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in firefox 4, sites in the tab bar are all crammed together, don't like that, makes them hard to see, so have gone back to v3.6.16 where they can be scrolled. please can you allow that in v4?

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  • Last reply by saorsa

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When I used Firfox 3.6.16, I made extensive use of the tab bar to hold my most used sites. At any one time, it showed 9 sites on screen but with arrows at each end, it allowed me to scroll left and right to access any other active site I might have. This was perfect ... nothing was crowded and all were easily seen. Then I updated to Firefox 4 ... big mistake! Now the tab bar is unable to scroll resulting in my tab bar becoming very crowded ... now I can't read the names on the tabs clearly. Is there a way that I can get the scrolling arrowheads back again please? Until then, I have returned to Firefox 3.6.16. Hope to hear from you very soon. Thanks.

When I used Firfox 3.6.16, I made extensive use of the tab bar to hold my most used sites. At any one time, it showed 9 sites on screen but with arrows at each end, it allowed me to scroll left and right to access any other active site I might have. This was perfect ... nothing was crowded and all were easily seen. Then I updated to Firefox 4 ... big mistake! Now the tab bar is unable to scroll resulting in my tab bar becoming very crowded ... now I can't read the names on the tabs clearly. Is there a way that I can get the scrolling arrowheads back again please? Until then, I have returned to Firefox 3.6.16. Hope to hear from you very soon. Thanks.

All Replies (8)

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Have a look at these add-ons which you can also try out in 3.6.16

New Tab King

Customize Tab width

Faviconize Tabs This latter add-on relies on you recognizing favicons.

Firefox has its own tab manager called Tab Groups. Did you look at that? See Use Tab Groups to organize a lot of tabs

And then there are App Tabs. See Pinned Tabs - keep favorite websites open and just a click away

You can also move tabs from the default position at the top back to the previous style. See How to make the new Firefox look like the old Firefox

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no ... your suggestion didn't help. my problem is that the tabs bar doesn't scroll after i installed ff4. in ff3, there was never a problem. i do not want to be able not to install the various ff updates but for the time being, i have reverted back to ff3.6.16 so that i am able to scroll the tab bar. i don't want to alter its size or set up groups or anything like that ... i just want to be able to scroll it and as soon as i can find out how to do this, i will update to ff4 again. right now, i have 25 active sites on the tab bar with only 9 of those visible on screen at any one time and when i need to access any that are offscreen, i scroll by using either the left or right arrowhead on the tab bar. this is as clear as i can explain it. if ff4 is unable to have this feature, if it's not in the code, i'm not impressed. why should this be?

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Please provide a screenshot of what you are seeing, so we can see that problem, too. https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Adding+screenshots

Works pretty much the same in 4.0 as it does in 3.6.16 for me on WinXP with the default theme in both; open the 10th tab and scrolling arrows appear on the left and right side of the Tab strip. The difference I see between 3.6 and 4.0 is the "arrows" look different, 3.6 has an arrowhead (triangle on its' side) on a "button", where 4.0 uses > and < "characters" and the button appearance doesn't show until the cursor is over the "arrow".

Check it in the SafeMode to eliminate add-ons as causing your problem.
You can open the Firefox 4.0 SafeMode by holding the Shft key when you use the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
Or use the Help menu item, click on Restart with Add-ons Disabled... while Firefox is running.
To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before using the Firefox shortcut to open it again.

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Did you try Tab Mix Plus:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus/

It has an option to scroll to other tabs by either arrow on either side of the tab strip. After you install it, go to Options > Display > Tab Bar >

and there's an option for: Scrollable with buttons on left and right sides

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The tab bar in Firefox 4 should show scroll buttons by default if you open more than fit. If that doesn't happen the you probably have installed an extension or theme that sets a lower max-width to tabs.

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

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many thanks to you all ... i updated to ff4 again and as usual, all my tabbed sites were tightly packed as before with no allowance for scrolling so i went on to the tab-mix-plus site and downloaded the addon ... once all was done, i found that i could now scroll as you mentioned ... brilliant ... but ... one---slight---problem !! the 'tab-mix-plus' is shown as 'default' with 'walnut for firefox', which i've been using for ages, as an alternative. i activated 'walnut' which caused the now-scrolling tab bar not to scroll so i then went back to 'tab-mix-plus'. perhaps i'm being fussy but i really do feel walnut seems to present a 'warmer' window. is there any way i can have both ... in other words, have the scrolling and walnut back again?

Modified by saorsa

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I am glad 'Tab Mix Plus" worked for you. As far as the compatibility issue between Tab Mix Plus and Walnut Theme is concerned. You'd have to ask the developer of Walnut Theme the question to see if he has any workaround.

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ah ... okay .... that makes sense ... lol ... will do ... many thanks for that ... take care ... michael.