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I'd like to hide the tab bar when there's only one tab opening. Because I open 4 windows so 4 tab bar actually takes quite a lot screen real estate.

I use Google Chrome the Linux version.

Kurt Liu
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4 Answers4

42

Here's a piece of javascript you can put into your browser's omnibox or into a bookmark: 

javascript:window.open(location.href, "detab", "toolbar=0"); window.close()

This will open a new window with your current page without tabs and close the current page.

drnessie
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  • +1 Thanks! I'm surprised no one has upvoted this yet. – Frank Oct 12 '13 at 05:33
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    For this to work for me (window is not closing but other window is opening) on Chrome 42 on OS X 10.11, I need to make sure "javascript:" is on the front and "window.close()" has a trailing semicolon. – Joseph Hansen Dec 15 '15 at 23:35
  • `window.close()` doesn't work on Chromium 97. It fails with the error message: *Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by them.* You can still use the first command to open a new window without tab bar and then close the old one manually. – Saftius Feb 03 '22 at 06:36
  • on Ubuntu you get the system bar, so you don't gain any space – daslicious Mar 24 '22 at 19:53
  • 2022 - This solution no longer seems to "detab" the chrome instance. – Nate-Wilkins Nov 16 '22 at 22:42
19

To make the javascript snippet from @drnessie's answer easily accessible, do the following:

  1. right-click on the omnibar and select "Edit Search Engines"
  2. Add a new entry under "Other Search Engines" with the following fields:
    • Name: Hide tab bar
    • Keyword: ht
    • URL: javascript:window.open(location.href, "detab", "toolbar=0"); window.close()
  3. To open the current tab in a new window without tab bar simply hit Ctrl-L to focus the ominbar, type ht and hit Return
kynan
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    For this to work for me (window is not closing but other window is opening) on Chrome 42 on OS X 10.11, I need to make sure "javascript:" is on the front and "window.close()" has a trailing semicolon. – Joseph Hansen Dec 15 '15 at 23:35
  • Actually, now I can't get this search engine hack to work. No matter the differences I mentioned in my last comment, I cannot get the original tab to close after opening the new window. – Joseph Hansen Dec 16 '15 at 16:23
1

This is how I hide all tabs and an address bar: press full screen (F11) then press toggle fullscreen (Super + F), that's it. It's OS specific feature ( works on Elementary 5.1 )

daGo
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0

I am not entirely certain that this will work on the Linux version of Google Chrome, but I know for the version on Windows, this might solve your problem...

http://www.ehow.com/how_11415464_hide-tabs-chrome.html

If I am understanding you correctly, you would like to essentially get rid of the tabs on Google Chrome and since you seem to be concerned about screen real estate, it makes me think that making Google Chrome full screen will help. F11 will make it full screen (again, this is how you at least do this in Windows)

If I am misinterpretting your question, please correct me so I can try to give you the correct answer.

Brittany Bender
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  • Works for me in Fedora 17. – John in Ohio Mar 14 '13 at 17:46
  • F11 is the fullscreen key on Linux, but the question asks how to hide the tab bar on four windows - fullscreening one window, while hiding its tab bar, will hide the other three windows. – Saftius Feb 03 '22 at 06:34