Stop Firefox opening links in new window

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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Mr David
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Stop Firefox opening links in new window

Post by Mr David »

Hello All,


How do you stop FF from opening external links (I think that is what they are called) from opening in an external window but make them appear in a new tab instead? I have tried installing Tab Browser Preferences but cannot seem to make it work.

Clues or tips, anyone?


Cheers,

David.
Derwhiff
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Joined: February 26th, 2004, 3:29 pm

Post by Derwhiff »

Were you able to get TBP installed? Go to <b>Tools > Options > Extensions</b>, and see if it shows up in the list. If it's there, select it, click <b>Options</b>, and select "new tab" for "load external links".
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Mr David
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Post by Mr David »

Thanks for your reply, Derwhiff.

Yes, it is installed and I had followed those steps to set it up. The settings I have selected are as follows:-

Load links in: "Current Browser"
Load External Links in: "New Tab"


Still, it makes no difference to the behaviour of the browser, even after I tried shutting FF down and relaunching it.

What else could I try?


Cheers,

David.
I have learned from my mistakes and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.
Derwhiff
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Post by Derwhiff »

You do have TBP enabled, right?(next to "options" in the extension list) What program(s) are you sending links to FF with?
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Mr David
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Post by Mr David »

Yes, I believe it is enabled.

In the Tools>Options>Extensions window there are four buttons in the lower right. When TBP is highlighted in this window one of them is labelled "Options..." and one to the right of it it labelled "Disable Extension". Clicking on it at this time disables the extension. After shutting down FF and relaunching it the button's label has changed to "Enable", which does the reverse. I have seen this during attempts to bring TBP to life.

Do you need any other info? Unfortunately I can only provide you with system stuff: P4 on XP pro. I downloaded FF last week, but do not know how to access info about its build reference.


Cheers,
David.
I have learned from my mistakes and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.
Derwhiff
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Joined: February 26th, 2004, 3:29 pm

Post by Derwhiff »

Just to be clear, external links are links sent to Firefox from another application. For example, if you click a link in an instant messaging program and the link opens in FF, that's an external link.

Is this what you're talking about? If so, what programs are you using that send links to FF? If not, then what kind of links are you talking about?

As for the build info, either go to <b>help > about</b>, or type <b>about:</b> in the address bar, and you should see a line similar to this:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040404 Firefox/0.8.0+ (djeter)

That line has your OS, the Firefox version, build date, and who built it.
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Mr David
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Post by Mr David »

OK, then I am a little confused on the jargon front. My issue does not relate to links hit from other programs but to those that I sometimes hit on a web page that I am browsing. Usually such links open in the same tab of the same browser window. However, the behaviour that I am trying to stop is when I hit a link and the new page opens in a new browser window rather than a new tab.

Firefox info: Firefox 0.8
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8

I hope this is clear now, and relevant to the actions of TBP.

Cheers,
David.
I have learned from my mistakes and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.
Derwhiff
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Joined: February 26th, 2004, 3:29 pm

Post by Derwhiff »

Try setting both options in TBP to "new tab", and see if that helps.
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Mr David
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Post by Mr David »

Yep, copy that! Seems acting the way I'd like it to now.

Thanks for another successful resolution of a problem.


Cheers,
David.
I have learned from my mistakes and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.
Skarkon
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Post by Skarkon »

At first I also had that same problem using TBP and when I set both options to "new tab" it worked. It is not exactly intuitive, if you ask me, but it works...
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eddi
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Post by eddi »

what is the TBP?
and where do i get it?
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Mr David
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Post by Mr David »

Tabbed Browser Preferences extension; available in the Extension Room . . .
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/

A small warning: don't go to town and pick a big bunch of the extensions and install them all. These threads are full of submissions from people who have had problems with various extensions conflicting and making Firefox crash. At this stage it would also appear wise to stear clear of skins. Firefox 0.8 is in beta release, afterall, and its best not to push it to the limit.

Cheers,
David.
soydog
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Joined: February 12th, 2004, 7:06 am

Post by soydog »

Tabbrowser Preferences extension messes up my Firefox. I'm using the April 6th Mac OS X nightly with the following extensions: Tab X, Toolbar Enhancements, QuickNote
SimmonsJ2K
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Post by SimmonsJ2K »

define 'messes up'

it's more likely you'll get help if you actually say what's wrong.
soydog
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Post by soydog »

"Messes up" = After installing 0.5 (which installed into the application instead of profile without giving the option), I opened up the browser and attempted to open a new tab. The browser went to a blank screen and the tabs disappeard form the tab bar except showing the close tab button. The browser would not respond from that point on. Manually uninstalling Tabbrowser Preferences still didn't seem to bring it back to normal and I had to replace the Firefox.app with a new nightly copy for it to work again.

Since then, I have attempted to create a new profile without success. I thought if I could try installing it into a new profile, I could narrow the problem down but alas, Firefox continues to be a Windows/Linux-centric development process and OS X users are knee-deep in preventable Mac-only bugs that doesn't get much attention.

Any help would be much appreciated.
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