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Open all in tabs behavior

  • 5 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 16 views
  • Last reply by Helper7677

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I have a folder in bookmarks which has 6 bookmarks within it. When I right click on folder and select "Open all in tabs", all of the currently open tabs are closed before opening the bookmarks.

Why does the "Open all in tabs" close existing tabs? That is unexpected (and annoying) bahavior. Google Chrome does not do this. It opens all in NEW tabs, keeps existing open.

I have a folder in bookmarks which has 6 bookmarks within it. When I right click on folder and select "Open all in tabs", all of the currently open tabs are closed before opening the bookmarks. Why does the "Open all in tabs" close existing tabs? That is unexpected (and annoying) bahavior. Google Chrome does not do this. It opens all in NEW tabs, keeps existing open.

All Replies (5)

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Middle-click (press the scroll wheel) or Ctrl+left click on the folder to open all of the links within the folder in new tabs. See: http://www.7is7.com/software/firefox/shortcuts.html


You have plugins with known security issues; you should update them.

  • Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.0
  • Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_15 for Mozilla browsers
  1. Check your plugin versions: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
    • Note: plugin check page does not have information on all plugin versions
  2. Update Shockwave for Director
    • NOTE: this is not the same as Shockwave Flash; this installs the Shockwave Player.
    • Use Firefox to download and SAVE the installer to your hard drive from the link in the article below (Desktop is a good place so you can find it).
    • When the download is complete, exit Firefox (File > Exit)
    • locate and double-click in the installer you just downloaded, let the install complete.
    • Restart Firefox and check your plugins again.
    • Download link and more information: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Using+the+Shockwave+plugin+with+Firefox
  3. Update Java:

Modified by Helper7677

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This is a horrifically bad UI design choice. Nothing the user has done or is doing implies that they are done with the tabs that they already have open.

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> Middle-click (press the scroll wheel) or Ctrl+left click > on the folder to open all of the links within the folder in new tabs.

If those are valid existing options in the browser, how come they don't appear in the dropdown menu along side "open all in tabs"? Why doesn't the "open all in tabs" clearly indicate that it's about to blow away all my existing tabs?

Nothing in the UI option implies that it is going to close existing tabs. Nothing in the UI implies there is a way to *not* close existing tabs. And I'd strongly argue that the default method should be to not close existing tabs, a destructive action that the user is not going to expect.

Expecting all users to learn and/or know about keyboard shortcuts is not a reasonable response to this problem. The only people that are going to learn about those shortcuts, are people who encounter this problem, google the problem, and find your post here!

ps: for other users reading this, there are plugins that fix this problem and change the default behaviour to the expected one. But as far as I'm concerned, that merely proves that it was a bad UI choice -- and only power users know about and use plugins, so it's not an acceptable "answer" either.

(Please pardon the double post -- but I didn't even see your reply because of the massive amount of whitespace separating the problem and your reply. The column of additional system details is forcing your text to be way way below in an unexpected place.)

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Nuts, I couldn't find an option in Tab Mix Plus -- but there is an about:config setting that changes the behaviour to what you'd expect, set browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace to false.

Mother of god, they've known about this problem since 2004:

http://blog.codefront.net/2004/09/30/another-call-to-fix-open-in-tabs-in-firefox/

And from what I read half the developers *like* the current behaviour and think there's a good reason for it? All the arguing has been about a "warning dialog" but that gets into a quagmire of other usability issues? Or rather there is another quagmire elsewhere regarding more advanced tab opening mechanisms and so they won't touch this while they are considinering changing everything ... or something...

Why don't they simply don't have TWO context menu options:

- Open All in New Tabs
- Open All in Tabs (close existing)
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craigwt

In TMP, Events > Tab Opening > Open tabs from, check "Groups of bookmarks"