Tip #449

Set Vivaldi’s internal pages as the Homepage or New Tab Page.

Start Page with your Speed Dials isn’t the only option for your Homepage and New Tab Page. You can also set pages of your choice to open when you go to your homepage or open a new tab. It’s common to set a website as one of these pages, but you could also open Bookmarks, Notes, Calendar, and more.

To set an internal page as the Homepage/New Tab Page:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Homepage or Settings > Tabs > New Tab Page.
  2. Select “Specific Page”.
  3. Enter the internal page’s link. For example vivaldi://bookmarks, vivaldi://notes, vivaldi://calendar.

Tip #448

Lock Private Tabs on Android when you leave Vivaldi.

When you leave Private Tabs open for longer, you can lock them for additional privacy. Next time you open Vivaldi and wish to view a private tab, you’ll first be asked for your phone’s or tablet’s screen lock (PIN, password, pattern, etc.).

To enable or disable locking of Private Tabs:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > Settings > Privacy and Security.
  2. Toggle on “Lock Private tabs when you leave Vivaldi”.
  3. Verify yourself with your device’s unlock method.
Privacy and Security settings in Vivaldi on Android. Lock Private Tabs setting is highlighted.

Tip #447

Pick a custom accent color for the browser theme in Vivaldi on iOS.

A lot of people love decking the browser UI in their favorite colors. In Vivaldi’s Theme settings you can pick one of the preset colors, let the color change based on the web page you’re on, or set your very own custom color.

To pick a custom accent color:

  1. Go to Settings > Appearance & Theme > Accent Color > Custom Color Code.
  2. Enter the HEX value of your preferred color or tap the color wheel in front of it to pick a color using the grid, spectrum, or sliders.
Accent Color settings in Vivaldi on iOS showing the Grid, Spectrum and Sliders.

Tip #446

Use the Code Editor to write blog posts on your Vivaldi.net blog.

In Tip #430 we talked about the Block and Classic editors for your Vivaldi.net blog. But there’s a third option you can use with either of the editors as the default. That’s the Code Editor, which allows you to write your post using HTML.

To enable the Code Editor:

  • Open the ⁝ Options menu from the top right corner and select “Code Editor”.
  • Use the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Alt + M / Command + Option + Shift + M.

To exit the Code Editor, select “Visual Editor” from the ⁝ Options menu or use the same shortcut.

Options menu open on a Vivaldi.net blog with the Code Editor option highlighted.

Tip #445

Click on the link icon on the Calendar event to open the web page.

When you have enabled Event Property Icons in Settings > Calendar > Calendar Display, you’ll see little icons next to the event title showing what kind of information the event includes.

If you’ve added a web link to the event, you can just click the icon to open it, instead of opening the event to view and open the URL. That’s especially useful when you’ve chosen the Minimal View in Vivaldi Calendar, where only the time and event title are displayed.

Vivaldi Calendar with the link property icon highlighted.

Tip #444

Remove individual History entries from the Address Field.

When you type a link or a search term in the Address Field, you’ll see suggestions from Bookmarks, (Typed) History, Synced Tabs, and more in the Address Field drop-down menu and as the auto-completed suggestion. If some (Typed) History suggestions are no longer relevant, you can remove them.

To delete suggestions from History:

  1. Type something that would bring up the (Typed) History suggestion you want to remove.
  2. Find the entry in the Address Field drop-down menu.
  3. Click on the X that appears on the right side when you hover over the suggestion.
Vivaldi Browser with the Address Field drop-down menu open and an entry selected for removal.

Tip #443

When presented with a choice screen on your mobile don’t forget to pick Vivaldi as your default browser.

As of this week, Europeans will be presented with an option that can help make the web a better place. The Browser Choice Screen will be shown when you update your iOS or Android device or when you set up a brand new one.

Vivaldi’s Co-Founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has been pushing for regulation of Big Tech and better user rights for decades. Finally seeing the impact of speaking up and fighting back is a big win. The browser and search engine choice screens are a massive step in the direction of fair competition and granting users freedom to choose.

We are committed to your privacy and security. We believe that your online data belongs to you, not to advertisers or third-party trackers. Reclaim control of your online experience and make a clear statement.

