Session Manager
MultiZilla not only introduced Tabs, Tab Groups but also Tab Sessions in an early stage of its development. The first step was to add two menu items, which enables you to save and restore Tab Sessions (still part of MultiZilla's Tab Content Menu, although more advanced these days) and this was quickly followed by automatic saving/restoring with optional Confirmation Windows, which enables you to skip saving and/or restoring of tab sessions.
We made a huge step forward with the introduction of the Tab Session Manager in 2003, which gives you full control over tab sessions, including drag and drop to re-arrange tab sessions.
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Tab Session Manager
- Main window
- The Tab Session Manager can be opened from the Quick Prefs Menu, the MultiZilla Toolbar and with keyboard shortcut Accel+Shift+M. There are eight toolbar buttons which provide quick access, for both keyboard and mouse, to the most important/most used features, and are only enabled when they should be. All features are also accessible from the context menu. Here's a screenshot of our most recent public release:
- Add
- You can add a new tab session with the Add button on the toolbar, or with context menu item Add new Tab Session. You will be asked to enter a name for the new tab session, but a selection window might be opened first in case you have more windows open. Note that the browser window that was used to open the Tab Session Manager will be highlighted on startup. Here's an example:
- Merge
- You can merge one or more tabs from any browser window with the Merge button on the toolbar, or context menu item Merge Tab(s). A selection window might be opened first in case you have more windows open. Note that the browser window that was used to open the Tab Session Manager will be highlighted on startup. Here's an example:
- Open
- You can open one or more tabs or tab sessions with the Open button on the toolbar, or with context menu item Open Tab(s) or Open Window(s). This depends on the selected items, and a new window will be opened when needed.
- Note: the Tab Session Manager will be closed automatically when you open tabs or restore tab sessions, but tabs or tab sessions opened with a middle-mouse click won't close the Tab Session Manager.
- Interval
- You can set and change the automatic reload interval for tabs with the Interval button on the toolbar, or with context menu item Reload Interval. The interval is currently still displayed in milliseconds (1000 millisecond is 1 second) in the tree, but we plan to change this in the near future.
- The Interval button will only be enabled when one single tab in the tree is selected and you can also set the interval in the Tab Properties window, or through the Context Menu.
- Properties
- You can open the window or tab properties window with the Properties button on the toolbar, with context menu item Properties or F3. Please note that there are two properties windows, one for the window properties and one for the tab properties. More information is available in the Window Properties or Tab Properties sections of this page.
- Rename
- You can rename tab sessions with the Rename button on the toolbar, with context menu item Rename Tab Session or F2. Tab session IDs are used as default name and the Use New Name dialog button will only be enabled when you've change the name. Click on the Keep Current Name button if you don't want to change the name, but you can also use the ESC key to close the rename window. Here's an example of this window:
- Delete
- You can delete one or more tabs, or tab sessions, with the Delete button on the toolbar, or with one of the context menu items: Delete Tab(s), Delete Window(s) or Delete Tab(s) and Window(s), bunt only one menu item will be enabled at a time. This depends on the selected item(s).
- You can also use the delete key on your keyboard to remove selected items, and note that removing items requires your confirmation. Here's a screenshots of that confirmation dialog:
- Settings
- You can open the settings window with the Settings button on the toolbar, or with context menu item Settings, which gives you full control over all available/used settings. There are four settings tabs to control all settings and more information is available in the settings section of this page.
- Note: the last active settings tab of the previous session will be automatically selected when you re-open this window.
- Context Menu
- The Tab Session Manager has a Context Menu but that can only be opened with a right mouse click in the tree. The available/enabled menu items depend on the selected items in the three for which we have the following screenshots, from left to right: tabs selected, tab sessions selected and when both tabs and tab sessions are selected:
- Drag and Drop
- The Tab Session Manager allows you to re-arrange the order in which tabs are opened and to move tabs to other/new tab sessions via dragging and dropping.
Window Properties
- Window Properties Window
- MultiZilla saves and restores the most important window properties for tab sessions, like the window width, height, position etc, but this feature is not enabled by default. You have to enable it first on on the Restore Behavior settings panel, or on the Sessions preference panel in the Preference Manager. Here's a screenshot of this window:
- Window Properties
- The settings in this box represent the Window Width, Window Height, Window X Position, Window Y Position and Window State.
- Note: Window State can be set to: Maximize Window, Minimize Window, Restore Window or Full Screen.
- All settings will be used when the window is restored and are pretty much self-explanatory options so they do not require further explanation (we think).
