I’ve been using Mozilla Firefox lately, and I love it. But when a link opens in a new window, it, well, opens in a new window. Is there some setting I can change to get it to open in a new tab instead? I don’t have a three-button mouse, so I can’t just click the middle button.
In windows, Ctrl+LeftClick will force all links to open in a new tab. But this doesn’t work with buttons which launch new windows.
I don’t understand this behavior by Firefox, frankly. Sort of defeats the purpose of tabbed browsing. Opera handles it just fine, you only get tabs, never superfluous windows.
I’d like to know if such a solution exists, too…
Do not normally left-click.
Right-click. Select “Open link in new tab.”
After a while it becomes second nature.
For now, you need to install Tabbed Browser Extensions.
I only just installed this, but it does work (at install I chose the “Light” version, then changed the preferences. You’ll see a new Menu item called “Tab” at the top of the screen, go to Tabbrowser Extension Preferences and check the proper checkbox).
Apparently, this extension can do all kinds of amazing things - although I’m sure there are various bugs as well.
Okay, while we’re on this subject, I just started using Firefox, and I don’t see what’s so great about tabbed browsing. AFAICT, compared to opening another instance of the browser, tabs just reduce the amount of space available for the page being viewed, and you can’t switch between the tabs by hitting <ALT><TAB>. What am I missing about the wonderful tabs?
Also, I can’t get Firefox to handle the popup boxes for VB functions like quote and links. Nothing happens when I click on the little icons for them. (And yes, I’m allowing popup boxes under Options.)
And Firefox doesn’t handle scrolling with the mouse wheel well: With IE, the scroll works on whatever the mouse is over. But Firefox requires you to click on the section you want to scroll.
Or are there ways to overcome these problems?
It may be a personal preference, although having only one instance of a program open (tabbed browsing) doesn’t tie up so many computer resources. For me, I end up surfing with 5 or 8 or 10 websites open quite often, and I just prefer the tabs. And unless you’re using an 800x600 screen, I can’t imagine the 20 pixels the tab bar uses affects what one can read that much.
If you mean like the “reply” and “quote” and “link” buttons here on SDMB, not sure, they work for me. But I have noticed in Firefox that if I have the pop-up blocker enabled, it does have the really annoying habit of not allowing even user-initiated pop-ups to work. (meaning, the site has a javascript function to open a new window, but only if the user clicks the link).
Yep, although it’s not 100% perfect in IE.
I started a new thread to discuss Firefox extensions. There are a bevy of add-ons to Firefox - some may help solve problems/bugs, others offer enhanced usability.
Sweet. rexnervous, I installed the Tabbrowser Extensions, and it works like a charm. Thanks for the help!
You can switch between them with Ctrl+Tab (just like any multi document interface), or by holding the right button and moving the mouse wheel.
I like tabbed browsing because tabs are a lot faster and less resource intensive to use than separate windows. On a Win9x/ME system, the computer will get slower and slower as you create more windows, until eventually bitmaps and fonts start disappearing. Additional tabs don’t use any extra resources, and loading a page in a tab is a bit faster than creating a new window, even on NT/2K/XP. You can open new pages in background tabs, so they’ll load while you’re still reading the same page. You can also see at a glance which tabbed pages have finished loading.
Do you have JavaScript turned off? I’m using Firebird 0.7 here and the buttons work for me.
Are you sure? The tab bar uses a constant space, and that isn’t much in the entire desktop real estate (assuming your web surf with your browser at full throttle). The tabs allow you to view multiple pages without having to open additional browser instances. Opening an additional tab view does not reduce your page viewing space.
The browser instances issue is very important. Open IE and check your system resources. Make note of it. Open additional instances of IE and make note of each system resource addition as you do. Now close everything down and repeat the process with Firefox, but just open additional tabs and check system resources after every tab opening. The system resources comparison between multiple IE windows and a single window of Firefox with multiple tabs should tell you something.
As for your IE-centric way of doing things, it takes time to unlearn them.
<CTRL><TAB> :smack: You learn something new every day.
Hmmm. Not on my system. But <CTRL><TAB> works okay.
The tab bar pushes my home page down far enough to hide things I’m used to seeing. Not a big deal, maybe, but mildly annoying, especially when I see no great reason to use tabs.
As for system resources, I usually open three or four instances max (sometimes with other apps running, too), and I’ve never observed a problem with resources. So I see no downsides to multiple instances. And this isn’t a hot new computer, either. I’m running W2000.
The quote and link popup box thing was fixed by allowing Javascript. But the change didn’t take effect until I restarted Firefox.
Thanks all, for your help.
Ah, I guess the mouse wheel tab navigation is part of the All-In-One Gestures extension I have installed. (That feature is built into Opera, where I first saw tabbed browsing.)
Even easier: hold down the <cntl> key while you do a normal left-click on the link. This will open it in a new tab instead of a new window.
You might want to install a Mouse Gestures extension. Now, I can flip between tabs with a mere flick of the wrist. Also, tabs are a lot better at handling many pages - I might have 60-70 web pages open at once, split between 5-6 windows. Having this many open at once in IE is unmanageable.
If you want reclaim some screen estate, the Little FireFox theme is handy.
(Geocities page though, so often out of bandwidth)
Dunno about the latest version, but Firebird opens links as a new tab if you center-click on them. Very handy. (Center-click being the wheel-ish mouse button.)
I don’t know if this applies to Firefox, but there’s a whole variety of tab and mouse wheel options in Mozilla, under edit-preferences.
Sweet!
The only problem I’ve had with Firefox is it won’t access my BellSouth email page.
Anybody have a clue why?
Link? (don’t need to give us your username/password, of course)
A handy extension for Mozilla and Firefox, for those pesky pages that won’t work properly, is IE View - you can then right-click anywhere on the page, and there’s an option to “View this page in IE”
Actually, if I set up the email to prompt for my password it works on Mozilla. It just doesn’t like the one click email access.
Revtim,GorillaMan thanks anyways.