Mouse Gestures Suite

Main Options

Table of contents:

General Preferences
Gestures Customization
Advanced Prefs #1
Advanced Prefs #2
Exporting, importing Mouse Gesture preferences & restoring defaults

General Preferences

Enable - enable/disable main features:

Mouse gestures - performed by moving the mouse with a button depressed allow you to quickly navigate through pages, open/close tabs and windows and perform many other commands without having to use toolbar buttons, menus or keyboard shortcuts. By default they are used by keeping the right mouse button down and drawing gesture shape in one of four directions: up, right, down or left. After releasing the mouse button the gesture function is executed. If you started drawing a gesture and want to cancel it just stop moving the mouse and wait a moment before releasing the mouse button (the timeout is configurable in General Preferences) – the gesture trail will appear bleaker and the status bar information will end with [X], which are visual signs that timeout has been reached and the gesture will be aborted if you do not continue drawing. Mouse gestures are available in browser, messenger, page source and mail compose windows. In some windows the range of available actions is limited - see Gestures Customization table for details.
Rocker gestures - invoked by pressing one mouse button and then the other while keeping the first one pressed. By default used to go back and forward in browsing history but can be assigned to any gesture function. To customize these gestures, go to the gesture customization tab, select the gesture (at the end of the table) and click the Edit function button. Then clicking on any row will assign the function of the clicked row to the gesture. Rocker gestures are available in browser, messenger, page source and mail compose windows. In some windows the range of available actions is limited - see Gestures Customization table for details.

Functions which have a repetitive nature can be repeated without releasing the trigger button. The Allow repetition for actions that load pages advanced preference controls the repeatability of functions that load pages.
Scroll wheel in tab bar - you can switch between tabs by scrolling mouse wheel over the tab bar. This feature is available in browser windows only.
Scroll wheel navigation - perform your favorite actions by pressing a mouse button and scrolling mouse wheel at the same time. This feature is complete in browser windows only. It also works in messenger and page source windows only if Perform Gesture Actions option is selected.
Middle button scrolling - auto scroll pages or textareas by clicking the middle mouse button once (pressing and releasing) and then control the scrolling speed by moving the mouse or using arrow keys – this is similar to built-in autoscroll available in SeaMonkey or Firefox but with some additions. Grab and Drag options allow you to scroll by moving the mouse while the middle button is depressed. This feature is available in browser, mail and view message windows.
Link tooltip - see details about links as you hover over them with your mouse. Useful especially for browsing without the status bar like in full screen mode. This feature is available in browser windows only.

Mouse Gestures: Prefs - customize trail color for mouse gestures.

Link Tooltip: Prefs - options for customizing link tooltips, available only when link tooltips are enabled.

Scroll Wheel Navigation - options available when scroll wheel navigation is enabled. To use scroll wheel navigation scroll mouse wheel while keeping a mouse button pressed (the mouse button is defined in Advanced Prefs #1). Available options:

Perform Gesture Actions - perform actions defined in the Gestures Customization tab at the bottom of the list: Forward & Backward Scrollwheel Gesture. Any action from the list can be assigned by using the Edit function button.
Navigate through History - go forward/back. A list of pages in history will pop up and you will be able to choose one. The current tab's name will appear in bold, while the last visited tab will appear as underlined.
Navigate through Tabs - switch to next/previous tab. A list of all open tabs will pop up and you will be able to choose one to switch to.
History / Tabs based on initial rotation - either Navigate through History or Navigate through Tabs depending on the initial scroll wheel rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise).

Middle Button Scrolling - options available when middle button scrolling is enabled:

Mouse Gestures autoscroll - to scroll the page press and release the middle button and then move the mouse up or down. Stop autoscroll by clicking middle or left button. Once activated, autoscroll can also be controlled with arrow keys and stopped by pressing any other key. Autoscroll refresh rate can be configured in Advanced Prefs #2.
Native autoscroll - same as above except it uses the built-in mechanism in Seamonkey/Firefox instead of the one in this extension. This may result in faster and smoother scrolling, however keyboard navigation is not available. Choose the one that works better for you.
MG autoscroll + Grab and Drag - both Mouse Gestures autoscroll and Grab and Drag are enabled. To use Grab and Drag keep the middle button depressed and move the mouse up or down.
Grab and Drag scrolling - only Grab and Drag is enabled.

