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

@yzhang90 


@yzhang90 wrote:

may I ask what software was used to create these GIFs? They look really neat!


record video with OBS or Xbox gamebar and then search for "video to gif" on the Internet, there are lots of websites that do it.

@Dennis5mile @HotCakeX Thank you. Do you know how to get that mouse-clicking animation? I just tried Game bar recording but couldn't see the clicking. (Probably it comes from OBS. I'll try it later.)

I think they are using another software to do that.

:thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up:awesome feature @William Devereux 

I love that vertical tabs auto collapse, this is great. 

@William Devereux 

Is it possible to go into full screen view and have the tabs show or have the tabs in auto-hide mode ?

@William Devereux i just sent in this feedback. posting it here too:

Regarding vertical tabs, this is an amazing feature. I Currently use Vivaldi and am contemplating switching to Edge. The vertical tabs are key. A few things:
1. Tab stacks (in the hidden settings) are excellent, please make this feature permanent
2. please reduce the amount of space the top of the browser takes up when using vertical tabs.
3. Please allow us to use vertical tabs in full screen mode.
4. Please allow us to right click on a tab stack, and hibernate it/make it sleep.

@motech29 

Spoiler

@motech29 wrote:

@William Devereux i just sent in this feedback. posting it here too:

Regarding vertical tabs, this is an amazing feature. I Currently use Vivaldi and am contemplating switching to Edge. The vertical tabs are key. A few things:
1. Tab stacks (in the hidden settings) are excellent, please make this feature permanent
2. please reduce the amount of space the top of the browser takes up when using vertical tabs.
3. Please allow us to use vertical tabs in full screen mode.
4. Please allow us to right click on a tab stack, and hibernate it/make it sleep.


Hi,

number 4 is available, but behind a flag at the moment.

 

@HotCakeX This doesn't work if the tabs are vertical ?

@Reprobus R 


@Reprobus R wrote:

@HotCakeX This doesn't work if the tabs are vertical ?


What doesn't work?

 

Tab groups and its related features work in vertical/horizontal.

@William Devereux I'm running MS Edge Beta and there is no setting for vertical tabs anywhere.

Nice feature  Edge Rocks  !! @William Devereux 

@William DevereuxI am using the latest version of Edge Canary, but vertical tabs are still not available, in the browser settings, too.

@YaKen 


@YaKen wrote:

I am using the latest version of Edge Canary, but vertical tabs are still not available, in the browser settings, too.


 

Yes, even on Edge canary, vertical tabs is still a controlled feature rollout, and not available to all countries. I have tested it with VPNs.

 

try enabling this flag: edge://flags/#edge-vertical-tabs

 

 

Could there possible be an option to have the vertical tabs without the favicons as well at the side? So no visible panel whatsoever until your mouse is hovered or pushed to the left edge of the screen/browser.

 

I feel like this would be the best of both worlds where you've got increased screen real estate with nothing jutting out at the sides, and all the benefits of vertical tabs.

 

Thank you!

@William Devereux Feature is great, however, would be great if you could switch the vertical tab line to both the left and right side of the screen - also the collapsable mode still takes a portion of the screen when fully collapsed and seeing that no screen is gained vertically, it would be even better if the collapsable mode would fully disappear and would reappear in its current collapsable state after clicking or hovering over an icon.

This would be a nice option to have, out of view can be helpful when viewing a site as clicking between tabs is a easy although bad habit.

@Rash03 

that's a good suggestion, make sure to submit is using the feedback button on Edge.

@William Devereux 

Hello, I would like to give my opinion regarding the design of the vertical tabs.

- Vertical tabs should not expand, this animation can be uncomfortable for the end user.

- Instead I suggest to show a preview of the tab when hovering over the web page icon. I attach an image for reference.

- The page preview should allow you to close the tab.

Thank you.

 

1.png