Bring killed tabs back from the dead (Firefox 2.0)
October 25, 2006 by admin
Filed under productivity, tips and tricks, web/tech
Like everyone else, I grabbed the 2.0 release of Firefox yesterday. I won’t regurgitate all the neat stuff about it, but I will point out this one very useful feature: if you accidentally close a tab you can bring it back from the netherworld by hitting Shift+Cmd+T (on a Mac) or Shift+Ctrl+T (on Windows).
This is worth giving up some brains space for remembering. How many times have you closed a tab and then immediately wished you hadn’t? Or 5 minutes later wished you hadn’t? I can’t count the times I’ve done that, but maybe I’m just a special brand of idiot (quite possible). As useful as keystroke commands can be, they’re tough to remember. Maybe writing this post will help me remember… 
Wow, I’ve never heard of that before. Thanks! (I still wish there’d be a menu when you right-click the tab bar, just like in Tab Mix Plus.)
As far as I can tell there is an option in the menu when you right-click on the tab… just like in Tab Mix Plus. Well, it’s there for me anyway.
Why can’t it just be Ctrl + Z? I think to myself, whoops, I’d like to undo closing that tab.
I already use that combination for Terminal in Ubuntu - is there any way to edit the shortcut?
there is a tool in opera (9 - like a recycled bin) that enables one to recover every tab he closed during each session. One click and list appears.
there is a saying of mine, that it was fashionable to use firefox, and after that it became popular to change firefox into opera (by plugins).
There are people that avoided this waste of time.
Could they have chosen a more awkward combination?
It surprises me how often you see these “new” features being announced for Firefox. These are often features that have been available in Opera for years.
For example, it is possible to undo a close tab in Opera by Ctrl-Alt-Z. This has been available since at least Opera 8, and for at least 2-3 years.
Another example is the ability to resume a session where you left off. Opera has also done this for years, plus Opera also gives you the ability to save a session with a unique name, so if, for example, you have been doing some research and have several relevant pages open in your browser, you can save them as a session with a meaningful name instead of having to dig them out from a sea of bookmarks later.
Thanks for that, that is really, really useful. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to go the history toolbar from accidentally closing a tab.
Tab Mix Plus has an RC for its FF2 version available at
http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3515
It still offers a few tweaks that FF2 doesn’t. Not being a keyboard user while browsing, I like using a double-click to reopen the last closed tab.
I wondered how to politely tell you Opera-lovers above to get real. Perhaps I should just point out that I have used every Opera version ever, and I was pleased when Opera took up the tabbed browsing idea I was already boosting, but I have never had Opera as my default browser for more than a week. So it isn’t ignorance, OK?
Wow, before i read this post, i’m really sure that i will not use firefox2 with it’s “each tab closed button” feature, because i’m always accidentaly closed my tabs, just like when i browse with camino, that also has same feature.
btw, thanks for post this!
no camino, no opera, no safari, just firefox!
Pretty sure this was an option in 1.5x, also.
Or maybe it was just one of my extensions?
Either way, a life-saver!
Opera has a much better tab re-opening feature - I never close my web browser until it crashes; thus, the tabs I close accumulate. The little trash-can icon I can click to revive tabs fills my whole screen vertically - it’s pretty amazing. It also has shortcuts as well.
But still, Firefox 2 (which I converted from Opera 9 to recently) is still pretty great.
You can also right-click the tab bar and choose “Undo Close Tab” or go to “History->Recently Closed Tabs” to reopen older tabs.
Best keyboard shortcut since alt+tab. Next time you’re in Hamtramck I’ll buy you a beer.
Syd,
so you have got it permanently installed then!
It is a very fast browser and that´s why I can´t dawdle with FF
I will do a quick test to see if ff2 is still a slacker……………
DK
They should just make it Ctrl + Z like Opera. Ctrl + Shift + T will not work with me because Ctrl +Shift changes my keyboard settings (which I enjoy changing from time to time, so I don’t want to turn that off)
They should make options like in SuperT (which doesn’t work with FF 2.) extension:
mid-click (or some other action, it is configurable) on tab-bar can bring back closed tab. Overall, I was hoping that FF 2 would introduce more tabbed browsing options by default, without need for extensions ti be installed.
Use Opera, it’s been in it for years. CTRL-Z, Undo…
J