Tabbed browsing is a wonderful tool available in many popular browsers  In Firefox, you can load websites in separate tabs
of a single browser window, so you can jump between them quickly and
easily. Perhaps you're showing your students an excellent website about the rainforest and would like to take attendance without losing your rainforest website. With
tabbed browsing, you can do this without filling your desktop with new,
unorganized browser windows. With drag and drop reordering, you
can also rearrange your tabs however you like.

Firefox also has a nice feature because you can add no extra "extensions" that allow your to modify the browser to suit your own requirements.  A great feature that enhances efficiency in the classroom is an extension called "Colorful Tabs."  This feature uses the tabbed browsing component of Firefox and enhances it by automatically giving each new tab a different color.  Now, when working in your classroom, it is even easier to remember which tabs contain which sites.  For example, you may remember tha the pink tab was GradeSpeed and you just need to click on it to instantly find the GradeSpeed program.

Let's walk through the process of tabbed browsing as well as adding the Colorful Tab feature. 

Tabbed Browsing 

To use this feature, you have two choices.   You may use the Firefox Toolbar or you may use the tab symbol.

Firefox Toolbar Method

To use this process, follow these steps:

1. Click on "File."  A drop-down box will open.


2. Click on "New Tab."


3. A new tab will open in your browser window.  Click on that tab.


4. Visit the website of your choice.


5. Repeat the process to open more tabs.
   
   

Tab Symbol Method

 To use this process, follow these steps:

1. Click on the tab iconin the browser bar.


2. A new tab will open.


3. Click on that tab.


4. Visit the website of your choice.


5. Repeat the process to open more tabs.

Colorful Tabs

To add the colorful tab extension to your browser, follow these steps:

1. Click on Tools.


2. Click on Add-Ons.


3. A new window will open.  Click on "Get Extensions" in the lower right corner of the new window.
   
   


4. A new window will open.
   
   


5. In the "Search" box, type Colorful Tabs.  Click Search.


6. Click on the title "Colorful Tabs" in the window.  A new window will open.


7. Click "Install Now."


8. Click "Accept and Install."


9. Once installed, you will need to restart Firefox for the extension to work.