I recently switched back to Firefox as my main browser—I like to change default browsers regularly—after I finally discovered a Vimium clone that is comparable to the experience on Chrome (VimFx if you’re interested). But whenever I come back to Firefox from Chrome there are a few minor differences that annoy me. I’m still waiting for Firefox’s built-in per tab audio muting, but at least it’s coming, and Noise Control will do for now.
The one thing I can’t get past, however, is that the Ctrl + F “find in page” function (known as the find bar) appears at the bottom of the window. Chrome, by comparison, sticks it at the top right, which is far more functional if you ask me. Searching a page for a keyword is something I need to do every day in order to quickly find information in a press release, blog post, or news story. It helps to have the find bar exactly where I need it.
Luckily, Firefox has a healthy add-on catalog to solve this minor, but nagging, problem. There are a few add-ons that change how you search a page, but the one I settled on is FindBar Tweak. Even better, this add-on lets you search for keywords across all open tabs at once.
Simply installing the add-on from Mozilla’s catalog doesn’t change the placement of the Firefox find bar. To do that you have to dive into the add-on’s settings.
Type about:addons into the Firefox address bar, press Enter, and then click Options next to FindBar Tweak’s listing. This opens the add-on’s options in a new tab. Click on Appearance in the left-hand navigation panel, then click the two check boxes under “Findbar Position.” The first is called “Move to the top of the browser” and the second is “Place on the right.”
FindBar Tweak lets you search multiple tabs at once by clicking “Find All.”
Once that’s done, you’ll have a new find bar that’s not quite the same as Chrome’s, but close enough. In fact, it might even be a little bit better. One of FindBar Tweak’s added features is that it lets you search multiple tabs at once. Typically searching a page applies only to the tab you’re on, disregarding the others.
To use this feature, search for a keyword on a page as you normally would, then click Find All in the find bar drop down. This will open a left hand navigation panel. Click the Show Tabs option there and you’ll see your search reflected across multiple tabs at once.