What are Web Panels good for?
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I see a lot of discussion here about web panels. I have not seen this functionality before and I don't quite see what it's good for.
Can someone enlighten me and perhaps give some examples?
How does this do anything that adding another tab doesn't?
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https://translate.google.com/m for example
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I have not seen this functionality before
In the panel, there's a plus icon, that is how you add web panels.
I don't quite see what it's good for
It's great for multitasking. Honestly, they've made my browsing and work much more efficient.
Can someone enlighten me and perhaps give some examples?
I am using web panels for Gmail, Google Voice, Reddit, Youtube, Vidme, MEGA, Dropbox, national news, local weather, and a lightweight dictionary (definefor.me).
This way I can check my Gmail and Voice inboxes, browse Reddit, watch videos, work, and check the news without ever leaving my currently open tab.
How does this do anything that adding another tab doesn't?
Well, you could tile open tabs to achieve a similar result, but you can't resize tiled tabs yet, whereas you can resize web panels. Having these sites sitting in my panel is more convenient than manually opening them in a tab and then tiling it with another tab, and closing them is more convenient than untiling the tabs and then closing the one I no longer need. And, certainly, tiling tabs and web panels are both better than manually switching between two tabs repeatedly.
It's a fantastic feature for multitaskers.
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@Tiamarth Thanks. I knew "how" to create one, just not "why" I would want to.
For me, the key in your answer is "without ever leaving my current open tab".
Now I can see why I'd want that for Pandora or anything else I'd want to do without breaking my current work flow (and tab recency list).
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@josephj11: There are different ways to look at it - since most web panels open in the mobile version, it's almost like having (and being able see simultaneously) your phone and your tower browser in the same interface. At no point does a panel hide a tab, as a different tab would do. So it's a form of shared screen.
Another way to look at it, is that you have instant access to pages that perform some function for you (again, without hiding your primary tab) such as translations, currency conversions, blogs or forums, videos, email, calendars, calculators, task managers or issue managers, etc.
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@Tiamarth I just added a panel for your dictionary link. Nice!
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I like keeping one for my local weather forecast, useful since non of the weather extensions at the chrome store seemed satisfying enough.
Although it is tricky to add I also like keeping one for google hangouts, so I can chat from any tab, and one for Google+ too.
I also keep one for my local note taking TiddlyWiki, so I can glance at it at any time. -
@Ayespy said in What are Web Panels good for?:
[...] most web panels open in the mobile version [...]
Just to expand on your post: you can right click on any web panel and force it to load the desktop version if you need or otherwise prefer it over the mobile version.
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@josephj11 Teehee, see, we'll have you raving about the efficacy & productivity of WPs in no time flat, just like the rest of us!
Once you work out your own best personal workflow pattern in which you incorporate these, i suspect you'll soon wonder how you ever got by without them... ditto tab-stacks, tab-panes et al. On the comparatively rare occasions i open one of my other browsers, i am always momentarily shocked at their primitiveness... all the V features have recalibrated my default baseline browser expectations.
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Rijk's panelizer is a great resource for web development. Originally made for Opera and works fine in Vivaldi.
https://vangeijt.home.xs4all.nl/panels/panelizer.html
also at
http://r68.nl/panels/I mean, who doesn't need a hex-ascii conversion readily available at all times?
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I take it web panels are the things we can add in the panel tab ? If so, what is the performance hit since they remain active on some level so as to refresh content all the time ? Another thing ... say I wanted to pin one of my gmail accounts ... do I need to stay logged in globally in Google for that to work or does it login automatically if you're in the main mail page upon access ?
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@Deranox
@Deranox said in What are Web Panels good for?:web panels are the things we can add in the panel tab ?
Yes, correct
@Deranox said in What are Web Panels good for?:
what is the performance hit since they remain active on some level
You can watch for yourself when you hit "Shift + Esc" this opens vivaldis own taskmanager which sorts the processes into tabs and webviews (aka webpanels).
In the example below I made a webpanel for google news
In addtion this info might be useful: In most cases the webpanel might look a bit different than the normal look of a website you are used to - this is because the panels are shaped very slim vivaldi tries to get the mobile version of a website, so it adapts better.