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Context menu - why "open in new window" is second and "open in new tab" is the first? In FF3.x there is reversed.

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  • 1035 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Mayank_id

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In FF 3.x two commands: "open in window" and "open in new tab" have got just this order. But - I don't know why - in FF 4.x the order is reversed. Every time when I click right button of my mouse and select the second option - where in FF 3.x I've got "open in new tab" I can see web site in a new window, not in a new tab.

How can I change it? I tried editor menu and I edited userchrome.css, but it's not working or I don't know how to change it. Without it I must uninstall FF 4.x because it's unusable.

In FF 3.x two commands: "open in window" and "open in new tab" have got just this order. But - I don't know why - in FF 4.x the order is reversed. Every time when I click right button of my mouse and select the second option - where in FF 3.x I've got "open in new tab" I can see web site in a new window, not in a new tab. How can I change it? I tried editor menu and I edited userchrome.css, but it's not working or I don't know how to change it. Without it I must uninstall FF 4.x because it's unusable.

All Replies (20)

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That was an intentional change to promote the use of tabbed browsing.

The version of the Menu Editor extension of the Mozilla add-ons site is not compatible with Firefox 4, but the developer has made a version that works on Firefox 4 that can be used to re-arrange menu items, available from http://menueditor.mozdev.org

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I know just this type of explanation - this type of explanation is given by Microsoft in theirs software - They force me to use new type of interfaces just like ribbons that I hate.

Maybe Firefox should promote the use of right mouse button rather than left mouse button? Or black and white interface? There are too many colors.

Ok, I'll try to use menueditor from your link - if it will work then I will use FF4 beta. If in final version this type of configuration (reversed order) will be present then... I will not use FF4 - I'll stay with FF3 and other type of browsers.

Now, when I try to open new websites I always click "open in new window". And in every case I curse.

I hate ribbons, I hate "open in new tab" too. I use Polish version of FF3/4.

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I agree with micra, that is the stupid thing that forces some people to use WinXP or MSOffice with later versions than 2007. Of course one day these things come to be standards, but we are here to change the standards, no? I don´t think that is a good idea make people change their habits, everybody that use new tab by the pop-menu don´t read the text, just click it. It's like to install something in chinese, you don´t need to read.. you know that buttons are next, next and finish...lol.

Modified by rato.alado

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This code in userChrome.css will move "Open Link in New Window" to the top of the context menu.

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */
#contentAreaContextMenu > * { -moz-box-ordinal-group: 2; }
#context-openlink { -moz-box-ordinal-group: 1 !important; }

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I must say, it is, for me, a very bad choice by the developers to change the order, it makes firefox a pop-up generator, as each time I try to open a new tab I create a new window instead. This is a step backwards.

This will cause me to change browser if I need to switch of ff3.x

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Menu Editor 1.2.7 works for me in firefox 4. It's a great add on.I just don't use two thirds of the stuff in the context tools and view menus. You can have just what you want in any order you want.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/menu-editor/

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This indeed is annoying as hell. Normally I right-click-move-left-click blindly to open the link in a new tab. Now every time I try to open a link in a new tab I open a whole new window. Just to give an example to the extent of the problem, in the last 5 minutes I had to manually close an unwanted new window, then search again for the link I wanted to open in a new tab, watch the context menu to form and consciously click the correct option over 30 times. Yes, in a normal browsing session I can open new content that often and, yes my brain is that much used in automating this user interaction pattern as efficiently as possible. The only thing I want to know now if there is any likely possibility this will be reversed to the old situation. Because if it is, I don't want to go through an extensive learning curve twice for which is arguably the most used user interaction pattern in the firefox web browser.

The menu-editor plugin seems to be a nice solution... unless, as me you often use firefox on various computers which may not always be ones who have your personal profile/have the profile loaded of another user (like when instructing/in support situations/etc) and may not contain an installation of Firefox 4 (yet)...

Modified by jiriw

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Sorry to hijack a support thread, but i found the solution posted by cor-el to work perfectly.

Does anyone know how to do the same for the rightclick menu when clicking a bookmark, as these seem to be reversed aswell. Leading to me opened bookmarked links in a new window, rather than a new tab.

