Loading ...New tab switching added for Firefox 3.1
As announced before, tab switching is getting a dramatic update for Firefox 3.1 in both visual and behavior.
Press Ctrl + Tab (or Shift + Ctrl + Tab) and you are presented with tab thumbnails and titles with the most recently visited ones first so you can more easily determine which tab you want to go, have the one you most probably want to go closer, and as a result get to it faster. Hold Ctrl pressed and keep pressing Tab to see the thumbnails smoothly scroll to the left while the status bar displays the tab web address.
If you need or just prefer the old behavior, pressing Ctrl + Page Up and Ctrl + Page Down will fit the bill.
While eye candy doesn’t hurt, I am not sure black is the right background color for all platforms. More tab thumbnails may also help find the one I’m looking for faster, as in earlier prototypes.
As said, there’s also a new behavior for Ctrl + Tab. Instead of just moving left to the next opened tab, now it switches between the current and the last viewed tab and I have to say I’m already loving it. I usually have to check several other pages while posting and to ease the tab switching I moved the reference tab next to the post edit tab to have it a couple of keystrokes away. There’s no need now: I just took the long way to the reference tab once and then it’s already at reach.
The new Ctrl + Tab behavior and look was originally planned for Firefox 3 but was put on hold due to time constraints.
Ctrl-Tab, a Firefox extension developed by Dão Gotwald, that has served as a prototype for this change is available from Mozilla Add-ons. The extension provides even more features including an all tabs preview with search tabs capabilities that replaces the tab list menus when pressing the List all tabs button in the tab bar edge, and an option to switch between tabs in all windows. At least the all tabs preview option is also being considered for inclusion in Firefox 3.1.
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Well, I’m usually all out positive to changes they make, but I have to say I’m having a very hard time readjusting to the new Ctrl+Tab behaviour. (Installed the addon to try it out.)
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I installed the add on and it is very nice I like it. It adds the eye candy experience. I do agree about the black background, it should a bit lighter and more transparent.
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July 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
It’s a good change.
You still have the ctrl+page up and ctrl+page down keys to go to the previous and next tab. ctrl+tab is easier and faster to reach, but that’s more useful for switching back and forth between a few tabs among many.
Only gripe I have is that the reverse switching doesn’t feel logical.
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July 16th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
” with the most recently visited ones first ”
That is what bothers me. I installed ctrl-tab and there were a few things that bothered me, (the favicons, only 3 on the bar, JPEG thumbnails, etc.) but the tabs not going in order is what finally made me uninstall the extension.
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July 16th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
There is an add-on called Thumbstrips that has similar functionality. I used it for a while, but ended up uninstalling it because it caused the browser to get slower and slower the longer the browsing session lasted. Will this addition cause a similar slowdown? Will we be able to turn it off?
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JonathanJuly 18th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hi Jeff,
I actually work on the ThumbStrips product and was wondering if you tried the latest version that is FF3 compatible? Our issue with performance was that ThumbStrips records and maintains the thumbnails for every site you visit, which is why it can slow down performance. We have taken many steps to address that so feel free to let me know if the new version helps. Since, what is described here is only keeping thumbnails of the tabs it should not require as much memory to do that. I look forward to trying it out to see.
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July 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
As far as usability from a user interface point of view is concerned, FF took a major step backwards whent they limited the number of tabs viewable at one time. It was much more natural to keep them all visible at once (by shrinking them even more).
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July 16th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Looks pretty, very Mac or iPhone-like. But #5 Jeff is right: don’t mess with the order, that’s horrible on my brain. If I have four tabs 1-2-3-4 on the window, that’s the order they should cycle through. Jumping around is a BAD idea.
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July 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Wait, what? How is going from one to three (or all if you click the “List all tabs” button) a step back? Also, there is no functionality removed… the only difference is that you have to use page up/down instead of tab…
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July 16th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I’m so glad the keyconfig extension exists. It’s exactly this kind of functionality that should be provided by extensions–such eye-candy features may be nice for some people, but they’re definitely *not* what a simple, fast browser needs out of the box. I’m afraid this is getting even worse in the future … maybe one should start to support alternative projects such as K-Meleon which are simple yet powerful, just straight forward–intended for working and not for playing with glassy rubbish.
