Tip #478

Show off your personality and what your blog is about with a custom header image.

Give your blog on Vivaldi.net a look that reflects you and the topics you’re blogging about – from theme colors to fonts, a logo, and a header image. In this tip, let’s find out how to add the latter.

To add a header image to your blog:

  1. Click “Customize” on the top menu bar of your blog or go to Dashboard > Appearance > Customize.
  2. Go to the Header Image section.
  3. Click “Add New Image” to upload a new image, select one from your Media Library, or search for an image using Instant Images. Alternatively, select a premade color gradient as the header image.
  4. If needed, change the blog title color.
  5. Click “Publish” to save the changes.
Blog customization page open on the header image section.

Tip #477

Double-click on the Tab Bar to open a new tab.

Everyone can find a way to open a new tab in Vivaldi that fits their habits. You can click the + button on the Tab Bar, go through the main menu, or use one of the many shortcuts. But there’s another lesser-known option.

When you have the Tab Bar on the side of the window or at the bottom, you can just double-click on an empty area on the Tab Bar and a new tab will open. When you have the Tab Bar on top, then a double-click will maximize the window or revert it to its previous size, but you can get double-clicks to open new tabs on a top positioned Tab Bar when you turn on Native Window from Window Appearance settings.

Tip #476

Enable compact layout of menus if you prefer your menu items to be more tight-knit.

Vivaldi 6.7 introduced a new design to the browser’s main and context menus. Among other changes, each menu item is given more space (great for when your screen supports touch interactions). If you prefer the previous design, you can enable it with a quick setting change.

To enable compact menus:

  1. Go to Settings > Appearance > Menu.
  2. Enable “Compact Layout”.
  3. Restart the browser.

Tip #475

Add web pages to your Speed Dial for easy access in Vivaldi on Android.

It’s common to add regularly visited sites to one’s Bookmarks, but scouring through the folders in the Bookmarks Panel is tedious. To open your favorite sites with the minimum effort, add them to the Speed Dial. Then, whenever you open a new tab in Vivaldi on Android, they’ll be just one tap away.

To add a website as a Speed Dial bookmark on the Start Page:

  1. Open the web page in a tab.
  2. Open the Vivaldi menu and select “Add Bookmark”.
  3. Tap on “Edit” in the confirmation banner that appears at the bottom of the browser window.
  4. For the bookmark location select a Speed Dial folder.
  5. Finish by tapping on “Done” in the top right corner.
Speed Dial in Vivaldi on Android.

Tip #474

Fine-tune your notification settings on Vivaldi Social per activity and notification type.

You can receive a notification about many things happening on Vivaldi Social. For example, when someone boosts your post, mentions you in their post, requests to follow you, etc. You probably care about some notifications more than others, so make use of the settings to decide what kind of notifications you get and how.

To edit notification settings:

  1. Go to your Notifications page.
  2. Click “Show settings” in the top right corner of the Notifications column.
  3. Toggle notifications on and off as you wish.

To learn about email notifications, check out Tip #374.

Notification settings open in Vivaldi Social.

Tip #473

Enable “Focus All Controls and Links” to be able to use the Tab key to go through more than just input fields on a web page.

When you press the Tab key, by default, it only focuses on input fields (search, login, forms, etc.) and a few other elements on the page. But by changing one setting you can browse through everything on a web page (in addition to the aforementioned, input fields, menus, links, etc.)

To enable this option:

  1. Go to Settings > Webpages > Webpage Focus.
  2. Select “Focus All Controls and Links”.

Tip #472

Import contacts from vCard and CSV files to Vivaldi Webmail.

Bring your address book over to your Vivaldi account and add new contacts any time from the Contacts page in Vivaldi Webmail and send emails in a breeze.

To import contacts to Vivaldi Webmail:

  1. Open the Contacts page in Vivaldi Webmail.
  2. Click on Import on the menu above the contact view.
  3. In the importer window, choose your contacts file.
  4. Select the contact group to add the new contacts to.
  5. Click Import.
Import contacts window open in Vivaldi Webmail.

Tip #471

Check image Alt text on mobile devices from the image’s context menu.

Alt text provides additional information about the images you find on web pages. On the one hand, it makes the content on the page more accessible, for example, for people who use screen readers, but Alt text is also displayed when, for one reason or another, the images fail to load. Even if you don’t rely on assistive technologies and the content loads without issues, you might still want to take a look at the description of the image.

To view Alt text in Vivaldi on Android and Vivaldi on iOS, long-press on the image to open the context menu, where the Alt text will be displayed as the first thing in the menu.

In Vivaldi on iOS, the whole description is displayed. On Android, if the text is too long, you need to tap on it to display it in its entirety.

A web page with an image open in Vivaldi on Android. The image has been long pressed to display the context menu and Alt text.

Tip #469

Enable vertical Reader View to display texts in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean vertically.

Enabling Reader View helps to read text-heavy pages more easily by removing distractions. To accomodate the readers of vertical text, we’ve also added a setting to display texts in Japanese, Chinese and Korean vertically when Reader View is enabled.

To enable vertical Reader View:

  1. Go to Settings > Web Pages > Reader.
  2. Enable “Allow vertical text direction”.
A web page in Japanese with Reader View displaying text vertically enabled.

Tip #468

Bookmark interesting posts on Vivaldi Social.

When you’ve come across a great post and want all your followers to see it too, you can boost the post. When you just want to let the author know that you liked their post, you can favorite it. Both boosted and favorited content can later be found among your posts and favorites.

But what if you don’t want to publicly interact with the post or want make an extra record of a boosted/favorited post? In that case you have the option to bookmark it. To bookmark a post on Vivaldi Social, simply click on the “Bookmark” button below the interesting post.

A post open on Vivaldi Social with the bookmark button highlighted.

Tip #467

Force web pages to be displayed in dark mode in Vivaldi on iOS.

Some websites have created both light and dark versions of their site and check users’ preferences to decide which version to display. You can make your preference known in Settings > Appearance & Themes > Website Appearance.

In addition to the above, you can force dark mode on websites that come only in light color schemes. To do that, enable “Force dark theme on all websites” on the same Settings page.

Tip #466

Switch Tabs and Tab Stacks using Keyboard Shortcuts.

If you’re a fan of using Keyboard Shortcuts, we have good news for you. Did you know that you can switch between the first few Tabs or Tab Stacks you have open with simple shortcuts?

Use the shortcuts Ctrl + 1, Ctrl + 2, all the way to Ctrl + 8 to switch to the tab or stack corresponding to its position on the Tab Bar. Using Ctrl + 9 will take you to the last open tab or stack. (On macOS, replace the Control key with Command.)

If these shortcuts don’t work for you, you can always assign your own in Settings > Keyboard > Tab and look for “Switch to Tab #”.