Right-clicking on a tab overflow scroll button should show a menu listing the tabs beyond that button for quick tab switching. To make this functionality more obvious dropmarkers should be added to the scroll buttons, and hence the arrows on the scroll buttons should really be a bit bigger, as in the suggested UI screenshot below (I pinched the arrows from print preview!) N.B. I'd also suggest a scrollbar be used for vertical scrolling, should these popups become too tall, since scrollbars are much more effective for scrolling through potentially long lists of things (whereas more 'standard' arrowscrollboxes are only really effective when few items overflow - hence the need for these menus in the first place).

Suggested UI (actually a dev. version of my Too Many Tabs where I'm implementing a prototype of this)

Just to be impartial, here's the main alternative to these menus: just have one button which shows a menu with all the tabs in it, as in Internet Explorer 7 (beta). This would be equally useful, the main question is which is more intuitive.

john, thanks for starting a bug on this. at first glance, I like the overflow menus. I'd be curious to see what ben/beltzner/mconnor thing.

Comment on attachment 228737 [details] Suggested UI Screenshot passing ui review over to beltzner

Have mocked up a possible option...which IMO solves a few usability issues...Please see if something like this can be considered. http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8685/firefoxtaboverflowver33cg.png -> Scrollbuttons and Tab Menu together on right hand side corner (or left hand side): Improves accessibility -> Shade visible Tabs: Improves visibility -> Close buttons on Menu: Improves Tab Handling Should also allow DnD from Tab Menu to Tab Bar and vice versa...For DnD from Tab Bar to Tab Menu...the user can select a tab from the tab bar and mouseover on the Tab Menu to open it and drop it. The Tab Menu will be a sticky and will remain visible till: -> User selects a tab from the Menu OR -> User clicks an area outside the menu Tab Menu will not close when: -> User closes a tab(s) from the menu

(In reply to comment #5) > Have mocked up a possible option...which IMO solves a few usability > issues...Please see if something like this can be considered. This is fairly similar to the proposals in bug 343251 which we're currently discussing implementing for B2. I stole an idea or two from your mockup and included them in my latest thoughts on that bug, thanks.

(In reply to comment #5) > Have mocked up a possible option...which IMO solves a few usability > issues...Please see if something like this can be considered. > > http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8685/firefoxtaboverflowver33cg.png > > -> Scrollbuttons and Tab Menu together on right hand side corner (or left hand > side): Improves accessibility > -> Shade visible Tabs: Improves visibility > -> Close buttons on Menu: Improves Tab Handling > > Should also allow DnD from Tab Menu to Tab Bar and vice versa...For DnD from > Tab Bar to Tab Menu...the user can select a tab from the tab bar and mouseover > on the Tab Menu to open it and drop it. > > The Tab Menu will be a sticky and will remain visible till: > -> User selects a tab from the Menu OR > -> User clicks an area outside the menu > > Tab Menu will not close when: > -> User closes a tab(s) from the menu > On further thoughts, for greater keyboard integration, we could pop-up the Tab Menu when a user navigates with Ctrl+Tab (something like Opera)... this will also greatly increase navigation visibility...

I found this extension useful. Perhaps some parts of it would be useful here: LastTab (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/112/)

Most of this bug got addressed by bug 343251, so I'm marking it as a duplicate of that one. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 343251 ***