What do you think about vertical tabs?

Silver Contributor

Since vertical tab features released to the stable version of the Microsoft Edge, I believe majority of Microsoft Edge user would be able to try this feature out . I am wondering how is your experience about this feature?

Do you love it?

Are you using vertical or horizontal tab in most of the time?

27 Replies
I'm not a fan of them, so I don't use them. It's good the option is there though.

Vertical Tab has come a long way since the initial introduction

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/articles/vertical-tabs-preview-now-available-in-the-canary-an...

 

implemented lots of features and changes in the meantime, such as making it Resizable and latest one was implementing this feedback from users.

Awesome New Feature: Vertical tabs now Hide Title Bar

 

 

my next favorite feature is Web Widget and its floating button

 

@Reza_Ameri   I don't use them at all.  Unless you have 15-20 tabs open, the vertical tab panel is mostly empty space, wasting a lot of screen space that could be used for content.  Horizontal tabs take up a lot less space.

 

I'm curious about why you "believe majority of Microsoft Edge user have been using it".  I suspect exactly the opposite.

 

Vertical Tabs Wasted Space.jpg

It doesn't take more space than the horizontal tab strip now that it hides the title bar. it takes the same amount of space.
in your screenshot, it's just expanded, that's why.
Cześć
przeczytałem wcześniejsze opinie i jestem zaskoczony - ponieważ pionowe karty sa
doskonałe !
Ja od razu je ustawiłem i mam na wszystkich komputerach !
Zminimalizowane do ikony po najechaniu kursorem się wysuwają - jestem bardzo
zadowolony z tej zmiany !
Po przejściu na tryb pełnoekranowy - karty są pozime jak dawniej - ja uwielbiam
zmiany , a ta jest fatastyczna > polecam !
Witam
Właśnie starajmy się zachęcić do nowości które wprowadzają zmiany przygotowywane
przez Zespół Edge ja popieram takie ulepszenie mam nadzieję że ty też polubisz pionowe kart tak jak ja je będziesz promował i polecał wszystkim !
dziękuję bardzo
That's false. The viewing area is smaller on the screen even the vertical tabs are not pinned. You can activate it on this board for instance and watch the Microsoft logo shift.

dzień
dobry Ja do uważam że karty pionowe dopuszczycieni !
Ale dla mnie są świetne !

Dodam zrzuty:

 

@shaheedmalik 

Spoiler

@shaheedmalik wrote:
That's false. The viewing area is smaller on the screen even the vertical tabs are not pinned. You can activate it on this board for instance and watch the Microsoft logo shift.

Vertical tabs hides title bar in Edge canary channel now.

that logo is responsive and not related to this. it just shifts a little to the right that's why it gets smaller.

Witam
Dodam zrzut z witryny Tech Community !
Menu tej witryny też są po lewej stronie i wysuwają się jak karty pionowe i
to jest bardzo dobre i ja to lubię - nie muszę się zastanawiać na co klikam -
produktywność i ergonomia ruchu kursora jest OK !

@Reza_Ameri Love the idea BUT there should be a close tab button on top as its much too complicated to close one tab

 

this issue made me switch off vertical tabs

Like said, the viewable area decreases while in vertical mode. That's the fact.

@shaheedmalik "Like said, the viewable area decreases while in vertical mode. That's the fact."

 

Exactly right.

 

Using Edge Version 89.0.774.54 (Official build) (64-bit), on my 27" 1920x1080 monitor, the viewable content area under the three states:

 

HORIZONAL TABS:  23.5x11.5, or 270.25 square inches.

VERTICAL TABS (NOT PINNED): 23x11.5, or 264.5 square inches.

VERTICAL TABS (PINNED): 20.5x11.5, or 235.75 square inches.

 

On my 1366x768 laptop, the ratios are different (of course) but the results the same.  In each case, vertical tabs take up more room than horizontal tabs.

 

The reason why vertical tabs take away viewable content area is obvious.  When vertical tabs are opened, the top band of the browser (populated with tabs when horizontal tabs are in use) does not go away.  Instead, the top bar is used to display the name of the currently opened tab.

 

The difference between horizonal and vertical is not much, unless pinned, but significant if pinned. 

 

I don't much care about vertical tabs, and don't intend to use them because if not pinned, vertical tabs are yet another example of Microsoft's penchant for creating Whack-a-Mole dropdowns and flyouts**, and if pinned, viewable content area is reduced for no usability gain that I can see unless users open up a large number of tabs.

