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Is there any way to easily find open tabs &/or windows?

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 141 views
  • Last reply by StevenCee

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Why is there no option to see a list of all open tabs (in every window, not just one)? And why is the list of open windows, in the drop-down list not in any order? Why can't they at least be in alphabetical order? These are very simple things that other browsers have been doing for years, why can't Firefox? I waste so much time looking up and down the list of windows, since they're in no order, and then trying to find a particular tab, forget about it, I have go through, window by window, opening them, to hunt down a particular tab. Why isn't this more user friendly?

Why is there no option to see a list of all open tabs (in every window, not just one)? And why is the list of open windows, in the drop-down list not in any order? Why can't they at least be in alphabetical order? These are very simple things that other browsers have been doing for years, why can't Firefox? I waste so much time looking up and down the list of windows, since they're in no order, and then trying to find a particular tab, forget about it, I have go through, window by window, opening them, to hunt down a particular tab. Why isn't this more user friendly?

Chosen solution

Is this about the Mac Windows menu that shows all open windows?

I think that this shows a list of windows in the order there opened.

See also:

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All Replies (6)

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Windows and Tabs are not the same as well as Browser Windows and don't orient themselves in alpha as your asking unless your using some other 3rd party software to do that. How many Windows or Tabs or Browser Windows are you opening? The more you open the more problems you will create and that isn't a Browser or Windows issue but a user issue here.

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Chosen Solution

Is this about the Mac Windows menu that shows all open windows?

I think that this shows a list of windows in the order there opened.

See also:

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Hi StevenCee, as a Windows person, ironically, I don't have a Windows menu. However, if I had to guess, they would be added to the bottom of the list one by one as you open more windows. Then, unfortunately, at the next startup, if you restore your previous session, the order typically changes to something more like "order last accessed." (I haven't tried to get to the bottom of the exact behavior; I seldom have more than 10 windows open and I keep related items in each, so it's not hard to figure out which one I want.)

Currently, to find an open tab, you can use the address bar drop-down's "switch to tab" feature. Type part of the address or page title of an open tab, and it should appear on the drop-down preceded by a tab icon:

Click that item to switch to the desired tab.

A future version of Firefox is going to have a tab search feature built-in to the All Tabs drop-down list. For now, you would need an add-on for that.

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Hi jscher2000, Thanks for the tip about the "switch to tab" feature, never knew about that one!

As for the windows, when I hit the drop-down menu they are in no order, not alphabetical, and not by last visited, either of which, would be a big help. I know Chrome & I believe Opera have an option to show all open tabs & windows, which is a blessing!

Which is why I'm puzzled that none of the sharp-minded developers that work on Firefox haven't done something similar. I already use an add-on to quickly clear cache, as going through the Firefox preferences involves extra steps, and I guess I'll have to check and see if any will show what windows & tabs I have open, thanks.

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cor-el said

Is this about the Mac Windows menu that shows all open windows? I think that this shows a list of windows in the order there opened. See also:

Thank you cor-el, this is exactly what I was looking for!!

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WestEnd said

Windows and Tabs are not the same as well as Browser Windows and don't orient themselves in alpha as your asking unless your using some other 3rd party software to do that. How many Windows or Tabs or Browser Windows are you opening? The more you open the more problems you will create and that isn't a Browser or Windows issue but a user issue here.

The number of open windows or tabs is not the issue here. It's a simple matter of having the list of open windows in either alphabetical order, or in order of being opened, something, to make it less cumbersome and aggravating than having to look up and down the random list of windows.

And yes, I know the difference between tabs & windows. I've been hipped to the add-on that shows all windows and tabs, which is a great help, however, finding open windows, as long as there already is a list of them, via the Window dropdown list, should be a lot easier. How difficult can it be to simply put that list in some sort of order, it's not rocket science...