Is it possible to always show the tabs list menu button in Firefox?
Is it possible to always show the tabs list menu button in Firefox?
When a window has only a few tabs open, the menu button for the list of tabs, which appears at the right hand end of the tab bar, is not shown. This menu button only seems to appear once you have more than around 15 tabs open in the window.
However, before you reach that number of open tabs, the individual tabs become quite narrow and it is still easier and quicker to choose a tab from the menu than by hovering over the narrow tab titles.
Is there an about:config setting or extension that will make this tab list menu button stay visible at all times?
Chosen solution
Hi dmoz1, which platform is your question about? Your post is under the Android forum, the forum detected posting from Firefox on an Apple iOS device, and the question sounds like it is directed toward a "desktop" version of Firefox (Windows, Mac, Linux).
On desktop:
Normally the button appears at the same time as the scroll buttons, i.e., when the tabs "overflow" the bar.
Minimum Tab Width: One option to consider is to prevent the tabs from getting so narrow before overflow. This also would make the titles easier to read and the buttons easier to hit. There is a built-in setting you can modify for this:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste tabmin and pause while the list is filtered.
(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth preference to make the default value of 76 editable and change it to a higher value (I'm using 100, which was the value from older versions). Click the blue checkmark or press Enter to save the edit.
Override the Hiding: You can use a rule in an optional userChrome.css file can override the hiding behavior and make the button visible always. Not sure if you want to dive into that if the behavior is going to change in Firefox 73 anyway.
/* Always Show "List All Tabs" button */
#alltabs-button {
visibility: visible !important;
}
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Well, you could set a preference browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled = true, then restart the browser.
But I'm not sure, if it already works in your version.
Thank you very much. I have searched for this config option and it appears that it is implemented in Firefox 73.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap/Updates#2020-01-06
As we have the ESR release installed, I guess I’ll have to wait for the next major ESR release for that to trickle down to us.
Chosen Solution
Hi dmoz1, which platform is your question about? Your post is under the Android forum, the forum detected posting from Firefox on an Apple iOS device, and the question sounds like it is directed toward a "desktop" version of Firefox (Windows, Mac, Linux).
On desktop:
Normally the button appears at the same time as the scroll buttons, i.e., when the tabs "overflow" the bar.
Minimum Tab Width: One option to consider is to prevent the tabs from getting so narrow before overflow. This also would make the titles easier to read and the buttons easier to hit. There is a built-in setting you can modify for this:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste tabmin and pause while the list is filtered.
(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth preference to make the default value of 76 editable and change it to a higher value (I'm using 100, which was the value from older versions). Click the blue checkmark or press Enter to save the edit.
Override the Hiding: You can use a rule in an optional userChrome.css file can override the hiding behavior and make the button visible always. Not sure if you want to dive into that if the behavior is going to change in Firefox 73 anyway.
/* Always Show "List All Tabs" button */
#alltabs-button {
visibility: visible !important;
}
Thanks for the “width” suggestion, that sounds like it will be a useful work around, achieving roughly the same usability result.
(Yes, I’m asking about the desktop version of Firefox, but I don’t use my Firefox account with my work computer as I don’t want work and personal things to overlap, so I posted from Firefox on my iPhone instead. I wasn’t given any choice about where to post the question (I didn’t see anything about separate forums when posting), so I have no idea how my question ended up in an Android subforum!)
Ah, I see what must have happened now: when you go to “Ask a question” on mobile, the next page shows a large block at the top entitled with the single word “Products”, which has “Firefox for Android” highlighted, but not very prominently, by default.
I had ignored this section as I thought it was a navigation section with links to the actual product info/download pages, rather than where you should choose a forum. Possibly rather poor UI, and should be retitled “Select the forum for the product you are asking about”?
I can’t see any way to move this thread to a more appropriate forum(?), but an admin user is welcome to do so if desired.