1645457 - KB article for Close Multiple Tab changes

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Content, task)

Description

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

Context:
In bug 887515, the tab context menu was changed to move "Close Tabs to the Right" and "Close Other Tabs" to a submenu titled "Close Multiple Tabs".

Schedule:
We would like this to go live prior to the Firefox 78 release date.

Title:
Changes to the Tab context menu in Firefox 78

Content:
In Firefox 78, the Tab context menu has been changed to add a new "Close Multiple Tabs" submenu. Inside of this submenu are options to "Close Tabs to the Right" and "Close Other Tabs".

This change was made for the following reasons:

1. As feature are added and context menus grow, we would like to keep the size of the menu short enough to be read quickly. One of the ways we can do this is to group similar commands. By grouping the commands that close multiple tabs together, we can shorten the height of the context menu by one menuitem. It should be noted that we also do not want to remove context menuitems just for the sake of it because some context menuitems are the only accessible non-keyboard-shortcut way for keyboard-only users to access such functionality as Pin Tab, Mute Tab, Duplicate Tab, etc.
2. Some users have reported that they accidentally clicked the "Close Tabs to the Right" and the "Close Other Tabs". While a user has the ability to restore their tabs through the "Undo Closed Tabs" menuitem, some data may have been lost as well as potential increased network usage if we are unable to restore the pages from the Firefox cache. We decided that adding a little "speed bump" before a large destructive action could benefit users. We prefer this over a modal dialog that requires users to move their mouse across the screen and thus requires more time.
3. The "Close Multiple Tabs" submenu provides us an area to add some extra features that users have asked for over the years such as a "Close Tabs to the Left" option.

Comment 1

[Angela Lazar]

Hi Jared,

I edited your draft and created a new article marked to be localized for Firefox 78: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changes-tab-context-menu-firefox-78

(I combined #3 with #1 but I can change it back if you prefer, or feel free to directly edit the article in SUMO)

Do you need a stable link created for this page?

Comment 2

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

Thanks Angela. We will likely link to this article from release notes so I think we will need a stable link for that.

Comment 3

[Joni Chan]

@jaws, here's a stable link you can use: https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/%VERSION%/%OS%/%LOCALE%/close-multiple-tabs

Comment 4

[Alice Wyman]

(In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me) from comment #0)

It should be noted that we also do not want to remove context menuitems just for the sake of it because some context menuitems are the only accessible non-keyboard-shortcut way for keyboard-only users to access such functionality as Pin Tab, Mute Tab, Duplicate Tab, etc.

Could you reword this? I tried a few revisions to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changes-tab-context-menu-firefox-78 to simplify the wording but I'm afraid I got it wrong. See discussion: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/changes-tab-context-menu-firefox-78/discuss/8844

Comment 5

[Aaron Benson]

Proposed edits below:

[remove] "This change was made for the following reasons:"

Content:
The proximity of the menu items for closing tabs to the right and closing other tabs was causing some to accidentally close the wrong set of tabs, which resulted in a sub-par user experience. While there is an Undo Closed Tabs menu item, some data may have been lost as well as potential increased network usage if the closed tabs were no longer in the Firefox cache.

The Close Tabs to the Right feature was a first step towards providing more nuanced ways of managing tabs. We have been thrilled to see how passionate people are about using it. In order to solve the problem of accidental tab closures, and in the spirit of advancing functionality, the Close Tabs to the Right option has been moved into a submenu. The Close Multiple Tabs menu item provides an area to add functionality that people have asked for, such as Close Tabs to the Left.

These context menus provide accessibility benefits for features that do not exist as keyboard shortcuts. That is why we take great care in introducing and removing them.

Comment 6

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

Alice, can you update the article with the above text?

Comment 7

[Alice Wyman]

I've updated the article with the text from comment 5.