Tip #454

Give Saved Sessions unique and easily recognizable names.

Saving tabs as a Session is a great way to save a selection of tabs for easy access at a later date. While you don’t need them, you can close the tabs to declutter your browser and free up some resources.

To rename a Session:

  1. Open the Sessions Panel.
  2. Right-click on the session you want to rename and select “Rename” from the context menu.
  3. Type in the new name and press Enter.
Sessions Panel in Vivaldi browser. Context menu with the Rename option open.

Tip #431

Look up recent translations in the Translate Panel.

Whenever you translate selected text from a web page or something you’ve entered in the Translate Panel, the original text and the translation are saved in the Translate Panel.

To view Translate History:

  1. Open the Translate Panel.
  2. At the bottom of the panel, click on “Show Translate History”.
  3. Double-click on the entry you’d like to view.
Translate History open in the panel with a corner of the Start Page visible on the right side.

Tip #416

Use the Keyboard Shortcut F4 to toggle the visibility of the Panels sidebar on and off.

Vivaldi’s Panels are one of the most useful features in Vivaldi. But if you’re a fan of a minimalistic user interface, you might find yourself having to choose between a super clean look and easy access to the Panels.

With Keyboard Shortcuts, you can have the best of both worlds. By pressing F4 on your keyboard, you can display the Panels sidebar and when you’re done, use the same shortcut to hide it again. You don’t even need to close the Panel you were last looking at.

But as it’s Vivaldi, there are a few other options you can choose from to toggle the sidebar on and off.

Tip #412

Selectively open Tabs from Saved Sessions.

Saving all your tabs as a session is a great way to return to what you were doing at a later date. But what if you need just one or a few of the tabs in the session and don’t want to restore all of them? Check out the instructions below.

To selectively open Tabs from a Saved Session:

  1. Open the Sessions Panel.
  2. Select the session that has the tab(s) you want to open.
  3. Click on “Edit Session” in the top right corner of the panel or right-click on the session and select “Edit / View Contents”.
  4. Select the tab(s) you want to open and right-click on it/them.
  5. Select “Open” or “Open Link”, followed by the opening location (e.g. New Background Tab), to open just the chosen one(s).

Tip #398

Open Tabs from the Window Panel with a single click instead of a double click.

By default, to switch tabs using the Window Panel, you need to double click on an entry to activate it. If you’d like to switch tabs with only one click, like on the Tab Bar, you’ll need to enable a setting for it.

To enable single click tab switching in the Window Panel:

  1. Go to Settings > Panels > Window Panel.
  2. Enable “Activate with Single Click.

Tip #382

Left or right? Choose a side for your Panels.

With Vivaldi’s highly customizable user interface, you can move toolbars around as you like. The Panels Toolbar, hosting your Bookmarks, Downloads, Notes, Web Panels and more can be located either on the left or right side of the browser window. Especially when you prefer vertical Tabs (see Tip #204), you need to think about whether you want to have Tabs and Panels on either side of the window or both on the same side.

To move Panels:

  1. Go to Settings > Panels > Panel Position.
  2. Choose either Left or Right.
Two Vivaldi browser windows, showing Panels on opposite sides of the window.

Tip #327

Open Panels with Keyboard Shortcuts and Mouse Gestures.

Whether to check the progress of your downloads, translate something, or check what’s next on your agenda, opening and closing Panels with shortcuts is an efficient way to take a quick look.

First, go to Settings > Keyboard > View and Settings > Mouse > Gesture Mapping to review and add shortcuts.

Then whenever you want to open one of the panels just use the shortcut for both opening and closing the panel. If you already have one open, the shortcut will switch focus to the one you need.

Keyboard Shortcut settings open at Panel shortcuts.

Tip #139

Clean up the user interface by leaving only the important Panels visible.

Many of Vivaldi’s key features, such as Bookmarks, Notes, Mail and your Web Panels, can be accessed from the browser’s sidebar. If you’re not using all these features, consider hiding the Panels you don’t need.

To toggle the visibility of a Panel:

  1. Right-click on any of the Panels.
  2. Hover over the Panels option in the context menu.
  3. Click on the panel you want to hide or show, if you’ve hidden it in the past.

Panels and Web Panels that are hidden don’t have a check mark in front of their name.

Top right corner of Vivaldi Browser window with Panels context menu open.

