A rather unknown feature of Firefox is the ability to quickly switch tabs with the shortcut [CTRL 1-9]. It obviously only works for the first nine tabs, additional tabs cannot be accessed with the shortcut. If less than nine tabs are open pressing a number that corresponds to a non existing tab will activate the last tab that’s available.
We already discussed numbered tabs in the past to make the identification of the correct corresponding number easier. All those extensions on the other hand did was to display the number. This changes with the NumExt add-on for Firefox. The add-on is currently in experimental stage which means that users have to log into the Mozilla website before they can download it.
Once installed it adds the numbers at the beginning of the tab name. The interesting aspect is that the add-on will continue numbering the tabs even if their count exceeds nine. That would not make much sense if it would not provide a function to access those tabs greater nine with a shortcut.
Pressing [ALT X] will open a small box in the lower right corner of the status bar. The user can then enter the number of the tab that he wants to activate which will be displayed as soon as he presses the enter key.
Several additional commands have been integrated to make life just a bit easier.
- open [url] – will load the url in a new tab
- close [number] – will close the tab with that number
- hide – will hide all tabs
- show – will display the tabs again
- title [number] [string] – will change the title of a tab
A few things could be improved. It would be nice if the # sign that is following each number could be removed to save screen estate in the tab bar. Another interesting option worth investigating would be to use [ALT 1-9] to open the tabs 10-18 automatically without having to use the form at the bottom.
Related posts:
Numbered Tabs for FirefoxSpan Firefox Tabs Across Multiple Rows
Change The Location Of Close Button In Firefox
Firefox Showcase Tab Management Extension
Move Firefox Tabs To The Sidebar
While it only works with tabs 1 thru 9, I’ve always liked the “Fancy Numbered Tabs” extension for this purpose. It replaces the X button with the appropriate tab number.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5861
Slight correction. Ctrl-1 through 8 take you to that tab, but Ctrl-9 is a shortcut for the last tab, no matter how many you have open.
Only Ctrl-9 will take you to the last tab. Even if you only have 5 tabs, Ctrl-8 will do nothing.
Thanks Martin for your post and your thoughts.
I have released version 0.3 of NumExt with ALT + num shortcuts access from Tab 9 to 17.
The # tag is now gone due to many users asking for it to be removed. + other little fixes!
Version 0.3 is available at the same url — https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9528
Thanks,
Ali