Using Windows and Tabs Together

All through this chapter, I've been saying "Tabs good! Use tabs, not windows!" But I have to say that there are some really great uses for multiple windows, too. For example, you might want to have two instances of Firefox, each of which has a group of tabs on a single subject. This makes working on two disparate subjects easier. Another reason might be the sheer volume of your search: it's entirely possible that you could have 10 or 12 tabs that you want to have open, and being able to sift through them can be difficult. And if I've got one instance of Firefox open with my Gmail account, there's a certain satisfaction in just closing another instance of Firefox and the half dozen tabs I opened for another topic in one fell swoop.

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Whenever I try to tell someone what's so special about Firefox, I always tell them about tabbed browsing first. Tabbed browsing allows the user to multitask vigorously: whenever I think of something else I want to look into, I just open a new tab and start a new line of inquiry. It's fast, powerful, and amazingly useful.

After I gush about tabbed browsing, the next thing I talk about is the ability to augment Firefox by adding extensions and themes. The following chapter introduces you to the enormous variety of extensions with which you can expand Firefox's capabilities. You'll learn about the many types of Firefox extensions, as well as my favorites from each category. You'll also see how to use themes to change icons, toolbars, and Firefox's overall look and feel to suit your needs or even your mood.