redemption in a blog

Agreed, this extension is really sweet; the only reason I don’t use it is because of my need (yes, its that good!) for Synergy. However, I installed it on my brother’s computer, and he finds it very useful. Thanks for the great find!

Posted by: alsotop on October 24, 2004 8pm

What’s the advantage of this over the standard mouse gesture of “hold the right button and click the left to go back” [and vice-versa for going forwards]?

I forget if some mouse gestures come by default with Firefox [as they do with Opera] or if they are all a part of an extension, but I would think it’s a lot easier to use the gestures than this extension — in particular when browsing back through, say, a photo gallery’s images: with the gesture, the pointer can remain fixed over one portion of the screen as you navigate back and forth.

Posted by: David on October 24, 2004 9pm

This is one of the many ways in which Microsoft have improved my browsing experience - they sold me a mouse with a back button that works in Firefox :-)

Of course, All-in-One Gestures allow one to draw a short backwards or forwards line, or to rock the mouse buttons. The only reason the forwards and back buttons are still on my tool bar is for the little menu. I am very tempted to scare my colleagues with the spasmodic side-flipping required by this extension though :)

Posted by: James on October 24, 2004 10pm

Mouse gesture is good enough. My friends are amazed when they see me navigating with a single hand (although this may not be good to my health :-P).

Posted by: minghong on October 24, 2004 11pm

By the way, if you like Fitt’s Law, you should make the buttons super large! (just kidding)

You should also get yourself a Mac if you like to have menu/buttons on the edges of the screen (boyett’s law)?

Posted by: minghong on October 24, 2004 11pm

David: Mouse gestures can be added into Firefox with an extension (i.e. they don’t come by default). I never really got used to mouse gestures because they didn’t seem to work all the time and I found it hard to remember the gestures.

But you do make a good point on the photo gallery browsing example.

minghong: Erm, do you normally navigate with 2 hands without mouse gestures? Hehe ;) As for a Mac, I am actually thinking of getting one, but only when I have a bigger (much bigger) paycheck. I’d want to try out a Linux desktop machine with either KDE or GNOME first.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on October 25, 2004 12am

Try using the easyGestures extention - the extention pops up a pie menu each time you click on the middle button.
all you have to do to move backward in the history is click down on the middle button, move a little to the left, click up on the middle button.

for each of the 8 directions on the pie there is a different action with another set available on a right click.

Posted by: Ido on October 25, 2004 2am

MileWideBack Firefox extension
Yet another potenti And whaddya know, it turns out to be yet another essential extension (as far as I’m concerned). The premise of MileWideBack is simple: you use the left-edge of the Firefox window to navigate back and forth in your tab history.

Posted by: pollas.dk on October 25, 2004 5pm

Cheah Chu Yeow, yup, 2 hands are needed: left hand for keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl + O, Ctrl + T) and right hand for clicking.

By the way, this bug need to be fixed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=248330 if Firefox has to fulfill Boyett’s Law.

Posted by: minghong on October 25, 2004 11pm

Great idea, but this is why I buy 5+ button mice where there are already buttons on it for me to just click to go back and forward. :D

Posted by: nick on October 26, 2004 3pm

Agreed with Nick… I have an MX510 (blue). I simply hit the thumb buttons when I need to navigate back and forth. Saves my Firefox some bloat.

Posted by: Terpfen on October 27, 2004 5am

For those who’ve mentioned mouse gestures… I liked them so much in Firefox that I got StrokeIt.exe. Yes, it’s one of the worst-named pieces of software ever, but it takes the mouse gesture idea and applies it _to every application_ on your computer.

Imagine tracing a ‘C’ to close windows, tracing a ‘reverse C’ (i.e. a C written from bottom to top) to close individual Word or Excel or whatever windows. Imagine tracing an E to open Explorer, a D within Explorer to view files by details, an N to view by icons, &c. Endlessly customizable, StrokeIt’s gestures free you up not just in Firefox but everywhere else.

Try it! Talk about freaky cool. Get rid of All-in-One gestures and go for StrokeIt

Posted by: Tony on November 18, 2004 11pm