vertical tabs in safari

How to organize your browser tabs vertically—and why you should do it

I'd like a browser with tabs on the side, please.

By David Nield | Published Sep 27, 2022 2:00 PM EDT

We all like to have our programs set up just the way we like, and browsers are no exception. You can do aesthetic changes, like moving the icons of your favorite extensions for easier reach, or changing the backdrop of new blank tabs.

But you can also revolutionize the way you use the program by changing how tabs propagate during a browsing session. You can rearrange and pin them, of course, but you can also shift their position down to the side of your screen rather than along the top. The option just made its way back to the latest edition of Safari on macOS, but other browsers have vertical tabs, too.

While it might not sound like a major change, it can make a big difference to your browsing experience. You’ll be able to reach tabs on the side more easily and scan them more quickly, (especially if you’re on an ultra-wide monitor ), and web pages will benefit from more vertical space on your screen. It’s an option that’s well worth trying to see if it works for you.

How to activate sidebar tabs on Safari

The most recent version of Safari brings vertical tabs back—the feature was previously available but hasn’t been in recent years. The tabs appear by default in the sidebar, which you can make visible by clicking the Show sidebar icon in the toolbar or by opening the View menu and then choosing Show Sidebar .

[Related: 5 browser extensions that will keep you from drowning in tabs ]

As you browse you’ll see your tabs show up on the left of the screen, as well as any tab groups you’ve saved (just click on any of them to expand them). Click and drag on a tab to change its position on the list, or to drag it to an existing tab group. You can also right-click on a tab title to access all the standard tab options in a pop-up menu, including Close Tab , Duplicate Tab , and Copy Link .

How to get vertical tabs on Chrome

Google Chrome doesn’t support vertical tabs natively, so you’ll need the help of a third-party extension. The perfectly named Vertical Tabs is the best option we found and it won’t cost you anything. Simply download the add-on and then click the orange Vertical Tabs icon in the Chrome toolbar to activate it.

You can drag and drop tabs to reorder them, refresh and close tabs using the buttons to the right, and search your tabs using the box at the top. Right-click on a tab for options such as Pin and Mute this Tab , and click the cog icon at the top to get to the extension options. From there, you can choose which side of the screen the tabs are on, and pick between dark and light themes.

How to bring vertical tabs to Firefox

Just like with Chrome, if you want to get vertical tabs in Firefox, you’ll need the help of a third-party extension. And also just like with Google’s browser, the solution is an add-on called Vertical Tabs , though it’s not the same one we mentioned above. This tool is a fine and free option that’s utterly simple to use. It allows you to display or hide the sidebar by clicking on the Vertical Tabs icon that pops up on the Firefox toolbar once you download the extension. You can also click on the cog icon above the vertical tabs to access the tool’s settings, where you’ll be able to choose a theme if you want to, among other options.

You can change the position of tabs by dragging and dropping them in the sidebar, and close them with a click on the X icons to the right. Right-click on any of the tabs for all the key functions you’re going to need while browsing, such as Reload Tab , Close Tab , and Mute Tab .

How to turn on vertical tabs on Edge

Microsoft has added vertical tabs as a native feature to its Edge browser, so you’ll need no extensions if you use this app to surf the web. To activate them, click the Tab Actions Menu button, which is up in the top left corner of the browser and looks like a square with two small rectangles around it, indicating a browser interface. Then, choose Turn On Vertical Tabs . The tab headers will then make the switch from the top to the left-hand edge of the interface.

As always, you can drag and drop tabs to change their order, close them with a click on the X icons to the right, and bring up a host of other options—from refreshing tabs to bringing back the last tab you closed—by right-clicking on a tab header. Click the Tab Actions Menu again to turn off vertical tabs or to search through them.

How to get vertical tabs on Opera

If Opera is your browser of choice then you’re going to need to install a free extension called, appropriately enough, Vertical Tabs —again, not the same one available for Chrome or Firefox. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll see a new icon on the toolbar on the left, which looks like four horizontal lines on top of each other. Click on it to show or hide the vertical tab list. You can also click the pin icon on the actual vertical tabs list so that it remains visible.

[Related: Twelve ways to make your new browser tabs more exciting ]

You can reorder tabs by dragging and dropping them, and if you hover over a tab title you can close it by clicking the X on the right. Around the side of the vertical tabs panel you’ll see buttons for pinning and grouping tabs, searching through tabs, and all the other key functions you’re going to need.

David Nield is a freelance contributor at Popular Science, producing how to guides and explainers for the DIY section on everything from improving your smartphone photos to boosting the security of your laptop. He doesn't get much spare time, but when he does he spends it watching obscure movies and taking long walks in the countryside.

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Safari Vertical Tabs? Anyway to get this

As the title suggests, is there a way to get vertical tabs in Safari. Horizontal tabs eventually run out of space to show tab names as they get squeezed into smaller spaces.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 24, 2019 10:18 PM

Posted on Mar 24, 2019 11:54 PM

Please submit a feature request to Apple.

For Safari Feedback and Feature request:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

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Mar 24, 2019 11:54 PM in response to sizmo7

Mar 24, 2019 10:39 PM in response to sizmo7

What Firefox's Tree Style Tab add-on looks like. Safari's Tabs overview requires an additional mouse click or keyboard press. vertical tabs are still a better way to view and navigate tabs quickly.

Mar 25, 2019 1:48 AM in response to dominic23

I guess there's no way to do this. Been waiting patiently for this for years :)

Mar 25, 2019 8:24 AM in response to sizmo7

There is no way to do that at the present time.

A Roundup of Vertical Tab Support in Mac Web Browsers

Originally published at: A Roundup of Vertical Tab Support in Mac Web Browsers - TidBITS After becoming a convert to vertical tabs thanks to Arc, Adam Engst is now seeing and hearing about vertical tabs support all over the place. Though none are luring him away from Arc, he runs down the options in Brave, Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Orion, Safari, SigmaOS, and Vivaldi. So many browsers!

