Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox and tabs

Help solve the mystery of the missing extension.

cirrostratus — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:10:07 -0800

After reformatting my old reliable xp machine I lost a very useful firefox extension. How can I track it down again? I've been unable to find the extension on either Google or Firefox's website, mostly because I can't remember what it was called.

Basically, all the extension did was let you draw a rectangle on a page and then every link within that rectangle would open in a new tab.

Firefox normally lets you highlight things and open them in new tabs but this extension was better because it let you draw a rectangle instead of highlighting.

Any ideas what this extension was called?

Best firefox add-on for previewing tabs?

shivohum — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:23:14 -0800

What's the best firefox add-on for previewing/managing a bunch of tabs that are on the same site and look alike in thumbnails, but can be distinguished by their text? I have bunches of tabs open and the tab bar becomes utterly useless, so I need an add-on (not just thumbnail-based) that can do much better.

Make FF 3.5 like 3.0

aerotive — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:24:06 -0800

With Firefox 3 you could drag a tab from one FF window to the another with the tab bar closed. Is there any way to get 3.5 to do that? So with a bit more detail: On my system (vista) if I have say two FF 3.5 windows open and drag a tab from one to the other (with the tab bar closed), instead of opening in the second window a third, new window opens.

I've looked around and found a way to disable tab tearing/dragging completely, but that's not what I'm looking for. And I know 3.5 will work the way I want with the tab bar visible, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

I'll take any kind of fix, be it an extension, registry edit, about:config tweak, whatever.

Note Tab

FunkyHelix — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:40:00 -0800

I'm looking for a Firefox add-on that would open a note pad into a new tab. I tend to write in a program called Notetab Plus. But I'll write a couple minutes, my mind wanders, and then I'm checking e-mail and surfing the web. Eventually I save my work and close out the writing program because I get irrationally annoyed at running a browser and another program.

What I'd like is just a plain note pad add-on that would throw up a tab to type away in. Then I could go do something else and come back to the writing. I think I'd be more productive.

I know I could just open something like Google docs in a tab and then protect the tab. But I don't want Google docs. I just want a little notepad. A big blank tab that I can just write in.

I've tried searching through the add-ons, but I'm not seeing anything like this. Maybe you know of an add-on, though, or something like it?

Firefox has a mind of it's own.

daHIFI — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:47:24 -0800

Why does Firefox randomly break out one of my tabs in a new window? I usually keep several tabs opened at once, and since the 3.5 update I've been having problems, either when switching between windows or tabs, even sometimes when I'm placing the cursor in a text box. It doesn't happen every day but it's annoying the hell out of me. I thought it might be some kind of keyboard shortcut or some unknown mouse gesture that's doing it. So far my google-fu has failed me.

Using FF on WinXP

Any ideas?

Firefox focus and link problems

whatzit — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:51:37 -0800

Firefox Fail: Sometimes I cannot click links on the tab that is in focus. Hovering over links does not make finger images or clickable links. Hovering over (current tab's) blank spaces, which are linked areas on the tab below, makes those lower links active (yes, I can click on them). Grah! It can be fixed by alt-tabbing to a different program and back (another FF window is insufficient) or restarting Firefox. This is Firefox 3.0.9 on Windows XP. The active extensions are adblockplus, foxyproxy, and downloadhelper. This does not seem to affect keyboard input or scrolling (e.g., I can tab to navigate).

I cannot for the life of me come up with appropriate non-generic search terms, nor can I identify the conditions under which these episodes start.

Navigating Safari 4 tabs with Firefox shortcuts?

mck9235 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:29:00 -0800

Looking for a way to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts with Safari 4 on the Mac I'm trying to ditch Firefox (which acts as if I'm doing some type of fancy 3D rendering everytime I open up more than a few tabs) but find myself lost without the ability to switch to a specific tab with Command - #, # being the number of the tab.

