Firefox 3 features you may not know
Posted by Percy Cabello on July 8th, 2008 • Tags:
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While the awesome bar, download pause and resume, malware protection, the new themes, and serious performance improvements are perhaps the most representative features introduced with Firefox 3, here are some other useful ones you may not be aware:

  1. Duplicate tabs. Press Ctrl while dragging a tab to create a duplicate of the dragged tab including its history. Note that this feature doesn’t work on Mac.
  2. Move tabs to another window. Just drag a tab and drop it on another window to move it. If the dragged tab is the last one in its window, it will be closed.
  3. Resize the search bar. When the search bar is placed next to the location bar, you can drag the handler between them (invisible on Windows and Linux) to resize it.
  4. Add keyword search. Select Manage Search Engines… in the search engines menu to open the Search Engines Manager, select a search engine, press Edit Keyword… and enter a few characters to define one. Now you can enter the keyword followed by your search terms in the location bar to search with that plugin.
  5. Discontinuous selections. Make a selection with the mouse as you usually do. Then press and hold the Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) key to make additional selections and create a larger discontinuous one so you can copy or print just what you need.
  6. Integrated add-ons. No need to visit Mozilla Add-ons because Firefox 3 brings it to you directly from the Add-ons Manager new Get Add-ons page: search, find and install with a single click.
  7. Disable plugins. Crashing? It may be a plugin. To be sure, disable the suspect through the new Plugins page in the Add-ons Manager.
  8. Check your crashes. Enter about:crashes in the location bar to get a list of crashes submitted by Breakpad (Mozilla’s crash reporter). Click on a crash report to get details provided by Socorro, Mozilla’s crash reports server.
Comments
Phoenix Woman said on July 8, 2008, 10:18 am:

One not-so-awesome feature: It outs you if you’re gay and your mom is using your computer:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/8/92131/38448/39/548126

Martin said on July 8, 2008, 10:20 am:

I know that the first point is working well on Windows, but I tried it on the Mac since it first appears on the betas. I don’t know if I do something wrong, but I’m not able to duplicate tabs on Mac. Even the latest nightlys don’t work on Mac…

Markus said on July 8, 2008, 1:01 pm:

Tab duplication doesn’t work on Mac: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=410569

Mskadu said on July 8, 2008, 1:47 pm:

Duplicating tags and moving them between windows is news to me :) Thanks!

foxiewire.com said on July 8, 2008, 1:50 pm:

Firefox 3 features you may not know – Mozilla Links…

While the awesome bar, download pause and resume, malware protection, the new themes, and serious performance improvements are perhaps the most representative features introduced with Firefox 3, here are some other useful ones you may not be aware:…

Firefox 3 Tips and Hidden Features | foojam.com said on July 8, 2008, 7:51 pm:

[...] Cabello has a good post on Mozilla Links outlining some of the lesser known features that made it into Firefox 3. My personal fav is the [...]

Ken Saunders said on July 8, 2008, 9:55 pm:

“Discontinuous selections”
That’s very cool!
Thanks :)

gluca said on July 9, 2008, 5:43 am:

I would add to list “images drag and drop, i.e. from a web page to MS Word o a e-mail draft”

Life Clerks » Ctrl+Drag a Tab to Copy It and Its History [Firefox 3] said on July 9, 2008, 4:39 pm:

[...] in Firefox, too. What’s your favorite Firefox 3 shortcut? Let us know in the comments. Firefox 3 features you may not know [Mozilla [...]

Sebastian said on July 10, 2008, 12:53 am:

I would like a feature to autozoom to optimal page width.

z-vet said on July 10, 2008, 1:16 am:

about:crashes gives me «The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded» error.

7 funcionalidades ocultas de Firefox 3 « Un Mundo Libre said on July 10, 2008, 6:24 am:

[...] Leído en MozillaLinks [...]

Percy Cabello said on July 10, 2008, 10:39 am:

Markus, you’re right, tab duplication doesn’t work on Mac. I’ve update the article accordingly. Thanks.

steve ballmer said on July 10, 2008, 11:07 am:

Main features: Crash, freeze, sputter, ….

Фішки Firefox, про які ви можете не знати » Про Firefox та Mozilla Українською said on July 10, 2008, 12:38 pm:

[...] надані Socorro – сервером аварій Mozilla. За матеріалами mozillalinks Написав Фарбований Лис У розділі [...]

Crismon’s Blog » Blog Archive » Firefox 3: tante caratteristiche interessanti said on July 10, 2008, 3:41 pm:

[...] Per maggiori informazioni sulle caratteristiche di Firefox 3 consultare la lista pubblicata da Mozilla-Links. [...]