Thanks in advance.

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Hello. I packed solution above into a userstyle, and also fixed the order of context menu items for bookmark rightclick. Hope you find it useful.

http://userstyles.org/styles/45564

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This is the first thing I noticed (besides the new look). It is incredibly annoying. Why change something which people are used to? Its how I open practically every link, so to change its order is insane, its like getting a new mobile phone and it takes days to get used to the layout... Except that is understandable!

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I registered just to agree - after ALL these years you change this now??? Kinda messes with my flow, ya know? I vote to put it back, and soon!

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Arrrgh,

It's like trying to use Chrome all over again. Why WHY would anyone change the order AFTER its been like that for a year or more!

It's infuriating, and tied to the slowness and crashes from FF4 it's the reason im going back to 3.

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Sorry, this has the OPPOSITE effect. We all KNOW how to use tabbed browsing, and WANT to open new tabs, but by changing the order, you're making it harder to use that feature. Please put it back.

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The "open in new tab option" has been the second options for years. I click it without looking. Why change that? What good will that do? Nothing. It will just piss off otherwise content users. The same thing with moving the home button. What are you thinking?

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@ cor-el: where do i find the useeChrome.css on an MacOSX system? I can only find userChrome-example.css files. Is it correct that I don't have already this file but that I have to edit the -example.css-file?

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[Solved] Here is a step by step solution for newbies:

  1. Install the Menu Editor add-on from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/menu-editor/ .
  2. After the installation, go to Firefox> add-ons (or simply use Ctrl+Shift+A)
  3. Go to the Menu Editor "Options"
  4. In the "Main context menu," simply grab the "Open link in New Tab" and place it below the "Open Link in New Window"
  5. and Voila! You may also change other menu options if you want to!

Firefox developers should take care when playing with people's habits such as this one, it could make Firefox very annoying!

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I'm another who registered just to say, this was a dumb idea and something that didn't need "fixing." To "promote the use of tabbed browsing", you messed up everyone who was already doing so.

The Menu Editor doesn't change the behavior for right-clicking on bookmarks, so that still leaves two different rules, and requires user attention and a conscious decision every single time one opens a bookmark and/or new tab.

I uninstalled and went back to 3.6.16. I don't need this.

Modified by StClair

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i managed to configure the userchrome.css within macosx, now it works fine. however on my win7 notebook it doesn't help

anyone knows common pitfals here?

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This UI change is really stupid and useless. People got used to some specified menu items order. Changing this order could only annoy and anger.

Also the reload button has been relocated. This is another example of stupid Firefox 4 UI change. The good news is that it could easily be relocated to its original place.

It looks like the Firefox developers are suffering from idleness and boredom.

CHANGE IT BACK ASAP!!!

Modified by pizdetz

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I'm another person signing up just to tell you that this is an amazingly bad idea. I've been using Firefox 4 for less than a week, and I've opened more than a hundred new windows already (each time pausing for a second, and then swearing. I'm editing this post in a new window, not a new tab).

I understand that this is free software, but this change is abusive. And as one user has pointed out, even though we can use add-on software to change this (which I just finally did, after finding myself registering for this site -- in a new window), we can't change it on all the other PCs that we may have to work and test on, which in my case is a considerable number, which for the foreseeable future will be a mix of FF3.6 and FF4.

I clicked the "I have this problem, too" button at the top of the page, but the auto-response is a little disconcerting. It seems to say that you'll use my "click" to help explain the "new way" better, rather than using it as feedback to say, "Oops, we made a mistake on this one; we'd better fix it."

(As of the time I'm writing this, almost 200 people have been able to find this thread and click that button in FF4's first week alone -- and please don't tell us that we should have commented during the beta; we can't all run unstable pre-release software on our systems.)

I'm also curious about something. Don't the developers use the software themselves? It seems to me that this problem (and yes, it is a problem) could never have occurred if they do.

I've noticed recently in Microsoft forums, particularly those for Windows 7, that the Microsoft staff that respond to things like this no longer say, "I'll pass this feedback on to the developers." They now say, unilaterally, "This is the new way," or, "There's no way to do that," or, "It's better this way; get used to it."

Is that who you are now, too?

Modified by sneakrnet

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