gHacks technology news » firefox tabs

Firefox App Tabs Add-On

Martin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:16:48 +0000

Remember Pin Tabs? The Firefox add-on that we reviewed recently was mysteriously deleted from the Firefox add-on repository over at the Mozilla Firefox website. No one knew why it was deleted and it was not clear at that point in time if the developer would make it available again. The wait is now over with the release of the App Tabs add-on. App Tabs is basically an advanced version of Pin Tabs. The name now reflects the feature of the same name that the Firefox developer plan to include into Firefox 4.

The basic idea of App Tabs is to offer Firefox users a way to pin selected web services and websites to the tabbar of the web browser making them available always in the same spot. The idea works perfectly for websites that do not require back and forward navigation like Gmail or Google Docs but also for any other website or service that the user accesses all the time.

App Tabs pins selected tabs to the left side of the tabbar in Firefox. The tabs are minimized so that only the favicon of the website or service is displayed. This saves space in the tabbar and is usually appreciated by most users.

The new version of the App Tabs add-on adds comes with the following features:

App tabs can be saved across sessions! (default)
App tabs can be merged when closing a window. (default)
App tabs can be protected from being closed individually.
If you have Tabberwocky installed, App Tabs will automatically also lock app tabs that you create. This feature can of course be disabled by going to about:config and setting extensions.apptabs.lock to false.

Tabs can be converted into app tabs by ctrl-clicking them in the Firefox tabbar. App Tabs is currently compatible with all versions of Firefox 3.5x to 3.7x. The download is available at the Firefox add-on’s website.

Tags: app tabs, firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, pin tabs, tabbar

Tab Preview Features In Firefox 3.6

Martin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:12:05 +0000

Mozilla has integrated several new tab preview features in the recent release of Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 which were initially planned to be integrated into earlier release versions of Firefox 3. Even more problematic than the late implementation of this features is the fact that they are not enabled by default in the web browser. Lets take a closer look at the new tab preview features in Firefox 3.6. It has to be noted that this features are not available in previous versions of the web browser.

browser.allTabs.previews

Enabling this preview feature in the advanced Firefox configuration will add a new button to the right side of the Firefox tabbar. This button, when pressed, will display an overlay window that contains thumbnail previews of all open tabs in Firefox. A click on any tab thumbnail will make that tab the active one in the web browser.

browser.ctrlTab.previews

Enabling this parameter in the advanced configuration will change the default CTRL-Tab feature in Firefox. If you press CTRL-Tab by default in Firefox the browser will cycle through the open tabs in the web browser.The new feature, when enabled, will display a visual tab switcher that is displaying thumbnail images of the current and the five most recent tabs with an option to quickly flip through them by pressing Ctrl-Tab again. The same preview contains an option to display all open tabs.

The very same configuration changes the default behavior of pressing Ctrl-Tab once. It will now switch back to the last tab that was in focus instead of offering the option to cycle through all tabs in the browser.

Do the following to enable one or both of the new features:

Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar, promise that you will be careful and filter for the term previews. This should bring up several parameters with the two mentioned above in the list.

A double-click on either of the parameters will change the default value false to true. The feature is instantly active and can therefor be tested right away.

Tags: firefox, firefox 3.6, firefox tabs, firefox tips

Pin Tabs In Firefox

Martin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:54:56 +0000

The Google Chrome browser provides access to a feature to pin tabs in the web browser by default. Pinned tabs will be moved to the left side of the tabbar where their tab will be changed to a smaller icon that is showing only the favicon of the website in question. The benefit of this approach is that the tabs take less space in the tabbar while they can still be accessed normally by clicking on them.

Pin Tab is a new experimental Firefox add-on that brings this feature to the Firefox web browser. Yes, there have been some tab managers in the past who also provided that option (like the Faviconize Tab extension), but none looked as promising as the Pin Tab extension.

Tabs can be pinned in Firefox by Ctrl-clicking them in the web browser. This will automatically shrink the tab to the size of the favicon and move it to the left side of the tabbar.

The picture above shows a tabbar with two pinned tabs on the left. A left-click on a pinned tab will open the website as usual. It is possible to change the default hotkey to pin tabs or use the right-click context menu option to do so. It is furthermore possible to pin tabs by dragging unpinned tabs to the pinned tab area with the reverse option possible as well.

