Mozilla is working on Firefox multi-tab management

Martin Brinkmann
May 14, 2018
Firefox
|
25

Mozilla is working on a new feature for the organization's Firefox web browser currently which adds multi-tab management capabilities to the browser.

Firefox does not support multi-tab operations right now; if you want to close, move or bookmark sites open in multiple tabs in the browser right now, you will have to do so one after the other.

The upcoming multi-tab management options enable you to run operations on several tabs at once in Firefox to make things more comfortable.

Firefox is not the first browser to support multiple tab selections and operations. The web browsers Vivaldi and Opera support multi-tab selections.

Firefox multi-tab management

firefox multi-tab management

Firefox users may use the Ctrl (Command on Mac) key on the keyboard to select multiple tabs in the browser once the feature lands. A right-click on the selection displays a context menu with options to run operations on all supported tabs.

The Shift-key is mapped to selecting a row of tabs, and users who prefer to use the mouse for that can right-click on the tab bar to pick the new entry " select all tabs" to do so.

Mozilla plans to unlock all tab operations for multiple tabs; in other words, you can close, pin, bookmark, send, or move the tab selection using the right-click context menu.

Mozilla plans to add a new "move tab" menu which you may use to move a single tab to the start or end of the current tab bar, or to a new window. Similarly, there will be a new close tab menu to close tabs to the right, close other tabs, or close duplicate tabs in the web browser.

The tab manager, the little down arrow icon located on the right-side of the tab bar, displays tab related operations and all open tabs in all browser windows as well.

Tab operations include muting all tabs, bookmarking or reloading tabs, or closing and undo closing tabs.

The functionality is not yet live in Firefox, not even in Nightly. Mozilla did add the main preference for the multi-tab management functionality of the Firefox browser though.

  • Load about:config?filter=browser.tabs.multiselect in the Firefox address bar.
  • Confirm that you are careful if the warning prompt is displayed.
  • Double-click on the preference to set it to true.

A value of true enables the new feature, a value of false (default) disables it. The only effect setting the parameter to true has right now is that you can select multiple tabs in Firefox and that these tabs are displayed in bold.

Closing Words

Multi-tab management is a welcome feature in my opinion as it improves tab handling in the browser. While you may not need it if you work with less than a dozen tabs in Firefox all the time, users who work with multiples of that may appreciate the new functionality.

Now You: What is your take on the new feature? (via Sören)

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Mozilla is working on Firefox multi-tab management
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Mozilla is working on Firefox multi-tab management
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Mozilla is working on a new feature for the organization's Firefox web browser currently which adds multi-tab management capabilities to the browser.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Freddie! said on October 7, 2018 at 4:54 pm
    Reply

    It’s finally working on Firefox 63 (beta as of this time)

    just set browser.tabs.multiselect on the about:select page to strt it working

    1. Freddie said on October 7, 2018 at 9:57 pm
      Reply

      *set browser.tabs.multiselect to true

      whoops

  2. Marko said on June 20, 2018 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    How about Tab Grouping/Hiding which is by far the most important and fundamental functionality of browser? I’m desperate. Can’t use new Firefox versions because Tab Groups add-on ceased to work. Power Tabs is good replacement but it’s that much bugged it cannot be used.

  3. Anonymous said on May 17, 2018 at 9:01 am
    Reply

    Uou can bookmarks all opened tabs in Firefox since a long time with right-click > Bookmark All Tabs

  4. Pierre said on May 15, 2018 at 2:09 pm
    Reply

    Opera and Vivaldi… and Chromium and Google Chrome !

  5. Raphael D H said on May 14, 2018 at 9:20 pm
    Reply

    No everyone likes tabs, I like working with zero, none, nada; No Tabs. They use to have an add-on Hide all tabs with on tab, which is no longer a option. At one time with their new browser I look at my task manage and saw 5 different process of my browser on line, sure that will help the internet run faster if millions of users have millions of processes running at the same time, which they may or may not be using.

  6. Raj said on May 14, 2018 at 3:29 pm
    Reply

    Sounds like mozilla is catching up on Vivaldi and Opera after killing Tab Groups

    1. Mikhoul said on May 15, 2018 at 5:52 am
      Reply

      Don’t worry Mozilla will kill the new tab features after a few months under the pretext only some users use it like as usual.

