This fantastic little add-on for Firefox adds a lot to using the mouse and Firefox together.  Here are just a few of the mouse combinations that it brings to your browsing habits.

While holding down the right mouse button:

• Scroll up/down to move focus between tabs
• While scrolled away left click to return to the original tab
• Left click without scrolling or after scrolling and back to original tab to jump to last used tab
• Middle/scroll button click to close tab
• Middle/scroll button down and hold to undo last closed tab
• Middle/scroll button double click will close all tabs with same host name (Ex: addons.mozilla.org is different from www.mozilla.org)

While double clicking:

• Double click right button to open new tab
• Double click right button AND hold to duplicate current tab

While holding down the left mouse button:

• Scroll up/down to zoom in/out
• Middle click to reset zoom

This might be the best power tool when it comes to getting more out of using your mouse with Firefox.  You can pick up MouseControl from the Firefox add-ons website.

There is a lot you can do with Firefox when it comes to the mouse.  Now, most of the time people focus on all the keyboard shortcuts you can do with Firefox – however, the mouse shortcuts are equally as cool. 

Here are six of my favorite Firefox mouse shortcuts for you to remember:

• Middle click on a link (will open in new tab)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling down (takes you to the previous page)
• Holding the Shift key and scrolling up (takes you to the next page)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scrolling up (increases text size)
• Holding the Ctrl key and scroll down (decreases text size)
• Middle clicking on a tab (closes that tab)

Have any other Firefox mouse shortcuts you hold near and dear to your heart?  Leave them in the comments and let us know your favorites that you use in your everyday browsing.

Smooth Wheel adds several more configurable preferences to your mouse wheel’s performance in Firefox.  Here is a little ‘bit more about the extension from the developer:

Smooth Wheel offers an enhanced and configurable version of the built in smooth-scroll. It uses some unique algorithms for smoothness and adaptive behavior (scrolls fast or slow by trying to anticipate the intention of the user). Allows to read long web pages easily. You can actually read WHILE scrolling. Kind of like the credits at the end of a movie, but controlled by scrolling the mouse wheel. Works with text-boxes and drop-down boxes too.

Here is a video tutorial, so you can see the add-on in action too:

Overall, this add-on might be the best scroll enhancing one I have used to date.  If you want to tweak the way your browser scrolls down a web page, head over to the Firefox Add-ons web site, and pick up Smooth Wheel.

This comes in really handy for tablet PCs, where your pen is taking the place of your mouse.  You can though use it with your mouse too, as it comes ready for 1, 2, or 3 button mouse support.

Grab and Drag gives Firefox a new way to browse, and also has plenty of options to tweak till you get it just the way you want it.  You can pick it up on the Firefox Add-ons site or MozDev.org.

What does does this extension for Firefox allow you to do?  Well, if you can navigate forward if you right-click with your mouse on the Firefox border too. If you are using tabbed browsing, middle-click on the left border to close the current tab, or rotate the mouse-wheel to cycle through your current tabs.

To learn more about how to tweak this add-on, check out this tutorial:

• MileWideBack Customization – mozdev.org

So if you are looking for way to make your browsing experience more user friendly or unique, MileWideBack is well worth your time.  Give it a shot, and let me know if you find browsing this way is better or worse than your more traditional methods.

Don’t you hate it when you visit a web site and the web site’s text is so small, you can barely make out what you are reading?  Here are a few ways you can work around that everyday issue.

Three Ways to Enlarge or Shrink Text

You can enlarge text per web site you are visiting by holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard and scrolling up to enlarge text, and down to shrink text.  If your mouse doesn’t have the scroll wheel, then you can also do this by holding the Ctrl key and hitting the “+” key to enlarge text, and the “-” key to make text smaller.  The third way to enlarge text via Firefox would be to go to your menu bar, go to View > Zoom, and then choose to zoom in (to make things bigger) or zoom out (to make things smaller).

Reset a Web Page to Normal (after Zooming)

Now if you have messed around with the font size so much, your not sure what the default size should be – you can reset that too.  Just go to the menu bar, then click View > Zoom and then  Reset.  This will reset the web page to it’s normal viewing size.

So there you have a few more accessibility options to play with from within Firefox, so you can stop squinting at web pages you are trying to read.

Shift + Scroll Down = Go Back a Page

Shift + Scroll Up  = Go Forward a Page

Ctrl + Left Click or Middle Click = Open Link in Background Tab

Ctrl + Shift + Left Click = Open Link in Foreground Tab

Shift + Left Click = Open Link in New Window

Alt + Scroll = Scroll Line by Line

Middle Click on Tab = Close a Tab

Double Click on Tab Bar = Tab New

Ctrl + Scroll Up = Text Size Decrease

Ctrl + Scroll Down = Text Size Increase

Know of anymore good ones?  Be sure to leave a comment, and share with the rest of us.  For more keyboard shortcut fun, remember to check out Mission Ctrl? All the Ctrl Key Shortcuts for Firefox,  Firefox’s Navigation Bar Keyboard Combo Cheat Sheet and Ctrl + Shift Your Way Through Firefox.

+ Buy Your Own Firefox Mouse Pad at the Mozilla Store!

+ Check Out This Funny Firefox Bug Test!