Tabbed browsing is one of the most(if not the most) important features of modern browsers, and when the browser is Firefox you can expect some extra customizations. Here is a complete (I tried to make it) guide to a better tabbed browsing experience:
Tab Related Shortcuts:
| Open a new tab | Ctrl + T |
| Close current tab | Ctrl + W |
| Cycle through open tabs | Ctrl + Tab (right), Shift + Ctrl + Tab (left) |
| Switch to a tab | Ctrl + [1-9] ,where 1-9 is the number of the tab |
| Middle Click on link | Opens in new tab |
| Middle Click on open tab | Closes the tab |
| Ctrl + Click on a link | Opens in new tab |
| Open Closed Tab | Ctrl + Shift + T |
Tabs Related Preferences
Type about:config in the address/location bar to access the following preferences.
- browser. link. open_external :
- Modifies where to open external link sent by other applications like IM client, AV etc, Values: 3: open link in new tab in current window, 2: Open link in new window, 1: Open link in current tab
- browser. tabs. autoHide:
- Behavior for the tab bar when only one tab exists
True (default): Hide the tab bar
False: Always show the tab bar
Can also be changed via – Tools > Options > Tabs
- Behavior for the tab bar when only one tab exists
- browser. tabs.closeButtons:
- This preference controls how close buttons can be displayed on tabs.
0: Display a close button on the active tab only
1: (default) Display a close button on each tab
2: Don’t display any close buttons
3: Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar
- This preference controls how close buttons can be displayed on tabs.
- browser. tabs. loadInBackground
- Determine whether new tabs get the focus or open in background
True (default): Do not focus new tabs opened from links (load in background)
False: Opposite of above
This can also be changed via "Tools → Options → Tabs → When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately"
- Determine whether new tabs get the focus or open in background
- browser.tabs.tabClipWidth
- Determines the min width of any background tab on which FF will show a close button, in other words if the width of tab is less than this value and the tab is a background tab, close button will not be shown on that particular tab. Browser.tabs.closeButtons has a effect on this.
Value: Any positive integer value
- Determines the min width of any background tab on which FF will show a close button, in other words if the width of tab is less than this value and the tab is a background tab, close button will not be shown on that particular tab. Browser.tabs.closeButtons has a effect on this.
- browser.tabs.tabMinWidth, browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth
- Controls the minimum and maximum widths of the tabs
Value: Any positive integer value
- Controls the minimum and maximum widths of the tabs
Useful Tab Addons
Colorful Tabs : Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface
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| Colorful tabs |
Tab Scope : Allows you to preview and navigate tab contents through a popup.
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| Tab Scope |
Undo Closed Tabs Button : This extension allows you to undo closed tabs via a toolbar and/or tab bar button or the right-click context menu.
Tab Sidebar : Displays previews of your tabs in your sidebar.
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| Tab Sidebar |
You can view other tab related addons here
Bonus:
- You can drag and drop tabs on the tab bar to re-arrange them the way you want.
- If you happen to find text like varunkashyap.wordpress.com which is not clickable but you want to open it, simple select the text and then drag and drop it onto the tab bar!
If I missed something or you have a favorite addon that I didn’t mention do let me know in the comments. Would You ?
Related:
great post! thank you very much.
I also use Showcase, especially for the tab preview option. I think that’s very useful at all.
Thank you very much!