Update your Edge Chromium browser today and you’ll receive a fun little prompt asking if you want to enable the new Vertical Tabs feature in your browser. As someone who always likes to try new things, I decided to take my browser’s suggestion.
This, of course, gave me a pretty monstrous list of tabs on the left side of my browser. (Yes me I really have to trigger—This is just a small crop of the list that fills the entire vertical space of my 1440p display.)
You will notice that all my Reddit links have been mixed. This is intended: I’ve been looking for ways to make the vertical tab bar easier to manage –because now it looks more like a sketch than a desert of tabs living above my browser – and I came across a few tricks tconsider it if you are conducting the test the new interface.
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Before you start, know that the default appearance of the sidebar does not have to be permanent. Click small “<" arrow in the upper right corner of the tab bar to everything collapsed in a series of icons. Hover your mouse over them, and your tabs will expand. I confess that it doesn’t seem like the most useful setup for productivity, but at least it makes my browser look super clean.
In terms of organizational hacking, I recommend you log in edge: // flags in your browser’s address bar and activate three different flags:
- # margin-tab groups: Allows users to organize tabs into distinct visual groups, such as separating tabs associated with different tasks.
- # edge-tab-groups-auto-create: Automatically create user groups if tab groups are enabled.
- # edge-tab-groups-collapse: Allows a tab group to be foldable and expandable if the tab groups are enabled.
They won’t do anything for the tabs you already have open, but this one Vol place new tabs that you create in the same field in a group of useful tabs that you can narrow down and expand at will. Although you’ll still be able to crowd your tab bar, at least grouping the tabs together will help you handle it a little better.
Another approach you can take – either replacement or in addition to the “groups” feature – is to use an extension for organize your list of open tabs. I like Tab organizer, which automatically sorts all your tabs by URL. The extension will automatically sort your tabs whenever you press a keyboard shortcut, but I find it more useful set it to auto sort tabs after time intervals. Out of sight out of mind.
Finally, there are two more browser signs you can activates for fun, not because they will help you keep your tabs organized. Shoot edge: // flags / again and start:
- # tab-hover-cards: Allows a popup containing tab information to be visible when you hover over a tab. This will replace the tab tool tips.
- # tab-hover-card-images: Displays a preview image in tab switches, if tab switches are enabled
Now when you float with the mouse over any of the tabs in the vertical bar, you will get a wonderful A pop-out window that gives you the full title of the site and an image preview:
That being said, I’m still waiting for the biggest change of all – a way to resize the vertical tab bar so I can see a little more of the site name implicitly. This it was possible when Microsoft tested the feature in Edge Chromium beta versions, so we hope to return at some point.