How to use Vivaldi’s new Two-Level Tab Stacking feature

If you’re a browser power user, you fully understand that tabs can get seriously out of control. Sometimes, I wind up with so many tabs, I end up having to split them into windows of related tabs, just to keep from losing any semblance of organization I require to get my day’s work done.

When Vivaldi sent me word that they were adding a new tab feature, I was immediately interested. Turns out, that feature is incredibly helpful to those of us whose tabs tend to get out of hand.

What is this feature? It’s Two-Level Tab Stacking. The feature isn’t exactly what you think it is–you’re not going to have two toolbars dedicated to tabs. Instead, this new feature is almost like having a contextual tab bar added to the browser, such that, depending on what tab you click on, the tab bar will change.

Let me explain. 

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How the Two-Level Tab Stacks work

If you’re a Vivaldi user, you already know how Tab Stacks work (if not, read my piece: How to use Vivaldi Tab Stacks). Essentially, Tab Stacks allow you to group multiple tabs together into a “stack.” This makes it quite easy to clear up space in your tab bar. However, some users have a bit of trouble acclimating to the tab stacking, as hovering over the stack and selecting the tab to be used can get a bit confusing.

That’s where Two-Level Tab Stacks come into play. 

Here’s how it works. If you click on a regular tab (one that’s not been stacked), the tab bar is a standard, one-level affair (Figure A).

Figure A

With tabs that are stacked, you can select the tab you want by using the ol’ hover trick. To use the Two-Level Stacks, click on the tab stack in question to reveal all of the included tabs, in the newly-added second-level (Figure B).

Figure B

Once the Two-Level Tab Stack has been revealed, you can use it just like a regular tab bar, even adding new tabs, deleting tabs, reordering tabs, and just about anything else you can do with the regular tab bar.

Of course, when you click out of that Tab Stack to focus on a non-stacked tab, the Two-Level Tab bar is exchanged for the Single-Level Tab bar.

This might not be a game-changer of a feature, but it certainly makes working with Tab Stacks even easier. If you’ve been hesitant to give the Vivaldi browser a go, this might be a feature that’ll win you over enough to accept it into your normal rotation of web browsers. 

Give Two-Level Tab Stacks a go and see if they don’t have you using Vivaldi more and more (or making it your default).

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