Even though it’s more limited than bookmarks, I like to use the dropdown menu in Firefox. The one in the top center of the menu bar.
The web abounds with explanations of how to remove an item from this list and how to clear the entire list. Firefox’s own help has a page on removing items.
So far not one of these sites has even addressed the possibility I might want to ADD something to the list.
Anyone know how I would go about that?
Are you talking about the address bar? The sites on that dropdown bar are the ones you have visited recently. They remain there for the number of days you have set in your preferences to retain history. The default is 20 days.
To add a site to the list, all you have to do is visit that site by typing the address in the bar (not by clicking on a link).
While that’s true in Firefox 2, Firefox 3 made it a bit more complicated. The address bar, now called the “Awesome bar”, looks not only at what URLs you type, but also goes through your history and bookmarks. I don’t know if typed URLs have priority, but I know bookmarks do.
So, Sailboat: if typing it into your “awesome bar” doesn’t work, try adding a new bookmark for the site. That should work. If not, then you might want to look into the whole deleting thing and remove the ones you don’t want to use. Or tweak the settings. I’ll trust you to look that part up.
They are automatically added after you visit the site.
Go to any random site, then leave it. Then, type in a few characters from the name of that site.
For example, after visiting www.hulu.com, I can type “hu” and it will pop up automatically.
I’m talking about this thing: (image of Firefox dropdown).
It’s version 3.6.3.
Typing in a name very definitely does not replace anything in the “awesome bar.” Sites in the “awesome bar” I have not visited in months still show up there, and are not pushed off and replaced by new sites I type in there. Nor does it seem to be an actual record of my recent web activity; it’s a fixed list.
Someone deliberately added a site to the bar once, so I know it can be done. I just can’t figure out a) how to do it myself and b) why no one else seems to be asking this question on all the help sites I have browsed.
It’s essentially your history. If you type a few letters into the bar, it will change.
I think what you want is the bookmarks menu, which is totally user controlled.
Well, maybe I am not understanding. I don’t know what it’s called, but testing it just now confirms that if I type a few letters in, it will auto-fill the rest of the URL if I’ve been there before – but it still never gets added to the permanent list. And I have not knowingly added bookmarks.
Yeah, the address bar is just an advanced search function.
If you want bookmarks, click on the star in the bar, follow the directions, and it will appear on the bookmarks menu.
Well, the thing is, the address bar/awesome bar thingie has permanent entries, and it’s possible to add to them, and they don’t go away even if I go to differernt addresses. I can use it like a permanent bookmark list. I just don’t know how to add an item, and I know someone does. Baffling.
They are not really permanent. They are just the sites that Firefox thinks you use most. If you completely clear your history, the list will go away, and the next URL you type in by hand will appear there. If you visit a lot of other sites, though, and don’t go back to the one you typed in, it will get forced down the list. It is still there, but only the first dozen items (i.e. your most frequently visited sites) are displayed.
I do not think there is a way to add an item permanently, by hand, to the Awesome Bar. That is not what it is for. That is what bookmarks are for.
