Small Tabs is a free extension for Firefox that reduces the size of tabs in Firefox, so that more tabs are displayed. This works for new Australis UI of Firefox (Firefox 29 and above).
New Firefox with Australis UI can display around 8 tabs at a time. If you open more than that, there will be a horizontal tab scrolling that gets added to UI. However, once you add this extension, the size of each tab will be reduced, and you will be able to see more than 30 tabs without a need for tab scrolling.
Why I need Smaller Tabs Extension for Firefox:
Autralis UI has got mixed reviews for its appearance, and the fan following for the older versions of Firefox is still quite large. One of the changes in the new version is with the arrangement of the tabs on the tab bar.
In the earlier versions of Firefox, when you open new tabs, they are aligned together on the tab bar. Once the complete space is occupied on the tab bar, then it would reduce the size of tabs to adjust the new ones on the bar. The new Firefox with Australis UI doesn’t reduce the size of tabs, and instead enables the tab scrolling feature, when the tabs occupy the complete space on the tab bar. It enables scroll buttons each end of the tab bar, where you can click to move the next tab.
Scroll tabs feature didn’t get much of positive feedback. Reason for it is, one click shifts one tab (or hold the scroll button to shuffle faster), and if you are using a large number of tabs, then shifting from the first tab to later ones can take up a considerable time.
There are many extensions to get the previous version’s looks back, still the tabs scrolling prevails with them (even the vastly featured Classic Theme Restorer extension doesn’t offer this option). Small Tabs extension is the solution.
How to Disable Tab Scrolling in Latest Version of Firefox:
To install this extension, you can follow the link available at the end of this review. Small Tabs extension doesn’t even requires a restart, and it starts working right after the installation. This extension also reduces the height of the of the tab bar, which may not be very noticeable.
But the real task that it helps in is tab scrolling. Now, when you open more tabs, it will keep reducing the size of the tabs, so that more numbers of tabs could be adjusted on the tabs bar (or title bar).
The extension detail mentions that you can have up to 33 tabs. However, on my workstation, the scrolling was delayed to 26 tabs (that maybe because of the small sized screen that I prefer to use), which is still better than 8 without this extension.
My Take on Small Tabs Extension:
This is a fantastic add-on for latest Firefox UI. Firefox is my favorite browser, and I have to work with multiple tabs (that’s why Tile Tabs is my favorite extension). After shifting to Australis UI, I had to open different windows often, which was killing the fun of surfing. You do not need to put in much of the efforts to use this. Just install it and you will be able to open many more tabs in the same space. Nice and easy!
