Vertical tabs preview now available in the Canary and Dev channels

Microsoft

Tomorrow, we’re releasing an early preview of vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge. This feature, which is now available in the Canary and Dev channels, allows you to find and manage large numbers of tabs quicker and easier than ever before.

 

Many of you we’ve spoken with have expressed difficulties with managing more than a few open tabs. It’s easy to open dozens of tabs while shopping or researching online, and it’s not uncommon to leave tabs open as a reminder for later—sometimes for days or weeks at a time. As more tabs are opened, it can become difficult to see which tab is which. And eventually you run out of room for new tabs altogether.

 

If this sounds familiar, we suggest trying out vertical tabs. This layout preserves space for all your tabs, so that you can easily see and scan the tab titles. Managing them from this layout is also easier, with a more intuitive interface for things like drag and drop.

 

VerticalTabs1.gif

 

Wide screens have become the norm over the last decade or so, but most websites are still designed with a narrower width that leaves unused space on either side of the content. Vertical tabs takes advantage of this unused space to show you more of your tabs without sacrificing how much content you can see at once. And with the ability to scroll through your tabs, you’re free to open as many as you want.

 

Your tabs, your way

Getting started is easy. Just click the vertical tabs icon Icon1.png in the top-left corner of the browser. You can switch back to horizontal tabs at any time by clicking on the vertical tabs icon Icon2.png again.

 

Get the most out of your tabs

VerticalTabs2.gif

 

Vertical tabs also makes it easier than ever to manage your tabs. Here’s a few things you can try:

  • Reorder and manage multiple tabs at once: Select multiple tabs at once by holding down either Ctrl or Shift and clicking on the tabs you want to manage. From here, you can reorder the tabs, drag them into a new window, or even close, refresh, duplicate, pin, or mute them all at once.
  • Mute noisy tabs: Quickly silence tabs playing audio in the background by clicking on the speaker icon Icon3.png. This makes it easy to mute noisy tabs without leaving the tab you’re on.
  • Pin your favorite tabs: Do you frequently rely on certain websites? Right-click on the tab and select pin Icon4.png to move it to a dedicated section at the top of the tab list so the site is always just a click away. Edge will even remember your pinned tabs across browser sessions

See more of the web

Of course, sometimes you need to focus on just the tab in front of you. Or maybe you’re on a device with a smaller screen. Simply click the collapse icon Icon5.png to shrink the size of the vertical tabs pane and instantly see more of the web. The favicons of your tabs will remain visible on the left, so your tabs are still always at your fingertips.

 

VerticalTabs3.gif

 

Click on one of the tab previews to instantly switch tabs, or hover your mouse over the collapsed pane to see the full tab info. Of course, you can always pin the pane open again at any time by hovering over the sidebar and selecting the pin button Icon4.png.

 

Send us feedback

This is just the beginning of vertical tabs, and we’d love to hear what you think of the new experience. Please send us feedback if something isn’t working right. And if there’s a feature you’d like to see added to vertical tabs, we’re excited to hear that too.

 

Thanks for being part of this early preview! We look forward to hearing your feedback.

 

William Devereux, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Edge
— Jerin Schneider, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Edge

131 Replies
@MahamKali Most people have a Laptop (even I'm posting with a laptop). And I have never heard of mouses with middle buttons. There is only a scroll thingy, and two left and right buttons.
That little scroll thingy is called a mouse wheel and if you push down on it you will feel a little click. It acts like a 3rd button...

Dennis5mile

@Kam If your Laptop Support Precision Touchpad you can enable Three Finger Gesture for Middle Button. 

For More Info on this go to How to simulate a middle button on a touchpad 

@MahamKali It doesn't. No luck for me :(

@William Devereux 

it's a great feature to be honest, I love using it.

 

One important thing is that, in order to view more and get more out of websites when using vertical tabs, the top area that was previously the place to show tabs, should be removed.

 

so, when the tab strip is vertically displayed on the left, the top area needs to be removed to have more free area for website contents.

 

dsadsadas.png

 

Either the close/minimize/maximize buttons should come down and place next to the "..." ellipsis button, Or the address bar and the rest of Edge toolbar should go up next to close/max/min buttons (and the long address bar can shrink in size a little bit).

these 2 horizontal bars need to be merged because there is clearly a lot of space being wasted up there.

 

@kevin urquhart I don't either. I am using Linux so maybe that is it? 

Found the issue! It installs a different Exe. So shortcuts to existing Edge don't point to the new version.

I really like virtual tabs I can now keep tabs open for longer, like all day if I am watching something.

 

Thank you

 

@William Devereux 

@William Devereux When it will be available for Linux build?

I like the vertical tabs... but please include the option to reverse the order. I have so many tabs open that I keep having to scroll down to get to the latest ones. If the tab list could be reversed, then my most recent and frequently used tabs would automatically be at the top and the older and less frequently used tabs would be tucked down at the bottom.

@William Devereux tabs are awesome, collapsed state is what I was missing, it is perfect.

If used with tab groups group name disappears while one of tabs is loading. I know tab groups is experimental flag, but maybe it is easy to fix?

Is it possible to add the ability to move vertical tabs to the right side of the window?

@William Devereux hi im running edge dev i am searching for access to vert tabs nothing showing. it is friday morning when can i involke these flags>?

 

anxious excited :_)

not avail to me why not running edge dev

Hi

@MeirWeiss ,

 

This is a feature rollout which means not everyone will get it at the same time as mentioned Here .  There are "NO" flags to turn on.  You will just get it.    You will start edge at some point in time and poof there they will be.   Give it time and you will get it.

 

Dennis5mile

@William Devereux  no they are not yet for me edge dev

 

whatsupp

 

very sincerely

 

im all up to date win update and browser update 88

 

 

where is the vertical tabs for me??????????????

@William Devereux It's an awesome feature but seems like it does not work when the browser is in Full Screen (on Mac). Will it work in full screen in future?