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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Google has started rolling out vertical tabs in Chrome.
- With vertical tabs, all your open web pages appear in a sidebar.
- You can more easily see, manage, and work with your open tabs.
Vertical tabs are one of those must-have features that can help you juggle all your open web pages. Both Firefox and Microsoft Edge have long offered them. And now Google Chrome has officially joined the party.
As of Tuesday, vertical tabs have started rolling out for all Chrome users, Google announced in a blog post. Since the rollout has just kicked off, you may not see the new feature just yet. But be patient, and it should arrive before too long.
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Instead of forcing you to work with all your open pages at the top of the screen, the vertical tabs layout displays them in a sidebar. This means you can open and view more tabs without them getting lost in the shuffle. Plus, you can easily see the full titles of each page and quickly switch to a specific page.
Vertical tabs also help if you use tab groups, which let you organize similar or related pages in their own individual homes. Tab groups are handy, but they can chew up valuable real estate when nestled at the top of the browser. With vertical tabs, you can open a group to easily see and access the individual web pages.
Vertical tabs in action
Next, you can control the sidebar that displays your vertical tabs. Collapse the sidebar to save space and then expand it when needed. Sort the vertical tabs by order. Right-click on any tab in the sidebar, and you’ll find the usual menu of commands to open a new tab, create a tab group, pin or unpin a tab, close the selected tab, and close all the other tabs. You’re also able to easily switch between vertical and horizontal tabs.
Vertical tabs have long been accessible across rival browsers. Microsoft Edge unveiled them back in 2021. Firefox introduced them a year ago. Other browsers with vertical tabs include Arc, Vivaldi, and Brave. Previously, you could access the feature in Chrome, but only through the browser’s Canary version, by setting a special flag, or by using a third-party extension. Now, the feature is easily accessible to everyone.
To see this in action, simply right-click on any Chrome window and select “Show Tabs Vertically.” The tabs open in the left sidebar by default. From there, select a tab to switch to the page. Drag and drop an individual tab to move it up or down. Move the border between the sidebar and the main screen.
Click the Collapse tab button at the top to shrink the sidebar, then click the Expand tab button to expand it again. Click any open tab, then select “Tabs at top” to return to the standard horizontal layout. But once you try vertical tabs, you may never want to go back.
But wait, there’s another new twist to Chrome.
Improved reading mode
Reading mode is an option that displays your current web page in a plain, uncluttered format so you can read it more easily. In the past, reading mode looked and felt clumsy as it simply opened your current page in a narrow sidebar alongside the normal web view. You’d then need to adjust the border to increase the sidebar’s width.
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Now, in reading mode, your current page opens in full-screen layout. That’s a huge improvement, as it’s now even easier to read, say, the latest article on ZDNET.
To switch to reading mode, just right-click a page and select “Open in reading mode” from the menu. In reading mode, you’re able to adjust the font, color, line height, and other visual elements. You can also listen to the page read aloud.