I know that in Safari 4, it is Command + Shift + { or } to go left or right through tabs, but I'm really partial to the Firefox way of doing things. Currently, Command + # in Safari takes me to a specific bookmark from the navigation bar...

So -- is there any way to change this behavior in a secret settings panel or with a 3rd party app? (btw, I'm on a Mac w/ Leopard).

Thanks for any suggestions

Gmail open link in new tab?

The Dutchman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:54:58 -0800

In Firefox, I use the middle button of my mouse to open links in a new tab. I really wish I could do that with gmail (i.e., middle click on several emails and have them open each in a new tab, or middle click on "compose mail" so that would open in a new tab). Is there any way to do that? Some links actually work already, such as inbox, other folders and labels.

As a somewhat distant second choice, right clicking and selecting "open in a new tab" would be better than nothing.

configuration of vista breadcrumb bar/firefox second tab row

lrodman — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:15:34 -0800

Is it possible to trim Vista Breadcrumb sections so that the breadcrumb bar doesn't clip off most of the path in long titles? I.e. anything over say, 10 characters gets cropped, so that long paths can be shown? Also, is there a way to fix the glitchy second row of tabs in firefox? I want the second row of tabs to have the same height as the first, so that graphics don't go all screwy.

Firefox javascript tab closure command?

bbranden1 — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:13:55 -0800

Firefox javascript command: how to close a tab? Last week you helped me create a toolbar bookmark for scrolling down a half page in Firefox using the command javascript:self.scrollBy(0,300); as seen here. Now I'd like to add a second command to that bookmark: a command to close the active tab. The button then would close the active tab and subsequently scroll down a half page of the next tab that appears. In my reading there appears to be some difficulty making using javascript to close tabs in FF 2.0, and not all pre FF 2.0 solutions currently work. Ideas?

How to get scrollwheel-clicking to open links in a new tab in Firefox?

ruwan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:30:21 -0800

The scrollwheel-click has suddenly stopped working in Firefox. I don't recall making any changes in preferences, but all of a sudden, what used to open up links in new tabs, no longer does so. Instead wheel-clicking on a link does nothing. Any idea how to fix this problem? I feel like I'm browsing with one less finger! (Mac OSX.4.11, Firefox 2.0.0.11, Safari is unaffected by the problem.) I searched google and AskMe, both of which suggested changing settings in about:config, but I was unable to successfully fiddle around with this to get it working.

How do I get rid of these blankety-blank tabs?

Manjusri — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:17:10 -0800

Firefox opens a blank "(untitled)" tab when downloading certain files used by helper applications such as torrent files, or .smil files which are processed by a homegrown vb app. How can I suppress these blank tabs or force them to autoclose? I thought I saw an addon or greasemonkey script to do this at some point, but can't find one now.

I wanna know...have you ever seen the rain?

bingo — Sat, 12 May 2007 06:27:39 -0800

Is there a way for me to send someone a bundle of URLs in such a way that all the URLs will just open in Firefox as tabs, without the person having to actually go through and click on each one? I see there's a spec for something like this in css3

...but it will take too long for me to figure out how to build it by myself, and anyway, I don't know if that's even implemented in Gecko. I'm hoping there's some kind of pre-made tool that does this.

What I'm trying to actually do: I'm going to have a phone call with a client, wherein we discuss various websites of my choosing. I don't want to sent a list of URLs and tell her to click on each one; I think that's obnoxious. I want to send an email and say something like "double-click on this, and it will open 10 tabs, and then we'll go through them one at a time." I'm open to other solutions that will solve the same problem.

Reuse existing tabs in Firefox?

dglynn — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 18:30:37 -0800

Can I make Firefox 2 for Mac open URL's called by an external application like NetNewsWire by reusing an existing open tab with the same URL, instead of opening a new tab? I don't understand this behavior being a default, as I don't see why I would need a new tab with Metafilter, instead of merely reloading the existing tab. It's irritating, and searching using terms like tabs safari firefox reload doesn't exactly narrow down my choices.

