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open links from sidebar in new tab with ctrl without switching to it immediately

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 301 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

ibrahimasif1234
ibrahimasif1234
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When you open a link from the sidebar while holding ctrl, firefox opens it in a new tab and switches to it immediately; whereas when you click a link from a webpage with ctrl, it does not switch to the new tab (unless you hold shift as well, or check "When you open a link, image or media in a new tab, switch to it immediately" in settings > general > tabs). I would like if firefox does not automatically switch to opened links from the sidebar (history, bookmark, etc.), when I open them with ctrl? (I know I can hold shift to do that, but I was wondering if there might be a preference in about:config to change the reverse this behaviour for sidebars)


Thanks, Ibr.

When you open a link from the sidebar while holding ctrl, firefox opens it in a new tab and switches to it immediately; whereas when you click a link from a webpage with ctrl, it does not switch to the new tab (unless you hold shift as well, or check "When you open a link, image or media in a new tab, switch to it immediately" in settings > general > tabs). I would like if firefox does not automatically switch to opened links from the sidebar (history, bookmark, etc.), when I open them with ctrl? (I know I can hold shift to do that, but I was wondering if there might be a preference in about:config to change the reverse this behaviour for sidebars) Thanks, Ibr.

Chosen solution

For bookmarks you can change browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground to true. There is no such setting for history but you can drag and drop links into the tab bar.

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All Replies (4)

zeroknight
zeroknight
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Chosen Solution

For bookmarks you can change browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground to true. There is no such setting for history but you can drag and drop links into the tab bar.

ibrahimasif1234
ibrahimasif1234 Question owner
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I have set browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground to true, but it seems to work for the history sidebar too (not for sync tabs). Are you sure this only works for bookmark sidebar? By the way, I am using Firefox Developer Edition.

zeroknight
zeroknight
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I was getting confused with browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInTabs which is limited to bookmarks like its name implies.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This could also be about browser.tabs.loadInBackground for normal links whereas browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground is about tabs.

You can toggle the default action for opening a link in the background by holding down the Shift key when you use Ctrl plus left-click or middle-click a link.

  • browser.tabs.loadInBackground (normal links)
  • browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground (javascript)
  • browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground (bookmarks)
  • browser.search.context.loadInBackground (context menu: Search)