Does it help if you set the Boolean pref browser.search.openintab to true on the about:config page?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Thanks for the reply. If I knew what that meant, I'd be glad to try.

about:config is an interface for changing Firefox preferences. To start it up, type or paste about:config in the location bar and press Enter. If you get a button asking you to promise to be careful, click it, and please be careful.

In the filter box, type openin and pause while Firefox filters the list so you can quickly find the preference cor-el mentioned.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access the about:config page.

• Use the Filter bar at the top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.

• Preferences that have been modified show as bold (user set).
• Preferences can be reset to the default via the right-click context menu if they are user set
• Preferences can be changed via the right-click context menu: Modify (String or Integer) or Toggle (Boolean) or by double-clicking the line with the pref

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

That worked! Thanks very much to all.