Comments on: Fixing tab annoyances in Firefox 2.0

By: Billy Blue

Billy Blue — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:43:43 +0000

Or you could simply use the “show/hide close tab button with mouse-over” userstyle (http://userstyles.org/styles/835). I especially like it when combined with protected tabs, or better yet the PermaTabs extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2558).

By: David

David — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:17:39 +0000

Three words: five-button mouse. You’ll never go back.
There’s also Ctrl F4 for when I’m on my laptop with no mouse.

By: Ari

Ari — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:02:13 +0000

“Don’t people know that you can close any tab simply by middle-clicking on it?”

No. Especially since the middle button could be set to do other things.
Following your logic, maybe there should be no close button on the corners of windows. I think it is more consistent UI behavior to have them on each tab, as well.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:54:02 +0000

add on:
As I suffer lightly with RSI symptoms I am always looking for solutions with minimal clicks, keystrokes or pointer movements. Sometimes I would wish developers had the same problems so that they are more likely to come up with more ergonomic solutions or offer customization options.
I have replaced my mouse with a pen tablet but unfortunately I have no middle click button on the pen. So I am using the close button on every tab, but when I want to close many tabs it is much more convenient to use a general close as I do not have to move the pointer between clicks.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:45:17 +0000

To my taste TAB functionality in 2.0 became worse in certain aspects.
I am using the tabmix plus extension to set features to my liking and I am glad, that it still works in firefox 2.
With tab mix plus I can set the behaviour of the middle click as well as having a close button on every tab (left or right justified) and also have another close button on the tab bar (in fact I am using both depending on the situation).
It find it also very !! cumbersome that the new firefox now makes a scrollable tab bar so I set tab mix to wrap tabs multi-row (Display -> TabBar -> When Tabs don’t fit…)

By: Pedro Timóteo

Pedro Timóteo — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:11:49 +0000

[quote post="374"]Different strokes for different folks, I guess.[/quote]

Indeed. To me, the “middle-click pastes on Linux” was one of the most annoying things, until I found out how to disable it. How often do I need to paste an address, anyway? Most of the time, I click on one (or middle-click, to open it in a new tab)…

And I find the thought of NOT seeing all my tabs at once (even if I cannot read the text in each one) unacceptable. Horizontal scrolling - whenever in a page, or in a tab list - is the work of the devil. All scrolling should be vertical.

But, hey, the Firefox developers seem to agree with you… Oh well. Now anyone has a choice: leave it as it is, or change it.

By the way, I wouldn’t like more than one tab row, as it might cause the main window to move down when opening a new tab, then up when you close a tab, then down again… It’s an “animation” I wouldn’t want.

By: Antonio Crespo

Antonio Crespo — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:40:12 +0000

Not on my firefox, no. For me, middle click will paste the content of the clipboard and try to open it either on the current tab, or the tab where it was middle-clicked on. I find this immensely handy! And TabX was always one of the first extensions I’d install, so for me this new behaviour is as it should have always been. So I would not call it “what were they thinking”, I’d actually call it sane.

As for the tabs not going below a certain width, I say that’s a good thing too. It always annoyed me to no end that the tabs would get so small you couldn’t figure out what they actually were. On a 1900×1200 lcd and with firefox maximized, too. It could be better, of course, if instead of having the user scroll the tab bar to find the tab he’s looking for, it’d wrap them onto the next row. Multi-row tabs, now that I’d buy for a dollar!

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

By: That user-friendliness thing again at The Tlog

That user-friendliness thing again at The Tlog — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:41:16 +0000

[...] I was replying to the following comment by Bruno Rodrigues in the Firefox tab annoyances post, but I think that this deserves a new post; it’s a different subject, and longer than an average comment. Uhhh? Obviously everyone *knew* that triple-click-control-middle-abcde-enter-enter-space(*) with your leg above your back would close a tab. What would *you* be thinking about? If Apple has close buttons on each tab, and not a single close at the right side, nor no-buttons at all, what do you think is the best user experience? [...]

By: Bruno Rodrigues

Bruno Rodrigues — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:04:07 +0000

Uhhh? Obviously everyone *knew* that triple-click-control-middle-abcde-enter-enter-space(*) with your leg above your back would close a tab. What would *you* be thinking about? If Apple has close buttons on each tab, and not a single close at the right side, nor no-buttons at all, what do you think is the best user experience?

(*) did you know that most computer-savy users *still* don’t know about the right mouse button? Unbelievable, but true.

By: Joel Alexandre

Joel Alexandre — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:12:47 +0000

Nice. Didn’t like those 2 new featues in FF2 either.

Thanks.