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Make Tabs Permanent In Firefox

Martin Brinkmann — 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.

Firefox: Keep tabs permanently open

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 06:37:39 +0000

We all have some sites that we visit regularly throughout the day. It’s my site of course for me, Gmail and a forum that I hang out all the time. It does happen from time to time that I accidentally close one of those tabs that I need throughout the day only to find myself opening it again in the next second.

Perm Tabs is a Firefox extension that lets you set permanent tabs that can neither be closed nor lost during sessions. Right-clicking a tab after installing the extension reveals the new menu entry ‘Permanent Tab’ which displays the tab in a different color when selected.

The close icon is removed from that tab as well making it impossible to close the tab this way. The color is yellow by default but can be changed to several other color in case you might prefer a different one. Tabs can still be moved around though.

The only way to close the tab would be to uncheck ‘Permanent Tab’ in the right-click menu. The extension opens three default permanent tabs after the first restart of Firefox which can be easily removed.

One should note that all permanent tabs – next to the websites that you have selected to the loaded during startup – will be loaded when Firefox starts which could mean that you load a website twice if you set it as a permanent tab and have it set as your startup page.

It is however not possible to change the url at all which means that the use of this is a little bit limited. Gmail works fine because the url is not changed when navigating there but WordPress on the other hand makes problems. Whenever you click on a link that leads to a new url a new tab is opened with that url instead.

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