In part two of my series on computing efficiently, I want to consider the topic of tabbed browsing which is having different pages opened in one browser which show up at tabs just above the page you are viewing like this.

Once a long long time ago there was a dinosaur that roamed the earth, it was called Microsoft Internet Explorer. Back in these days, there were two ways for a new link (the most common form of navigation on the internet) to open. Some links would open in the window you are viewing which would destroy whatever you were looking at, or you could open it in a new window which would annoyingly pop over the current window and show up at the bottom of the screen in horribly untamed, non-sortable tiles with completely worthless names like “Windows Internet Exp…”

Then, one day in November of 2004 along came progress… If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know that this was the release of the Mozilla Firefox browser of which we here at the TatStore blog are very fond.

Anyways, what you might not know or remember is that back then, in addition to it’s speed which can be hard to identify as an average user, it had a GLORIOUS tabbed interface. With tabs we could now browse several sources simultaneously. And what was more, Firefox could actually force links that would annoyingly open in a new window by default to open in a new tab. This was a huge advancement that revolutionized the way we experience the internet which was eventually adopted by nearly all modern graphical browsers including even the oft slow-to-the-party Internet Explorer.

So, I ask you this. Are you, so many years later, getting the most out of this once revolutionary navigational miracle? In my experience, with the people whom I love and help with computer issues the answer is no.

Okay, consider yourself faced with this dilemma. You are reading an incredibly interesting blog post which may also be written by a dashingly handsome young man when you stumble onto a link in his blog which promises to expound on the current thought for those who might be interested like this - funny animal video, but you want to still remain on the main article and still be at the same spot. Most people would just click the link take in that information and then employ their handy dandy back button, but now you are likely on the top of the page and all of your momentum and concentration is gone and you might not enjoy the article like you would have if you could have read it as it was intended, in one unbroken spell. Or, what’s worse, maybe the link provided leads you to one or more other interesting links which you would also like to read, I find this happens frequently when I stumble across articles like this one. Anyways, you get the point.

Now, I have sold you on the usefulness of tabs, but how do you use blogs if you have never before. First you have to have a tabbing capable browser which shouldn’t be a problem seeing as how according to Google Analytics as of this morning 7 out of every 8 visits to this site comes from a tab-friendly browser, chances are you’re fine. Second, you just have to do it. Either open a new tab which can be done in most browsers by going to file > new tab, pressing Ctrl T, pressing the “new tab button in the navigational toolbar, and input the new url which you wish to reach, or if you are following a link, simply right click it and select the open in new tab option.

With only a little effort on your part this will become second nature to you, and you won’t know how you lived without it.

There are many tabbing related extensions for advanced (and not-so advanced users) one such easy to use extension for opening in new tabs which allows you to simply click and drag a link to open it in a new link is called Easy DragToGo and you can read about it here. I prefer the added customizability of Firegestures which allows me to have several commands operated by mouse glyphs drawn while holding a right click.