Close Tabs With A Double Right-Click In Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 28, 2009
Updated • Mar 12, 2017
Firefox, Firefox add-ons
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14

Rights To Close is a browser add-on for Mozilla Firefox that allows you to double right-click on any open tab to close it in the browser.

If you are like me, you sometimes open lots of websites in tabs at once only to close them down one after the other after a short inspection of the website's content.

The Firefox web browser offers two different options to close tabs. The first is by clicking with the mouse on the close icon which is either available next to each tab or at the end of the tabbar. The second option is the keyboard shortcut CTRL-W which will also close the current tab in the browser.

Rights To Close is a Firefox add-on that brings another option to the table. It basically maps the option to close a tab in Firefox to a double right-click.

This right-click can be anywhere on the website and tab that should be closed which is a very comfortable way of closing tabs in Firefox especially for users who do not like working with keyboard shortcuts, and for those who do not like to move the mouse all the way up to the tabbar to close a tab.

Since you need to perform a double right-click, there is little chance that you accidentally close a tab this way.

The only option the extension offers concerns what happens when the last open tab of a browser window is closed when you perform the double right-click. The add-on can either close down the browser completely or open a new blank tab for the user.

Rights To Close might interfere with other add-ons that map the right-click. It is for instance not compatible with the Multi Links add-on. The Firefox add-on is available for download at the official Mozilla Firefox website. It is compatible with all Firefox 2 and 3 versions.

Update: The add-on has been updated to work with Firefox 4 as well. I have tested it under the latest Firefox Stable build (Firefox 52 at the time of writing), and found the extension to be working just fine in this version as well. You therefore should not run into any compatibility issues with it.

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Rights to Close
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Comments

  1. OAlexander said on November 30, 2009 at 12:08 pm
    Reply

    “TabMix Plus”, albeit not quite as fabulous as the after Version 1.5x no longer functional “Tabbrowser” Extensions from Piro ( http://piro.sakura.ne.jp/ ), offers, that when you double-click a tab it goes away and when you double-click on an empty space on the tab-bar a new one opens. I deem this a superior solution. You essentially can change that to what you want (eg. middle-click, Ctrl-right-click, etc.). Why use a dumb extension, when there is a smart one out there? Plus, of-course tons of other options.

    1. Joe said on December 8, 2009 at 10:50 am
      Reply

      Yes, tab mix plus has some great mouse shortcuts for when you’re ON THE TAB BAR. As other people have said, this extension allows you to close a tab ANYWHERE on the screen via double right-click. It’s not meant to replace the middle click button to close when you’re already on the tab bar; it’s meant to be able to close a tab quickly with the mouse without having to travel up to the tab bar.

      Either you don’t understand the difference or you didn’t read the previous comments.

      My only problem with rights to close is that it does in fact interfere with other extensions/autohotkey configs that already map to the right-click.

  2. todd schnitt said on November 29, 2009 at 2:20 am
    Reply

    The point of this add-on is that you can double right click anywhere on the page and it will close the tab. Those other methods require moving your mouse pointer up to the tab or tab bar. I find this add-on very useful. Thanks for posting it.

    1. Mik said on November 29, 2009 at 6:17 am
      Reply

      “…click anywhere on the page” that’s definitely it, the reason to have this add-on installed. It’s the same reason, another add-on “Grab and Drag” is a must for me.
      Thanks to your mentioning that a TAB must be clicked on, I’ve “discovered” that my scroll wheel / middle button actually does the trick. But it makes no difference to me now. :-)

      “Grab and Drag”:
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1250

  3. Mik said on November 28, 2009 at 9:53 pm
    Reply

    Just what I needed! A very good find!
    For some reason the middle button function doesn’t work on my system. Besides, it’s primarily a scroll wheel, so, I find it not that convenient to click it.

  4. Dave said on November 28, 2009 at 9:35 pm
    Reply

    I was also going to post and say TabMix Plus is the only tab add on you need. Its worth about ten add ons in one. I guess this might be good for laptops though or ancient mice that don’t have a scroll wheel to middle click.

  5. Ben said on November 28, 2009 at 4:10 pm
    Reply

    Middle mouse button… to open new link in new tab or to close tabs :)

  6. kyith said on November 28, 2009 at 1:45 pm
    Reply

    seriously why not we use the center mouse wheel to close tabs in one click?? isn’t that much better? you don’t need to install anything!

    1. Shirow said on November 28, 2009 at 7:26 pm
      Reply

      Was about to jump on just to say you can use the middle-mouse button. And I almost never comment. >.>

    2. jegor said on November 28, 2009 at 3:18 pm
      Reply

      i second that

  7. paul(us) said on November 28, 2009 at 11:26 am
    Reply

    Or use tab mix plus where you have (also this right double click mouse option) much more opportunities to close tabs.

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