Gestures Customization

Some gestures can be initiated on browser tabs and then they will apply to the target tab even if it is not active. Here is the list of actions that can affect targeted tabs via gestures:

Close current Tab
Close Document
Close all other Tabs
Close Tabs to the Right
History Back
History Forward
Reload Document
Reload Document from Network
Stop Loading
Reload Frame (applies to top frame when invoked on tab)
Open new Tab in Foreground, Open new Tab in Background, Open blank Tab – location sensitive: new blank tab will be opened to the left or right of selected tab depending on which half of tab the gesture was started on
Duplicate Tab
Duplicate Window
Detach Tab to New Window
Detach Next Tab and Double Stack Windows
View Page Source
View Frame Source (applies to top frame when invoked on tab)
View Page Info
View Frame Info (applies to top frame when invoked on tab)
Save Page As...

The Shift key can be used with some gestures that open a new tab or window to reverse the opening in background versus foreground – just like you can use Shift for the same purpose when middle-clicking on links. For example, action Open new Tab in Foreground normally opens a new foreground tab but if performed with Shift pressed it will open a tab in background. Conversely, if an action opens a new tab/window in foreground then the Shift key will change it to open in background. Actions affected by the Shift key are marked in their descriptions below.

Column 'Available in' - shows in what window types the function is available:

br – browser window
src – view source window
msg – (SeaMonkey only) messenger window: main mail and message view windows (in the main mail window gestures work only in the message page)
mc – (SeaMonkey only) mail compose window