 

I recognize that quite a number of folks in this community think that vertical tabs are a "game changer" and well, just generally wonderful.  Maybe so, but facts are facts.  If vertical tabs are pinned in order to avoid flyout issues, then significant viewable area is lost, and if not pinned, people with accessibility issues are confronted with yet another flyout UI.  Vertical tabs may be very useful for fully abled users who open 10 or more tabs on a regular basis, but that usefulness comes at a cost.

 

=================

 

**  You can find an extensive discussion of flyout issues in another thread from 2019, noting that flyouts create a number of issues, including accessibility issues.  From that discussion:

 

  • the flyout UI is very difficult to handle by anyone who has an deficiencies in small motor control, because the flyouts are not stable in the way that the nested list in EdgeClassic is stable; and
  • the flyout UI is similarly very difficult (almost impossible, in fact) to use by anyone who has hand tremor issues."

 

Regarding to "believe majority of Microsoft Edge user have been using it" what I was referring was like it is available in the released version of the Microsoft Edge. My sentence is misleading what I am referring to is since it is in the stable release , then almost all Microsoft Edge users would have access to this features.

 

I'd like if the team would read my recommendations here:

I think tab grouped by domain should be default for pinned mode..
There's way too much vertical space available so it wouldn't hurt making some Titles for the Group like:

[Favicon] DomainName

  • TitleTab1
  • TitleTab2

Then repeat that for the next group, it would resemble a real navigation menu making it more appealing to the eye as for the user.

 

//This is just a side note would be cool tho.

(You could even play around and place a search field at the top well like other modern navigation menus would be redundant tho. what wouldn't be redundant is following the fluent design guide line for side navigations placing settings and user'settings' at the bottom of the navigation thus moving one item from the top down to the navigation bar in case u don't know what I mean with user settings I mean that one round button at the top with user profile picture)

 

//Back to the feedback 

As for the Flyout mode well thats annoying as hell the animation isn't smooth at all on well enough hardware I think thats a refresh rate issue on the rendering side.

 

I'd like to recommend being able to disable the flyout halfways replacing it with something similar that all windows users at least not hate a 'flyout' like on the Taskbar that shows a little preview of the site and the title (but please optimized so there's no loading lag) as for the close button just make it appear in front of the favicon as an overlay thats a much faster approach and less moving parts for accessibility reasons or something like that.

 

//A little quality time

Opening tabs is annoying to.. well atleast having more options wouldn't hurt

there are three ways to open tabs one of them is uhm just redundant so its okay (the one inside the three dots menu)

so there are two ways that are still kinda annoying one if you're not a power user you don't use

cmd + t the other one is the new learning curve that the new tab button now is inside a vertical list on the bottom moving farther down the more tabs u have but the first thing most of us do is.. well not looking down. (its okay for settings and stuff because thats something u want to look for if you need it)

So I'd like an option to move it up maybe switching place with [Disable vertical tabs] which should be able to be removable if someone chose to activate this feature I think they want to give it a try..  

The other option would be giving it some space from the adressbar making it appear always at the top thus removing the learning curve for the end user.

 

Of course these are my personal opinions but give it a thought they're not that bad.

 

 

 

Thanks, Reza. As you say, almost all Edge users now have access to vertical tabs. Users who prefer vertical tabs or have a need for using vertical tabs will do so. My guess, though, is that most Edge users will stick with horizontal tabs because that is what they are used to, remains the current Edge default, and horizontal tabs meets the needs of most.
True, personally I continue using horizontal tab and when I have too many tabs opens where it is difficult to manage them, I will switch to the vertical tab and it is much easier for me.
Dzień dobry
W Edge to właśnie jest doskonałe że Uzytkownik sam może wybrać dla siebie
ulubione ustawienie wyglądu - według własnych potrzeb i możliwości !
Teraz już nie jestem zaskoczony każdy ma swoje argumenty i to jest ważne
że je pokazujemy dla poprawy zrozumienia tematu .
Bardzo dziękuje
Andrzej

@Reza_Ameri I absolutely love it! I usually have multiple tabs of one specific website open and I need to quickly see the title of each tab to distinguish between them (with horizontal tabs I need to hover over each of them to see this). I also like the fact that you can switch to horizontal on one window and stay on vertical on another window. Microsoft edge has turned from what I used to hate, to my favorite browser during the past year!