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Middle click on link prevents auto scroll

  • 9 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Arccosine

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I'm most likely the minority based on search results, but I use auto scroll quite a bit and find it frustrating that middle clicking on a link will prevent auto scroll. Sites with clickable backgrounds for instance, is where this becomes painfully obvious, since you'll get a new tab pop up with whatever was being advertised instead of scrolling the page!

Disabling the middle click for opening new links is fine with me if that solves the problem, since I instead drag links using an add-on for additional control/functionality anyway. I just haven't found a way to do that... only to control whether the tab opens in the foreground or the background.

What I believe would probably work best by default, would be if auto scroll got enabled if the middle mouse button is held and the cursor moves beyond a certain threshold before the button is released, regardless of whether you click on a link or not. If it didn't pass the threshold when the middle button is released it'll open the link in a new tab, providing of course that one is clicked.

If anybody knows of a way to accomplish this via about:config, an add-on or whatever, that would be awesome. Thanks!

I'm most likely the minority based on search results, but I use auto scroll quite a bit and find it frustrating that middle clicking on a link will prevent auto scroll. Sites with clickable backgrounds for instance, is where this becomes painfully obvious, since you'll get a new tab pop up with whatever was being advertised instead of scrolling the page! Disabling the middle click for opening new links is fine with me if that solves the problem, since I instead drag links using an add-on for additional control/functionality anyway. I just haven't found a way to do that... only to control whether the tab opens in the foreground or the background. What I believe would probably work best by default, would be if auto scroll got enabled if the middle mouse button is held and the cursor moves beyond a certain threshold before the button is released, regardless of whether you click on a link or not. If it didn't pass the threshold when the middle button is released it'll open the link in a new tab, providing of course that one is clicked. If anybody knows of a way to accomplish this via about:config, an add-on or whatever, that would be awesome. Thanks!

All Replies (9)

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Hi,

I've heard that this addon does the trick : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabbrowser-preferences

Hope this helps!

Curtis

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Thanks for the suggestion Curtis. It didn't help me in this case, but I appreciate the effort.

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Try setting these to false in about:config: middlemouse.openNewWindow browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick

Worth a try!

Curtis

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Definitely worth a try! No luck though. I even tried with all of my add-ons disabled after noticing some other entries with 'middle' listed, like this one for Screen Grab... extensions.screengrab.buttonClickMiddleGeneral. At least now I know that it's not caused by any of the add-ons that I'm using.

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How about these three?


user_pref("browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick", false);

user_pref("middlemouse.openNewWindow", false);
user_pref("middlemouse.contentLoadURL", false);

Curtis

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Tried multiple combinations of those (including setting all of them to false) with add-ons disabled, but the only noticeable change was that links opened in new windows rather than new tabs.

Thanks again for the help Curtis. Don't worry too much about it though. It's only mildly annoying for me and really after all these years I'm used to it! Just figured that it was about time that I actually asked about it.

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I'll keep looking!

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You would have to disable the middle-click for links.

Maybe Tab Mix Plus can do that.

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I've found (atleast in Ubuntu 13.10) that changing general.autoScroll to true works.