Vivaldi 1.0 recently rolled out, and the full live version of the browser has a lot of reasons to get power users excited.
Read on to see an analysis of Vivaldi's features that make it stand out from the crowd. This implies that more commonly found features such as automatic updates, tabbed browsing, HTML5 video support, speed dial, audio muting and tab pinning will not be covered here.
Tab Stacks
Stacking tabs is a good idea when you want to increase visibility in the browser. The feature appeared in the classic Opera and temporarily in Chrome, but got removed.
Dragging and dropping tabs in Vivaldi permits you to stack them into tabs. There is no limit to the number of stacked tabs, and toggling between them is easy.
One advantage of this is that the stack occupies the same space as one single tab. What is more, tab tiling allows stacked tabs to be displayed in a more user-friendly fashion.
Tab Tiling
By right-clicking on a Tab Stack and selecting "Tile Tab Stack," Vivaldi users get to see the full array of tabs in one window. The default layout shows all tabs side by side, but additional customization is available: Ctrl-F7 places all tabs onto a grid, Ctrl-F8 tiles all tabs horizontally and by using Ctrl-F9 you get all tiles in a vertical alignment.
Tab Hibernation
Tab Hibernation frees up memory by unloading sites, while keeping them listed as simple tabs. With just a right-clicking on the active tab and selecting "hibernate background tabs" every tab except the active one goes into hibernation mode.
Note Taking
One of the noteworthy features of Vivaldi is its capability to highlight any text on any website, and add it to a note to keep a record of it. After you highlight the text fragment in the browser, right-click the selection and choose "add selection as a note."
All notes may be accessed in the specific panel. A nifty detail is that the browser archives the notes with a date, time and the URL attached to the note. Another way to create notes is directly from the Web Panel.
Quick Commands
Some users enjoy having keyboard shortcuts to get around easier through the web browser, and Vivaldi accommodates their need. The F2 key will bring up the Quick Commands interface, displaying the most common activities, such as launching a new private window or closing a tab. A positive side-effect of Quick Commands is that the hotkeys remain highlighted, making it easier to use them the next time you surf the web.
Interface Scaling
The feature allows you to change the size of interface elements and text in the browser. A larger font size, for instance, could aid accessibility for elderly users.
Tab Sessions
Existing software allow you to save a list of tabs as sessions, but they get updated every time you close the browser. With Vivaldi you get to save multiple sessions, so you can have the same array of tabs from weeks ago at your disposal. Simply select Vivaldi menu, go to File and choose Save Open Tabs as Session.
For a short list of Vivaldi's highlights, read our previous coverage.
