New sidebar behavior with vertical tabs isn't intuitive

dwhaley720 — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:37:38 GMT

I welcome the new sidebar features and vertical tabs, though a few things hold me back from using them as my default experience.

First off, the "expand sidebar on hover" setting is nice, but the animation as it opens is way too slow, and I have to wait before interacting with my tabs.

My second issue is the placement of the x button on vertical tabs. When the sidebar is on the left side (which is by default), I have to wait for the animation to finish if "open on hover" is enabled, and then I have to carefully move my cursor over the x button to the right of the sidebar when I want to close a tab. This feels very inefficient and clunky, and it would make sense to have the x button on the left side in this scenario.

Re: New sidebar behavior with vertical tabs isn't intuitive

Agentvirtuel — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:56:04 GMT

Hello

First
Maybe, you can test, sidebar.animation.expand-on-hover.duration-ms, value 400, by defaut.

1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term sidebar.animation.expand-on-hover.duration-ms

Second issue
Take a look at
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/vertical-tabs-option-to-flip-x-button-left-right/idc-p/98492/highlight/true#M52031
Above, if you wish to test the code userChrome.css, below.
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/make-closing-tabs-easier-on-sidebar-expand-on-hover/idc-p/96600/highlight/true#M51067

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New sidebar behavior with vertical tabs isn't intuitive

Re: New sidebar behavior with vertical tabs isn't intuitive