The main benefit of pinning tabs up to this point should be obvious: Space. It is possible to place roughly 5-7 pinned tabs in the place of one open tab. Unlike the pinned tab option in Google Chrome the Firefox add-on comes with additional features. The pinned tabs will for instance remain pinned over browsing sessions if Firefox is configured to remember browsing sessions.

Pin Tab is an interesting add-on for the Firefox web browser. It can be useful for Firefox users who regularly work with a set of tabs that they usually have open in Firefox all the time. The Firefox add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla Firefox website.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, pin tabs

Firefox Tab Progress Bar

Martin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:17:51 +0000

Those users who are paying attention to the development of the Firefox web browser might have already seen the design mockups of future Firefox versions. While these mockups can be subject to change (and most likely will) they do demonstrate how the Firefox development team visualizes future versions of the Firefox browser. One of the additions that was added to one of the last mockups was a progress bar for every tab. This can be helpful for users who open several tabs at once as it visualizes the loading progress of each tab individually.

The experimental Firefox add-on Tab Progress Bar adds this functionality to the latest releases of the Firefox Internet browser. To be precise to versions 3.5 to 3.6a2pre of the browser.

The blue progress bar appears immediately on top of every tab in Firefox if a website is currently loading in that tab. The bar does not alter the design of the web browser in any form as it is cleverly placed above the names of the websites.

Users who are interested in the tab progress bar add-on can download it from the official Mozilla Firefox website where it is provided as a download.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, tab progress bar

Make Tabs Permanent In Firefox

Martin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:32:02 +0000

Firefox by default handles all tabs the same way. A tab gets closed if a user presses the close button, no matter if that action was intended or not. It is also true that new websites get loaded in the active tab under certain circumstances which is another thing that some users might want to avoid in certain situations. The PermaTabs Mod add-on for the Firefox web browser can make tabs in the web browser permanent so that they cannot be closed by normal means. The default setting disables the right-click close tab button, nullifies the action of the close tab icon at the end of the Firefox tabbar and ignores the close all other tabs command for permanent tabs. In short, it makes it impossible to close the tab unless the permanency of it is disabled beforehand.

The permanent tabs are loaded automatically when starting Firefox with the difference that their contents are loaded when the user first accesses the tabs in the tabbar. Permanent tabs can be displayed in a different color to make their identification easier for the user. New permanent tabs can be added by right-clicking a tab and selecting the Permatab option from the menu. This is also the way to undo the action so that the tab once again behaves like any other tab in Firefox.

The PermaTabs Mod is a great way to add indestructible tabs to the Firefox browser which should be interesting for users who work with the same basic set of websites all the time. It could for example be used to protect services like Gmail, Google Search or an individual website from being closed accidentally. The Tab Mix Plus add-on can protect tabs as well but some users might prefer a solution that is not coming with such a huge feature set.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox tips, firefox-add on, mozille firefox, permanent tabs, protect tabs, tabbar, tabs

Internet Explorer New Tab Page In Firefox

Martin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:31:44 +0000

You are presented with several choices if you open a new tab in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer users have the option to open recently opened websites, start an inPrivate session (that’s the equivalent to Private Browsing in Firefox) or to use an accelerator. The Firefox web browser on the other hand displays a blank page unless an add-on is installed that changes this.

One add-on that has been recently uploaded to the Mozilla website is New Tab Page. New Tab Page mimics the way Internet Explorer displays blank tabs. It offers three options in its current stage of development:

Display selected bookmarks
A Google search form
The option to start a Private Browsing session

The user can select the websites that are displayed as bookmarks in every new tab page which is different from Internet Explorer 8 which displays tabs that had been recently open in the web browser. The Google search form makes it easy to perform a Google search right away although that functionality might be covered already either by the Firefox address bar or a search form in one of the toolbars in the Internet browser.

The option to start a private browsing session is welcome although it is again possible to start one by simply using the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl Shift P] as well. The add-on is currently in experimental stage which could mean that the developer has the intention to add new features to it. It would for example be nice to be able to select the elements that are displayed on that page. Some elements that could be made available are a list of recent downloads or pages that have been closed recently.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, internet-explorer, mozilla-firefox, web browser

Hide The Firefox Tabbar

Martin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:22:06 +0000

The Firefox tabbar is always visible in the web browser unless it is permanently deactivated in the View menu. It does not really make sense to deactivate it unless there is never more than one website open on the computer system. What’s missing is an easy way of hiding the Firefox tabbar when it is not needed and displaying it again when it is.

