In Firefox you can middle-click a link to force opening this link in a new tab. You can hold down the Shift key in addition to toggle the open in background setting (switch to it immediately) as set in "Settings -> General -> Tabs". With a left-click you need to hold the Ctrl key and possibly the Shift key.

In Firefox you can middle-click a link to force opening this link in a new tab. You can hold down the Shift key in addition to toggle the open in background setting (switch to it immediately) as set in "Settings -> General -> Tabs". With a left-click you need to hold the Ctrl key and possibly the Shift key.

In Edge/Chrome this works without any modifiers

Left click - open and switch Middle click - open in background

I don't want to have to reach for my keyboard all the time!

Play with this setting. see screenshot Left click - open in background Middle click - open in background

I found this. https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/xbpzau/when_i_open_a_new_tab_it_switches_to_the_tab/

Play with this setting. see screenshot Left click - open in background Middle click - open in background I found this. https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/xbpzau/when_i_open_a_new_tab_it_switches_to_the_tab/

I already have that enabled - this works great for JavaScript links such as used on Twitter

However, it does not solve the issue I posted about - I only want middle click to open in background, I want left click to not open in background. Firefox seems to only have a single setting which controls both left and middle

You want this right? Left click - open and switch Middle click - open in background

With this browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground set to false. I get left click opens new tab and it switches to the new tab.

With this browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground set to false. I get left click opens new tab and it switches to the new tab.

Ah, ok, yes, this does provide the required functionality for normal links.

However, this now makes middle click on JavaScript links focus the new tab

For example, middle clicking on a Tweet or a Trending entry on Twitter (both handled by JS) now switch to the new tab - I had specifically enabled loadDivertedInBackground to force those into background.

I now need to CTRL+Click to get them to open in background.

I'm hoping there's an option combination which covers all situations - I really don't want to have to reach for my keyboard all the time

.....

On Firefox twitter page, if i middle click a link I do see that it opens and switches to the tab, but on this forum page for example, if I middle click on one of the "See also" post on the right, it opens a new tab, but in the background.

I'm hoping there's an option combination which covers all situations - I really don't want to have to reach for my keyboard all the time

All sites are not designed the same. You will have to make a choice. Good Luck.

Yep, Twitter makes a whole Tweet a clickable link via JavaScript,

see the highlighted parts in the first screenshot

The Trending section is the same.

If you hover over them there is no link shown in the bottom left tooltip -

These are affected by the loadDivertedInBackground setting - if its on they load in background, off they load in foreground.

My use case is that I scroll through multiple sources - Email (normal links), Feedly (normal links), Twitter (JavaSctript/"diverted" links) - and will either left click if I want to look at something immediately, or middle click if I want to "collect" it to read later, opening in a background tab

Edge/Chrome behavior is to treat left and middle clicks entirely separately - left open now, middle open in background

Firefox seems to treat them the same and there is no way to have split behavior, the only solution being right click and/or key+click

doowruc said

I'm hoping there's an option combination which covers all situations - I really don't want to have to reach for my keyboard all the time

All sites are not designed the same. You will have to make a choice. Good Luck.

And yet it "just works" in Edge & Chrome by treating the left & middle clicks entirely separately

This is entirely down to how mouse clicks are implemented in Firefox

So yeah, my choice is to not use Firefox!