First look at Vivaldi Browser's innovative Workspaces feature

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 25, 2023
Vivaldi
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Vivaldi is testing a new Workspaces feature in the company's Vivaldi web browser currently. Workspaces is a tab management feature that enables Vivaldi users to access only the tabs of a specific workspace in the browser at the same time.

Think of it as the tab equivalent of virtual desktops. Each workspace contains tabs and users may switch between the available workspaces to only display these tabs in the Vivaldi tabbar.

Vivaldi displays a new Workspaces tab next to the Vivaldi Menu icon and to the left of open tabs. The first click provides an explanation of the new feature -- "Declutter your tabs by separating your social, work, and hobbies into workspaces" -- and a button to create the first workspace in the browser.

This workspace may contain all open tabs at the time, but this is optional. Each workspace may have a unique name, and all future workspaces start with zero tabs.

A click on the Workspaces button in the Vivaldi tabbar displays all workspaces and the number of tabs each contains. A click switches to that workspace in Vivaldi, and displays only the tabs of that workspace.

Vivaldi engineers implemented several functions to manage tabs and workspaces. A right-click on a workspace displays a content menu with several options.

These options enable users to delete or rename workspaces, open a workspace, and all of its tabs, in a new window, copy all links, or hibernate an entire workspace. Hibernation unloads tabs and frees up memory.

Tabs can be moved between workspaces by right-clicking on them and selecting the Move context menu option. This works for individual tabs that are selected, and for selections of multiple tabs. Vivaldi users need to hold down the Ctrl-key on the keyboard and left-click on tabs to select multiple ones.

Each workspace and the tab that it contains is also listed in Vivaldi's sidebar, when users select the "windows" icon there. Moving tabs between workspaces is probably most comfortable there.

Deleting a workspace will close all tabs that it contains. There is no option currently to have the tabs moved to another workspace automatically, or close all workspaces and go back to a single Vivaldi tabbar.

Closing Words

Workspaces is an interesting new feature that is in testing currently. It may help users keep an overview of open tabs in the browser, without having to save and close tabs regularly, or use different browser windows for that. The feature lacks data separation options, like those provided by Firefox's Container feature, but that is probably not its main purpose.

Vivaldi is the browser with the most powerful tab stacking functionality already. The new workspaces feature gives Vivaldi users another tab management option, which they may combine with the tab stacking feature, for even more tab management goodness.

Now You: do you use tab management features in your browser?

Summary
Article Name
First look at Vivaldi Browser's innovative Workspaces feature
Description
Vivaldi is testing a new Workspaces feature in the company's Vivaldi web browser currently. We take a first look to tell you what is is all about.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Someone said on March 26, 2023 at 8:25 pm
    Reply

    seems nice. I’ll try it.

  2. Alexander said on March 26, 2023 at 4:25 pm
    Reply

    This is not innovative. It’s exactly what Opera Browser does. And has for awhile.

    1. armadillo said on March 27, 2023 at 9:51 am
      Reply

      so what? yes, it was in opera and it’s great to have it in vivaldi too.

  3. GoodMeasure said on March 25, 2023 at 4:17 pm
    Reply

    Thanks Martin,

    Yes, I do use tab management. Everybody uses browsers differently. These features are only for people that manage many tabs and projects at once.

    I use several browsers. Some I use to manage projects and many open tabs. Other browsers I keep clean, light and simple. For my project/tab management browsers, I tend to organize projects in tab groups, with many tabs open rather than bookmarks. I use some of the famous browsers with tab management for this, like Vivaldi and Waterfox Classic with addons.

    In Vivaldi, I currently use tab stacking and multiple row tabs. There is some info on setting it up here:

    Multiple Row Tabs
    https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/25453/multiple-row-tabs/186?page=10

    I will watch this experimental idea with interest. Keep us posted, Martin!

  4. Deep_Fried_Desk said on March 25, 2023 at 2:11 pm
    Reply

    Another bloatware feature in Vivaldi that could have easily been a standalone extension.

    1. john said on March 26, 2023 at 9:47 am
      Reply

      no, it couldn’t be an extension, because the extension api cannot add buttons to the tab bar, and cannot hide the tabs, they can just open and close tabs (in case you didn’t notice when switching workspace the tabs are just hidden, not closed. so that when you return to that workspace you’ll get the old tabs exactly like you left them).
      these features can only be implemented with native code, not with extension.

    2. Bas said on March 25, 2023 at 6:07 pm
      Reply

      You can disable it in settings

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