go tools, clear browsing history/ check the box for browsing history and hit the clear private data button. that will clear it. it shuld keep everything you type in after that. in tools go to options,privacy, and the line keep browsing history set to how many days

Not sure if you know this but...........

If you right click on a clear area on the Firefox header you can click to show the Bookmarks Toolbar. Then drag your hottest favourites into it for easy, single click access.

Thank you both. I have no trouble with the Bookmarks Toolbar.
Unfortunately, clearing the browsing history and clearing private data did not fix my problem, which is not connected with History. I have long chosen not to have my browsing history kept at all, even for a day, anyway. So this problem is not about what I can bring up with the History icon.

I have just posted a question about this on the FireFox help forum. It was hard to look for an answer, since I don't even know what to call the menu in question. There seemed to be nothing about it in the database. I will post a picture of it here, and if I get an answer over at the FF forum, will let you know what it is.

{{gwi:1511238}}

It sure looks like History to me.

Pam

What advantage will you have if you can remove all those entries? You will gain no speed or accessibility advantage. All your favourites are already easily accessible. If these links are of no use then simply ignore them as you type an address.

Hello: biwako_of_abi

To delete your sites that you have been to
in firefox. Just open the drop down list and
scroll down to the one you want to delete.

With Firefox 2.0 you have to RIGHT click on the site you want
to get rid of -- With Firefox 3.0 it will be highlighted.

Then all you have to do is press the "DELETE" key on your key board.

To add a site just go to the site you want and it will be "added" to the list

Hope this helps

Have A Nice Day

Linesman

Pam: Ah, if only it were! *History* I get by clicking on the cat icon with the clock, and the history menu drops down on the *left* side of the screen. You can see where this one is, and I get this menu by clicking on the thing like double parentheses next to the star in the address window.

Besides, as I said, I have had History turned off for a long time and that side bar is empty. The items in this menu happen to be mostly things I have only visited once or twice and are by no means representative of my browsing history. If they were, it might be of some use.

Owbist: Thanks. I wasn't looking for speed or accessibility. I just don't like having something whose method of working and management I don't know. It bothers me! It even bothers me that I don't know its name, so I am hampered in looking for a solution.

Linesman: Your message just came in. That seemed to do the trick, and I was thinking Yippee! But, alas, the sites didn't stay deleted. They disappeared when I highlighted them and clicked Delete, but the minute I clicked on the "parentheses" mark that brings up that menu, there they all were again. Closing and reopening FF didn't make a speck of difference. I have found that clicking on the star in the URL window adds a new site. So half of the mystery is solved, but the half that most interests me is the deleting part! LOL I think I'm going to have to uninstall and reinstall FF, but even that may not help.

biwako_of_abi
Do not use your mouse to click "DELETE"
Use the "DELETE" key on your computor key board

Hope this helps --let us know

Have A Nice Day
Linesman

OK, success at last! It may be because I uninstalled FF 3.0.4 and went back to 3.0, or it may be the fact that I went to each site whose URL I wanted to delete and I made sure the yellow star was showing in the location bar (finally found out the name for that!) before trying to delete. They are gone!

Owbist: I should have explained better; it was making me mad to think that you are able to delete or never record your browsing history, but then URLs are being preserved in the location bar and you can't delete them. Seemed inconsistent.

Thanks very much everyone, especially Linesman!

For the benefit of anyone else who may have this problem:

NOW I have found out that going to a site whose URL I want to delete from that menu and left-clicking once on the yellow star in the "Location Bar" brings up the usual bookmarking box, but it has a button called "Remove Bookmark" at the top of it. If I choose the BM's location as "Unsorted Bookmarks," and click on said button, the unwanted URL is gone from the list the next time I open FF.

But surely that is only if the address is in your favourites to start with. I have several addresses in that drop down selection that are not in my favourites so do not have the yellow star showing. Therefore I have no right click capability and if I left click then the page opens.

Owbist: You are right.

After making all these discoveries, I found that box with the Remove button and soon realized that the location for some of these URLs was given as the place where I already had them in my Bookmarks Toolbar. These are the ones I wanted to bookmark, for which I chose a location. And I must have bookmarked the others inadvertently--the ones I want to get rid of--by unthinkingly clicking on the yellow star when the sites were open.

To sum up, it seems that there are three locations for bookmarks:

(1) Unsorted ones, which get there merely by one's clicking on the yellow star.
(2) Bookmark Menu ones, which appear in the sidebar
(3) Bookmark Toolbar ones, which appear in both the sidebar and the BM Toolbar.

Other URLs appear to have made it only as far as the Unsorted list. Until now, I had thought there were only 2 kinds of Bookmarks, the ones on the Bookmark Toolbar, and the ones in Bookmark Menu.

By the way, I suspect that any URL in that Unsorted menu can probably be made to have a yellow star, if you click on the grey forward arrow.

For what it's worth, I got this message from Mozilla just now: I didn't think they would reply, much less so soon. Good work, Mozilla!

Message:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In Firefox 3 the location bar drop down list shows history items as well as bookmarked pages, both 'Sorted' bookmarks and 'Unsorted Bookmarks' (created by clicking the ''star'' in the location bar once).
You can only remove sites from that list that are not bookmarked pages. A site that is bookmarked has a star at the far right.
The location bar drop down list is created via a query to the places.sqlite database and the first 12 items from that query are shown.

See this MozillaZine Forums thread for some info and customization tips: [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=685365:Customising the Firefox 3 Location Bar (MozillaZine)]
---
There are extensions that you can use to restore the old behavior as mentioned in the forum thread:
Old Location Bar: [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/7637]
Awesome Options: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8310]
Hide Unvisited: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7429]