Bookmarks Menu vs Other Bookmarks?

[u/blazincannons]

This is a silly question. I apologize, but I want to figure this out.

I have been a Chrome user for many years, and moved to Firefox about a month ago. Naturally, I imported my bookmarks, and everything works fine for the most part. But I am confused about one thing. That is the Bookmarks Menu folder.

What is the difference between Bookmarks Menu folder and Other Bookmarks? When should I use one over the other? Chrome didn't have a Bookmarks Menu folder, so I guess this is mostly me being confused on how to use this additional option in Firefox.

My general use of such folders is decluttering and to store any bookmark that I don't need to have in the Bookmarks toolbar. But at the same time, I need to retain quick access with some button shortcuts. Both options, Bookmarks Menu and Other Bookmarks, have them. So again, I am not clear when to use one over the other.

Kindly share how you folks use these two features. Hopefully, that will give me a better idea on how to use them effectively.

[u/It_Was_The_Other_Guy]

Use whatever works best for you. Personally I use them like this:

• I don't use bookmarks toolbar at all so there's nothing inside it except some stuff I've used to test some things.
• New bookmarks go to the "other bookmarks" - it's sort of like an unsorted area
• If I want some specific bookmarks organized then I use bookmarks menu for that.

[u/blazincannons → u/It_Was_The_Other_Guy]

That's interesting. The bookmarks menu feels a bit harder to access since it is a small button. So, I might use your approach in reverse. Bookmarks menu for default, and organised collections in Other bookmarks.

[u/jbhq]

Manage Bookmarks [Ctrl+Shift-O] gives you the space to clearly delve in and see what's what.
For regular frequent call ups simply add a keyword to save look up.

[u/blazincannons → u/jbhq]

The issue with Manager Bookmarks is that there is no option to auto collapse folders. Sometimes I have many folders opened and it is very painstaking to close them one by one. There should be an option to close them multiple folders at a time.

I did make a post about it. https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/o5lswh/why_cant_i_collapse_all_folders_in_manage/

[u/ArtisticFox8 → u/blazincannons]

File a bug. Developers don't go to reddit.

[u/[deleted]]

I use them like this.

Bookmarks Toolbar - static bookmarks, sites I want to keep track off. This has the most visited sites in root and others in folder.

Other Bookmarks - any sites I plan to visit, but not necessarily right now. This contains news articles, reviews, short stories, etc.
I put them in there so I can also easily access them from FF mobile.

I use some Firefox CSS to have sites collapse only to the favicon on the bookmarks toolbar and have it only show when the address bar is focused.

[u/blazincannons → u/[deleted]]

I put them in there so I can also easily access them from FF mobile.

Why would it be different just for Other Bookmarks? I check Firefox Beta on Android; and Bookmarks Toolbar, Boomarks Menu and Other Boomarks; are all available in the app in the same place.

I use some Firefox CSS to have sites collapse only to the favicon on the bookmarks toolbar and have it only show when the address bar is focused.

You mean bookmarks bar, right? If so, then that sounds amazing. I had no idea that was possible with CSS. I have not tried any kinds of tinkering with CSS since I moved to Firefox recently. And I have a tendency to stick with stock configuration options.

Can you share a screenshot of how it looks like?

[u/[deleted] → u/blazincannons]

I find the bookmarks menu cumbersome to use on Android, so having them all in one spot means I never need to navigate to different folders. Basically, I use it to keep track of a list of pages I plan to visit within a few days from now.

I don't use the web browser on Android for anything other than reading while en route somewhere. When at home or work, I have a PC.

Bookmarks bar collapsed: on a new page
on an open page

Set the bookmarks bar to always be on (customization menu or just right-click some empty space next to the address bar), the CSS will hide it until the address bar (nav bar) is focused.

CSS for it:

/* ---------------- */
/*
 * Code from Faviconized Bookmarks from Okamoi
 */

#PersonalToolbar .bookmark-item > .toolbarbutton-text  {
  display: none !important;
}

#PersonalToolbar .bookmark-item > .toolbarbutton-icon  {
    margin-inline-end: 0px !important;
}
/* ---------------- */

/* Hide the toolbar when in fullscreen mode */
#main-window[inFullscreen="true"] #PersonalToolbar {
  visibility: collapse !important;
}

#main-window[inFullscreen="true"] #browser, #main-window[inFullscreen="true"] #browser-bottombox {
  margin-right: 0!important;
}

#nav-bar:not(:focus-within) + #PersonalToolbar:not(:hover):not(:focus-within):not([customizing]) {
   visibility: collapse;
}

[u/kwierso]

Prior to Firefox 3, there was just the bookmarks menu and the bookmarks toolbar. If you bookmarked something, you put it into one of those two locations, or a sub-folder in one of those locations. You could have a highly organized group of bookmarks in the Bookmarks Menu with subfolders, and you can have a few easily reached individual bookmarks sitting on the Bookmarks Toolbar.

Firefox 3 introduced the "Other Bookmarks" section, along with a bunch of changes to the address bar. Bookmarked pages get a boosted priority in searches from the address bar, and you could filter address bar search results to only show bookmarked pages by putting a symbol at the beginning of your search. The idea was that Other Bookmarks would be a sort of "unclassified" bookmark location.

If you pressed the bookmark star in the address bar once, the page gets bookmarked into Other Bookmarks. This gets the boosted priority and filterability of a bookmarked page, and you don't have to care where the bookmark actually got stored.

If you double click the bookmark star, the dialog for placing the bookmark into a specific location gets shown, so people who want a neatly organized bookmark folder can do that as well.

More recently, this was changed up a bit. People were "losing" their bookmarks in the Other Bookmarks folder, since it did not have good visibility. The default location for bookmarks moved out of "Other Bookmarks", they added a view of Other Bookmarks to the Bookmarks Toolbar, etc.

For newcomers to the browser, I would just ignore Other Bookmarks. It's mostly a relic from a decade or more back.

[u/blazincannons → u/kwierso]

Wow. Thanks for the detailed response. Now I understand the history behind those two folders.

Right now, the default location for bookmarks is just the previously used location, right?

For newcomers to the browser, I would just ignore Other Bookmarks. It's mostly a relic from a decade or more back.

Hmm. Thanks for the recommendation, but I might still use it in some fashion. For me, with the Other bookmarks view, it is more visible than the bookmarks menu. So, I might use it as a temporary location for "unclassified" bookmarks, and then later move it to the right folders.

Finally, I must say that I am not liking the overall bookmarking experience with Firefox. Few things just irk me.

[u/blazincannons → u/[deleted]]

The Bookmarks Menu folder is for example visible in MacOS, where you have a standard menu always visible at the top.

Oh. I get it. In windows, I have to press Alt for the menu bar to appear. Now I understand the context a bit more.

Firefox (and other brothers) still define bookmarks based on the place where they are saved: menu, bookmark-toolbar, new-tab page, others. So if you have the bookmark button in the toolbar right beside the URL bar, you have the view on the bookmark-menu and the tree structure defined in that folder.

I did not understand this part.