Happily, you can turn off the top-mounted tab bar by choosing View > Always Show Tab Bar

On my Safari, that just hides it if I don’t have any tabs open. If I have tabs, even vertical ones, the horizontal bar appears and the “Always Show Tab Bar” is greyed out. I suspect I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t figure out what?

Huh! Now I’m seeing that too, and I don’t know what changed, nor can I hide those top tabs again. Clearly it worked before since I was able to get a screenshot and it’s still working in another one of my tab groups. Bug?

You can get rid of the tab bar by moving the tabs up to the toolbar by selecting the compact view in Safari>Settings>Tabs.

This is not a great solution if you have a lot of open tabs.

It seems like you can only disable/hide the tab bar if there’s one tab open. When you open even a second tab, it gets grayed out.

The tabs still exist in the tool bar so that’s not really a solution.

FireFox has several extensions that support vertical tabs. I used the “Tree Style Tab” until I switched to Safari’s tab groups. The “Tree Style Tab” allows you to organize the tabs hierarchically in the sidebar, thus simulating the grouping capabilities other browsers.

Ah, I understand now. The command becomes unavailable if you have more than one normal tab in the tab group. You can have all the pinned tabs you want and still hide the tab bar. That’s really odd—what difference does it make?

Hmm…supposedly this did exist on iPad Safari: iPadOS 16.4 Safari - No option to hide tab bar? | MacRumors Forums

Maybe you could do this on Mac Safari before and Apple changed/broke it? I can see why they might want to do that, since I could see people accidentally selecting it then get confused because “all of their tabs disappeared”…

Judging from the screen shots in the article, you lose more screen space with these vertical tabs than you do with a standard tab bar at the top.

Yes, that is my experience in Safari 13.1.2 with High Sierra (my iMac is maxed at that OS version).

Yes, as measured by raw pixels, but not in reality because most screens are much wider than they are tall. A sidebar of tabs is unlikely to take any space away from an average Web page, whereas the top-mounted tab bar sucks space from every Web page that requires scrolling.

Plus, screen real estate is worth spending to increase productivity, and being able to see a tab’s name is far more helpful than a tiny icon.

I, too, am quite happy with “Tree Style Tab” in Firefox.

I agree with both of those points. Screens are quite wide; I just use a wider browser window with vertical tabs. Also, I use vertical tabs only in the browser I primarily use for research and work, where I might have 10 or 20 sites open and horizontal tabs become useless. Adam mentioned that Firefox add-ons don’t replace the horizontal tabs, but I just noticed that they aren’t there with Tree Style Tabs.

Exactly, which is why it’s so frustrating that the top-mounted tab bar insists on staying open even with the vertical tabs active. I could set Safari to compact view so that it sprinkled the top tabs in the address bar but that looks so cluttered.

It seems that I can’t try it on Safari 13.1.2 since that is the last version that will run on my iMac. I usually don’t have that many open anyway so I always see title of each tab in the bar.

In Mac Safari, there doesn’t seem to be a way to have the sidebar tabs lists always expanded?

I mean, I can expand the list, and then it stays expanded, but then on quit/restart, they all collapse again.

That’s what I was getting at when I wrote:

You may have to do a little clicking around to get your tabs groups to look how you want, but the capabilities are solid once you do.

I tried using Safari with vertical tabs for secondary research tabs while writing in Arc yesterday, and while it worked, it drove me somewhat batty. Much easier to have a second Arc window so I can see both things at once.

After reading this roundup article, I kept on thinking that Firefox had this capability as well, but I couldn’t find it. Well after quite a bit of web searching, I found what I was thinking of.

Firefox 4 (March 2011) introduced a feature called “Panorama” (aka “TabCandy”). This feature lets you group tabs into application-spaces which can be quickly opened and closed and switched between.

The feature was removed from Firerfox in version 45 (March 2016), apparently due to lack of interest. It’s a bit ironic that this is a feature that people might want to use today. At least there are third-party add-ons that provide similar capabilities.

• Article about TabCandy which became Panorama. (Linked from FF 4 release notes)
• ArsTechnica article about FF4b4 mentioning Panorama. Panorama image that is supposed to have been in-lined with the article.
• Article about Panorama’s removal (linked from FF45 release notes)
• A better article about Panorama from a site promoting a similar feature as a commercial product.
• Panorama Tab Groups . An add-on (last updated in 2020) that claims to put back the Panorama feature.

You forgot about the progenitor of vertical tabs, OmniWeb (OW). If it wasn’t the first, it was one of the earliest.

You would have to ask Ken Case when he implemented the feature. I’m thinking around 10 or more years ago as I’m pretty certain I was using it on my G4 PowerBook.

If you want to check it out, it’s here: Omni Labs — OmniDiskSweeper, OmniWeb, and OmniPresence - The Omni Group

Sofa 4.0: A Customizable Downtime Tracker Without Compromises

Outdoor homekit gadgets: the macstories team collection, ketchup: the only pokémon companion app you’ll ever need, this week's sponsor:.

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How To: Get Vertical Tabs on Safari 4 [10.6]

Ever wanted to give Safari 4 a fresh new feel? Or, have you ever wanted to use vertical tabs instead of horizontal tabs?

As MacStories readers, you should probably know how much I’m in love with Mozilla Firefox . Most of all, I absolutely love that addon called Tree Style Tabs, which allows you to display all your open tabs as a “tree” in a sidebar.

Finally, I’ve managed to get a similar result on Safari 4, under Mac OS 10.6.1 (but it should work fine on 10.6 as well). Well, it’s a sort of a workaround, but it definitely works.

All you have to do is download a Safari plugin called SafariStand and install it as a SIMBL plugin (and yes, SIMBL works again on Snow Leopard). Then relaunch Safari and set the tabs sidebar through the plugin settings.

