This is another one of those things that I hear people talk about often, but I don’t really see the point. I prefer to have everything in it’s own window, so I can cycle through them with ALT+Tab. I know there’s a similar shortcut for cycling through tabs (CTRL+Tab in Firefox), but I don’t want to have to think about whether I’m switching within the browser or between applications and use a different keyboard shortcut for each. Man, I can be picky.
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11 Comments
me gusto tabbed browsing mucho mucho…
it gives me an organized way to follow hypertext without crowding my task bar and lets me continue reading though what i’m reading. plus, in a single click i can minimize all my extra curricular browsing.
I have to disagree with you Jared on this– tabbed browsing is the best–I use it purely because it is easier to browse a lot of web pages in one session. For example, when I read Slashdot I do not want to follow the links away from the Slashdot homepage, only to have to cycle back through the many pages that the continues links buried me in. Instead I apple click, or control click a link, which opens the link in a new tab, I know you can do practically the same thing by opening the link in a new window but like Nathan says new windows clutter your space.
i think that’s the first time dan’s ever refered to me by my first name! i got a little chub!
I have to confess, I knew I would get Dan going on this one, since he’s said before that he’s a big fan of tabbed browsing. I’m not putting it down necessarily, just saying I just prefer opening new windows if I want a separate “thread”.
I tried tabbed browsing for a while when I first started using Mozilla (before Firefox came out), since it did look kind of cool. The thing that would always get me (other than having to remember to CTRL+Tab instead of ALT+Tab) was that if you open a new tab to follow a chain of links, keeping the “original” page in the first tab, I would sometimes forget and close the whole window, instead of just that tab. This is similar to Nathan’s point about “group” minimizing, except it’s accidental “group” closing. I think there’s a preference you can toggle to warn you when you do this, but then you’d have to deal with that every time when you actually mean to do it.
If they’re in separate windows it’s easier to manage for me. As for the “clutter”, you can easily minimize everything (via a taskbar shortcut), and also increase the size of your taskbar if you want to see everything (in a “tab-like” view) that’s open without ALT+Tabbing through them.
That’s just ridiculous, tabbed browsing is the FUTURE. So in outlook, you turn the reading pane off and open each email in a different window?
I actually middle click on my mouse to open a new tab. And the accidental closing is something you just have to get used to; like anything else.
Actually, now that you mention it, when I was using Outlook (I don’t anymore) I did, in fact, disable the preview pane, since it was the home for the majority of Outlook’s security vulnerabilities.
I also added a plugin to completely disable HTML rendering of e-mail messages, for the same reason (security), and the fact that HTML e-mail is another pet peeve of mine that I love to bag on.
so you seriously tab around from browser window to browser window? for me, i read a page and then i’m done with it…close. i also open a new browser window for a new “thread.” so i’ll have a extracurricual browser window with 20 or so tabs of comics or blogs and a work window with whatever project i’m on. i guess the group minimize function is especially good for me because i can change focus from non-work browser, to work browser, to photoshop, to outlook, to text editor in a single click. i’ve never been a fan of alt-tab, i don’t know why geeks are so afraid of the mouse. it’s like peopel would rather type 20 characters than take their hands off the keyboard for a single click!
Yes. I think I use new windows the same way a lot of people use tabs. If I ever needed to hide all of my browser windows (which I don’t, since I never have anyone looking over my shoulder), I could just right-click on the Taskbar group icon for the browser and choose “minimize group” (See, I’m not completely anti-mouse).
But I definitely prefer ALT-Tab for switching between windows/applications, just because it’s so much faster. If you know what “order” the windows are in, it’s just a quick couple taps with your thumb holding down the ALT key. When you go to the mouse, you have to factor in the extra time to track the cursor to where you need it to be, then click. I guess in the end it’s just a matter of what you’re used to doing.
What do you use now?
Thunderbird, all the newer email clients have an option to turn off html, in outlook 2003 and entourage 2004 it’s a default. I used thunderbird for a while and it did the same.
You are right, it is whatever you are used to, but if there wasn’t tabbed browsing in Firefox I probably would be using IE; maybe not.
For e-mail, it’s about 50/50 between Thunderbird and my personal favorite: PINE. The only reason I use Thunderbird on some accounts is that it’s easier to work with multiple accounts at once, and you can share the spell checker dictionary with Firefox.
Some of the great things about PINE (other than not needing a mouse… haha) is that I can use it from anywhere I need (over an encrypted SSH connection), without having to have software installed, etc. and it adheres to the “no-bloat principle” - it does everything an e-mail client should do, and doesn’t try to add a bunch of crap you don’t need.
people are used to doing things the WRONG WAY!!! heh heh…