gHacks technology news » tabbar http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:43:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Firefox App Tabs Add-On http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/09/firefox-app-tabs-add-on/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/09/firefox-app-tabs-add-on/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:16:48 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=18335 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

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/11/09/firefox-app-tabs-add-on/feed/ 52 New Firefox Tab Manager Tabberwocky http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/23/new-firefox-tab-manager-tabberwocky/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/23/new-firefox-tab-manager-tabberwocky/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:13:09 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=16606 firefoxTabberwocky is a lightweight Firefox tab manager alternative of the popular Tab Mix Plus add-on. It offers popular options like protecting tabs from being closed, duplicate already open tabs, open new tabs next to the active tab and managing several other important aspects of tabs in Firefox.

The Firefox add-on will add several of its features (like protecting or duplicating tabs) automatically to the right-click menu when right-clicking on tabs in the tabbar in Firefox. Other features like opening tabs to the right of the current tab or switching to the last selected tab upon closing a tab are also activated right away.

tab manager

Many of these features can be customized in the add-on’s options. Here it is possible to disable context menu entries, change the behavior when opening or closing tabs, alter the design of the tabbar and configure the action when the backspace key is pressed in Firefox.

The backspace key can be configured to navigate back and forward or perform a page up or page down action. Tabberwocky does not offer all of the features of Tab Mix Plus yet. This includes the ability to display tabs in additional rows in the web browser or offering session management.

Not all users need that functionality on the other hand. Tabberwocky can be downloaded from the profile page at the Mozilla Firefox website.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/23/new-firefox-tab-manager-tabberwocky/feed/ 9 Make Tabs Permanent In Firefox http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/18/make-tabs-permanent-in-firefox/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/18/make-tabs-permanent-in-firefox/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:32:02 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=14507 firefoxFirefox 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.

permanent tabs firefox

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/18/make-tabs-permanent-in-firefox/feed/ 5 Hide The Firefox Tabbar http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/02/hide-the-firefox-tabbar/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/02/hide-the-firefox-tabbar/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:22:06 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=14079 firefoxThe 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.

hide tabbar

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/02/hide-the-firefox-tabbar/feed/ 14 Add Tabs to the Windows Explorer http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/14/add-tabs-to-the-windows-explorer/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/14/add-tabs-to-the-windows-explorer/#comments Mon, 14 May 2007 08:44:25 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/14/add-tabs-to-the-windows-explorer/ Toolbars menu.]]> I’m not able to live without tabbed browsing anymore and I suppose this is true for most Internet users. I found a great program called QT TabBar which adds the same functionality to the Windows Explorer. Installation of the free software is not complicated but rather unusual. There is no setup or install executable, the program that you have to start to install the Tabbar is RegisterQTTabBar.exe. The computer needs to be restarted afterwards and you need to activate the toolbar in the View > Toolbars menu.

tabbed browsing for explorer

Whenever you click on a new folder in the Windows Explorer it will be opened in a tab in the same window and you can switch between all open tabs in that window. This is great to reduce the size of the windows that are open at once. QT Tabbar adds more functionality to the Windows Explorer. The feature I like most besides the tabbed function is called subfolder tips.

You can navigate into subfolders without opening them. A little arrow appears whenever you hover your mouse over a folder showing all files and folders that are inside. It is even possible to hover about another folder and see everything inside as well.

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