Vivaldi 1.7: screenshots and usability improvements
Vivaldi 1.7 Stable has just been released by the makers of the web browser for the supported operating systems Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
The new version of the Vivaldi browser introduces several new features and usability improvements to the browser.
The big new feature of the release is native support for creating screenshots. Other features improve the browser's usability, for instance by letting you change the visibility of extension icons in the browser, improving sound control for tabs, or by introducing a history panel.
Vivaldi 1.7 is the first stable release of the web browser in 2017.
Vivaldi 1.7
The new version of Vivaldi ships with native screenshot functionality. It is not a browser-first feature, as Firefox supported this for a long time, but it is handy nevertheless.
Vivaldi 1.7 ships with a capture page icon in the browser's status bar that you can click on to take a screenshot.
You may capture full page screenshots or screenshots based on your selection. The screenshot height cap was raised to 30,000 from 20,000 in the release version.
Full page screenshots work exactly as you'd expect them to. Select to save the screenshot as a png or jpg file, or copy it to the clipboard, and hit capture page afterwards.
Vivaldi captures the entire page up to the height limit. This means that it scrolls automatically so that all of the page within the limit is captured.
The selection based screenshot offers the same options, but will capture the contents of a rectangle that you draw in the browser UI instead.
Vivaldi users who prefer to use the keyboard can map the capture actions to keyboard shortcuts so that they can be invoked using these instead. Load vivaldi://settings/keyboard/ to make these changes in the browser's preferences.
It feels a bit strange that you find the two capture area options under window, and the two capture page options under page. While I can see what Vivaldi did there, it would make more sense to bundle all four together.
There is also a new option to take an area screenshot when you jot down notes in the Vivaldi browser (as opposed to taking full page screenshots only before).
Vivaldi 1.7 Usability Improvements
The new version of the web browser ships with several usability improvements. These are all smaller changes that may have a huge impact depending on how you use the browser.
The first change improves the visibility of extension icons in the browser's main toolbar.
Vivaldi is based on Chromium, and a quick check shows that Google offers no options in Chrome to hide extension icons fully. The only option you get is to hide it in the menu so that the icon is no longer visible in the main toolbar.
You can right-click on any extension icon in the Vivaldi browser to hide it from the main toolbar (and menu). This is especially useful for extension icons that do not offer any functionality.
Vivaldi 1.7 ships with a new option. You need to enable it on vivaldi://settings/addressbar/ first by checking "show extensions visibility toggle". This adds a toggle button to the toolbar that you can activate to hide or show all extension icons displayed in the toolbar.
Another improvement comes to the browser's handling of audio. Vivaldi 1.7 gives you better control over muting some or all tabs in the browser.
You may toggle audio using quick commands, keyboard shortcuts, or using mouse gestures. I explained how you can set up each of the options here.
For instance, to use quick commands you would simply hit F2 in Vivaldi, and type mute to see all mute related commands the browser supports. Pick the one you want, and hit enter to execute the action.
Vivaldi, like Chrome and Firefox, flags sites that attempt to send passwords over HTTP. Look for the "not secure" notice next to the web address that indicates this.
Vivaldi wanted to launch a new history panel in Vivaldi 1.7, but decided against it. Expect it to launch with a future version of the web browser.
Last but not least, Startpage Search is a new search engine that ships with Vivaldi by default.
Closing Words
Vivaldi 1.7 is a lighter update to the browser when it comes to features. Part of the browser's user base will certainly find these features useful, and they are.
Still, 2017 is the year that Vivaldi has to demonstrate that the company can make the next step. Plans are underway to ship the first mobile version of Vivaldi, and also to ship the long awaited mail client.
These two, if done correctly, will certainly boost the appeal of the browser.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.