- Mozilla Toolbars
- The checkboxes in this lists represent the Mozilla Toolbars that will be displayed when this window is restored.
- Third Party Toolbars
- The checkboxes in this lists represent the Third Party Toolbar(s) that will be displayed when this window is restored.
- Sidebar Properties
- Here you can select a sidebar panel that should be loaded, and the sidebar width that should be used when this window is restored.
- Remarks
- The Save Changes button will only be enabled after you change one or more settings. However, the button will also be enabled (automatically) when one or more settings are missing. This normally only happens for tab sessions for which no windows properties were saved before, i.e. after enabling this feature for saved tab session without saved window properties!
Tab Properties
- Tab Properties Window
- MultiZilla saves and restores a number of properties for each tab like the title, location, history, reload interval etc and you can change any of these properties with the following window:
- Tab Settings
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- Tab ID
- Tab ID's represent Session Number, Window Number and Tab Number.
- Example: urn:session-0:window-0:tabs:tab-4 which is the the fifth tab in the first window of the first tab session.
- Title
- This textfield shows the title of the webpage of the tab. You can tick the checkbox to make it a sticky title i.e. it won't be changed when the webpage loads.
- Location
- This textfield shows the location (URL) of the tab. You can change this location for example if the page has been moved to a new location.
- File As Bookmark
- The File As Bookmark button will only be enabled when the URL (location) of the tab hasn't been bookmarked before.
- Note: this button opens Mozilla's File bookmarks window which enables you to bookmark the tab.
- Sticky Title
- Tick this checkbox when you want to use a sticky title i.e. the title won't be changed by the website.
- Tab Properties
- The checkboxes in this box are ticked when the corresponding content is enabled for the tab. Untick the a checkbox to block content. For example, untick the JavaScript checkbox when you don't want to want to run JavaScript in a tab.
- Tab History
- The Tab History list shows all visited pages for the tab, but only if you've setup MultiZilla to save tab history on the Save Behavior settings panel, or on the Tab Sessions preference panel in the Preference Manager.
- Note: you can remove one or all history items through the context menu.
- Automatic Reloads
- The Automatic Reloads checkbox will be checked for tabs that reload after a given period of time. Tick the checkbox when you want to setup automatic reloads for a tab, or untick it when you want to disable automatic reloads for the tab.
- Note: you can also use the Interval toolbar button on the main window of the Tab Session Manager.
- Selected Tab
- The menulist in this box shows the Selected Tab (including favicon) for this tab session. You can change the selected tab by selecting one of the other tabs from the list. Here's a screenshot of this menu:
- Back/Forward button
- The Back/Forward buttons enable you to navigate through tabs in tabs sessions and are only enabled when they should be, as can be seen on the following screenshot:
- Note: you can focus the Back or Forward button with the tab key. This enables you to navigate through tabs without using your mouse.
- Quick Tab Selection Menu
- This menu enables you to skip a few tabs and to jump to a certain tab, instead of using the Back/Forward buttons repeatedly. Here's a screenshot of this menu:
- Note: this menu can be opened with a Ctrl+Click on the Back/Forward button, or by first focusing one of the Back/Forward (for example with the tab key) and then to use the Ctrl+Space keyboard combination.
Save Behavior Settings Panel
- Save Behavior Settings Panel
- MultiZilla's Save Behavior controls if and how tab sessions are saved and can be set on the following setting panel, or on the Tab Sessions preference panel in the Preference Manager. Here's a screenshot of this settings panel:
- Save Behavior
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- Don't save Tab Sessions on exit
- Select this option when you don't want to save tab sessions.
- Overwrite Matching Tab Sessions
- Select this option when you want to replace matching sessions.
- Add Tabs as new Tab Session
- Select this option when you want to add new sessions instead of overwriting your sessions.
- Open Session Saver Confirmation Window
- Select this option when you want to open the Session Saver Confirmation Window which enables you to do all of the above options.
- Skip saving Tab Sessions for Windows with a single Tab
- Tick the checkbox when you don't want to save tab sessions for widows with only a single tab.
- Save and Restore Tab History
- Thick this checkbox when you want to save/restore the history of tabs. The maximum number of history items will be set to fifteen when you do this, but you can change this.
- Note: the maximum number is currently set to fifteen, but we plan to increase it to ninety-nine.
Restore Behavior Settings Panel
- Restore Behavior Settings Panel
- MultiZilla's Restore Behavior controls if and how tab sessions are restored and can be set on the following setting panel, or on the Tab Sessions preference panel in the Preference Manager. Here's a screenshot of this settings panel:
- Select option to restore Tab Sessions
-
- Don't Restore Sessions
- Select this option when you don't want to restore tab sessions on startup.