      1. Mozilla plans to disable said on May 16, 2018 at 3:29 pm
        Reply

        And they’ll also go out of their way to prevent extensions from recreating the function too, most likely.

  7. Geoff said on May 14, 2018 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    That’s good to hear that they are adding more tab management features. I don’t know why there aren’t options built into the browser that allows you to right click and move tabs to separate windows, or join tabs to windows without having to do the drag and drop effect. What I want to know is, is there a way to turn off that annoying feature that can make you accidentally close tabs when you are just trying to re-arrange them? This tooltip pops up and say drop a tab to close it. Please tell me there is an about:config option to turn that off. I haven’t found one if there is. Thanks!

  8. Franck said on May 14, 2018 at 1:31 pm
    Reply

    That’s a move in the right direction.

    As a replacement to the fantastic Tab Groups / Panorama feature that was deprecated with FF57, I use a great extension called “Sync Tab Groups” (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sync-tab-groups/) and it fulfills nearly all my needs !

    1. Anonymous said on May 15, 2018 at 4:52 am
      Reply

      looking at the reviews, are you sure you want to recommend it?

  9. Weilan said on May 14, 2018 at 11:46 am
    Reply

    Like this last time with Tab Groups? That nobody used it and was not very good to begin with and they ultimately removed it in the end. That kind of tab management?

    Mozilla need to shut up and just copy Chrome in silence like they’ve been in a while now. I was excited about Quantum and gave it a few months try, but it falls flat in the end, just like Firefox has been since version 4 and the beginning of its demise.

    Sad to admit, but I’d rather let google track me and use a high quality browser like Chrome than waste my time with The Rest.

    1. Mozilla plans to disable said on May 15, 2018 at 1:59 pm
      Reply

      Haha, righteous.

  10. Mark said on May 14, 2018 at 11:36 am
    Reply

    To be honest I really wished they’d put a lot more efforts into WebRender since it will obviously get them a lot of new users (have doubts? Try nightly with WebRender enabled)

    1. John Fenderson said on May 14, 2018 at 5:32 pm
      Reply

      That’s valid, but I think part of Mozilla’s problem is that there is still so much that needs to be done, and not everyone considers the same things to be the most important. Personally, rendering speed isn’t something that is important in terms of making the browser something that is pleasing to use. Although, in fairness, neither is multi-tab management, since I’m not a big tab user.

  11. Paul(us) said on May 14, 2018 at 10:55 am
    Reply

    Of subject: I am still wondering ore release wise speaking the already two months standing still means that what used to be really a great Tab program, tab mix is standing completely still?
    Will there be another even better (Much better even I what I am keeping main fingers crossed for!) working release anytime (even maybe soon)?

    1. pHROZEN gHOST said on May 14, 2018 at 2:34 pm
      Reply

      Hey Paul(us),

      This may be of interest to you …

      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus-webextension/

      1. pHROZEN gHOST said on May 14, 2018 at 2:36 pm
        Reply
      2. Iron Heart said on May 14, 2018 at 8:26 pm
        Reply

        @pHROZEN gHOST

        Please do a feature comparison between legacy TMP and TMP WebExt and realize how much castrated the WebExtension is before even bringing it up. Thank you.

      3. Paul(us) said on May 14, 2018 at 5:04 pm
        Reply

        Thanks, pHROZEN ghost, I know about the article from Martin and the web extension. I was referring to it and I have tried it. But It’s not working like it should. So I had to disable it.
        When you know anything by far similar to it I would be grateful when you mention it.

    2. Ben said on May 14, 2018 at 11:11 am
      Reply

      > TabMixPlus
      Is dead because Mozilla does not implement the needed API.

      But hey, FF does not even have a proper session management – that is planned for maybe sometime 2018.

      Waterfox all the way.

      1. Ivan said on March 26, 2019 at 7:30 am
        Reply

        Waterfox the bests. Firefox died for me.

      2. Paul(us) said on May 14, 2018 at 5:09 pm
        Reply

        Thanks Ben, Good to here and lucky where already 51/2 mounts into 2018. So only maximum 6 1/2 mounth to go! :-) A good browser all the way! :-)

      3. Robert Ab said on May 14, 2018 at 2:20 pm
        Reply

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