When you see the browser choice screen, choose Vivaldiβ€”the browser that puts you first. If Vivaldi isn’t on the list, go to your phone’s app settings to set it as the default manually.

Text "A small click for you, a massive step for a better web" with an image of a choice screen on mobile highlighting Vivaldi below it.

Tip #442

Enable automatic updates to always use the latest version of Vivaldi.

To make use of brand new and improved features, fixed bugs, and important security updates, make sure to keep your Vivaldi up to date. The easiest way to achieve this is by enabling automatic downloading and installing of updates. That way, the update is downloaded in the background and all you need to do is restart the browser when it’s most convenient for you for the update to be applied.

To enable automatic updates:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Updates.
  2. Click on “Show Update Settings”.
  3. Enable “Automatically Download and Install Updates”.
Vivaldi Settings with automatic update setting highlighted.

Tip #441

Back up your Reading List locally by exporting it to a file.

You can export your Reading List as a CSV file from Vivaldi to back up, transfer, or share the articles and pages you’ve saved. The file includes the page link, title, read status, and last interaction time of each saved page.

To export your Reading List:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > File > Export > Export Reading List.
  2. Choose the destination folder.
  3. Click “Save”.
Menu path for exporting the Reading list from the Vivaldi Browser.

Tip #440

Resize the editor on Vivaldi Social to view what you plan to post all at once.

Some time ago we increased the character limit for posts on Vivaldi Social from the standard 500 to 1337 characters. Reviewing your longer writing can be tricky in a small editor box, though. That’s why on Vivaldi Social, you can increase the height of the editor, to make more of the text visible.

To change the height of the editor:

  1. Place the mouse cursor at the bottom right corner of the text field (just above the character limit).
  2. Click and drag the mouse up or down.

Tip #439

Choose whether to focus on the Address Bar or the Speed Dial in a new tab in Vivaldi on Android.

When you open a new tab, do you usually start typing a website link or a search term in the Address Field, or do you open one of your favorite Speed Dial bookmarks? Vivaldi on Android allows you to choose your preferred option and, depending on your choice, either opens the keyboard, so you can start typing immediately, or keeps it closed so you can view the Speed Dials.

To review your choice:

  1. Go to Settings > Tabs > Focus Address Bar on New Tab.
  2. Toggle the setting off, if you prefer to see the Speed Dials or leave it enabled, for the keyboard to pop up.
Settings in Vivaldi on Android, highlighting "Focus Address Bar on New Tab:.

Tip #438

Filter feature requests on the Vivaldi Forum using tags.

Feedback from our users plays a big part in prioritizing which features we’re going to work on next. For this, we have a special Feature Request categories on the Vivaldi Forum, where everyone can post and upvote the features they’d like to see in Vivaldi. To make browsing the requests easier, you can use the forum’s search feature (see Tip #246) or check out the tags to filter out interesting topics.

To view feature requests by tags:

  1. Open the relevant feature requests category:
  2. In the “Filter feature requests” section, click on the topic you’re interested in.

When you find a feature request you like, don’t forget to upvote πŸ‘ the first post.

Mobile Feature Requests page on the Vivaldi Forum, with tags highlighted.

Tip #437

Force dark mode on websites that don’t provide a dark theme themselves.

Dark themes have been in for a while, but websites are still catching up with the trend. If you don’t want to wait, you can use Vivaldi’s settings to display even those sites in darker colors.

To enable dark mode:

  1. Go toΒ SettingsΒ > Appearance > Website Appearance.
  2. Select “Dark”.
  3. Tick the box for “Force dark theme on all websites”.

Tip #436

Let your theme’s background image shine through the Tab Bar and Panels.

You’ll mainly see the background image on your Start Page, but by tweaking some settings you can make it visible on the Tab Bar and behind Panels as well.

To adjust your theme’s transparency settings:

  1. Go to Settings > Themes > Editor.
  2. Select the them you want to edit.
  3. Go to the Settings section.
  4. Adjust the Panel transparency level, and toggle on Tab Bar and background tab transparency as you wish.
    In addition, you can apply a blur effect to the background image.