refine CSS styling further
2.3.4	2018.01.08	Refine CSS styling for various websites Include folder name in cursor-hover-info
2.3.3	2018.01.06	Ensure menu starts fresh
2.3.2	2018.01.05	Fix transparent background
2.3.1	2018.01.04	Add icons to "web_accessible_resources"
2.3.1	2018.01.02	Add "Favicons Displayed" option GUI fixes
2.2.2	2017.12.29	Add Font Style options: Bold, Italic, Oblique (per user request)
2.2.1	2017.12.07	Don't duplicate sub menu
2.2.0	2017.12.06	Ctrl-Click on Bookmark opens page and keeps menu showing Ctrl-Click on Folder opens all contained pages
2.1.5	2017.12.04	Ensure menu disappears
2.1.4	2017.11.22	Remove dangling code
2.1.3	2017.11.21	Always catch cursor mouseout
2.1.2	2017.11.18	Add "Menu Hide Delay Time" option Add "Background Color-2" option to alternate sub-menu background color Move support website (internal)
2.x.y	2017.10.++	(various changes)
2.0.0	2017.10.09	Re-Write for Web Extensions
1.3.1	2016.10.04	Fix disabled Bookmarks after Firefox Customization
1.3.1	2016.05.15	Remove toolbar current state checks (internal changes only)
1.2.0	2016.05.09	Optional Custom Colors Option: Close toolbar when clicked
1.1.0	2016.04.20	Bookmarks Toolbar background color now defaults
1.0.0	2016.04.04	First public version

Notes

1. BookmarksDropDown 2.x.y is a re-write of BookmarksDropDown 1.x.y, executable in the Web Extensions environment. It was originally based on the "Bookmark Autohider" extension by Reno Reckling, and the Autohider "small fix" review by "jone"

U1. Thanks to user Juanka Hula for "Favicons Displayed" comment and references.

U2. Thanks to user Yahho for "Font Style options" suggestion.

U3. Thanks to user maverick for "Middle-Click" suggestion.

Comments?, Suggestions? Email: pauljayd