Stay-Open Menu -- Firefox Extension

Stay-Open Menu is a extension created for Firefox® to keep the Bookmarks Menu open when middle-clicking, to enable easily opening multiple items in tabs. I find it especially handy for RSS feed (Live Bookmark) items.

View typical usage images

Stay-Open Menu works with Firefox 3.0 and newer; it is not compatible with older Firefox versions. For use with Firefox 2, you might want to try the no longer maintained middleclicknocollapse extension currently hosted at remarqs.net. I am in no way associated with middleclicknocollapse or it's author, but I have used it in the past and it worked fine for me.

If you are looking for Firefox 3, click the button to the left, to visit the mozilla site to download it.

As addons.mozilla.org (AMO) provides a secure server (https), all downloads (except for 'Experimental Version') are directed to that location. Older versions can be found at the AMO location as well. View Stay-Open Menu at AMO.

Additional Usage Notes

• Middle-clicking each bookmarked item in the Bookmarks Menu will open it in a tab, while leaving the menu open for further selections. (Left-click the desired menu to open it, find the items you wish to open, then middle-click each desired item to open it in a tab.) If you are using Stay-Open Menu 1.5 and have turned on the autoclosing option, just move the mouse away from the menu when you are done making selections. Otherwise, click somewhere outside the menu (or press ESC) to close the menu.
• Also works in the same way with the Bookmarks Toolbar. This applies to the new 'Smart Bookmarks' as well, since by default it is a folder residing in the Bookmarks Toolbar.
• Same functionality in History Menu.
• Middle-clicking a bookmarks folder will open all contained bookmarks in tabs and leave the menu open.
• Middle-clicking "Open All in Tabs" and "Open (Feed Name)" also keeps the menu open.
• Added in version 1.4: Also works on the Smart Location Bar (aka awesomebar) dropdown list
• Added in version 1.4: Option to use Ctrl-click (Meta-click on Mac) in addition to middle-click (see below). Handy for laptop computers and those who have set their middle-mouse button system-wide to another function instead of the default 'middle-click'.
• New!  Added in version 1.5: User interface for Options (Tools > Add-ons > Stay-Open Menu > Options). Ctrl-click is now enabled by default, but may be disabled if desired.
• New!  Added in version 1.5: Option (enable via Options - see previous item) to automatically close when mouse moves off menu, after middle-clicking (or ctrl-clicking if that option selected). Also great for when you only wanted to middle-click one item!
• New!  Added in version 1.5: Works with Toolbar Buttons Bookmarks Menu Button
• New!  Added in version 1.5: Compatibility with LiveClick extension (For best compatibility update LiveClick to version 0.3.4.0 or later)
• The Bookmarks Sidebar stays open by default even without this extension, but I prefer the Bookmarks Menu because I like the way the folders automatically open when hovered.
• If you are using an extension such as 'Hide Menubar', or another method (theme?) to suppress the display of the menubar, you may need to press a specified key ('Alt' ?) in order to see the menubar as shown in the above screenshot. I don't hide the menubar since I prefer it to the sidebar. I just combine it with the Bookmarks Toolbar to save space (see screenshot).
• For more details on version-specific changes see the versions page at AMO. For version 1.5.1, see below.

Notes on the Boox-related feature in 1.5.1

• Menu stays open when clicking the "Mark as read" items added by the Boox extension.
• Feature implemented only when used with Boox version 2.0. (new since beta - prevents possible issues with untested versions) It does not work with Boox 2.5beta. Support for Boox 2.5 is planned for Stay-Open Menu 1.5.2.
• Option must be enabled via Tools > Add-ons > Stay-Open Menu > Options. (new since beta)
• When all items in the folder (feed) have been 'read', that popup (list of those items) will be closed.
• The author of Boox has indicated that he may add this functionality to Boox at some future time.

Details of how Stay-Open Menu works on Smart Location Bar

• Middle-click as many items as you'd like before closing the dropdown list. Each item gets opened in a new background tab. If you shift-middleclick the last item (or all the items), they stay in background, otherwise the last one you open becomes the foreground tab when you exit dropdown.
• You can exit dropdown via the autoclosing feature, if enabled (version 1.5 only), or by clicking outside the dropdown/location bar, pressing ESC, or left-clicking an item in the list. If you exit via left-clicking, that item loads in the current tab, and that current tab remains in the foreground.
• If Ctrl-click is enabled, it will also work on the Smart Location Bar.
• This enhancement only applies to the new "awesomebar" dropdown which is used by default with Firefox 3.

How to enable/disable Ctrl-click option
These instructions are for version 1.4 only; in version 1.5, just access via Tools > Add-ons > Stay-Open Menu > Options.

1. Open about:config. (How do I do that?)
2. Agree to the "Be Careful" prompt, if it appears.
3. In the textbox labeled 'Filter', type stayopen and press ENTER.
4. extensions.stayopenmenu.useCtrlMeta will appear.
5. Right click it and select 'Toggle' to change its value from false to true (true to false to disable).
6. Close the about:config tab and restart Firefox. (Change will not take effect until Firefox has been restarted. If you have problems getting it to work, double-check that you have indeed restarted Firefox.)
7. Now you can Ctrl-(left)click items to keep menu open.

Known Issues

Bug: Using History > 'Recently Closed Tabs' to open multiple items before closing the menu works incorrectly (incorrect tabs get opened). A fix is being planned for the next version.

If you have installed the Show Keywords extension, there is a conflict that causes multiple selections from the Smart Location Bar, to not work correctly (the dropdown will not stay open). Because Firefox 3.5 (yet to be released) has Show Keywords functionality built-in, I recommend uninstalling (or disabling) the 'Show Keywords' extension, if you are using Firefox 3.1 or later, to avoid the conflict.

Changed options sometimes require restarting firefox before they take effect (AFAIK, only when used with Firefox versions 3.1 and later). This is being investigated; for now, try restarting firefox if option changes have no effect.

Stay-Open Menu 1.4 is not compatible with the Personal Menu extension (versions prior to 4.1.3; try updating to the latest version of Personal Menu). Stay-Open Menu 1.2, (available from the versions page at AMO) and Stay-Open Menu 1.5 are compatible with Personal Menu.

If you turned on the Ctrl-click functionality in version 1.4 and then update to 1.5; you must toggle that entry back off to avoid leaving a harmless but unnecessary item in about:config (extensions.stayopenmenu.useCtrlMeta - See above for how to toggle). Ctrl-click in 1.5 can be enabled/disabled through Options and does not use the same about:config entry.

Visit addons.mozilla.org to Install Stay-Open Menu

Contact me with any questions/problems/comments or leave rating at its addons.mozilla.org location. A forum is available at the mozillazine site. If you cannot get the extension to work at all, see the FAQ.

View another extension by same author