Maxwell said on July 10, 2008, 10:45 pm:

Uh, tab duplication works fine on Mac Firefox. Use the command (aka Apple aka puppy-paw) key, not the control key.

Doug said on July 11, 2008, 12:38 am:

ditto for me, I’m wondering if it’s the fact I’m on Ubuntu

about:mozilla » Firefox 3 features you may not know said on July 11, 2008, 9:24 am:

[...] a tab, move tabs between windows, resize the search bar, add a keyword search, and several others. Read the full article at the MozillaLinks [...]

masa said on July 13, 2008, 4:02 am:

I loved it so much but there is a problem in multimedia things they dont worlk with firefox as well as it does with explorer .. do u think i have missed something like adds on ? can you help me plz thanks

Ponderings For 2008-07-12 » Ponderings Of Guy said on July 13, 2008, 5:57 am:

[...] nice list of Firefox 3 features most folks don’t know about. Multi-select is my [...]

Pepe said on July 13, 2008, 9:04 am:

La mayoría de esas funciones ya estaban en la versión anterior o vienen desde la 2.0.0.14

Una que no conocía y que me gustó es la de hacer búsquedas en el historial, desde la barra de direcciones, ahorra mucho tiempo.

Por ejemplo, la dirección de este post es:

http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/

Cuando quiero volver a buscarlo y “se me olvidó” la dirección, puedo escribir algunos de los elementos de la dirección y entonces busca en el historial y me la muestra, digamos que solo me acuerdo que fue escrito en “mundo” y que se trata de “firefox 3″, entonces en la barra de direcciones escribo “mozilla firefox 3″ separado por espacios o “firefox mozilla 3″ o también “3 features firefox”, cualquier combinación y me muestra el desplegado de direcciones que tengan estas palabras clave.

Funciona también con el título de las páginas, he ahí la importancia de un buen diseño web y el de usar urls amigables.

Saludos :) buen blog.

spoon00 said on July 13, 2008, 7:32 pm:

Don’t forget the broken file upload.

ndtwc said on July 14, 2008, 1:50 am:

However the discontinuous selections thing won’t work if the texts are inside a table cell. Firefox will select the whole cell instead of the text you are highlighting.

Mickey said on July 15, 2008, 7:14 am:

One thing I miss from the previus version is the awesome undo close tab. Is there any way to have it back in FF 3?

kbrosnan said on July 15, 2008, 1:29 pm:

Only works on builds from mozilla.com if you are using a Linux distro provided version of Firefox 3 about:crashes won’t work.

Goolic said on July 15, 2008, 7:31 pm:

You’ve to put “about:crashes” NOT “http://about:crashes” :)

Jeffrey said on July 16, 2008, 4:17 am:

Yes, by using the Ctrl+Shift+T shortcut.

Philippe Lhoste said on July 16, 2008, 5:35 am:

Interesting article. I didn’t knew the discontinuous article. I selected the first short descriptions and got: Duplicate tabsMove tabs to another windowResize the search barAdd keyword searchDiscontinuous selections
A bit disappointed, I expected some separator (newline?) to be added. I must remember to include these separators in the selections…

Some features were already available with Tab Mix Plus, I think (including the undo close, Mickey). I started without this extension (not compatible with FF3 at start) and was happy to find it back! ;)

@gluca: drag’n'drop of images was there in FF2 already! At least to a Windows folder or to the desktop. You can also d’n'd URLs to IE (useful for testing…). No need for special extension! ;)

Xandrex said on July 16, 2008, 7:51 am:

it is important to make people know of the tab features that you’re talking about in this post !

Startup Meme » Blog Archive Firefox 3 Tips and Tricks. said on July 18, 2008, 4:05 am:

[...] came across this list of Firefox 3 features at MozillaLinks, that most of us didn’t know before, and neither do most of our readers. These features can [...]

berita terbaru software,hardware game & internet « Mr.Surya said on July 21, 2008, 9:33 am:

[...] Sumber: MozillaLinks [...]

Funcionalidades de Firefox 3 que quizás no conozcas said on July 22, 2008, 5:34 am:

[...] en Firefox 3, he aquí unas cuantas más de las que quizás no te hayas percatado. Traducido de mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/07/firefox-3-features-you-may-not-know/ sin comentarios en: tecnología, software libre karma: 6 etiquetas: software libre, firefox, [...]

Fitur Firefox 3 yang Jarang Diketahui ! « Computer Info By Me said on July 24, 2008, 4:10 am:

[...] Sumber: MozillaLinks [...]

mindcontrolproject said on July 24, 2008, 4:23 pm:

very helpful. thanks for the post!

