Extensions to manage gestures in Chrome and Firefox

Probably everyone had it so: first you do not understand why this thing is needed, and then you can not imagine your life without it (study, work, etc.). For me, one of these things was the management of mouse gestures. Fans of gesture management use more than 20 different combinations. But even 5-7 basic gestures can change the approach to solving everyday tasks in the browser.

Google Chrome

crxMouse

One of the most popular extensions to work with gestures in Google Chrome is crxMouse. We have already told about it to our readers. With its extensive functionality, crxMouse offers the user a wide range of options and settings. All actions with tabs can be performed with the help of gestures: close, open, update, move to the next / last or previous / first, scroll to the end or start, add to bookmarks, copy the address of the page … And that’s not the whole set.

Available in crxMouse and tools for working with links and images. A gesture can open a link in a new tab, a new window, a new private window, copy the text or address. For images, there are the commands “Open on new tab”, “Save”, “Copy URL”, “Select for subsequent copying to clipboard”.

It is not necessary to use preset gestures. You can assign any combination of mouse movements to any action. For advanced users are offered rocket-gestures and the ability to write their own scripts. The synchronization function makes your settings available on any device, and backups will save them in case of unforeseen situations. Among the shortcomings, it should be noted the lack of Russian language and the slowdown of work with all the included functions.

Gestures for Google Chrome

This extension is similar to crxMouse, but does not have much. For example, there are no gestures for working with images. But there are gestures for links and text, backup settings, the ability to write your own scripts. Extension is quite suitable for those who do not need to manipulate drawings. In addition, it works quickly.

The Russian language in Gestures for Google Chrome is also missing, but it does not cause any difficulties in handling the extension.

Mozilla Firefox

FireGestures

The most popular and most functional gesture control extension for Mozilla Firefox. Can do everything you need, and a little more. Any operations with tabs, gestures for text, links and images, gestures using the mouse wheel, rocket gestures – can be listed for a long time. If this is not enough for you, then on the developer’s site there are ready scripts for all occasions. The extension is translated into Russian, which greatly facilitates the setup.

The disadvantage is that you have to use a script to open an arbitrary link. To do this, click the “Add schema” button in the settings and copy the following text to the “Schema” field:

const URL = "//lifehacker.ru/";

const IN_NEW_TAB = true;

const IN_BACKGROUND = false;


if (IN_NEW_TAB)

gBrowser.loadOneTab (URL, null, null, null, IN_BACKGROUND, false);

else

gBrowser.loadURI (URL);

Instead //lifehacker.ru/ you enter the desired address, and in the “Gesture” field you specify the desired combination of mouse movements or simply draw a gesture at the bottom of the window. It looks, for example, like this.

Mouse Gestures Suite

As an alternative to FireGestures, you can pay attention to the extension Mouse Gestures Suite. It is the heir of the well-known All-in-One Gestures. Among the advantages of the expansion is quite a lot of functionality (including gestures for images and links and gestures using the mouse wheel), fast work, translation into Russian, backup settings.

Unfortunately, there are drawbacks. Some menu items are not translated, the settings are not divided into groups, and you can not find the right one right away. Significant drawback: it is not possible to configure the opening of an arbitrary URL by gesture. Mouse Gestures Suite can only open two selected bookmarks, but to take advantage of even this function, you’ll have to dig into the properties of the bookmarks. The rest is quite a worthy decision.