Enable Opera-like Speed Dials in Firefox and Chrome with Toolbar Dial

[Karlston]

Enable Opera-like Speed Dials in Firefox and Chrome with Toolbar Dial

The classic Opera web browser was cool and practical in many ways, and its Speed Dial and the built-in mail feature were (are) fan-favorites. Toolbar Dial is an add-on for Firefox and Chromium based browsers that offers a similar speed dial.

 

 

This extension is a new tab replacement, so if you have customized the new tab page or if you use another extension for it, it will be replaced.

 

The name does sound odd, but there's a reason why it was chosen. The extension picks up links that you have saved as Bookmarks. More specifically it loads the ones that have been saved in Firefox's "Bookmarks Toolbar" folder. Also, its worth noting that a totally different extension called Bookmark Dial exists, which is probably why this one became Toolbar Dial.

 

Install the add-on, open a new tab and you will see large dials, one for each of your bookmark folders and websites that . The add-on doesn't load the favicon or a preview of the web-page, it just places the dial with a text inside it. This text isn't customizable, it is taken from the domain name which it displays in a large font size, and the domain extension (COM, NET, etc) in a smaller font, below the name. for e.g. ghacks.NET is displayed as ghacks net. A label is displayed below every dial, and you can customize it. It uses the name that you used for the bookmark.

 

Does the bookmark toolbar need to be enabled for the add-on to work? No, the extension uses the browser's toolbar

 

How to organize the speed-dial? Use the Bookmarks settings in Firefox. You know what to do, hit Ctrl + B. Create new folders to organize your bookmarks. Re-arrange the folders manually (or sort it by name) using the sidebar and the order will be reflected in Toolbar Dial.

 

 

Do I need to use folders? No, you can place your favorite sites on the root folder of the Bookmarks Toolbar to access them directly.

Customization options

Access the Firefox add-ons (Or Chrome's extensions) page and select Toolbar Dial > Options to view the extension's settings. It has an option switch to a Dark theme for the new tab. You can select the default folder to be used for the add-on.

 

It also allows you to customize the tab loading behavior for folders, i.e., when you open a bookmark folder and click on a dial, it can be opened in a new tab or in the current one.

 

 

The add-on is open source, visit the GitHub page for the technical details. I tested it on Firefox and Microsoft Edge Chromium and the options are the same.

 

Toolbar Dial is easy to use, has a clean interface and the lack of options maybe a good thing for some users. Power users may find it to be a bit too simple. Personally, I had been a long time user of Speed Dial (by Josep del Rio) which of course doesn't work with Firefox Quantum, but has a nearly-identical and worthy replacement in Group Speed Dial. You can also use Scrapyard to manage your bookmarks.

 

Landing page: https://toolbardial.com/

 

Source: Enable Opera-like Speed Dials in Firefox and Chrome with Toolbar Dial (gHacks)