Want To Open A Website In Another Browser? Just Drag And Drop It
This is one of the things that makes you go uh if you read about it or find out about it on your own. I know many computer users who run multiple web browsers on the same PC.
On my PC I have Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer installed. And while that may be the exemption unless you are a webmaster or web developer yourself, chance is that you have multiple browsers installed or available on your system.
Most users who I know do the following when they want to open a link or a website that is displayed in one browser in another: They click in the address bar field of the browser and mark all of the address (if it is not marked automatically by the click).
Advanced users may use the shortcut Ctrl-a after clicking for the same effect. They then right-click and select Copy (or press Ctrl-c) to copy the website address to the clipboard. Then they open a new tab in the second web browser and paste the url into the address field there. In the final step they click the load button or press enter.
That's a lot of work for a very simple operation. If you have enough screen estate you may be able to run both Internet browsers on the screen at the same time. If you do, you can use simple drag and drop operations to open a link or website displayed in one web browser in another.
This works with all browsers that I have tested. You can drag and drop from and to Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer.
To drag you move the mouse over the favicon of the website or the link in question, click and hold the left-mouse button and drag the address into the other web browser's interface. You can drop it anywhere there and the website will be loaded in the active or the selected tab.
It is such a simple thing that can make such a big difference in day to day work. Did you know about this method? Or do you know of other (browser) related tips that optimized your workflow significantly?
Update: As Anthony mentioned in the comments, you can also drop the website in question to the browser's icon in the taskbar to load it that way.
I use Firefox 68.0 and Chrome 79.0. It used to be that I could drag and drop the favicon from one into the other without any issues, but lately, it does not work in either direction. When I try to drag it over, it comes up with a circle containing a bar. Any ideas? I would really like that option back…thanks.
pls download in opera browser
I sometimes use this feature while staying within the same browser. For instance to view a series of news items. I have small browser window on the left, which shows the current list of available news items, I have a larger window on the right for pleasant viewing. To view the next item I simple drag it from the left and drop it on the right browser window. This saves me going back and forth and gives me control over the list. When I loose myself in clicking further links on the right, I still have the overview on the left to quickly return to.
I use IETab, just like Robert Palmar described.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-with/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/browser-view-plus/
I would hope that other browsers have similar extensions.
You can highlight part or all of a text portion with double or triple mouse clicks.
I like the simple method in Opera. Just right-click, select Open with, and click the browser of your choice.
You can also use the drag-and-drop trick to create a shortcut to the URL on your desktop.
Great tip, Martin. Works well.
Considering that I mostly use Firefox, for obvious reasons, on occasion, I might have to use IE, so this will come in handy!
Thanks!
Strange I don’t seem to be able to get it working in most of my browsers in Windows 7 64 bit (out of the ones I’ve tried Firefox -> I.E. seems to work but not the other way around).
However, to preform the same task I use Opera’s ‘Open With’ right click menu which doesn’t require the target browser to be open and also the task can be done without using the mouse (Menu Key -> N -> F/I/G/S).
Internet Explorer 9 to Firefox 9 works fine on my Win 7 Pro 64-bit system.
A neat trick. I never knew that one.
I use the IE Tab 2 Firefox extension to open a site
in an “external application” (which I set to be Chrome)
by clicking the IE Tab 2 icon while holding the control key.
Even if you don’t have lots of screen real-estate, if you drag down to the taskbar and hover over the program you want to drop into, Windows will bring the app to the front and then you can drop.
For example, if you wanted to drag a link from a Maximized Firefox onto a Minimized (or obscured) IE:
1. Drag favicon from Firefox’s addressbar down to IE’s taskbar icon.
2. Wait a second… IE’s window will be brought to the front.
3. Continue dragging into IE’s window and drop.
Ultimately though, if this is something you do a lot of (for browsers in particular), finding “Open Page/Link in ” extensions for your primary browser is a better route.
Good point Anthony ;)