Now, as you may notice, there’s a problem. Despite the plugin correctly displays your open tabs, Safari.app still displays them as well in the tab bar. That means that you have both a sidebar and an horizontal tab bar.  This happens because the plugin simply adds a sidebar, but doesn’t force the browser to remove the normal tabs. That’s not good.

But - as I said before - there’s a workaround. I’ve managed to fix this problem by editing with Interface Builder the Browser.nib file located into Safari.app (and it was difficult, I’ll post soon a tutorial about how to edit .nib files on Snow Leopard) removing the Tab Bar View. And, as you can see, it works.

screen-shot-2009-09-15-at-105525-pm

All you have to do is download this file , right click on Safari.app -> Show Package Contents then navigate through Contents->Resources->English.lproj (or whatever language you use) backup your existing Browser.nib file and replace it with the custom one I made. Then, quit and relaunch Safari. You should only see SafariStand sidebar.

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment for any problem you have. Please note that I used Safari 4.0.3 for this tweak.

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How to organize all of your tabs on Chrome and other browsers

No matter which browser you prefer, we have some tips for tidying up your tabs..

You know the feeling. You’ve spent the last few hours digging into some research project, Wikipedia binge or Reddit rabbit hole, and now you’re drowning in a sea of tabs. Your computer slows to a crawl, and you’re at a loss on how to get things back in order. Fortunately, there are some not-so-obvious features built into your web browser that can help you out. If you often struggle to keep your web surfing in check, we’ve rounded up a few helpful tips on how to organize your tabs across Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, including suggestions for built-in tools and time-saving extensions.

How to organize tabs in Chrome

Google Chrome is by far the most popular web browser in the world, but some of its built-in tab management tools may not be immediately apparent. One trick is to use “ tab groups ,” which lets you cluster multiple tabs into groups that you can label and color-code. This makes it easier to distinguish between different topics and compartmentalize; clicking a group’s label will collapse or expand all tabs within.

You can create a group or add tabs to an existing group by right-clicking on the one you want to move, selecting “Add tab to (new) group,” then choosing where you want the tab to go. Alternatively, you can just click and drag a tab in or out of a group to add or remove it. All of this still works if you’ve selected multiple tabs simultaneously, which you can do by holding Ctrl on Windows or Cmd on macOS as you click.

If you right-click on a tab group’s label, you can change the name and color, ungroup all the tabs within it, close the group entirely or move it into a new window. (You can do the last of those just by dragging the group label out of its current window, too.) There’s also a “Save group” toggle, which lets you save a tab group and sync it across devices, where it’ll be accessible from your bookmarks bar. After turning this on, you can hit “Hide Group” to remove it from view without losing the tabs completely. If you don’t need a particular set of tabs right now, this can be a handy way to reduce clutter. If you close a group accidentally, note that you can restore it from Chrome’s three-dot menu, hovering over History, finding the group’s name and clicking “Restore group."

With or without groups, you can quickly search through all of your open tabs by using the “Search tabs” button. This is the downward-facing arrow in the top left or right corner of your window. You can also pull this up by hitting Ctrl + Shift + A on Windows, or Cmd + Shift + A on macOS. This will show you a tidy vertical list of all your open tabs, plus a handful that you’ve recently closed. You can close them directly from here as well, and the menu will break out any open ones that are currently playing audio or video. You can also search through your open tabs directly from Chrome’s address bar: Just type “@tabs”, then hit the spacebar or Tab to initiate it.

If you like to order your tabs by putting them in distinct windows, you can give each a custom name for better organization. If you have a bunch of work-related material in one window, for instance, you could call it “Work”. To do this, pull up the window you want to name, right-click the empty space next to the new tab (or “+”) icon and select “Name window.”

From that same menu, you can also select “Bookmark all tabs” to bookmark all of your open tabs and put them in a particular folder. Hitting Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + D will bring you to this same function.

Tab management isn’t as big of a hindrance on smartphones, where you might only look at one webpage at a time. But we’ll note that Chrome lets you create tab groups on Android by tapping the square “Switch tabs” button, then holding and dragging a particular tab over to whatever other tab you want to group it with.

That feature isn’t available on iPhones and iPads, but you can still search through open windows by hitting the same Switch tabs button, then selecting the Search icon in the top left corner. You can also pin and bookmark tabs from the Switch tabs menu after pressing and holding an open tab. For bookmarking multiple tabs, press Edit, then Select Tabs, check off the tabs you want to bookmark, then hit Add To… > Add to Bookmarks.

How to organize tabs in Edge

Microsoft Edge is built on the same codebase as Chrome, so its tab management features are similar to those found in Google’s browser. It, too, has a grouping feature, which works similarly: Just right-click on one or more tabs and select “Add tab(s) to (new) group.” As with Chrome, you can give each group a custom name and color, and you can quickly collapse or expand the tabs within each group by clicking its label.

Also like Chrome, hitting Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + A will pull up a search menu, which lists your current and recently closed tabs and distinguishes any media-playing tabs. You can still use the “@tabs” shortcut mentioned above — just hit the Tab key after typing it into the address bar — and assign custom names to windows as well.

Another way to access some of Edge’s tab-related tools is through the dedicated “tab actions” icon in the top left corner. To make this visible, click on Edge’s three-dot menu button, then go to Settings > Appearance > Customize toolbar, then activate the “Show tab actions menu” toggle. Here, you can find a search menu, a list of recently closed tabs and a list of Edge tabs you have open on other devices. You can also use an “Organize tabs” feature that automatically sorts your tabs into groups using AI. We’ve found the latter to work fairly well — though it’s not immune to hiccups, so you’ll still need to manually move a tab or rename a group every so often. Chrome has a similar AI auto-sorting tool , but it’s only available as an “experimental” feature as of this writing.

