Because it's missing the things I use!

There is a big hubbub regarding Firefox. It's mainly three items I use all the time in Safari. Those things are:

• opening a set of tabs with a click
• switching between open tabs via the keyboard - Fixed (Control-Tab and Control-Shift-Tab work!)
• opening a link in a new window behind the existing one
• adding a link to an existing set of tabs in my hotbar

OK, that's four. Sorry. I also left out an easy way to synchronize bookmarks between other computers and Safari, but I'm sure someone else is ranting about that.

Before I go over these individually, I want to tell you a bit about the specific way that I'm using my tab sets. I have a couple of different tab sets that I use. Some of them are daily clicks, others are less frequent. You can see them in the graphics below. The "Apple" item isn't a tab set, but a regular pull down menu with a bunch of individual Apple links. So, if I want to read my daily comics, I open browser window and with one click (in Safari) I open a set of tabs which start merrily opening comics from around the web for me to read. (I stopped subscribing to a newspaper when we moved to Bonny Doon, so this is my morning break.) Similarly, if I want to catch up on the latest Macintosh news, I open my Mac set and away we go. Once the tab set opens, I read through the pages. While reading I can open other links and tune the tab set. As I read the various pages, I typically close that tab and move on to the next one. Eventually, I get to the last tab and the session is over.

So, by way of example, it often goes something like this (in Safari): Click on the "Blogs" set, start looking at the pages. I get to BoingBoing and I see an article about StarWars Episode 3. Instead of clicking on the link and over writing the current page, I can command-click on it to open it in another tab or I can command-option-click on it to open it in another window behind the existing set. The general criterion I have for this is that if the link is to another web site about StarWars, then I'll open it in a new tab (it's not urgent, just more info), if, on the other hand, it is a link directly to the new trailer for Episode 3, then I will open it in a new window behind the current one. That way I can go right to it by using command-backtick (`) and enjoy the content right away.

After let's say that The Red Ferret Journal has a link to a new gadget page that I've never heard of. In that case, I would use command-click to add it to the end of the tab queue. Once I get to the new gadget site, I can check it out. If I judge it kindly I'll probably want to add it to the tab set. This is pretty easy as it just involves dragging the URL for the site to the tab set. If while I'm reading, I com across an article that will take more than a couple of minutes to take in, I will just pass over it and use command-shift-right-arrow to get to the next tab in the series.


Safari's bar


Firefox's bar



Opening a set of tabs with a click
Yes, I can right click on the set of bookmarks in my bookmark bar and select "Open in Tabs", but that's not the same as Safari's Auto-Tab ability. I want to be able to open a browser window, click on a tab set and then get on with what I was doing while the pages in the tab set open (it takes a minute or two even on a fast network).

Switching between open tabs via the keyboard
Not only can I not find a key combo to switch between open tabs, if you happen to have more tabs open than will fit, I don't see a way to get to the remaining tabs. This compounds the next problem. I have a tab set that I use nearly everyday. It's a list of blogs that I read and many of them have links to other pages that I want to read. So, I can command-click on the link and have that page added to the current tab set. In Safari, I can use shift-command-arrow (right or left) to navigate between open tabs. This really helps when I find a blog entry that I want to read, but only after I scan through the various other pages.

A good example of this is John Gruber's Daring Fireball. John doesn't always have a new article when I visit his page. When he does, I often want to take the time to read the article, so I skip to the next tab to save it for later. So, command-shift-right-arrow and I'm off to the next tab. When I get through the tabs. Daring Fireball is still active and I can take the time to read what John has to say.

Opening a link in a new window behind the existing one
Again, I can't find a way to do this the way I can in Safari. This comes up for me when I find a link that is an "interrupt". It could be a news item, or a link to a page that I want to check on right away without losing my current place. In Safari, I can use command-option-click and the link opens in a new page behind the current browser. Then I can command-backtick to get right to it. In Firefox, I have to right-click on the link and then I ca choose to open the link in a new window, but only *in front* of my current one.

Adding a link to an existing set of tabs in my hotbar
This one I just found out about. These tab sets I have are flexible critters. The list of comics, resources or blogs I look at changes with the net and my interests. If I find a new mac blogger of interest I may want to add their page to my tab set. In Safari I can simply drag their page link (via the little icon to the left of their URL) from the URL space to the tab set and drop it. That doesn't work in Firefox. In order to add a new link to a tab set in Firefox, I have to right click on the tab set, select "Manage Folder" and then drag the URL to the window that subsequently opens. Then I have to close that window to get back to the action.

Anyway, please let me know if I just haven't found the ways to do these things in Firefox. I do like the in page Find feature and the ability to use more than just Google for web searches (although it would be nice to have command-option-F work to get to that...)