Some people have been emailing me and letting me know they miss the drop down history list that used to be by the back/forward buttons in Firefox 3.6. If you check out the browser interface of Firefox 4 – it appears this feature was stripped away. Was it really?
Definitely not. You just have to reach it in a different way.
To bring up a quick list of links you have previously browser to, simply right-click on the back button in Firefox 4. When you do so, the old drop down history list pops back up in all its glory – with up to 10 previous pages you have navigated to.
Now, I do understand they did this to cut down on the clutter – however if I had not accidently right-clicked the back button to find it, I would have never known the functionality was there.
I’ve always found it easier to use Ctrl+H to open the History Sidebar. Then, just Ctrl+H to close it again.
You can also left click and hold the back button to get the same menu. Highlighting and releasing the mouse button will navigate you back to that page.
The right-click, history as context function/feature for the back/forward button(s) has been part of Firefox for years, since the very first version. People just don’t right-click enough… lots of interesting stuff available via context menus.
For people wanting the dropmarker back in Firefox 4, there’s an addon for that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/backforward-dropmarker/
I found it easily. Whenever a new version is released I click on everything I see with the right, center wheel, and right mouse buttons to see if anything new has been added.
Thank you Mitch. I, too will try some left and right clicking
to discover more buried secrets.