- Restore First Window Only
- Select this option when you want to restore the first window only of tab sessions.
- Restore All Windows
- Select this option when you want to retore all windows on startup.
- Ask me before opening
- Select this option when you want to open the Restore Confirmation dialog on startup. Here's a screenshot of this window:
- Note: this confirmation dialog will be replaced, in a future update, with something
similar as our
Session Saver Confirmation Window. This will enable you to restore any of the available tab sessions and basically eliminate the need of the following option (which we will keep anyway). - Open Tab Session Manager
- Select this option when you want to Open the Tab Session Manager on startup.
- Tab Sessions should open in
-
- Existing Tabs
- Select this option when you want to open tab sessions in the existing tabs. This option will add new tabs when needed.
- New Tabs
- Select this option when you want to open tab sessions in new tabs.
- Ask me before opening
- Select this option when you want to be asked how the tabs should be opened. Here's a screenshot of this window:
- Restore Window Behavior
-
- Restore Complete Session
- Select this option when you want to restore the tab session including the window, toolbars, and sidebar settings.
- Restore Tab(s) Only
- Select this option when you only want to restore the tabs i.e. skip the optional window, toolbars and sidebar settings.
- Skip confirmation for restoring a 'Single Window Tab Session'
- Tick this checkbox when restoring a single window session on startup shouldn't ask for your confirmation.
- Close all Unrelated Tabs
- Tick this checkbox when restoring tab sessions should be done in exclusive mode i.e. close all unrelated automatically.
- Ignore 'Navigator Startup' settings from the Navigator preference panel
- Tick this checkbox when newly opened windows for tab sessions shouldn't open other tabs, like your homepage(s).
Confirmation Settings Panel
- Confirmations Settings Panel
- The exit Confirmations which prevent accidental closure of the Tab Session Managers main window can be enabled/disabled on the following settings tab, or in the Tab Session Manager expander on the Confirmations preference panel in the Preference Manager.
- Confirmations before Exiting
- Tick the checkbox for which action you want to prevent accidental closure. These options are pretty much self-explanatory so they do not require further explanation. Here's a screenshot of such confirmation window:
- Skip Save Confirmations
- Tick this checkbox if you don't want to confirm changes but like to save hem silently. Here's a screenshot of this confirmation window:
Miscellaneous Settings Panel
- Miscellaneous Settings Panel
- The Miscellaneous settings panel contains the settings for which we didn't want to add a specific settings panel, but the settings can be very useful. Here's a screenshot of this settings panel:
- Display selected tab in session as:
- You can change the style of the selected tab with this option. The default setting is Bold.
- Keep Quick Tab Selection Menu open after selections
- Tick this checkbox when you don't want to close the Quick Tab Selection Menu. This menu can be opened from the back/forward buttons (keyboard and mouse) and contains all tabs of this session.
- Note: you can open this menu with Ctrl+Click on the back/forward button, or with Ctrl+Space when the back or forward button is focused.
Session Saver Confirmation Window
- Session Saver Confirmation Window
- MultiZilla's save behavior can be setup on the Save Behavior settings panel, or on the Tab Sessions preference panel in the Preference Manager, and one of the options is to open the following window:
- The following options are available
-
- Add new session
- Select this option when you don't want to save the open tabs as a tab session. The text on the accept button will be set to Replace Session.
- Replace previously saved session
- Select this option when you want to replace a previously saved session with the open tabs. The window that triggered this confirmation window will be highlighted (gray in the above screenshot), but you can select one of the other available tab sessions. The text on the accept button will be set to Replace Session.
- Merge with a previsouly saved session
- Select this option when you want to add the open tabs with a previsouly saved tab session. The window that triggered this confirmation window wil be highlighted (gray in the above screenshot), but you can select one of the other available tab sessions. The text on the accept button will be set to Merge Sessions.
- Don't add, update or merge sessions
- Select this option when you don't want to save the open tabs. The text on the accept button button will be set to Skip Session Saving.
- Remarks
- The Replace Session button in the above example (see screenshot) will replace all tabs of the Defense Visual Information Center tab session with the currently open tabs, but the session identified by urn:session-1:window-0:tabs:root can be selected instead, and that will replaced the tabs of this tab session. Using the Cancel button instead of the accept button will keep this window/browser session open/active and won't save the currently open tabs.