Tip #118

Use the Window Panel to get a tree-style overview of your Tabs.

Let’s say you want to get a tree-style view of your open tabs. All you need to do is open the Window Panel. Click on the Window Panel icon on the Panels bar and you will have a tree-style view of all your open tabs on one side of your browser window.

From the Window Panel, you can, for example, drag tabs to change their order. You can create a Tab Stack by dragging and dropping one tab over another. Also, you can even tile Tab Stacks to view them side-by-side by right-clicking the Tab Stack and select Tile from the context menu.

When you have so many tabs open that you can no longer see their titles on the Tab Bar, you can use the Window Panel to review and close the ones you no longer need. Just hover over the tab and click on the Close button on the right side.

If you want to hide the Tab Bar, the Window Panel is a good way to manage your tabs.

Tip #111

Enable automatic translation of selected text to see translations of web page content immediately in the Translate Panel.

With Vivaldi Translate you can translate full pages, but also just selected sections of the page. Translate Panel with the automatic translation option enabled makes translating short paragraphs a breeze.

To translate selected text automatically:

  1. Open the Translate Panel.
  2. Tick the box for Auto-translate selected text.
  3. Keep the panel open to see the translations.
  4. On a web page select some text for translation.

Tip #108

Make Panels float over page content instead pushing the content aside.

By default, opening and closing Panels will resize the web page to make space for the panel. But panels can also be made to float over the page content. Floating panels are useful when you briefly want to check something and don’t need to keep it open while working on the page. For example, Reading List Panel could be floating, since you’d only want to quickly add or open a web page from it, but then it should get out of the way again. While the Mail Panel with all the folders is useful to keep open on the side, without it covering anything.

To make all panels float:

  1. Go to Settings > Panel > Panel Options.
  2. Enable Floating Panel.

Alternatively, Shift + click on the Panel toggle button on the left side of the Status Bar.

To change the floating state only for specific panels:

  1. Right-click on the panel.
  2. Select Floating Panel > This Panel.
Top window with a non-floating panel and bottom window with a floating panel.

Tip #92

Mute Tabs and Web Panels you want to keep silent.

Whether you’re streaming audio or video, getting notifications from a messaging service or browsing sites that make noise, occasionally it’s necessary to silence them to focus on sounds from a single source or to have complete piece and quiet.

To mute and unmute Tabs in Vivaldi, use one of the following options:

  • Click on the speaker icon on the tab, when the tab is currently playing audio.
  • Right-click on the tab and select Mute Tab.
  • Type “Mute / Unmute Tab” in Quick Commands
  • Set a Keyboard Shortcut or a Mouse Gesture for the action.
  • To mute multiple tabs, select the tabs, right-click on one of them and select Mute # Tabs from the context menu.
  • To mute all background tabs, right-click on a tab and select Mute Other Tabs.

When the tab is muted, in place of the website’s logo, you’ll see a muted speaker icon.

Vivaldi window with a muted tab highlighted.

To mute and unmute Web Panels, right-click on the web panel’s icon on the Panels bar and select Mute Panel.

Tip #38

Reorder sections in the Mail Panel to your liking.

The center point of Vivaldi Mail, the Mail Panel displays 8 sections: All messages, Custom folders, Mailing Lists, Filters, Flags, Labels, Feeds, and All Accounts.

If the default order doesn’t suit you, you can reorder the sections. If you know you’ll never use a specific section, you can hide it altogether.

To customize the Mail Panel:

  1. Go to Settings > Mail > Mail Settings > Mail Panel Order and Visibility.
  2. Select the section you want to move.
  3. Click on the arrows at the bottom of the list to move the folder up or down.
    Alternatively, click and drag the section to its new location.

To hide a section untick the box in front of the section name.

Tip #33

Enable all Web Panel controls for easier navigation.

With Web Panels you can keep sites easily accessible from Vivaldi’s side Panel. Most of the time, you’ll probably just quickly check the web panel and then return to browsing in the main tabs. But if you need to view multiple pages in the web panel and go back and forth a lot, additional controls can come in handy.

To enable the navigation buttons:

  1. Right-click on the Web Panel’s button on the Panel.
  2. Select Toolbar > Display All Controls.

Then, in addition to the Home button, which is there by default, you’ll also see Back, Forward and Reload buttons. web panel controls

Telegram Web Panel with enabled controls.