The tab actions menu also lets you turn on Edge’s “vertical tabs” mode. This moves your tabs from their usual spot above the address bar to the left side of the window. This view won’t be everyone’s favorite, but the wider space can make it easier to identify which tabs you have open. If you prefer to keep the tab actions button hidden, you can swap between the standard and vertical tabs views on Windows by pressing Ctrl + Shift + , (Comma).

Like other browsers, Edge also lets you save tabs as bookmarks (or “favorites”). But we’ll also give a quick mention to the browser’s “ Collections ” tool, which you can access by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Y or hitting the icon in the top right corner that looks like two squares and a plus sign. This is more of a native web clipper than a full tab manager, but if you want to stash web pages alongside images, text notes and the like, you can hit “+ Add current page” within a given Collection to add your current tab to it. On macOS, you can also right-click a tab to add all open pages to a Collection at once.

How to organize tabs in Safari

Like Chrome and Edge, Apple’s Safari browser lets you organize tabs into distinct groups. There are a few ways to set this up. For one, you can click the downward-facing arrow in the top left of the Toolbar. From here, click New Empty Tab Group, or select New Tab Group with # Tabs to put all the open tabs in your window into their own group. (The “#” will just be whatever number of tabs you have open.) You’ll be prompted to give each group a custom name. You can find these same options under the File menu or by right-clicking any open tab.

You can click the Show Sidebar button in the top left corner to view, rename, delete and rearrange your groups as needed. You can also access this by going to View > Show Sidebar or pressing Cmd + Shift + L as well. If you right-click a group’s name in the Sidebar and select Copy Links, you’ll make a neatly formatted list of all the links in that group, which you can paste into a doc or text chat. Clicking the icon at the top of the Sidebar that looks like two overlapping squares with a plus symbol will create a new tab group as well.

To add a tab to a group, right-click the tab, select Move to Tab Group, then choose where it should go. With the Sidebar open, you can also drag a tab into a group directly. To quickly swap between groups with the Sidebar closed, click on your current group’s name in the top left corner, then select the group you want from the resulting dropdown menu. These tab collections will sync across multiple Apple devices if they’re connected to the same iCloud account.

The Sidebar can work somewhat like the vertical tabs view that’s available in Edge. If you hover over “# Tabs” at the top of the Sidebar or the name of any tab group below that, you’ll see a rightward-facing arrow. Click it, and you’ll see a vertical list of all the tabs nested within. You can access similar views for your bookmarks or Reading List at the bottom of the Sidebar. However, using this won’t hide the horizontal tab bar like it does in Edge.

You can select multiple tabs at once by holding the Cmd button, then dragging them out to a new window or group as needed. You can also reorganize all your current tabs by their page title or website; just right-click one of them (or go to the Window menu), then hover over Arrange Tabs By.

To more comfortably see what tabs you have open, click the Tab Overview icon. This is the symbol in the top right corner that looks like two overlapping squares. It presents all of your tabs in a grid as large thumbnails, generally making it easier to find a particular page. You can also get to this page by selecting View > Show Tab Overview, pressing Cmd + Shift + \, or by right-clicking on a tab group in the Sidebar and selecting the appropriate option.

In the top right corner of this Tab Overview screen is a search bar. This function is also available on iPhones and iPads. Unfortunately, this search is limited to just the tabs in your current group, not those in separate groups or windows. Typing a keyword in the address bar will usually suggest a few corresponding tabs you have open, too, but this isn’t comprehensive.

For sites you plan to revisit regularly, you can bookmark a tab by hitting Cmd + D, or going to Bookmarks > Add Bookmark. To bookmark multiple open tabs, select Bookmarks > Add Bookmarks for # Open Tabs.

You can also use Safari’s profiles feature to break up tab congestion. This lets you separate your browsing into discrete spaces, each with their own browsing history, cookies, tab groups, bookmarks and the like. You could make a dedicated “job” profile, for instance, to prevent your work-related tabs from getting mixed up in your personal browsing. In this context, it’s like a more hardcore alternative to tab groups.

To create a new profile, select Safari > Create Profile… > Start Using Profile, type in the name you want, then select a corresponding symbol and color. Any prior browsing data will then be listed in a default profile called “Personal.” To add another profile, go to Safari > Manage Profiles, then hit the + button in the resulting menu. You can delete profiles from this same spot: Just select the one you want to trash and hit the – button. Switching between profiles is a bit cumbersome, but you can open a window under a new profile by clicking File or your current profile name in the top left corner, then selecting “New Window”. To go between two active windows that are tied to separate profiles, do as you usually would: Right-click the Safari icon in the Dock and pick the appropriate option.

Many of the tips above are applicable to Safari for iPhone and iPad. To create a tab group on an iPhone, hit the Tab Overview button, touch and hold a page, then choose Move to Tab Group. Alternatively, just long-press the address bar while viewing a web page. On iPhone, you can sideways-scroll through your tab groups through the Tab Overview as well. On iPad, you can add all of your open tabs to a group by tapping the downward-facing arrow at the top right of this same screen, then selecting one of the “New Tab Group” options at the bottom of the resulting menu.

How to organize tabs in Firefox

Mozilla Firefox’s native tab management tools aren’t quite as robust as those in Chrome, Edge or Safari. There are many extensions you can add to close the gap — we’ve noted a few below — but by default, there’s no grouping feature, custom window naming or vertical tabs mode.

You can still see a tidy list of each window’s tabs, however, by clicking the “List all tabs” button, which is the downward-facing arrow in the top right corner. Above that list you can also access a tab search function. If that’s too cumbersome, typing a relevant keyword in the address bar will display any corresponding open tabs at the bottom of the dropdown list that pops up. Alternatively, you can put a % symbol before or after a keyword search in the address bar to limit your search to just your currently active tabs.