Paul said on July 28, 2008, 8:05 am:

Ctrl+Shift+T Does not work in firefox 3, I’m very tempted to download 2 again

This month in bookmarks: July 2008 said on August 2, 2008, 1:01 am:

[...] Firefox 3 features you may not know [Mozilla Links] – 8 really interesting features baked into Firefox 3 that I had no idea about. I love these little easter egg bits. [...]

orlando_ombzzz said on August 6, 2008, 11:35 am:

“Discontinuous selections. Make a selection with the mouse as you usually do. Then press and hold the Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) key to make additional selections and create a larger discontinuous one so you can copy or print just what you need.”

this would be wonderful … but Firefox Selections printing is broken: usually it spits blanks pages when you print selections. I suspect this is the reason why UI team decided to hide the “print selection” option from the user ( it is in a separate tab … complicating the user to print selection ). If you want that the user actually *use* this feature, the solution is simple and no brainer: when the user makes a selection ( continuous or discontinuous ) add a contextual menu item “print selection” … simple, elegant and easy to do.

But FIX SELECTION PRINTING in Firefox first !!

Creaking Under The Weight Of Links | Programmer’s Log said on August 7, 2008, 5:14 pm:

[...] Firefox 3 features you may not know The duplicate tab feature by dragging is something I wish I knew about before. [...]

shane lily said on August 13, 2008, 3:17 am:

how about the modification on file upload ?
does firefox give us any option to override it ?

Fungsi Firefox 3 Yang Tidak Diketahui | Rahsia Komputer said on August 19, 2008, 1:32 pm:

[...] Sumber: MozillaLinks [...]

thanushka said on August 27, 2008, 12:27 am:

Please make FF3 backward compatible. Things that work with FF2, Break with FF3. This should not happen.

Nureet Cohen said on August 31, 2008, 2:54 pm:

I have downloaded what I thought was an upgrade to Firefox 3 and the system crushed. I got a message that thier is a problem with Firefox, it crushed and send a report. I did, but did not get a reply from anyone. I removed the program from my computer, reinstalled, and I got the same message. Ca someone please tell me what to do?
Thank you much
Nureet Cohen

Nureet Cohen said on September 10, 2008, 12:28 pm:

I downloaded Mozilla Firefox 3 and it crushed. What shell I do? I have sent Mozilla several inquiries and did not get an answer. Can someone respond?

Britt’s Second Try – My favorite new Firefox feature said on September 23, 2008, 12:48 pm:

[...] found at MozillaLinks.org [...]

Pacificapocalypse » I *so* knew it. said on September 23, 2008, 12:55 pm:

[...] every combo of CTL+ALT+SHIFT+TAB+WTF! Then while cruising Reddit today I came across this entry: Firefox 3 features you may not know And there it was, top of the list: 1. To duplicate tabs press Ctrl  while dragging a tab to create [...]

Funciones de Firefox 3 que probablemente no conoces | IdentidadGeek said on September 23, 2008, 11:54 pm:

[...] Enlace: Firefox 3 features you may not know [...]

rootwalla said on September 29, 2008, 4:37 pm:

Undoing closed tabs: middle click on the “tab bar” once for every undo. (anywhere will do, even in the little space between a tab and the upper border)

Sai said on October 24, 2008, 6:29 am:

i think we’ll have to say good bye to Firefox 3 use if it does not give the full path in the file upload control on the client or server side

Minimal Firefox – Mozilla Links said on October 24, 2008, 9:57 am:

[...] Searching with keywords only, hence, no search bar. Stop and reload buttons combined via CSS. [...]

Nureet Cohen said on October 24, 2008, 12:40 pm:

I love the new Firefox, can you just make sure my bookmarks are not lost each time we have an upgrade?
Thanks
Nureet Cohen

Lloyd Prentice said on February 17, 2009, 2:22 pm:

Some things do not work in Firefox ver. 3.0.6 on Macintosh 10.5.6. One is Jajah log-in with the Jajah button. Can you help me? Do I need to reinstall ver 3 and go through the updates? If so, should I avoid 3.0.6?

Nureet Cohen said on March 3, 2009, 12:14 pm:

I am sorry but no matter what I do, Firefox is not working on my computer
Please help
Nureet

CoBfan1987 said on March 11, 2009, 11:54 pm:

Ctrl + Shift + T works just fine in FF 3

What are you guys talking about?

Dyson Logos said on April 4, 2009, 6:28 pm:

CTRL+SHIFT+T works fine for me using Firefox 3.0.8