That’s exactly what the experimental Firefox add-on Hide Tabbar is doing. Hide Tabbar works by configuring a keyboard shortcut to hide and display the tabbar in the web browser. The default combination has been set to CTRL F11 which is not that comfortable as it can only be accessed with both hands.

The keyboard shortcut can be changed easily in the options of the add-on so that only one hand is needed to hide and display the tabbar in Firefox. Hide Tabbar offers an auto-hide function as well which will automatically hide the Firefox tabbar after a certain time. The tabbar will be displayed again if the user hovers the mouse cursor over the area were it was initially displayed.

Hide Tabbar is an experimental add-on for the Firefox web browser that is compatible with all versions of Firefox.

Tags: firefox add-ons, firefox tabbar, firefox tabs, firefox tips, hide tabbar, tabbar, web browser

Add Google Chrome’s New Tab Feature To Firefox

Martin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:04:53 +0000

You do not get a blank page whenever you open a new tab in the Google browser. Google Chrome displays thumbnails of the most visited websites together with a search function and a list of recently closed pages which can be a great time saver if the user intents to open a website that is listed in that display.

Some users might think that this is like Speed Dial which is offered by the Opera web browser. The difference here besides the additional functionality is that the user picks the Speed Dial websites that are displayed while they are selected by the history in Google Chrome.

The Firefox add-on New Tab JumpStart (via Firefox Facts) clones the new tab functionality of the Google web browser and brings it to the Firefox community. It will display the most visited websites, a search box, the most recent bookmarks and closed tabs. The add-on comes with more settings that can change the appearance quite a bit. It is for example possible to change the number of thumbnails of websites that are displayed from 3×3 (which is three thumbnails in three rows) to 10×7 which equals the 70 most visited websites.

The add-on is not fully compatible with the Firefox 3.5x branch. Compatibility can be forced but it seems to lead to display problems as the recent bookmarks and recently closed websites are displayed awkwardly. The add-on consumes quite a bit of computer memory. The amount largely depends on the amount of thumbnail images that are displayed.

Tags: firefox tabs, firefox-add on, firefox-extension, google browser, google chrome, web browser

Move Firefox Tabs From Top To Side

Martin — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:02:28 +0000

Many experienced Windows users have moved the Windows Taskbar from the bottom to the side. This offers several advantages like displaying more tabs at the same time without grouping them or saving horizontal screen estate. These users on the other hand rarely think about moving the tabs of the web browser to the side which is strange as this offers the same advantages. This is especially true for widescreen computer systems and systems with large computer monitors that run on a resolution that almost no websites make use of completely.

One of the Firefox add-ons that can move the tabs from the top to the side is the excellent Tree Style Tab add-on which comes with dozens of configuration settings. The add-on will automatically move all open tabs to the left side of the web browser by default with the option to move it to the right, bottom or top as well. The add-on comes with several visual themes to change the appearance of the tabs in the sidebar.

More important than that are the advanced configuration settings. Child pages of a website already open in a tab will be opened beneath that tab with the option to hide them if the main page is not selected.

The Tab Operations tab can be used to fine tune how and where new tabs are created and how tabs are opened in the web browser. It is for example possible to add new tabs as a child of the active tab even if the domain names do not match.

It is basically possible to configure the add-on to work exactly as wanted. Hiding tabs is for example a very useful feature for users who work with dozens of tabs. Users who rarely open more than ten tabs on the other hand might not find it as advantageous.

Tree Style Tab offers an interesting alternative by allowing users to move tabs from the top to the side of the web browser.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, firefox-extension, tree style tab, web browser

Change The Location Of Close Button In Firefox

Martin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:19:11 +0000

Firefox is displaying a close button on every open tab by default. The active tab is displaying that button in red colors while the rest is using gray to distinguish active and inactive tabs. The close button adds to the length of all tabs which might be a thorn in the eye of users who like to optimize Firefox menus to use as little screen estate as possible.

There is also the kind of user who likes to use the keyboard to close tabs instead of clicking on that button. The keyboard shortcut [CTRL W] will close the active tab as long as Firefox is the active window. That’s convenient and making the close button more or less superfluous.

Another problem that arises when displaying close buttons on all tabs is that the tab size changes dynamically. This becomes apparent when you open many tabs. If you start closing tabs you will sooner or later notice that the close button shifted because of changed tab sizes.

