Browser Window Lock
Browser feature request: I keep a lot of windows open on my desktop: word processing files, web pages (in one or more different browsing applications), e-mail, instant messages, other document files. More and more of my work is done using web applications inside a browser and, given my fumble-fingers, I often hit the keystroke for closing a window accidentally, consigning to oblivion a lot of work that's not easy to retrieve.I'd like a way to "lock" a browser window or tab so that it couldn't be closed without my confirming that's really what I want to do.
For example, I don't like the distraction of the radio while I'm working, so I often keep open a browser window to the nifty St. Louis Cardinals GameDay play-by-play webcast. But one slip of the thumb and it vanishes, leaving me to dig through the site to find it again and relaunch. Likewise with applications I'd love to keep open most of the time, such as Movable Type or GMail.
For now, my solution is inelegant: I do most of my browsing in Safari and keep Firefox running with my chosen web apps in the background. Still, at least once or twice a day, I manage to accidentally close windows in the wrong application. "D'oh!" has become a common utterance around my office.
Can't someone put in a checkbox that means "Don't close this window unless I both press Command-W and answer affirmatively to a dialog box? Or does this feature exist and I'm just missing it?
Comments:
Firefox has an extension that does something close. TabWarning confirms you want to close a window if it has more than one tab. There might be the specific extension you want but it's not listed in the extensions directory, or it could probably be created from the base of this extension.
Yeah, I looked at the Firefox extensions before posting this and didn't see anything exactly like what I want. Since I don't use Firefox as my primary browser, I'd really adore something that ran as part of Safari. But this seems like a feature with a lot of utility.
Given the increasing prevalence of web apps that benefit from persisting on the desktop, I'm surprised it's not part of the basic browser functionality by now.
You could use an app like FunKeys X to override the behavior of Command-W for Safari. Set it to "type text," and leave the text blank. That way, Command-W does nothing, and forces you to use your mouse.
I just tried it, and it works like a champ.
I could, but I hardly want to shell out $20 for a program to do something halfway like that. Besides, I want Command-W to work most of the time, just not when I don't.
*stamps little feet*
WHY CAN'T I GET WHAT I WANT?!
(Although, admittedly, if I try, sometimes, I find I get what I need. Not yet though.)
FunKeys X was just the first app listed in a cursory MacUpdate search. Perhaps Menu Master would better suit your needs. It'll allow you to re-map the "close" shortcut to something else, like Command-Shift-W.
Mozilla with Multizilla.
http://mozilla.org
http://multizilla.mozdev.org
Multizilla is the originator of the tabbed concept, and they still do it the best. They are the moving target that other tabbed interfaces dream of during REM sleep. You can configure Mozilla so that you can save "sessions" (clusters of tabs) and then keep your six (say) favourite sites as a tab set that opens at launch. Additionally you can set it so that it asks you if you want to save your existing tab session any time you close a window, which has the side effect of letting you cancel the close.
Multizilla does not (yet) work with Firefox, and is the reason that Mozilla is my browser of choice. Safari ain't there yet, and Firefox is still a pre-number-one beta.
The latest beta of Opera has a feature where you can re-open closed pages. It will thus get back the URL that you had surfed down to. It probably won't have the unsubmitted forms in it of.
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Brad L. Graham is a writer, editor, riverboat gambler, fashion consultant, softshoe dancer, professional assassin, freelance factotum and singer of sentimental ballads.The BradLands is his home on the web. 
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