When you work on the Internet, a tabbed browser is a very useful tool. Working with a tabbed browser will save time on mundane daily tasks and will help to ensure you don't overlook any regular tasks. Tabbed browsers also have the advantage of being completely free and you can download one from the Internet in seconds.



Tabbed browsing allows you to open multiple web pages within a single browser window. Internet Explorer does not support tabbed browsing. Once you switch to a tabbed browser, you'll never go back to Internet Explorer.

With a tabbed browser you can arrange tasks in groups to suit what you need to do. For instance, if you submit advertisements to safe lists every Monday and Wednesday, you can save all the safe list website addresses in groups called Monday Ads" and "Wednesday Ads" (or any names you choose). Then, when Monday or Wednesday arrives, you just click on the appropriate group tab and all the websites will automatically open up in separate pages within your browser. You might have daily tasks to perform, such as checking your commission earnings or checking several email accounts or surfing several traffic exchanges. You can save these websites in separate groups.

When you surf traffic exchanges you will certainly feel the benefits of tabbed browsing. If you use traffic exchange advertising, you will want to make sure you don't overlook surfing any of the sites. Saving all your traffic exchange websites in a group (or groups if you surf a large number of sites) will mean you don't forget any and you will save time by accessing them with one click.

Choose one of the following tabbed browsers: Mozilla Firefox or Crazy Browser. There is a third fairly well-known tabbed browser called Avant Browser but it is less popular and I disliked it when I tried it out, so I never recommend it. Crazy Browser and Avant Browser are based on Internet Explorer and inherit Internet Explorer's weaknesses when it comes to letting in annoying pop-up advertisements. Firefox is a product of Mozilla.

Firefox is generally accepted to be the best tabbed browser for surfing traffic exchanges as it protects you from practically all pop-ups. Crazy Browser is better for editing websites through certain control panels. Another useful feature of Firefox is that it is compatible with the Google toolbar.

After you have downloaded a tabbed browser onto your computer, you can set up your groups.

In Crazy Browser this is done as follows:

1 Open a page ("tab") by clicking on the new page icon which is at the top left of the screen just under where it says "file". You can also use "Ctrl+N".

2 Type or paste in the address of one of your programmes to get the site on screen. Don't log in yet, you want it at your log in page each time you open it.

3 Click for another new tab and type or paste in another address.

4 When you have opened as many tabs as you want (up to 8 is most manageable) click on "groups".

5 In the drop down box click on the second choice - "Add all pages to a group".

6 Click on the "new folder" icon and give a name to the new group.

To add more sites to any particular group:

1 you do the same steps up to and including 4.

2 click on the first choice in the drop down menu, "Add to group" and select a group where you want to place the new site.

Later, it is simple to move sites from one group to another, delete them, rename groups etc. To do this simply click on "Groups" and select "Organise groups".

To Access Saved Groups you simply click on "Groups" then select the group you want to open from the drop down menu.

In Firefox, the procedure is virtually identical:

1 Open a new page by clicking "file" and then "new tab" from the drop down menu or by typing Ctrl+T.

2 Type or paste in the address of one of your programmes to get the site on screen. Don't log in yet, you want it at your log in page each time you open it.

3 Click for another new tab and do the same thing.

4 When you have opened as many tabs as you want (up to 8 is most manageable) click on "Bookmarks" on the toolbar.

5 Select "Bookmark all tabs" from the dropdown menu.

6 In the box that appears, click the far right arrow to show all bookmark folders, select "new folder" and type in the name you want to give the group.

To add more sites to any particular group:

1 you do the same steps up to and including 4.

2 click on the first choice in the drop down menu, "Bookmark this page" and select a group where you want to place the new site.

As with Crazy Browser, deleting moving, renaming etc is simple (click on "Bookmarks" and select "Manage bookmarks"), so you can keep your sites well organised.

To Access Saved Groups you click on "Bookmarks", scroll down to the group you want and click on "open in tabs" at the bottom of the list of urls.

When you open a group, all of your sites will automatically load within one browser window and you'll see the tabs for easy navigation. Once you have saved all the sites in groups, you can open them all at the same time and log in. With a tabbed browser and the help of Roboform to save your passwords, you can log in to your group of sites in a matter of seconds.

Copyright 2006 Elaine Currie