How in the Tech

One Step Firefox Tab Duplication

By Adam Myers ⋅ February 23, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Firefox

Tabbed browsing has changed the way we all consume Internet content and facilitates our ADHD deficiencies. It doesn’t take long into my browser session before I have 7 tabs across the top of my Firefox window. By now you are likely aware that clicking on a link with the middle mouse button – usually your scroll wheel – will open that link in a new tab within the same Firefox session. But what if you wanted to open a copy of the current tab, into a new tab? If you are a keyboard junky here are the series of steps to accomplish this:

1. CTRL+L to select the address bar.
2. CTRL+C to copy the current address in the now selected address bar.
3. CTRL+T to open a new tab to a blank window.
4. CTRL+V to paste the copied address from Step 2.
5. ENTER to load the address.

Complicated? Yeah, just a bit! Were you aware that you can accomplish the same thing in a fraction of the effort using the mouse and the Firefox interface? This is one of the few times that the keyboard shortcut method fails the efficiency test.

1. While holding CTRL, click and hold the left mouse button on an existing tab. Drag and drop the now translucent new tab into a new location on the tab bar.



2. Release the mouse button and the selected tab should now be dropped into the new location.