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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Open Thread: How are you using tabs?

I live in browser tabs. Whether I’m in Safari or Firefox, I’m constantly sending links to a new tab (CMD-click in either app). It’s something that most geeks take for granted but—I can tell you, I’ve seen the browser stats—there’s still a lot of folks out there living in one Window. (*observes solemn moment of silence*)

But, by far, my biggest gains come from the numerous tabbed bookmark sets that I keep in my favorites bar. These include:

I’ve also got tab sets for finances, 43f stats, news sites, friends’ blogs, and even a set of about 10 pages that comprise the theme templates I use most in WordPress (makes for super fast editing sessions).

So. My question to you is: How are you using tabs and tab sets? Anybody doing sexy fu with Saft? Safari Stand? Tabbrowser Preferences?

Open thread, so tell us your best tab tricks and tools in comments.


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Kevin Marsh's picture

I use tabs as a...

I use tabs as a sort of link ‘queue’. While browsing any site (but especially LiveMarks, Daily Mashup, digg, or del.icio.us), I’ll Command + Click any interesting links, then Command + W my way through my queue, adding any interesting links I find along the way to the queue.

Rob's picture

I agree with Kevin, the...

I agree with Kevin, the “queue” is useful to open links while surfing, to later file in del.icio.us.

It is almost a methodology that changes the very way you look at the web. Somehow, things open like pages in a notebook instead of looking at seperate packets. It is also easier to correlate things and find common threads in your browsing, no more lag time that sometimes allows precious thoughts to escape your mind (lag from glancing down and identifying which window has what topic and then dragging your mouse down to click then look up and review what you were looking for).

It allows quick access but adds to the amount of information overload we receive. Indispensable during del.icio sessions and google news. Life w/ tabs is better than life w/o tabs. Most are use to reading top to bottom/left to right and tabs allow the eyes to settle easily on what is available instead of down at the bottom of the screen. And, you don’t move the mouse as much (standard ways of multi-tasking IE windows are drastic mouse movements and alt-tabs) which I find much more efficient.

Chris Wahl's picture

I'm shore most people do...

I’m shore most people do this, as it’s the intended purpose for the feature, but since you asked. In Safari, I make a folder called “dailys” drag in all my news and or daily sites and turn on auto-click. i add it too my bookmarks bar, and in the morning i just click it and all my daily site get tabbed out in my browser. the sites i have are. in this order: Gizmodo, versiontracker, molekinerie (in know), apple.com, spotlight page, dashboard dl page, automator dl page, life hacker, 43 folders.

Kevin Marsh's picture

I've even done a separate...

I’ve even done a separate window for each ‘source’ of common links (i.e., del.icio.us or Google News) then separate tabs in that window for each link.

Berko's picture

Saft and SafariStand have made...

Saft and SafariStand have made my life with tabs a lot easier. If you have ever had Safari crash with about 25 tabs open and honestly couldn’t remember what they were or how to find them again, you have to have Saft. Well worth the $12. SafariStand has a nice little feature tucked away to let you browse through your tabs with , (comma) and . (period), backward and forward respectively, natch.

I like the idea of keeping tab groups for stuff that I might be working on and the “fun break” tab is a great idea. I also use tabs as sort of a queue for what I find interesting from a page, particularly blogs and other sites with heavy linkage (/. anyone?).

What I think would be really helpful for web design is if there was a way to have a list of relevant links on a topic and have a one click way to open the lot of them in tabs for the user. It would be cool for 43F for instance for getting at all those related links.

So, yah, tabs rule all.

Chris Wahl's picture

there a way to automate...

there a way to automate the dailies into seprat windows based on categories? maybe launch it with a file. that way i i don’t even have to launch safari first. you could just click the file on your desktop and it would launch safari and open 3 windows, one with tabs for tech news, one with tabs for fav blogs, and one with life hack stuff. what you guys think?

Spareink's picture

Life Hacking An overview of the...

Life Hacking

An overview of the life hacking activity by the NY Times, including a reference to 43folders.com and “Getting Things Done”….

Phil Ulrich's picture

I actually read a great...

I actually read a great number of webcomics, but almost none of them have an RSS feed, so rather than write a scraper of my own or rely on someone else’s which is prone to breakage, I have a tab group of webcomics. (At home only, obviously.)

At work I have an ever-shifting tab group of Java-related articles that might come in handy with some project or another; as they cease to be useful, I delete them (though not without del.icio.us’ing them first, just in case), and as I find useful articles, I add them.

Nick Douglas's picture

I just use it to...

I just use it to mire myself in a morass of 6 things to do. The upside is the constant inspiration from one project hitting another.

ALWAYS cross the streams.

Alan Levine's picture

For a presentation/demo that is...

For a presentation/demo that is a walk through web sites, I’ll load ‘em up in tabs so I’m not waiting for a page to load while talking from site to site (Why waste time making pretty slideshows for talking about the web? It is the ultimate slide show).

You can just command-W to go to the next site to demo. Also, should the net go POOF in the middle of the show, at least you have a static copy to display (this has really happened to me).

Firefox Session Save extension is handy for saving what was tabbed when things really go south on the browser.

It would be cool for someone to hack something to turn a del.icio.us tag into a tabset.

About Merlin Mann

Merlin Mann's picture

Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who started the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today. Also? He looks like this, answers questions, and has something like a life.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written recently is a short essay called, “Better.”

 
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