As with most browsers, Firefox lets you pin tabs, create bookmarks, close several pages at once and drag multiple tabs into new windows simultaneously. To put all your current tabs into a bookmark folder, right-click on any tab, choose “Select All Tabs,” right-click again and choose “Bookmark Tabs.”

To open all bookmarked tabs in a folder, go to your bookmarks menu or bookmarks toolbar, right-click, then select “Open All Bookmarks.” If you want to search for a specific bookmark, put a * symbol before or after a keyword query in the address bar to limit a search to solely your bookmarks.

For a little extra organization, note that Firefox also lets you assign custom tags to your bookmarks. You can add these in the menu that pops up whenever you click the star icon for a specific web page, or by clicking Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + O to bring up your full bookmarks library then adding tags as needed. You can also get to the latter by hitting the three-line menu button on the right side, then selecting Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks.

After setting this up, you can look for a bookmark just by typing out a tag in the address bar. You can also make it so a search in the address bar only pulls from bookmarks you’ve tagged by adding a + symbol.

You can see a clean-looking list of open and recently closed tabs on the Firefox View page. To access this, just click the icon pinned in the top left corner of your browser window. It’s still possible to reopen your last closed tab with the usual Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T shortcut as well.

Finally, we’ll also make note of Firefox’s “ Containers ” feature. This is similar to Safari’s profiles, though it’s aimed more at privacy than reducing tab clutter. The idea is to separate your browser cookies between distinct clusters of tabs, so you can log into multiple accounts for one website in the same window or prevent a site from seeing any information about tabs outside of its specific container. Using containers distinguishes your tabs by different color codes, though, which gives it a modicum of organizational value.

You’ll need to install this as an extension on macOS, but once it’s set, you can add one or more tabs to a container by right-clicking it, selecting “Open in New Container Tab,” then choosing the container you want. There are four presets by default; to create a new container, click the three-line menu button and select Settings. Then, look for the Tabs submenu, click the “Settings…” button next to “Enable Container Tabs,” click “Add New Container,” then choose the name, color and icon you want.

Third-party tab extensions

All of these built-in browser tools should make navigating tab hell a little more manageable, but if you’re still not quite getting what you need, there are tons of third-party extensions and add-ons that can help. Perhaps the most popular is OneTab , which is available for Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Safari. This adds a little icon by your address bar that, when pressed, quickly collapses all open, non-pinned tabs in your window into an orderly list of links on a separate page. From there, you can then open and delete pages individually or all at once, drag them into different groups of links you’ve previously saved with OneTab or turn a list of links into one shareable URL. There are other add-ons along these lines, but OneTab is clean, fast and dead simple to use. Plus, it can help make your browser a bit less of a memory hog.

Tab Session Manager for Firefox, Chrome and Edge works similarly. It saves all of your open tabs at once, regardless of whether they’re in different windows. It doesn’t close your tabs — instead, they’re displayed as a vertical list in a dropdown menu. You can add tags to specific clusters of tabs, sync “sessions” between devices and search for tabs right from its menu. You can also access tabs from windows you’ve closed.

Firefox particularly benefits from tab managing add-ons. Tree Style Tab , for instance, adds a detailed vertical tabs view, while Window Titler lets you add custom tags to windows. And while Simple Tab Groups may not be quite as intuitive as the grouping tools built into Chrome, Edge or Safari, it’s still a decent way to get that sort of functionality in Firefox.

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• Entertainment

How to organize your browser tabs vertically—and why you should do it

We all like to have our programs set up just the way we like, and browsers are no exception. You can do aesthetic changes, like moving the icons of your favorite extensions for easier reach, or changing the backdrop of new blank tabs.

But you can also revolutionize the way you use the program by changing how tabs propagate during a browsing session. You can rearrange and pin them, of course, but you can also shift their position down to the side of your screen rather than along the top. The option just made its way back to the latest edition of Safari on macOS, but other browsers have vertical tabs, too.

While it might not sound like a major change, it can make a big difference to your browsing experience. You’ll be able to reach tabs on the side more easily and scan them more quickly, (especially if you’re on an ultra-wide monitor ), and web pages will benefit from more vertical space on your screen. It’s an option that’s well worth trying to see if it works for you.

How to activate sidebar tabs on Safari

The most recent version of Safari brings vertical tabs back—the feature was previously available but hasn’t been in recent years. The tabs appear by default in the sidebar, which you can make visible by clicking the Show sidebar icon in the toolbar or by opening the View menu and then choosing Show Sidebar .

[Related: 5 browser extensions that will keep you from drowning in tabs ]

As you browse you’ll see your tabs show up on the left of the screen, as well as any tab groups you’ve saved (just click on any of them to expand them). Click and drag on a tab to change its position on the list, or to drag it to an existing tab group. You can also right-click on a tab title to access all the standard tab options in a pop-up menu, including Close Tab , Duplicate Tab , and Copy Link .

How to get vertical tabs on Chrome

Google Chrome doesn’t support vertical tabs natively, so you’ll need the help of a third-party extension. The perfectly named Vertical Tabs is the best option we found and it won’t cost you anything. Simply download the add-on and then click the orange Vertical Tabs icon in the Chrome toolbar to activate it.

You can drag and drop tabs to reorder them, refresh and close tabs using the buttons to the right, and search your tabs using the box at the top. Right-click on a tab for options such as Pin and Mute this Tab , and click the cog icon at the top to get to the extension options. From there, you can choose which side of the screen the tabs are on, and pick between dark and light themes.

How to bring vertical tabs to Firefox

Just like with Chrome, if you want to get vertical tabs in Firefox, you’ll need the help of a third-party extension. And also just like with Google’s browser, the solution is an add-on called Vertical Tabs , though it’s not the same one we mentioned above. This tool is a fine and free option that’s utterly simple to use. It allows you to display or hide the sidebar by clicking on the Vertical Tabs icon that pops up on the Firefox toolbar once you download the extension. You can also click on the cog icon above the vertical tabs to access the tool’s settings, where you’ll be able to choose a theme if you want to, among other options.