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July 17th, 2008 at 1:21 am
As someone pointed out here already, the zoomed in favicons look ugly. Just keep them 16 px, it works everywhere else in the browser.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:05 am
On the KDE Desktop, [Ctrl][Tab] is already used for desktop switching. I understand that Windows doesn’t have this feature, but couldn’t Mozilla come up with something else?
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HonoredMuleJuly 17th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
ctrl+tab is the standard tab/mdi switching keyset as well as a logical extension on the Common User Access standard (to which windows conforms), so failing to adhere to that on windows would be a usability blunder. Linux might get the same kind of love if the key config standards were also firmly centered on CUA, or at least a single target. It should be configurable, but if you’re using KDE, I bet you already know how to change key configs on Firefox, rendering moot any valid complaint you might have had left.
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Daniel HolbertJuly 17th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
FWIW, Ctrl-Tab isn’t reserved for anything in GNOME Desktop on Linux, so Ctrl-Tab works fine in Firefox there.
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July 17th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Should work with Windows XP?
I just received a nice and beatiful label about the tabs but not a preview.
Using Firefox
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
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July 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
isnt it sorta ironic that the snap shot of the mozilla site is opened in internet explorer…?
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July 17th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
It’s just a bloat feature, Mozilla, please concentrate on lightness and security, we do not need these kind of features, thats what add-ons are for/
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July 17th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
My visualization isn’t working, the ctrl+tab function switches between tabs but I don’t get the cool pop-up window, any ideas?
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July 17th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
i upgraded to 3.1 and it doesnt work for me
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MikhailJuly 18th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Firefox 3.1 isn’t out yet… it won’t be for months (until Autumn/Winter).
This feature is currently being worked on, but it isn’t available ‘out-of-the-box’ yet, so to speak. You must mean Firefox 3.01.
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mattJuly 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
oh, okay thanks
yea, i have 3.0.1 and assumed its what they meant by 3.1 my bad
anyway, thats a really awesome feature and i cant wait till its out
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July 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
The only problem i see with this is when i use maybe 30+ tabs which i do fairly often while reading news and things from digg and checking on dailies. I use ctrl+tab to move back and forth between tabs all the time but i don’t see firefox handleing 30+ thumbnails very well, hopefully there is an option that turns it off and leaves the normal ctrl+tab functionality.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Im so grateful that Mozilla think of that coz Im having a hard time switching with tabs.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
This would really help user to minimize their time switching between tabs.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
What’s the about:config option to turn this stupid option off? Firefox should be about speed, stability, standards and security. Everything else can be handled by extensions.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I currently have 31 tabs open (with actual content) and it’s no slower than with only two tabs.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Firefox should not be taking lessons from Vista … engineering for engineering sake. This is a step backwards.
What’s the about:config setting to put it back the way it was?
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July 17th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
There better be a way to switch this off. It’s sure to run horribly on old computers. Please leave a setting in about:config at least.
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July 18th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Personally, I would much have rather have the functionality of Tab Mix Plus ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122 http://tmp.garyr.net/ ) integrated instead:
It gives me a lot more control over my tabs in terms of opening, closing, and re-opening (it actually lists the last X closed tabs)
It’s customizable to my tastes
It highlights my unviewed tabs
It can put a progress bar on each tab to see exactly how it’s loading
It can merge multiple instances of Fx into one (it’s annoying when you close Fx with all the tabs you want to come back to, only to realise that there’s an other instance of it running with no tabs, and that will be what the session restore feature will come back to)
Fx (and the other browsers) feel crippled without it.
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Chris Colenso-DunneAugust 9th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Totally agree.
Just by choosing the Tab Mix Plus option of “Open new tabs next to current one”, each incarnation of Firefox is transformed from a browser that is merely good into one that is excellent.
