I’ve been using Firefox 3.5 since the beta 4 release. Though the stable 3.5 has been out for a few weeks now, I hadn’t been able to feel fully upgraded until tonight.

There was one extension, that I use tons, that hasn’t been upgraded for the new version: Tab Clicking Options.

Most who’ve seen my use of tabs would consider “liberal” a conservative description of how I work with them. I’ve typically got 10-30 tabs open in a window, often with a couple windows open for different tasks. What Tab Clicking Options does for me is simple: 1. I can open a new blank tab directly next to an specific existing tab; and 2. I can duplicate any existing tab; 3. I can close a tab by double clicking it. The extension can do more, but two of these things allow me to drill into, and run with, a theme. If I’m researching something, I can create new tabs along that train of thought, and organize them adjacent to each other.

Tab Clicking Options was last updated on January 11, 2008, so after I turned blue holding my breath, I tried to figure out how I could work around it. The only other extension that worked similarly for me was Tab Mix Plus which hasn’t been updated in about a year. Thankfully the hack to get the extension running was in some of its recent reviews.

I simply downloaded the xpi file and extracted it using Stuffit Expander. I then made a simple edit to one of the files, changing the “maxVersion” of available Firefox versions to “3.6,” then recompressed the files using OS X’s built in archive functionality. When I went to install the extension, I got an error due to the “.zip” suffix being automatically appended to the file then hidden from my view. Once I’d deleted .zip the extension installed smoothly and now functions flawlessly.