You can change the position of tabs by dragging and dropping them in the sidebar, and close them with a click on the X icons to the right. Right-click on any of the tabs for all the key functions you’re going to need while browsing, such as Reload Tab , Close Tab , and Mute Tab .

How to turn on vertical tabs on Edge

Microsoft has added vertical tabs as a native feature to its Edge browser, so you’ll need no extensions if you use this app to surf the web. To activate them, click the Tab Actions Menu button, which is up in the top left corner of the browser and looks like a square with two small rectangles around it, indicating a browser interface. Then, choose Turn On Vertical Tabs . The tab headers will then make the switch from the top to the left-hand edge of the interface.

As always, you can drag and drop tabs to change their order, close them with a click on the X icons to the right, and bring up a host of other options—from refreshing tabs to bringing back the last tab you closed—by right-clicking on a tab header. Click the Tab Actions Menu again to turn off vertical tabs or to search through them.

How to get vertical tabs on Opera

If Opera is your browser of choice then you’re going to need to install a free extension called, appropriately enough, Vertical Tabs —again, not the same one available for Chrome or Firefox. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll see a new icon on the toolbar on the left, which looks like four horizontal lines on top of each other. Click on it to show or hide the vertical tab list. You can also click the pin icon on the actual vertical tabs list so that it remains visible.

[Related: Twelve ways to make your new browser tabs more exciting ]

You can reorder tabs by dragging and dropping them, and if you hover over a tab title you can close it by clicking the X on the right. Around the side of the vertical tabs panel you’ll see buttons for pinning and grouping tabs, searching through tabs, and all the other key functions you’re going to need.

The post How to organize your browser tabs vertically—and why you should do it appeared first on Popular Science .

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How-To Geek

The complete guide to mastering tabs in safari.

Tabs, glorious tabs! Every web browser now has them, including Apple's Safari.

Quick Links

How to open, pin, and close tabs, the tab-related keyboard shortcuts you should know, how to choose what appears when safari launches or opens a new tab, get more out of your tabs with extensions.

Tabs, glorious tabs! Every web browser now has them, including Apple's Safari . In fact, tabs have been a part of Safari since the very beginning, but there's a lot more to them than you may have realized. Let's walk you through and show you all you need to know to become a Safari tab master.

Related: The Complete Guide to Mastering Tabs in Google Chrome

Safari tab basics are pretty easy to grasp, and resemble Google Chrome's in many ways .

To create a new tab, click the little + sign on the right edge of the Tab Bar, or press Command+T on your keyboard.

To close a tab, click the X on the tab's left side or use the keyboard shortcut Command+W.

Seems easy enough, but there's so much more you can do.

When you have more than one tab open, drag them along the Tab Bar to rearrange them, or drag a tab out of the Safari window to open it in its own instance.

If you want to merge any separate windows into one, click the Window menu and then "Merge All Windows".

Right-click on any tab and notice the options. There aren't a lot, but they're important. You can close the active tab or move the active tab to a new window, as if you had dragged it off the Tab Bar.

If you have a bunch of open tabs and you don't want to close each one individually, right-click and select "Close Other Tabs". If you accidentally close a tab you want to keep, you can press Command+Shift+T on your keyboard to bring it back. (You can also press Command+Z to do this, like you're "Undoing" your previous action, though this is a bit more limited.)

Speaking of open tabs, you can see all of yours arranged in a convenient grid by clicking the "Show All Tabs" button in the upper-right corner, or by pressing Command+Shift+\ on your keyboard.

Right-clicking on a tab will also let you pin tabs. When you pin tabs, it will create smaller ones that persist on the left side of the Tab Bar.

Pinned tabs will remain there even if you close and re-open Safari, unless you specifically close or unpin the tabs. This is great for keeping tabs open that you use all the time such as your e-mail or How-To Geek.

To silence a noisy tab, click the speaker icon on the tab. To mute all tabs, click the blue speaker icon in the location bar.

Safari has a few other tab tricks up its sleeve. Right-click on any bookmark folder and choose "Open in New Tabs" to quickly open everything in that folder. If you select "Automatically Replace Tabs", every time you click that folder, everything within it will open on the Tab Bar.

You can tell when this option is selected because a small square will appear next to the folder's name.

To restore the folder to normal operation, right-click on it again and uncheck the option.

Finally, if you want to temporarily hide the Tab Bar, click the View menu, and then select "Hide Tab Bar".

The Tab Bar will remain hidden until you create a new tab, after which you will need to hide it again from the View menu.

Safari comes with quite a few handy keyboard shortcuts---some of which we've already covered---to navigate and manipulate tabs. Here's a convenient list:

• Open new tab : Command+T
• Close tab : Command+W
• Move to the next tab : Control+Tab or Command+Shift+]
• Move to the previous tab : Control+Shift+Tab or Command+Shift+[
• Show all tabs : Command+Shift+\
• Open a website in a new tab: Command+Click on a link or bookmark, or  Command+Return from the Smart Search Field
• Open a website in a new tab and make it active : Command+Shift+Click on a link
• Open a website in a new window : Command+Option+Click on a link
• Open a website in a new window and make it active : Command+Option+Shift+Click on a link
• Select one of the first nine tabs : Command+1 through Command+9
• Close all tabs but one : Option+click the close (X) button on the tab you want to keep open
• Reopen the last tab(s) or window(s) : Command+Shift+T

If you want to change Safari's tab behavior, open the preferences from the Safari menu or press Command+, on your keyboard.

In the General preferences, you can configure Safari to open new tabs to your Favorites page, Top Sites, your Homepage, an empty page, or the same page---for example, if you have How-To Geek open, new tabs will open with How-To Geek.

