Opera is a fast, secure, and customizable web browser used by millions of people. One useful customization that Opera lacks compared to some other major browsers is native support for vertical tab bars. Vertical tabs display your open tabs in a column along the side of your browser window rather than in a horizontal row across the top.
Vertical tabs can help you organize lots of open tabs, quickly see what tabs you have open, and access tabs more easily. Fortunately, it’s possible to add vertical tab functionality to Opera through extensions. Here are the best options for vertical tab bars in Opera.
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Benefits of Vertical Tabs
Before we get into the extensions, let’s look at why you may want to use vertical tabs in the first place:
- See More Tabs at Once – With horizontal tabs, you can only see a few tab titles at once before they get cut off or shrunk down too small to read. Vertical tabs display the full title of more tabs simultaneously so you can easily see everything you have open.
- Quickly Switch Tabs – Tabs are lined up vertically right next to where you’re viewing web pages. This makes it faster to click between different tabs.
- Organize Many Tabs – Lots of open tabs can get disorganized across the tab bar. Having them stacked vertically helps keep them neatly arranged so you can find what you need.
- Save Horizontal Space – By moving tabs to the side, vertical tabs free up horizontal space to allow web pages more room. This is especially useful on widescreen monitors.
Best Vertical Tab Extensions for Opera
Now let’s look at some of the top vertical tab extensions available to add the functionality directly into Opera:
1. Vertical Tabs
Vertical Tabs is one of the most popular vertical tab extensions for Opera with over 12,000 users.
Features:
- Group tabs into collapsible categories
- Drag and drop to reorder tabs
- Multi-select tabs
- Double click empty space to open new tabs
- Customizable auto-backup for tab groups
- Touch-friendly design
To install, click “Add to Opera” then click the new Vertical Tabs icon in the Opera sidebar.
2. Tab Sidebar
Tab Sidebar provides a similar vertical tab interface as an alternative to Vertical Tabs.
Features:
- Pin tabs to keep the sidebar open
- Drag and drop tab reordering
- Tab grouping with custom titles
- Open new tab groups easily
Once installed, you can access Tab Sidebar by clicking its icon in the Opera sidebar.
3. Simple Vertical Tabs
Simple Vertical Tabs offers a more basic vertical tab option without some of the advanced features of the above extensions.
Features:
- Simple vertical tab list
- Pin, unpin, and reorder tabs
- Drag and drop tabs between windows
The minimal design keeps things simple if you just want the core vertical tab functionality without extra bells and whistles.
How to Use Vertical Tabs
Using vertical tabs in Opera is easy after installing one of the recommended extensions above. Here are some tips:
- Click the new vertical tabs icon in the sidebar to open the vertical tab bar
- Drag tabs up and down to reorder them
- Click tab titles to switch between open tabs
- Right-click tabs for extra options like closing tabs
- Click plus buttons to open new tabs
- Use available features like tab grouping and pinning in supported extensions
With the vertical tab bar enabled, you can easily see all your open tabs, stay organized, and quickly switch between different sites and tasks as you browse in Opera.
Customizing Vertical Tabs Further
If you want even more control over the vertical tab experience, there are a couple ways to customize things further:
Use Custom CSS – You can create a custom user stylesheet to tweak visual elements like colors, spacing, fonts, etc. of the vertical tab bar. This works well if you want to match the look to your Opera theme.
Get a Vertical Tabs Extension for Chrome – Some Chrome vertical tab extensions like VerticalTabs can also be installed in Opera. These give you access to additional vertical tab options.
Conclusion
Adding vertical tabs is a great way to enhance tab management and productivity when browsing with multiple open tabs in Opera. The Vertical Tabs, Tab Sidebar, and Simple Vertical Tabs extensions provide fantastic vertical tab functionality to give you more control over your tabs.
With the vertical tab bar now enabled, you can neatly organize dozens of open tabs, quickly switch between different sites, and even group related tabs together. Vertical tabs revolutionize the tab experience in Opera to help you get the most out of your browsing.
Give one of these top vertical tab extensions a try today to level up your Opera tab game!
