Open link in new tab on doubleclick

March 18, 2005 12:19 PM

Is there a way to make Firefox open a link in a new tab by double-clicking it?

I tried the "Tabbrowser Preferences" extension and searched for similar ones but didn't succeed.

posted by tcp to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Would you settle for one middle-click rather than two left-clicks?
Perhaps I'm marking myself as a Windows ignoramus by admitting that I use my middle button. I vaguely remember the "middle-click opens in a new tab" being easy to find last time I used Firefox.
posted by Aknaton at 12:29 PM on March 18, 2005

If you install this Firefox extension, you can wheel-click a link and open it in a new tab, among other very-cool tricks.
posted by dhoyt at 12:29 PM on March 18, 2005

I don't think so--at least, not without writing an extension. However, you can open a link in a new tab by middle-clicking on it, or by Ctrl-clicking on it. More information can be found here.
posted by cerebus19 at 12:31 PM on March 18, 2005

I'm using the middle-click button to emulate a double-click. That's why I want to open links in a new tab by doubleclicking them.
posted by tcp at 12:35 PM on March 18, 2005

Also consider SuperDrag&Go, which allows you to drag a link to a blank part of a page to open it in a new tab. I really like it, one of those things you'll notice youself doing in browsers that it doesn't work in.
posted by ALongDecember at 12:36 PM on March 18, 2005

The problem with trying to do something like that is that single-click has a definitive meaning in web browsers, whereas double-click does not. You would have to build in behavior to tell Firefox not to go on a single-click until after a certain wait period, because there might be another click coming, and if that other click comes within that period, it needs to do something else. This is non-trivial.

I like ALongDecember's suggestion of SuperDrag&Go, which I use all the time (I suggest you use its Options panel to disable auto-saving images to your computer when you drag them, because you will do so accidentally and then wonder where all these weird images in your download directory came from). You could also use Ctrl-click, which I agree is less convenient. Or you can right-click on the link, then select "Open Link in New Tab" from the list.
posted by cerebus19 at 1:05 PM on March 18, 2005

cerebus19 is right, double-clicking is a no-go for the Web. It's just not done--it does not fit into the hypertext paradigm, so to speak. You can't double-click on menus/menu items, or buttons, either, for that matter--same reason, that's simply not how those interface objects work.

I am hazarding a guess that you already knew about middle-click to open in a new tab, however, since you're aware of the Tab-Browser extension; if that's the case, may I ask why you want to double-click instead of middle-click? You can't possibly be stuck with a two-button mouse...?
posted by cyrusdogstar at 1:37 PM on March 18, 2005

I'm using the middle-click to emulate a double-click (e.g. to navigate through folders or draw vectors in photoshop).
posted by tcp at 2:10 PM on March 18, 2005

Oh man o man o man. Thanks for asking this tcp. I'm wheel clicking myself happy now.
posted by FlamingBore at 2:15 PM on March 18, 2005

Maybe you could use Mouse Gestures instead?
Rather than right clicking and choosing open in new tab, you can hold down the right mouse button and drag up over the link. I've found it to complement tabbed browsing quite well.
posted by solotoro at 2:18 PM on March 18, 2005

SuperDrag&Go and Mouse Gestures are helpful. Too bad there isn't a more genuine solution available. I guess I have to renounce the double-click emulation in order to get my usual pleasant firefox user experience back.
posted by tcp at 3:19 PM on March 18, 2005