In the Tab preferences, you can choose when new pages open in tabs instead of windows:

• Never: if a link is meant to open in a new window, it will open in a new window.
• Automatically: links meant to open in new windows will instead open in new tabs.
• Always: links meant to open in new windows, even those coded to open in their own separate, specially-formatted windows, will instead open in tabs.

Below this are options to change new tab behavior:

• Enable or disable Command+Click to open links in a new tab.
• If you click a link and it opens a new window or tab, it will become active (normally they open in the background).
• Enable or disable Command+1 through Command+9 tab switching.

Disabling Command+Click will also disable any other associated shortcuts and their modifiers, which are described at the bottom of the Tabs preferences.

While Safari's tabs are already pretty complete, they could always do more, which is why you might want to check out some tab extensions .

There are tab extensions to save an entire tab session , add emoji to your favorite tab titles , and a better way to keep track of recently-closed tabs , plus many more. Chances are you might find something really useful.

As you can see, there's a lot more to tabs in Safari than what you find at first glance. They're really easy to learn, and memorizing a couple of keyboard shortcuts can make short work of repetitive tasks. Now you're well on your way to becoming a Safari tab master!

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How to take advantage of Safari Tab Groups in macOS Ventura

Tab Groups bring intelligent, contextually aware sorting to web browsing

Apple expanded how users can organize Safari tabs with Tab Groups in macOS Monterey , but it left users asking how it differed from existing options. Like Bookmarks, Reading List, and Pinned Tabs — Tab Groups were yet another way to call up websites on demand.

Tab Groups make repeated workflows that use similar websites easier. For example, users paying bills or publishing a blog may have similar websites open every time.

With macOS Ventura, users can make their Tab Groups more useful thanks to Focus Mode integration. Using a feature called Focus Filters, users can attach specific Tab Groups to a Focus.

How to create a Tab Group

By default, Safari will launch with an empty Start Page. Opening websites from this page will create local tabs that will disappear if Safari is quit or the window is closed.

Tab Groups can be created from existing tabs in the local set, or an empty group can be created to start from scratch.

To create a Tab Group:

• Open the Sidebar.
• Click on the overlapping square icon with a "+."
• Select "New Empty Tab Group" or "New Tab Group with x tabs."
• Name the Tab Group based on its use.

When the Sidebar is closed, users can still create new Tab Groups or switch between them using the downward arrow next to the Sidebar toggle. Creating a new Tab Group will automatically open the Sidebar.

Tab Group tabs will be synced with iCloud and are available on any device signed into the user's Apple ID. Closing a tab in one location will close it everywhere.

Users can also pin tabs within Tab Groups for further control over what is shown and saved.

Customizing a Tab Group

Now that the Tab Group has been created, it is time to take advantage of its individual customization options. The local Start Page and Tab Group Start Page can be configured with a custom wallpaper and settings.

There are multiple ways to make Tab Groups more useful than just acting as an organization tool. Creating multiple Tab Groups with custom Start Pages can serve as a siloed tool catered to a specific use case.

Customizations applied to a Tab Group Start Page apply only to that Tab Group. This page appears whenever a new tab is opened.

To customize any Start Page:

• Open a new tab so the Start Page is visible.
• Click the Settings icon in the bottom right of the window.
• Toggle the boxes for each feature you'd like included in this Start Page. For example, Shared with You might not be desired in a work-based Tab Group.
• Click on the left-most box in the background image selection to open an image picker. Choose a background that shows up in this Tab Group, or turn off the background to make the window transparent.
• The current background image chosen will appear in the left-most box even in new Tab Groups. Changing this image will only affect the current Tab Group and will not overwrite a previous choice.

Now, different links and wallpaper will be shown when switching Tab Groups based on what the user has chosen. Toggling on "Tab Group Favorites" will enable a feature that makes Tab Groups even more customizable.

When Tab Group Favorites is turned on in a newly created Tab Group, it is empty. Start by adding websites that make sense for that specific grouping, like work websites, preferred travel sites, or news sources.

This selection of Tab Group Favorites will only appear when that Tab Group is active. It appears as a separate list from the Favorites below, which are a universal list.

Try dissecting existing Favorites into different Tab Group Favorites for better organization.

How to tie a Tab Group to a Focus

Users with multiple custom Tab Groups may not want to switch between them manually. This tool is only useful if users can get to it seamlessly, especially if it can be done automatically.

Thanks to a new feature in Focus Modes for macOS Ventura and iOS 16 , users can activate Focus Filters to accomplish automatic switching. Safari's built-in Focus Filter will let users show a Tab Group based on the current active Focus.

To tie a Tab Group to a Focus Mode:

• Open System Settings.
• Click on Focus in the Sidebar.
• Select the Focus you'd like to tie to a Tab Group.
• At the bottom of the Focus settings menu, select "Add Filter."
• Click "Safari."
• Click "Choose."
• Select the Tab Group desired.
• Click "Add."

Now, whenever a Focus is active, that Tab Group will be automatically selected when a new Safari window is opened. Changing Tab Groups will not affect the current Focus.

Focus Filters have to be selected per device. Focus Mode automation can be set with schedules within the Focus Mode settings menu.

Sharing a Tab Group

Apple's previous few software releases have increased focus on remote collaboration tools. With macOS Ventura, users can share a Tab Group and interact with tabs over a SharePlay session.

A shared Tab Group doesn't offer many tools for collaboration beyond placing everyone on the same webpage. Collaborators can open the Tab Group and see the same web pages everyone else is seeing, if someone clicks a link in a tab that navigates to a new page, everyone navigates to the new page.

To start sharing a Tab Group:

• Open the Sidebar in Safari.
• Hover over the Tab Group to be shared, then click on the ellipsis that appears.
• Click on "Share Tab Group" to see a share window.
• Select the person or group chat to share the Tab Group with. Or, select "Messages" to manually search for people to share with.
• Send the invitation.