Open All in Tabs in Firefox without closing existing ones?

callmejay — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 20:13:38 -0800

In Firefox, is there a way to "Open All in Tabs" in a bookmark folder without closing the ones I already have open? If so, is there a way to have that happen by default when I "Open All in Tabs?" I realize I can open a second window, of course. I'm hoping for a cleaner solution.

NO, I would not like to open the link in a new tab

pornucopia — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 10:07:47 -0800

Can I get rid of the "open in new tab" option on the right-click menu in firefox? I hate opening things in a new tab. I don't use tabs, tabs don't work for me. That's just how it is. So I basically NEVER want to open a link in a new tab.

"Open in new tab" is right next to "Open in new window" on the right-click menu in Firefox, so I'm constantly accidentally opening something in a new tab. I would like this option completely removed from the menu, if possible. I guess if it were removed, "Bookmark this link" would then be the new accidental target, so if you could tell me how to add a blank slot to that menu that would be cool too.

Thanks!

simultaneous tabbed browsing

font_snob — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:55:10 -0800

I'd love to be able to simultaneously open in Firefox tabs the URLs in a del.icio.us bundle. I'm looking for a simultabulous solution. I know that I can right-mouse click on a Firefox Live Bookmark and open everything in tabs. I want to be able to do this with my del.icio.us tags, like click on a del.icio.us bundle and have all the URLs within open in tabs. Is there a Firefox extension or add-on that will help me do this? Or, is there another way to go about simultaneously opening many URLs in a given del.icio.us tag/category?

Firefox tabs problem

chiababe — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:52:31 -0800

Help me make middle clicking open a new tab in Firefox for me at work. I am on XP Pro SP 2, Firefox 1.0.7. In about:config browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick is set to true. In the control panel on my mouse, there is no option to fiddle with the middle button except to change the scrolling length. What to do? I want my middle clicks at work too!

Help with Firefox

ralawrence — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 01:52:13 -0800

I can't seem to get Firefox tabs to work in the way I want them to. (more inside) I used to use an application called CrazyBrowser before I moved to Firefox. CrazyBrowser is a browser that sits on top of the IE rendering engine and provides a few additional features (such as tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking). Following the later releases of Firefox, I moved across to that and have ditched CrazyBrowser.

However, I'm having trouble working with tabs and have been trying desperately to install and configure plugins to do the following:

1. Double clicking a tab closes it
2. Ctrl-clicking or middle clicking a link opens it in a new tab immediately to the right of the currently active tab.
3. When 2 occurs, the currently active tab is loaded in the background (ie. you don't lose focus from the current one).

(1) was solved with the "tab clicking options" extension and (2) was solved by the "tabbrowser preferences" extension, but I can't see to find any extension which will solve (3). At the moment, I can't ctrl-click a bunch of links on one page because the focus always shifts to the new page.

Finally, the "Tabbrowser extensions" extension solves all of this but is so buggy that the author warns that the mozilla extension developers refuse to list it because of its many issues. Indeed when I was running it, the thing crashed Firefox several times a day.

Any ideas on how I can get (3) to work? Or can I ditch both extensions for something else?

Firefox customization

jfuller — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 05:58:14 -0800

Firefox question. Unmodified, just-installed firefox opens a new tab behind the current tab, instead of on top as Mozilla does; and the right-click popup menu for tabs does not have "close this tab" first in the list, as in Mozilla. Are these two behaviors customizable? I know I'm being lazy but these two misfeatures are deal-killers for me. If you knowledgeable firefox users tell me they're fixable in userChrome.css or users.js or whatever I promise I'll rtfm-rtfm-rtfm and become as rabid a firefox zealot as you might desire. But if they're not changeable then it's all wasted effort and I'll stay with Mozilla (or whatever they're calling it this week.) Thanks!