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How do I ensure that Firefox will ALWAYS open a new tab instead of a new window?

  • 9 replies
  • 36 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by roscomouse

My prefs are set to “open new windows in a new tab instead” of a new window but exporting a page from another application always opens the page in a new window instead of a new tab. This is particularly unproductive when building and comparing multiple web pages.

My prefs are set to “open new windows in a new tab instead” of a new window but exporting a page from another application always opens the page in a new window instead of a new tab. This is particularly unproductive when building and comparing multiple web pages.

All Replies (9)

Thank you, but I had read this article prior to posting my question and do not really understand this “Note: If you have chosen to open pages in new tabs, Firefox will ignore this optionpreference and will open a new window from a link if the page author specified that the new window should have a specific size, because some pages can only be displayed correctly at a specific size” may be the culprit. Does this mean that, because I limit my page widths in my authoring tool to prevent lines of type from becoming impossibly wide to read, that I cannot force Firefox to open the page in a tab? If that is true, that raises another question: Since updating to Firefox 3.6.8, Firefox no longer opens its window to fill my screen as I wish, but opens at full screen and then instantly shrinks itself to a much smaller size. Is there anything that I can do to stop Firefox from reducing its window size?

You might want to post your question on the Web Development / Standards Evangelism forum.

Modified by Helper7677

Good advice, but that Web Development forum is way over my head. They talk in code and I learned computer programming with punch cards on a mainframe back when pterodactyls were still flying about. Time for me to develop some intestinal fortitude or hope that someone here comes to my rescue in the vernacular! But your advice is good, so thank you very much Helper7677.

Speaking of good advice, Note to Silkphoenix: As an advertising maven who knows the importance of an evocative moniker for purposes of recall, Silkphoenix is one helluva a great name! If you are or plan to be in any kind of retail business, you ought to trademark it and grab the domain now, while they're both still available. It would be a shame to see domain squatters steal it from you as they have from far too many others.

Until someone else has a solution, you might try this workaround:

1. Minimize the new window that's opened 2. Drag the tab to your original window, position it next to the desired tab position.

You can drag a tab from one window to the tab bar of another window to detach that tab as a workaround.

Are you opening the links from an external application to open in Firefox ?

See also

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Command_Line_Options

Thank you, roscomouse, for your suggestion. I do have my own business but "Silkphoenix" doesn't really fit what the business is for. But I might just go ahead and purchase the domain name, just in case.

Thank you again Silkphoenix and cor-el for a fast and simple workaround. I was in full vertigo mode on the developers page, and couldn't find anything that I could figure out how to adapt on the command line page, so “tab tag” will do nicely until something else comes along.

You are very welcome, Silkphoenix, but don't be so sure that a name has to have anything at all to do with the nature of a business. I made a nice living as a B2B ad agency for huge concrete producers and military contractors while doing business as “Churchmouse”. I foolishly changed my d/b/a after the emcee choked on the name when I was about to address a marketing group of 25 $50M businesses in Toronto--completely forgetting that I already had the account! All worked out well with the new, more professionally evocative name, but I wish that I had kept the old name too. So go get yours now! But also be aware that someone who trademarks and uses the name after you can possibly take your domain away from you through an agency called WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) in Switzerland. I'm not an attorney, so this is just business advice: WIPO is a good organization that provides a much needed and very valuable service, but it can sometimes hurt, so USE the name that you buy as a domain...

Cor-el, I forgot to answer your question: I am not really opening a link but rather sending “preview” pages to Firefox from the authoring application which, in this case, is Quark XPress.