Function	Available in	Description
History Back	br src msg	Go to previous page in history. Equivalent to the browser back button.
History Forward	br src msg	Go to next page in history. Equivalent to the browser forward button.
Reload Document	br src msg	Reload page (same as Control+R or F5).
Reload Document from Network	br src msg	Force reload from network (same as Control+Shift+R).
Stop Loading	br msg	Stop loading page.
Reload Frame	br src msg	Reload frame under gesture or reload page if no frame was detected.
Reload All Tabs	br
Open new Tab in Foreground	br src msg mc	Open new tab or open link in new tab if a link was found under gesture. Behavior of this action is affected by advanced preference 'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture. If you initiate the gesture on a tab then a new tab will be opened next to the selected tab (by default new blank tabs open at the right end). If initiated on the right half of the tab the new tab will open to the right. If initiated on the left half – it will open to the left of the tab. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Open new Tab in Background	br src msg mc	Open new background tab or open link in new background tab if a link was found under gesture. Behavior of this action is affected by advanced preference 'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture. If you initiate the gesture on a tab then a new tab will be opened next to the selected tab. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Open blank Tab	br src msg mc	Open blank tab. If you initiate the gesture on a tab then a new tab will be opened next to the selected tab (by default new blank tabs open at the right end). If initiated on the right half of the tab the new tab will open to the right. If initiated on the left half – it will open to the left of the tab.
Duplicate Tab	br msg	Open current page in new tab. In Mail/News: open selected message in new tab. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Duplicate Window	br src msg	Open current page in new window. In Mail/News: open selected message in new window. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Detach Tab to New Window	br	Move tab from current window to a new window. Tab history, scroll position and zoom level are preserved. Works only if two or more tabs are open in current window.
Detach Next Tab and Double Stack Windows	br	Detach next tab to new window and place both windows side by side each covering half of the screen. Useful if you have two pages open in two tabs and want to view them side by side. The window with the current tab will be positioned on the left half of the screen whereas the new window with the page from the next tab (to the right) will be positioned on the right half of the screen. If the rightmost tab is active then this action will work for the active tab and for the one to the left.
Open new Window in Foreground	br src msg mc	Open new window or open link in new window if a link was found under gesture. Behavior of this action is affected by advanced preference 'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Open new Window in Background	br src msg mc	Open new background window or open link in new background window if a link was found under gesture. Behavior of this action is affected by advanced preference 'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Open Private Window	br src msg mc	Open new private window or open link in new private window if a link was found under gesture. Behavior of this action is affected by advanced preference 'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window.
Double Stack in new Window	br src msg	Open link in new window: the opener window and the new window are positioned side by side, each covering half of the screen. If no link has been found under performed gesture then the new window will be blank.
Previous Tab	br msg	Go to tab to the left. This action will wrap around if run on the leftmost tab.
Next Tab	br msg	Go to tab to the right. This action will wrap around if run on the rightmost tab.
Last Tab	br msg	Go to rightmost tab.
Return to Previous Selected Tab	br	Go to last focused tab.
Close current Tab	br msg	Close tab. If run on page with one tab it will leave the browser window open with one blank tab.
Close all other Tabs	br
Close Tabs to the Right	br
Undo Close Tab	br
Close Document	br src msg mc	Close current tab. Close window if only one tab is open.
Open Selection in new Tab	br src msg mc	If a web address is selected then open it in new tab. Otherwise search for selected text in new tab. If no text is selected then the page of default search engine is opened. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window (SeaMonkey only).
Search for Selection in new Tab/Window	br src msg mc	Perform web search using default search engine in new tab or window (depending on browser settings). If no text is selected then the page of default search engine is opened. Shift key can be used to reverse foreground<–>background opening of tab/window (SeaMonkey only).
Open Links in Tabs	br src msg	All links that you have drawn the gesture over will be opened in new tabs. The default gesture for this action is +RU (=any gesture sequence-Right-Up), which allows you to draw a long path in any shape over the links you want to open and then finish the gesture with Right-Up.
Open Links in Windows	br src msg	All links that you have drawn the gesture over will be opened in new windows. If you enable 'Open Links in Windows': Single new window with tabs option in advanced preferences then this action will open one new window and load all links in separate tabs. The default gesture for this action is +RUL (=any gesture sequence-Right-Up-Left), which allows you to draw a long path in any shape over the links you want to open and then finish the gesture with Right-Up-Left.
Open Favorite Bookmark #1	br src msg mc	Load favorite bookmark with keyword fav1.
Open Favorite Bookmark #2	br src msg mc	Load favorite bookmark with keyword fav2.
Double Stack 2 Windows	br src msg mc	This action allows you to view any two open windows side by side. It takes the current window and previously focused window and places them side by side each covering half of the screen. Works for all kinds of windows (Browser, Source View, Mail & Mail Compose) and their combinations.
Restore or Maximise Window	br src msg mc
Minimize Window	br src msg mc
Close Window	br src msg mc
Full Screen	br src msg mc	Opens browser in full screen mode. For non-browser windows it does the same thing as Restore or Maximise Window.
Load Home Page	br src msg mc
Scroll to top of page	br src msg
Scroll to bottom of page	br src msg
Scroll Down	br src msg	Scroll down one page.
Scroll Up	br src msg	Scroll up one page.
Go Up to parent directory / domain	br	Treat the URL of current page as a directory and change it so that it points to the directory one level up. For example, page at http://animals.example.com/category/dogs will be subsequently converted to the following URLs: http://animals.example.com/category/ http://animals.example.com/ http://example.com/
Go to First Page in History	br	Go to first page in history of current tab/window.
Increase Text Size	br src msg	Increase text size on the page. Size of graphics and other elements will also be increased if your browser is set up to zoom full pages.
Decrease Text Size	br src msg	Decrease text size on the page. Size of graphics and other elements will also be decreased if your browser is set up to zoom full pages.
Reset Text Size	br src msg
Double Image Size	br msg	Increase image size (will not work on background images).
Halve Image Size	br msg	Decrease image size (will not work on background images).
Reset Image Size	br msg
Save Image As...	br msg	Save image as file (asks for location on disk).
Save Image	br msg	Save image as file directly to download folder without prompting for location. For this to work as expected make sure you set up a default location for downloads in browser preferences.
Zoom In on Image/Text	br src msg	If performed over image zoom in the image. Otherwise zoom in text on page (along with graphics and other elements depending on your browser settings).
Zoom Out on Image/Text	br src msg	If performed over image zoom out the image. Otherwise zoom out text on page (along with graphics and other elements depending on your browser settings).
Reset Image/Text Size	br src msg	If performed over image reset the image size. Otherwise reset text size on page (along with graphics and other elements depending on your browser settings).
Open Image in new Tab	br src msg	Open image in new tab. This works for background images, too.
Open Image in new Window	br src msg	Open image in new window. This works for background images, too.
Hide Object	br msg	Hide any object (html element) on page.
Undo Hide Object	br msg	Undo hide last object. This will also work for multiple hidden objects one by one.
Hide Flash Animations	br	Hide all flash objects on page. Later you can click each one to show it again.
View Page Source	br msg	Open Page Source.
View Frame Source	br msg	View frame source. If there is no frame under gesture then view page source.
View Cookies	br	Show cookies on current site.
Delete Cookies from this site	br	Delete cookies on current site.
View Page Info	br	Open Page Info window.
View Frame Info	br	View frame info. If there is no frame under gesture then view page info.
View Javascript Console	br src msg mc	Show error console. In Firefox – show web console.
Add Bookmark	br	Bookmark current page.
Validate this Document	br	Validate page online at validator.w3.org.
Translate this document	br	Translate page at translate.google.com.
Meta Info	br	View meta tags in page.
Open Bookmarks Manager	br src msg mc
Open Download Manager	br src msg mc
Show/Hide Sidebar/Folder Pane	br msg	SeaMonkey: show or hide sidebar. In Mail/News: show or hide Folder Pane. Firefox: show or hide bookmarks sidebar.
Show/Hide Status Bar	br src msg mc	Show or hide status bar. In Firefox this action will work for status bar or add-on bar only if you have Status-4-Evar or Classic Theme Restorer extension installed.
Copy URL to Clipboard	br
Open URL from Clipboard in new Tab	br
Increment digit in URL	br	Increment number in URL (for example, page number). If there are multiple numbers you will be asked to choose which number to increment.
Decrement digit in URL	br	Decrement number in URL. If there are multiple numbers you will be asked to choose which number to decrement.
Clear digit flipper	br	Forget your choice about which number to increment/decrement in URL. Next time you will be asked again which number to increment/decrement.
Save Links to Disk	br src msg	Save all links under gesture to disk.
Print Preview	br src msg
Print	br src msg mc
Save Page As...	br src msg mc
Show my gestures in new tab	br	Show your gesture definitions in new tab.
Open Mouse Gestures Suite Options	br src msg mc
Follow Next Link	br	Link that contains one of the strings defined in Advanced Prefs #1 will be followed. The next strings are delimited with \|. Useful for navigating to the next page on a site.
Follow Previous Link	br	Link that contains one of the strings defined in Advanced Prefs #1 will be followed. The previous strings are delimited with \|. Useful for navigating to the previous page on a site.
Back to Last Page of Previous Domain	br	This will go back in history of current tab to the last page of the previous site you were viewing.
Back to First Page of Current Domain	br	This will go back in history of current tab to the first page of the site you are viewing. If you are already on the first page of the site then this will move you to the first page of the previous site in history.
Fast Forward	br	This acts like the normal History Forward function as far as there are pages in forward history. Once at the end, it acts like the Follow Next Link function.
Forward to First Page of Next Domain	br	This will go forward in history of current tab to the first page of the next site.
Forward to Last Page of Current Domain	br	This will go forward in history of current tab to the last page of the site you are viewing. If you are already on the last page of the site then this will move you to the last page of the next site in history.

