(Basic) Toolbar Customisation [Experiment]

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AI-generated summary

A new experimental feature allows users to customize the composer toolbar by hiding unused buttons. To enable it, admins must activate Composer toolbar customization under Admin → Upcoming Changes. Users can then manage their visible options via Preferences → Interface → Composer toolbar.

Key details include:

  • Hideable items: Bold, italic, text sizes, links, blockquotes, code, lists, emoji, GIFs, post language, and direction toggle (if enabled site-wide).
  • Always visible: The upload button and the + menu remain to ensure access to plugin features like polls and math.
  • Behavior: Keyboard shortcuts continue to work even if the corresponding button is hidden. Settings are per-account and sync across devices. The composer must be reopened for changes to take effect.
  • Limitations: This version does not support reordering buttons, moving items between the main bar and the + menu, or hiding items within the + menu itself.

Community feedback highlights the utility of decluttering the interface. angus and MarkDoerr praised the simplicity and reduced scrolling. However, users have requested further enhancements: MDNJ asked about hiding the “Wrap” function and admin-controlled defaults, while nickdb suggested allowing global pinning of template items from the extras dropdown to the main toolbar.

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The toolbar has grown a lot over the years, and not everyone uses all of it. If you write in Markdown by hand, or you never touch the text-size menu, a user can now just turn those off for themselves.

How to try it

  1. Go to Admin → Upcoming Changes at /admin/config/upcoming-changes
  2. Find Composer toolbar customization and enable it
  3. Then, as any member: Preferences → Interface → Composer toolbar
  4. Untick anything you don’t want and save

You can turn it off again at any time from the same place.

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What you can hide

Bold, italic, text sizes, link, blockquote, code, lists, emoji, GIF, post language, and toggle direction.

Some of these only appear if the matching site setting is on — GIFs, emoji, text direction and post language will only be listed if your site has them enabled.

What you can’t hide

The upload button and the + menu always stay. The + menu is how plugins like polls, dates, details and math add their features to the composer, so hiding it would cut off access to those entirely.

Buttons added by plugins also stay put. If your admin has enabled something that adds to the composer, the reasoning is that it’s there on purpose.

Worth knowing

Keyboard shortcuts keep working. Hiding the bold button doesn’t disable Ctrl+B. This is deliberate — for a lot of people the button is the thing they don’t need, not the shortcut.

It’s per account, not per device. Your choices follow you between desktop and mobile rather than being set separately on each.

Composer needs reopening. If you change the setting while a composer is already open, reopen it to see the change.

What’s not in this version

  • No reordering. You can hide buttons, not rearrange them.
  • Items in the + menu can’t be hidden.
  • No moving items between bar and + menu

All of the above are great ideas (and may be(come) popular requests), but add complexity.

21 Likes
How to customize the composer toolbar?
Help Us Test the Composer Redesign
2

Love this! Sometimes the simplest changes are the best.

5 Likes
4

How does this affect items in the more menu or items added by components? Do items move out from the more menu to the main toolbar if too little are selected?

1 Like
5

No, as covered by:

Not manual, not automatic.

2 Likes
7

Giving it a shot! I’ve got “blockquote” and “insert gif” enabled. Disabled the rest.

3 Likes
12

This is great, though i was actually looking for a way to simplify the toolbar.

It looks like this could also be a way for admins to change the default settings for all users, but still allow more options for those who want it.

I wanted to remove/hide the Wrap function. Because no user knows what it is, and even searching meta doesn’t very easily result in an answer.

2 Likes
13

Could you consider allowing items from the extras drop down, specifically templates, to be pinned to the composer toolbar? And ideally, the ability to do this globally from the admin settings. Thanks.

1 Like
14

Thank you! I love this. I’ve removed a number of default menus items so I no longer have to scroll right to the + menu. So very helpful.

1 Like