But what are the options that the Firefox developers have implemented in the web browser? The parameter [browser.tabs.closeButtons] in [about:config] handles the close button in Firefox.

1: This is the default value, it displays a close button on every tab in Firefox.
0: This displays a close button only on the active tab.
2: This displays no close button at all.
3: Displays a single close button at the end of the tab bar.

Keyboard junkies will probably set the value to 2 to get rid of all close buttons. Users who regularly open many tabs will probably set it to 3 to be able to access the close button in the same place.

Tags: firefox, firefox close, firefox hacks, firefox tabs, firefox tips, mozilla-firefox, web browser

Firefox Numbered Tabs

Martin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:14:14 +0000

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.

Tags: firefox keyboard shortcuts, firefox navigation, firefox tabs, firefox tips, firefox-add on, firefox-extension, mozilla-firefox, numbered tabs

Ask The Readers: Best Tool To Split Firefox Tabs

Martin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:18:34 +0000

While checking for new Google Chrome plugins I stumbled upon a plugin called Dual View which made it possible to display two websites in a split tab. This could actually be very handy for numerous reasons like writing articles with a reference site open on the screen which would eliminate the need to switch between tabs all the time.

Could also be interesting for product comparisons, shopping or watching videos in one half while doing something else in the other half of the screen.

A quick check on the Mozilla Firefox website did not bring up the desired Firefox extension that would copy that behavior. The extensions that I found where either outdated or crashing my Firefox. That’s when I decided to ask you if you knew of an extension that would mimic the behavior of the Dual View plugin.

All I need is a way to display two websites in one Firefox windows next to each other instead of in their separate tabs. I could open two instances of Firefox and run them next to each other but I would prefer an extension that would enable the functionality so that only one instance of Firefox needs to be running.

So let me know if you are using or remember a Firefox extension that does that. Opera users could also weight in and let me know if Opera supports such a feature as well.

Tags: ask the readers, dual view, firefox, firefox tabs, google crhome, opera, split tabs

Span Firefox Tabs Across Multiple Rows

Martin — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:28:14 +0000

Firefox is offering one row for its tabbed browsing feature. Tabs get reduced in size if the user opens additional websites but that stops eventually and additional tabs are not displayed anymore. The tab bar has to be scrolled to access those websites. Alternatively the icon at the end can be clicked on which opens the list of all opened websites.

It’s however not comfortable to surf that way and users who regularly open more tabs than their screen size can take could find the Tab Kit extension for Firefox useful. One of the main features of that Firefox add-on is the ability to span Firefox tabs across multiple rows. While that opens up new space for additional websites it also means that the remaining screen estate for the active website is reduced.

While that is definitely one of the main features of the Tab Kit extension several others are available which also deserve to be listed. The tab bar can be moved from the horizontal row to the sidebar which is an excellent option for uses with widescreen monitors or large monitors in general.

Tabs can be grouped which is another interesting feature. Grouped tabs are being displayed in the same color or next to each other in the vertical tab menu. The add-on makes use of colors not only to display grouped tabs but also tabs that are active, unread or protected. This option can be disabled, it really does get colorful if you keep the default settings and that might not be something for everyone.

Other features of this excellent Firefox add-on include:

Sorting Tabs in numerous ways
Mouse Gestures
Tab Dragging
Positioning tabs
Setting the minimum width and close button preference

Tab Kit provides several useful features for users that work with a large amount of tabs on a regular basis. It offers many options that more or less regulate every aspect of the tabbed browsing in Firefox.

Tags: firefox, firefox tabs, firefox-add on, tab kit, tabbed-browsing

gHacks technology news » firefox tabs

Firefox App Tabs Add-On

Related posts

Tab Preview Features In Firefox 3.6

Related posts

Pin Tabs In Firefox

Related posts

Firefox Tab Progress Bar

Related posts

Make Tabs Permanent In Firefox

Related posts

Internet Explorer New Tab Page In Firefox

Related posts

Hide The Firefox Tabbar

Related posts

Add Google Chrome’s New Tab Feature To Firefox

Related posts

Move Firefox Tabs From Top To Side

Related posts

Change The Location Of Close Button In Firefox

Related posts

Firefox Numbered Tabs

Related posts

Ask The Readers: Best Tool To Split Firefox Tabs

Related posts

Span Firefox Tabs Across Multiple Rows

Related posts