Compact Menu 2 for Firefox replaces the entire menu bar with a single icon. This looks a lot like the new Office button in Office 2007. As the options in the menus are not used that often, it makes sense to get back the space they use.

Like most Firefox extensions, it is a tiny download. We were pleased to find the installation process is well behaved and changes nothing it shouldn't.

To enable the new menu button, right-click on the toolbar and select Customize. Drag-and-drop the Compact Menu into the toolbar with the forward and back icons and then click on Done. The menu bar should be hidden automatically.

Click on the Compact Menus button to see the full menus.

A keyboard shortcut would be helpful as using this plugin disables the normal menu shortcuts such as Alt+F for the file menu. Otherwise this is a useful add-on.