I’ve used Firefox since shortly after it first came out - now I can’t think how I ever managed without Tab Mix Plus.
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July 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Wow! nice idea.
I had been using tabs effect but it is not supported in FF3, so was looking for an aliter.
Nice!
But, black looks erks!
May be setting alpha to 60% will make it look pretty!
Again, nice work!
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July 18th, 2008 at 11:29 am
should be like oss handling of sorting the _previews_ and not the favicons (only if not loaded/seen before/rendered and image cached). last used always beside. a simple shortcut for having a look and navigating through mouse would be great. mouse wheel would be cool for keyboardless surfing while eating breakfast….
thx for the review!
PA
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July 21st, 2008 at 12:07 am
Sigh. I don’t have “Page up” or “Page down” on my MacBook and HATE (sorry) the new behavior. It just doesn’t make sense - why have thumbnails when just flipping through tabs is easier, quicker, and shows the page in full size…
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July 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 am
Wow, just like Opera with ’show thumbnails in tab cycle’ enabled (prefs - tabs).
Wonder where you got the idea.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
From just about any operating system?
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July 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
So don’t give Opera credit for this…this feature actually came from AOL *gasp* in AOL Explorer. They called it “Tag Explorer” (here is a link in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Explorer). Opera 9 copied this many months after AOL Explorer shipped.
Not a feature I would use everyday, but it is a good ‘demo’ feature to show off something cool in a new version.
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July 29th, 2008 at 2:13 am
It’s a good change like opera
But its load slowly… :)
cheer up…!!!!!!!!!!
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August 1st, 2008 at 11:59 am
AARGH! What a complete waste of time and effort. This graphical tab switching is just more bloat on a ship that needs to be rehauled. How about working on a real issue, like reducing the massive amount of RAM this pig of an app consumes. And even more importantly, FIX ALL THE DAMN BUGS!!! For example: Firefox refuses to save some pages, when it that going to get fixed?
Plus, going beyond FF but still staying on the bloated pig theme, the FF addons website needs to die. 1st, it’s piss slow, the java code makes it 10X to 20X slower than when I disable java. I would use it without java, but then some critical things don’t work. 2nd, I have to login to download and extension? Are you f-ing high? Thanks big brother for your nazi-esque clenched-buttocks freakoid authoritarian control, but you dirtbags are just getting a bunch of email addresses that go to disposable accounts. Which bring me to my final point: FF has just become a tool for profiting clandestinely off its users, like forcing certs through that evil dicksucking parasite verisign. With every new install it takes me 2 hours just to hunt down and turn off all the embedded phone-home tricks. Like microsoft, releasing that POS vista, mozilla looks like it’s head down the same hole.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 am
@asdf
I’ll try to answer some of your incoherent ramblings.
“How about working on a real issue, like reducing the massive amount of RAM this pig of an app consumes.”
How about you don’t install every single add-on and plug-in that asks you to?
“For example: Firefox refuses to save some pages, when it that going to get fixed?”
How the hell are they supposed to know about it if you don’t file a bug report? Oh, and WORKSFORME, as far as I can see.
“1st, it’s piss slow, the java code makes it 10X to 20X slower than when I disable java. I would use it without java, but then some critical things don’t work.”
Works perfectly fine without JavaScript here (Java and JavaScript are two completely different things). As I said before “don’t install every single add-on and plug-in that asks you to”
“2nd, I have to login to download and extension?”
Only if they are experimental.
“Are you f-ing high?”
Are you?
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September 17th, 2008 at 7:24 am
To disable this feature, or change the focus from most recent to tab-order, browse on over to about:config then simply type “ctrlTab” in the filtering text field. Two options should pop right up:
browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed
browser.ctrlTab.smoothScroll
Set the first to false to use the tab-order. Set the second to false to disable the feature completely. Restart!
Voila!!
Cheers
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October 1st, 2008 at 2:07 am
Well thanks for this article but Can someone help me to find out the solution of this problem as I wanna add Tab Effect in my mozzila for 3. higher verson
If you have solution please let me know
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