Left Rocker Gesture	br src msg mc	Press Edit function button to assign any function to the rocker or scroll wheel gestures.
Right Rocker Gesture	br src msg mc
Backward Scrollwheel Gesture	br src msg
Forward Scrollwheel Gesture	br src msg

Custom Functions

Apart from running one of the built-in functions you can create your own functions to be executed with mouse gestures — use the Add Custom Function button for this. You can use custom function to either invoke a menu item in the browser or mail component, or to run your own script. Detailed description of how custom functions work can be found here.

Advanced Prefs #1

Trigger button - choose which mouse button will be used for mouse gestures and scroll wheel navigation.

Mouse Gesture Actions - define behavior of some gesture actions:

'Open Links in Windows': Single new window with tabs - Open Links in Windows will open one new window with each link in separate tab.
'Open new Tab/Window' opens link under performed gesture - determines whether these functions will open links in new windows/tabs.
Open new blank tab next to current one - actions Open new Tab in Foreground, Open new Tab in Background and Open blank Tab will open blank tabs next to the current tab. By default SeaMonkey and Firefox open blank tabs at the end of all tabs – with this setting you can change this behavior for mouse gestures. Please note that opening links is not affected by this setting; by default links are opened next to the current tab anyway, which is controlled by the browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent config.
'Go Up to parent ...' / 'Load Home Page': Open in new tab - open new tab when performing these functions.
Rocker & Scrollwheel gestures: Allow repetition for actions that load pages - functions which have a repetitive nature (like switching tabs, going back/forward) can be repeated without releasing the trigger button. This also applies to actions: Close Document, Close current Tab and Undo Close Tab.

