Middle-click to open link in new *active* tab

[FelixHolt]

I prefer opening links in new foreground tabs by clicking the middle mouse button, a feature that has long been present in most other non-Chrome-based browsers (including the original Opera 12.16 I still have installed on my computer!).

Vivaldi does allow me to right-click on a link and the context menu pops up with "Open Link in New Tab" and "Open Link in New Private Tab". The first option does what I want, but the method is kind of clunky compared to a single middle-click.

So, I've been using the Tab Activate extension, but I have to remember to install it in every Chrome-based browser I use or test. (And, I believe, when I first started using the extension a few years ago, it worked on links on a page, but not always in other contexts; e.g., middle-clicking on an item in a bookmark menu for instance. I don't know if that's still the case and Vivaldi seems to be opening bookmarks in new tabs anyway.)

Tab Activate is great and has been a lifesaver for me, but I think the functionality could be built into the browser easily enough. Vivaldi has the right-click and, upon the left click, pass the link to the "Open Link in New Tab" code method; so middle-click and pass the link to the "Open Link in New Tab" code seems like it should not be that hard to implement.

Vivaldi has a lot of tab settings, which is great. There is one I don't understand the meaning of: "Focus Page Content on New Tab". I thought it meant a new tab would become the new active tab, but setting this option (with Tab Activate disabled) had no such effect.

(I assume my issue is desktop-OS-independent. In any case, I'm running the latest 64-bit version, 3.5.2115.81, of Vivaldi under Windows 7.)

(IIRC, back in the early days of Chrome, there was a lot of discussion about foreground and background tabs and different versions of Chrome switched back and forth between the two until they finally settled on opening all tabs in the background. The original Opera was still vital at that time, so I wasn't paying much attention to Chrome.)

[Pesala]

@FelixHolt Focus Page Content on New Tab focuses the page instead of the URL field.

Shift+Click will open links in a new tab.

To do it with mouse only, assign a mouse gesture to it.

[ajgraves]

@pesala said in Middle-click to open link in new *active* tab:

@FelixHolt Focus Page Content on New Tab focuses the page instead of the URL field.

Shift+Click will open links in a new tab.

To do it with mouse only, assign a mouse gesture to it.

Unfortunately, asking someone to change their workflow that they've likely developed over many years of using web browsers is not a viable solution.

It seems that this is a Chromium thing, seeing as how every Chromium based browser exhibits the same behavior. The likeliest way we can hope for this to be fixed is a) Vivaldi implements it into their browser only, or b) push the change upstream to Chromium itself. The latter is probably more difficult as it would impact several downstream projects, however if it were a toggleable option, this may be viable.

@FelixHolt I've found that the Tab Activate extension works like a charm, and activates a newly opened tab like I expect it to. It makes Chromium based browsers behave "the right way" (IMO).

[Pesala]

@ajgraves said in Middle-click to open link in new *active* tab:

Unfortunately, asking someone to change their workflow that they've likely developed over many years of using web browsers is not a viable solution.

I disagree. I have assigned mouse gesture up to Open Link in New Tab (Over a link), which works a treat.

It takes only a matter of weeks to relearn muscle memory. Those who constantly swap browsers will always have problems.

Vote for Configurable Middle-click, which is at least four years old. It might get done one day, but using an extension or a mouse gesture are both viable solutions.

Personally, I prefer to adjust my workflow, as extensions can cause other issues.