ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Firefox has a new feature called Mini Window.
- With Mini Window, you can pop out pages from Firefox.
- Mini Windows hover over Firefox tabs, so they can be easily referenced.
The developers at Mozilla are always hard at work to make Firefox the most useful browser on the market. To that end, they’ve added a new feature (still in beta), called Mini Window. I started using Mini Window as soon as it appeared in Firefox Nightly, and I’ve been very happy with how it performs.
What is the Mini Window feature?
The idea behind the Firefox Mini Window feature is simple: allow users to move a currently open tab (or a section of a tab) into a separate mini window. Think of it as moving a tab from one window to what appears like a web app. Essentially, I can move a page (or section) into what looks like a browser window, minus the browser bits. At first blush, there’s no address bar, controls, scroll bar, or anything else that would normally be associated with Firefox. The Mini Window appears to be a web app, without having to actually create it.
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However, when I hover my cursor inside the Mini Window, I do see the address bar, the back/foward/reload buttons, and the window close button– and that’s it. The browser gets out of your way, so the only thing I see is the content.
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On top of that (pun intended), the Mini Window stays on top of other Firefox windows, so I can have that popped-out content always in focus while I work on other things. This feature comes in handy when I’m working with limited display space (say, on a laptop) and need to reference a page while working on another. For multitasking, it comes in very handy.
How do you use Mini Window?
Using the Firefox Mini Window feature is quite simple, but until the feature comes out of beta, it can only be found in Firefox Nightly. I’ve been using Nightly as my default browser on both Linux and MacOS for some time now and have yet to run into a problem (YMMV).
For those who don’t want to risk using a potentially less-than-stable alpha version of Firefox, know that the Mini Window feature is slated to move to stable on November 10. Update Firefox on that day and can start enjoying the feature without upgrading to Nightly.
Until then, you can test Mini Window by installing Firefox Nightly, which can run alongside the stable Firefox release.
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Once I installed Nightly, there was nothing more to do. I didn’t have to enable Mini Window, as it’s already there. I simply had to right-click on an open tab and select Move Tab > Move to Mini Window.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNETOnce I did that, the mini window popped out and hovered over Firefox. If I hovered my cursor over the mini window, the address bar and title bar for the window appeared, so I could drag the pop-up to wherever I needed.
Jack Wallen/ZDNETI could also open a specific section of a tab in a Mini Window. To do that, I highlighted the section in question, right-clicked the section, and then clicked Move Section to Mini Window.
When would you use Mini Window?
Let’s say I’m writing a paper on Linux and need to read a particular article for background information. I could have my document open in the main window, and then open the article in question in a Mini Window. I could then reference the article without having to click back and forth between them — even when working on a smaller display.
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Here’s another use case I’ve found: When using MacOS’s Stage Manager feature, I only have one window available at a time. The Mini Window bypasses that limitation, so I can have my main browser window focused as well as the page open in the Mini Window.
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNETAnother handy way I like to use Mini Window is to open a favorite search engine, move it to a Mini Window, and then I have an always-ready search tool at my fingertips. I could also open my favorite AI service and use it in the same way.
Does Chrome have a similar feature?
The closest thing Chrome has to Mini Window is Picture-in-Picture mode and the Mini Player. The caveat to Chrome’s feature is that those two options are only used for video and media playback. The next closest thing Chrome has is the ability to save a website as a web app, which you could then open alongside the main Chrome window. That feature, however, isn’t nearly as flexible as Firefox’s Mini Window option, and it’s not guaranteed to always hover over the main window.
