Add Send Link Via Email Back To Firefox Right Click Menu

How to add Send Link via email back to the Firefox right click context menu. Firefox 16 changed the right click (context) menu to remove the ‘Send Link’ option – this feature used to let you quickly send a web link via email (in an email program).

You can see the difference between the previous and the new context menu in the pictures we posted when reviewing Firefox 16 new features.

The stated aim of the change was to simplify the context menu – to make it easier to find more commonly used items (apparently Mozilla felt this feature wasn’t used very often). However, it has become clear from Firefox forums that many people did use this feature frequently – and want it back.

Whilst Mozilla are unlikely to backtrack on the change, despite user feedback, it is possible to add the feature back to the context menu using the following add-on:

Send Link In Context Menu – This add-on restores the ability to send a link via email – it requires no configuration so there are no options to worry about. Two points to note:

1. The entry added back to the context menu is called ‘Email Link’ not ‘Send Link’ but this is actually more logical for sending via email.

2. It puts the link in the body of the email – it doesn’t add the link text to the subject line as the old feature used to. You have to type the subject yourself (but I would imagine that many people probably used to anyway).

However, the add-on does the job and restores what many see as a useful feature. It is still much quicker than the only other alternative Mozilla have left us: right click and Copy the link location, open a new email then Paste the link location into the email…

FFsendlink
New ‘Email Link’ option added back

Download Send Link In Context Menu – Download from Mozilla Add-ons here. Install the add-on and restart Firefox – when you right click a web link you should see the new ‘Email Link’ option in the context menu.

Tip: you can still send someone the address of a web page (not a link) via email in Firefox by using the File menu or Firefox button then select Email Link.

Conclusion

Send Link In Context Menu adds back the ability for users to easily send web links via email. Note that ‘via email’ means using an email program – not webmail. This is the same as before – if you want to send a link via webmail you still need to manually copy and paste the link.

3 thoughts on “Add Send Link Via Email Back To Firefox Right Click Menu”

  1. The sequence “Alt -> F -> E” brings up the Menu Bar, then selects File and Email Link…
    This populates the subject line and puts the link in the body of the email. Although I would prefer the old right click option, it appears to me the same functionality is still present in Menu>File>Email Link.

    • They’re not quite the same though – Menu Bar method sends a link to the current web page, not to a link of your choice within that page

      e.g newspaper homepage – right click option lets you email a direct link to one of 50 stories on the page but Menu Bar option just sends the homepage address – recipient has no idea which story you were trying to link to

      Both methods can be useful but for different situations – thanks for the keyboard shortcut

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