Tab scrolling - enabled to reverse scrolling direction of tabs if Scroll wheel in tab bar is enabled.

Script blocking on web pages

Disable ClickHeat scripts - ClickHeat by Labsmedia (at http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html) is a javascript library for collecting mouse clicks on web pages and then presenting them on a clicks heatmap. The problem is that this particular library has an inherent flaw in that it locks up the browser for half a second after every mouse click by performing a CPU-intensive loop that really does nothing apart from waiting. This short browser lock-up is enough to interfere with mouse gesture detection since the extension can't really trace mouse movements during that time. By enabling this option ClickHeat will be disabled on the sites you visit. If ClickHeat has been detected and suppressed then after every mouse button press the status bar will show message ClickHeat disabled!. A side effect of this will be that your clicks will not be sent over to the site owner but you can actually treat it as an advantage! This option is disabled by default because it affects the behavior of web pages you visit and can potentially cause some other side effects (but that is very unlikely - ClickHeat is detected by the presence of catchClickHeat() javascript function on web pages). Turn it on for best mouse gesture experience.

Note: In multi-process Firefox it is no longer necessary to disable bad scripts in order to get rid of gesture delays because gesture drawing happens in a separate process from web page scripts so those scripts do not block mouse gestures.

Advanced Prefs #2

Middle Button Scrolling - define options for middle button scrolling. Availability of most of these options depend on which type of middle button scrolling is enabled in the General Preferences.

Site specific behavior - here you can define rules for special handling of mouse gestures on specified sites and web pages. For each web address (URL) you can define the following actions:

Prioritize gestures - use this on sites that cause delays in gesture execution. Some sites use scripts that do some 'heavy stuff' when you click anywhere in the web page and the browser gets locked up for a moment - even half a second lock-up is enough to interfere with comfortable gesture drawing. With this option you will be able to draw mouse gestures without delays, however the web page will become blind to your right clicks and middle clicks. Usually, this is not a problem but if a web page offers certain features when you right- or middle-click then these features will not work. Quite often the problematic pages are those containing scripts for tracking mouse clicks. Technical note: this setting will prevent mousedown and mouseup events for middle and right buttons from working on the site (on Linux contextmenu events are also suppressed).

Note: In multi-process Firefox it is no longer necessary to prioritize gestures in order to get rid of gesture delays because gesture drawing happens in a separate process from web page scripts so those scripts do not block mouse gestures. However, you can still use this preference to block scripts when drawing mouse gestures.
Disable gestures - use this for turning off mouse gestures completely on certain pages. Even if mouse gestures are turned off in this way in a web page they will still work if you initiate them on a tab. It is quite rare but it may happen that mouse gestures interfere with functionality of a web page, especially one that makes use of right- or middle-clicks.
Do nothing - mouse gestures will work normally, this option has the same effect as if you deleted the web site from the list but the entry is preserved for future use.

URL format and examples:

http://www.example.com/ or https://www.example.com/contact - full URLs like this will match exactly the page at given address and nothing else.
www.example.com/ (or www.example.com), or www.example.com/contact - same as above but if no protocol is given then this will match pages under any protocol like http:// or https://.
www.example.com/* - use this to match any page within the whole site/domain. The * character means "any number of characters or no characters at all".
http://www.example.com/*.html - this will match all pages at http://www.example.com/ whose URLs end with .html
http://www.example.com/about#contact - any targets specified with the hash character are ignored so it is the same as http://www.example.com/about.
*.example.com/* - this will match all subdomains of example.com. Please note this will not match example.com itself - you would need to add a separate entry for that.

When you visit a site for which a special rule has been defined you will see the information in the status bar when you press the right or middle mouse button anywhere within the page - it will read Prioritize gestures or Disable gestures depending on which option you have chosen.

Exporting, importing Mouse Gesture preferences & restoring defaults

Use the buttons in the Settings Management group in Advanced Prefs #2. These operations will apply to all mouse gesture settings including your gesture definitions and custom functions and scripts. Only the option "Middle-click pastes in text boxes" will not be exported because it's not really a Mouse Gestures Suite option, it's the built-in option of the browser (controlled by the hidden pref middlemouse.paste).