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carl in the toolbar as a button with an icon

I presume you mean sidebar? Because the toolbar is what I'm suggesting.

I might be totally wrong with my intuition that a lot of action buttons will be made and that there should be a way to organize these in the toolbar. Like 10 different ChatGPT prompts to do an action on your webpage. I mean even if you put all the currently available buttons in the toolbar it is already getting quite crowded. And then you would need place for extensions.

Maybe we just wait if Action Buttons as a concept take off. If they do, and lots of different ones are created by the community then people will come and ask for folders. Maybe it's too premature now.

  • carl replied to this.

      Im not sure i understand this conversation, like nobody is forcing anyone to use folders if they dont need/want them.

      It can also be a simple matter of not wanting 3 different buttons that you use rarely, to take up 3 slots, but still want acces to them in the cases they are needed.

      or to bassicly organize them into different function groups. AI etc....

      Same goes for extensions as janpeeters also mentioned could be included

      So essentially toolbar folders? It is a bit hard to differentiate between what would be a folder and what would be a button.

        There's this design pattern for toolbar folders in the finder. A reverse caret beside an icon could make it clear that it's a folder. It would need user defineable icons though.

        On the other hand, the overflow menu button also is a folder but uses only an icon. I could get used to just an icon.

          janpeeters

          Im also not sure you can call that dropdown arrow a "folder indicator". as in all your examples they are for a dropdown menu with settings

              @Longely You looked deeper than what my example was intended for. I just meant it as an example of how you could indicate that it was something that had more content, more than just being an icon.

              There is a lot of work to make this happen. I am wondering do you really think that programmable buttons will be such a big thing to invent a new paradigm in browser UX? Or can we just maybe allow programamble buttons to live in a menu (Under Tools -> Programmable Buttons).. but not sure how to achieve that either.

                @Vlad As I suggested a few posts back it might be an idea to just wait and see how action buttons take off.
                I saw a possible need, because the current action buttons already fill up my toolbar, and shared it.
                Time will tell if I saw it correctly.

                  5 days later

                  janpeeters

                  What I'm talking about is that there is a lot of space in the Bookmarks bar and/or side bar and that would be a nice place to have these folders or other actions that are not used all the time. If you have 10 or 20 or 50 different actions you use sometimes, they are better represented by text, because you might not remember the icon.

                      Just wanted to add some things to what has been said

                      @Vlad

                      There is no concept of button folders that I recall in browsers.

                      Overflow menu as you mention kinda is, so i guess the idea is just multiple overflow menues with custom selectable icons

                      they are better represented by text, because you might not remember the icon.

                      I think its a valid point tho, that if you have a huge amount of buttons text is a better way, but I kinda feel like thats an argument for folders, here is a sketch which is basically like overflow menu, so it includes tittles of each button:

                      Brief Summary
                      Storing programmable buttons on the right sidebar like Edge's sidebar apps.

                      Details:
                      Storing programmable buttons on the extensions menu clutters tab menu. For someone using a lot of extensions and programmable buttons at the same time would make clutter. It would make the user interface more convenient.

                      Image/Video:

                        7 days later
                        Merged 2 posts from Secondary sidebar on the right side for programmable buttons .

                          Longely Thanks for your mockups, I really like how they look and would function.
                          The link to the other thread that you're refering too is to this very thread. Which thread did you mean to share?

                              Vlad

                              I think buttons and actions should be allowed to live side-by-side with bookmarks in the bookmark bar, and that bookmarks and bookmarklets should be allowed to be in the toolbar as well. If it's in the toolbar it's an icon (to access frequently). If it's in the bookmarks bar it's an icon with text (to remember). Folder Icons can go on the left side of the text.

                              As I suggested in a previous discussion, I think all menu actions and menu folders should be allowed to be dragged to the toolbar and bookmarks bar for easy access.

                              • Vlad replied to this.

                                  carl All code in programmable buttons will just work as fine as a bookmarklet.

                                  The reason we made this was to create a new UI element on the toolbar that is a button (there are some other benefits that bookmarklets can not reproduce like running menu items or apple script).

                                  There is also a clear disctinction between bookmarks and toolbar buttons and I am not sure it is a good practice to mix them.

                                  Still open to suggetions.

                                      Vlad

                                      Is the distinction between bookmarks and toolbar buttons still relevant today? We already mix actions with bookmarks when using bookmarklets. Call it something else than "Bookmarks bar" and the browser will work just as any other desktop app, where multiple toolbars are common. I think we're many who are not so fond of overflow menus, "junk drawers". And space on the main toolbar is scarce due to the URL bar.

                                      If you really don't like to mix and match like this, maybe a distinction between actions and bookmarks could be made in some way?

                                          carl

                                          Not everybody use bookmark bar. or want a bar to take up more vertical space.

                                          @janpeeters

                                          The reason why its the link is this thread is because it was comment on another thread that got merged with this 🙂

                                          but yeah looks a bit confussing sometimes when things gets merged

                                          • carl replied to this.

                                              Longely

                                              And they can use the main toolbar and menus, right? I'm not against folders in the main toolbar, but letting people use the bookmarks bar is a more practical solution and shouldn't be overlooked in favor of it. You can also add a button to quickly hide and unhide the bookmarks bar and then it's pretty much the same as a button folder, except you can have it permanent if you like (for a while) instead of a pop-up menu.

                                              Edit: Since I'm feeling inspired. How about allowing multiple folder buttons, each toggling the bar for their specific content? That way you can browse with as much screen real estate as you please and only show these actions when you need them - which can be a couple of minutes, a few hours, or today but not tomorrow.

                                              I think most people use the thumbnail gallery on the new tab page that every browser has had for a decade now, with the bookmarks bar largely not utilized or used for bookmarklets. Maybe it's time to let it be something else?

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