Side-bars, toolbars, footer-bars and explorer bars

One class of extensions that most browsers support is the addition of panels that a user can have open whilst they are browsing. For example, you might create a side-bar that allows searches to be carried out, with the advantage over a normal search in the browser window that you don't lose your list when stepping through the results.

There are many terms used for these kinds of panels. We'll take the following as our definitions:

browser window

The main window containing the page the user is currently viewing. All other panels sit around this main window.

toolbar

Usually a narrow panel that sits at the top of the browser window. There can usually be more than one toolbar open at a time.

topbar

Toolbars are usually only the height of one character. A toolbar that takes up more space than normal is sometimes called a topbar.

side-bar

A panel that sits to the left of the browser window. Only one side-bar is available at any one time, although bars that are not visible may still be active.

footer-bar

A panel that sits at the foot of browser window. Again, only one footer-bar may be visible at a time.

explorer bar

A panel that sits on the system menu bar alongside the icons that show which applications are currently running.

soft-bar

An XForms document used by formsPlayer to define a bar of any of the listed types.