Skip to main content
Gathering Interest

Restore Bookmark Navigator toolbar option

Related products:FME Form
  • July 8, 2025
  • 7 replies
  • 231 views

jeroen
Contributor
Forum|alt.badge.img+15

See: 

In earlier versions of FME (for example 2023.2), the Bookmark Navigator was available as a toolbar option under Tools → FME Options → Toolbars. This feature seems to have been removed in 2024.2. I am not sure if it has returned in 2025, and the FME documentation does not clearly state which toolbar options are currently available or what they do.

While bookmarks are still accessible through the Navigator panel, that is not an effective substitute for those who rely on the Bookmark Navigator toolbar. The Navigator is typically used for managing transformers, parameters, database connections, and other elements. In larger workspaces, bookmarks get pushed out of view and require vertical scrolling, which is not only annoying but also time-consuming. It is not a UI element with a fixed or easily reachable position.

The Bookmark Navigator in the toolbar provided immediate, horizontal access and required very little screen space. If users choose to enable it, the impact on toolbar real estate is minimal. It was especially useful for jumping between major workspace sections and worked well in presentations or collaborative reviews.

As a consultant working with various organisations, I found this feature to be a good motivator for adopting clear and consistent bookmark titles.

Please consider restoring this option, or making it available as a configurable UI element in future versions.

7 replies

jeroen
Contributor
Forum|alt.badge.img+15
  • Author
  • Contributor
  • July 8, 2025

This should have been posted in Ideas, since i used the Submit an idea button... Can an mod/admin move it to the correct forum?


salvaleonrp
Enthusiast
Forum|alt.badge.img+23
  • Enthusiast
  • July 8, 2025

There’s a pending Jira case for this I requested from Safe last year (UXD-838).

Here’s the visual shown from a past article. https://fme.safe.com/blog/2016/03/fmeevangelist146/

Moving this to Ideas may get it more Upvotes.

 

 


jeroen
Contributor
Forum|alt.badge.img+15
  • Author
  • Contributor
  • July 8, 2025

There’s a pending Jira case for this I requested from Safe last year (UXD-838).

Here’s the visual shown from a past article. https://fme.safe.com/blog/2016/03/fmeevangelist146/

Moving this to Ideas may get it more Upvotes.

 

 

 

edit: nvm, it's moved


jennaatsafe
Safer
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Safer
  • August 15, 2025

Hey all, thanks for the feedback and sharing specific use cases where this feature was used and why it was important to you. We don’t always get things right, and we want to hear where our choices impact you. 
Since it was mentioned that its core purpose supporting navigating presentation, I’d be curious to understand: 

  1. What other situations beyond presentation was the toolbar navigator useful? 
  2. Since you have customized your toolbar, what other options have you added? And conversely, what options do you never use and have removed? 

jennaatsafe
Safer
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Safer
  • August 15, 2025
New→Gathering Interest

salvaleonrp
Enthusiast
Forum|alt.badge.img+23
  • Enthusiast
  • August 17, 2025

Here’s a couple more:

  1. Authoring performance improvementsts: when the bookmark is collapsed and cache is enabled, the cache is bypassed in collapsed bookmarks.
  2. Bookmarks keeps the workspace clean and neat when workspaces get bigger. 

carlm
Supporter
Forum|alt.badge.img+23
  • Supporter
  • July 31, 2026

I would like to add some changes to the bookmarks at the same time:

Add more management for the ordering, you can only order alphabetically, but it’s also not working well. If I put a bookmark in a bookmark and use this naming convention: 

  • 1
    • 1.1
      • 1.1.1
      • 1.1.2

The bookmark with 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 will come on top of my bookmarks.

It would also be nice if they placed themselves as a hierearchy tree in those case. We can already see that a bookmark is inside a bookmark, but they also show as individual bookmarks.

Also we can’t reorder them, they will stay in the order that they are with their name (always alphabetically).

I would like it to be possible to group bookmarks in a group

For example when I’m adding a section to manage some error with the Rejected Port, I put that section in a bookmark that I call Error (they are then all connected to generate a  Report or to an Automation Writer). But all those Error bookmark are polluting the Bookmark Navigator.

Currently when you click on a Bookmark in the Navigator it will move you to it, making it so you can’t select more than 1 at a time. I would like to have the possibility to select multiple bookmark at once to collapse them or disable them. Currently it’s all or nothing.
Having the Bookmark in the toolbar would be helpful to navigate in the workspace, and the Bookmark in the Navigator would help to manage them.

Thanks