Stop sharing a Tab Group from the same ellipses menu or delete the Tab Group when it is no longer needed. Users can manage people in the Tab Group via an icon in the Safari toolbar.

When sharing a Tab Group, new tabs opened by participants will appear with a blue dot in the corner. Users actively viewing a tab will appear in the tab.

A SharePlay session can be started from the people management button in the Safari toolbar.

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• TECHNOLOGY Q&A

Vertical Tabs give one browser the Edge

There are three ways to turn on vertical tabs..

Q: I use Google Chrome as my main web browser, but I’ve heard Microsoft Edge might be worth a try.  Does it have any cool features that make it stand out versus other browsers?

A:  Google's Chrome has long been the dominant web browser and ended 2023 with 65% global market share,  according to Statcounter .  Edge finished the year in third place at 5%, behind Chrome and Apples's Safari at 18.5%. Though Edge has a relatively small market share, I have been using it exclusively for the past year.  Why?  It has some features I really like, but let's cover a couple of technical notes first.

Edge and Chrome are both built using the framework developed by the open-source Chromium browser project.  Because of this, the two browsers share many features.  Both also run fast, though Chrome is known to use a large amount of computer memory while Microsoft has optimized Edge to run using less resources.

Now to the features.  My favorite by far is  Vertical Tabs,  which is the first reason I switched.  There are three ways to turn on Vertical Tabs.

• Right click on a tab and select  Turn on vertical tabs .  See the first screenshot below.
• Press  Ctrl Shift  + , or
• Click on the  Vertical Tabs  icon in the top left corner and select  Turn on vertical tabs .  See the second screenshot below.

Vertical Tabs shifts all tabs to the left side of the window.  Doing so makes the type on the tabs larger than when they are lined up across the top.  This makes it much easier for me to read the title of each website I have open.  The screenshot below shows what my tabs look like after the change.

I also like to group my tabs together based on the function of the website.  I feel like I am more organized with all the sites I go to for managing my business.

Another feature I like is  Immersive Reader , which removes most of the elements on a website that can be over stimulating when trying to focus on the content.  The goal is to create a better reading experience. With that in mind, Edge changes the background to a light beige like the pages of a book and adjusts the font.  To switch to  Immersive Reader , press  F9  or click this icon on the address bar.

Here is a screenshot of an IRS article before and after.

It is subtle in this case, but I feel the second screenshot is more readable than the first screenshot.  I especially like this on Wikipedia.  The constant black text on bright white can be tiring for the eyes.  This is not a method for browsing the internet, but if I have a wall of text I need to read, I can switch over to  Immersive Reader  with the press of a button.  Google Chrome offers this functionality as well.  It’s called  Reading Mode.

The next Edge feature I like is the ability to screenshot a whole page.  There have been times I wanted to send a co-worker part of a website.  I tried printing to a PDF, but the formatting did not come across correctly and it was impossible to read.  The next idea might be to use the Windows Snipping Tool to take snips of sections of the page and then paste the snip images into an email or Word document to share. Edge offers a better solution called  Web Capture , which is accessible by either pressing  Ctrl + Shift + S  or clicking the menu in the top right and selecting  Web Capture , as shown in the screenshot below.

Web Capture makes it possible to draw a box around the content you want for the screenshot.  Clicking and dragging the cursor to the bottom of the site scrolls the webpage to capture more of the website.  Upon releasing the mouse button, Edge provides the options shown in the screenshot below.   Markup capture  allows the user to highlight specific sections, which I do when I want to draw my co-workers’ attention to something.

About the author

Wesley Hartman is the founder of Automata Practice Development.

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Vivaldi has updated its eponymous browser on iPadOS to take advantage of Split View, although the browser engine remains WebKit-based for now.

Vivaldi 6.7 has been released today for iPad and iPhone with tweaks for big-screen users. The most notable update was support for Split View. Split View has been around for a number of years on the iPad and supposedly simplifies multitasking. The theory goes that you can have apps running side by side, like in the days of Windows 8.

Apple provides an example for its web browser, Safari, and Vivaldi has followed suit. It is possible to open multiple Vivaldi windows side-by-side on the iPad. The company explained: "You can create as many Vivaldi windows as you want for all your different tasks and work modes. We have also enabled more iPad features like always-on-top Slide Over Mode."

The release also includes improvements in sorting for Notes and Bookmarks, as well as the ability to force a dark mode color scheme on websites not designed for one by setting the color preference to dark.

However, times are changing in the browser world. In its release notes since version 6.6, Vivaldi said: "You can also recommend Vivaldi to your European friends when they discover the Browser Choice Screen when they get a new device or on a software update."

Apple introduced the browser choice screen in iOS 17.4.

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The European Commission has since decided to add Apple's iPadOS to the Digital Market Act's list of gatekeepers . Safari, iOS, and the App Store were already there. Apple has been forced to open iOS to third-party browsers and app stores, and permit developers to distribute apps via the web. Something similar would, therefore, be expected for iPadOS.

At the time, Vivaldi's Jon von Tetzchner said: "This clarified designation shows that, like us, the EU believes that iPads and iPhones are part of the same ecosystem, and Apple controls both as the gatekeeper. They both run the same iOS operating system, even if Apple claims that iOS and iPadOS are different; they are fundamentally the same. The only real difference is the screen size."

Does that mean that we'll see Vivaldi ditch WebKit in favor of the browser engine used on its desktop products? After all, the company is all about "harmonizing your Vivaldi experience."

Sadly, not just yet. A Vivaldi spokesperson told us: "Given that Apple still forces us to use WebKit outside the EU, there is no possibility of having a unified engine everywhere.

"We make a browser for global use, so because of Apple, we are not able to use Chromium, unless we want to have to maintain two separate iOS browsers. We hope that this situation can change." ®

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