Although the latest nightly build includes basic tab support, it's nothing like the full feature set in MultiZilla. Once installed, you get new contextual menu options for "Open Link in New Tab" and "Load Link in Background Tab", both of which make browsing a much more productive experience. You can also choose the top or bottom of the window for your tabs, and tweak a number of other settings.
If you'd like a quick how-to on installing MultiZilla for Mozilla on OS X, read the rest of this article.
These directions assume you have Mozilla 0.94 or newer installed. If you've customized it in any way, I'd recommend starting with a clean install (there's a link to the nighly build in the first paragraph of this article).
You'll probably want to spend some time on the MultiZilla home page to get familiar with the product and its features. There's also an Installation page that contains general installation instructions. I've combined some links they had to other information with Mac-specific tidbits to create the following Mac-specific installation guide. Follow these steps to install MultiZilla for Mozilla on OS X:
- Enable software installations in Mozilla (Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Software Installation -> Check the box)
- Edit your all.js file (located in Mozilla/Defaults/Pref) and add the following lines at the end:
pref("multizilla.display.prefwarning", true );I used BBEdit Lite and it displayed a message about the all.js file being part of a version control system, and did I want to over-ride its read-only status. I said yes and made the changes.
pref("multizilla.tab.position", true);
pref("multizilla.new.preferred", "http://mozillazine.org");
pref("multizilla.sticky.maxlen", "25");
pref("multizilla.sticky.title", true);
pref("multizilla.tabs.autohide", false);
pref("multizilla.title.hold", true);
pref("multizilla.secret.garden", false);
pref("multizilla.prevent.double", true);
pref("multizilla.mouse-middle-click.newtab", true);
pref("multizilla.bookmarks.newtab", false);
pref("multizilla.personal-toolbar.newtab", false);
pref("multizilla.developer.tooltips", false);
pref("multizilla.status-leds.enabled", true);
pref("multizilla.load.homepage", true);
pref("multizilla.toolbar.icons", true);
pref("multizilla.mouse-middle-click.close", true);
pref("multizilla.confirm.quit", 3); // 1=CTRL-Q / 2=file menu 'Exit'
pref("multizilla.urlbar.newtab", true );
- Visit the installation page referenced above while running your Mozilla installation and click on the appropriate link in the fourth step. Mozilla will now download and install MultiZilla. Make sure you click the link that matches your version of Mozilla.
- To use the installed software, you need to launch Mozilla with some command-line arguments, which is a bit tricky on a Mac. Switch to your favorite text editor, and create a new pure-text document with one line:
ARGS: -chrome chrome://multiviews/content
Save the file (I named mine MozillaTabs) and then use your favorite tool (I used ResEdit in Classic) to change the creator to MOZZ.
- You should now be able to launch Mozilla with MultiZilla by double-clicking the file you just created. On my machine, I also had an older Classic Mozilla installed, and it launched instead (whoops!). So I just dragged-and-dropped the text file onto Mozilla for OS X, and it worked as intended.
After a day or so of full browsing with tabs, it's hard to go back to windowed mode in the other browsers.

