Bigger (or user variable) tab previews

MisterThackery

I find the "tab previews on hover" to be far too small to see any detail.

My request is that you implement one of three options:

a/ make them much bigger (eg like Opera); or

b/ let the user specify the size; or

c/ show the page full size and complete, like a kind of "virtual" or temporary switch to the tab, and which reverts when the pointer is moved away from the tab.

Thanks.

Pesala

@MisterThackery Please vote for the existing requests:

Welcome to the Community. Here are a few links for your bookmarks that you may find useful:

MisterThackery

@Pesala said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

@MisterThackery Please vote for the existing requests:

The previous request has been archived, hence starting a new one. Also, I have added a new option to the request for consideration. This is not a repeat of the 2018 request.

Pesala

@MisterThackery Please search all the linked requests. There are at least two more:

MisterThackery

@Pesala said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

@MisterThackery Please search all the linked requests. There are at least two more:

Large Tab Previews

Tab Preview Enlargeable

I've clicked the thumbs-up icon on all the linked requests.

The votes appear to be distributed amongst the different variations, so I'm not sure this basic requirement will get the attention it deserves.

Frankly I didn't expect to have to mess about like this. Can't the Vivaldi people see for themselves that this has been requested at least four times already? (Each is different in small details, but the basic need should be clear.)

I'd just like to know whether there's any chance of it being implemented. It can't be that hard - if Opera can do it, so can Vivaldi. If not, just say so and I'll go back to Opera.

Thanks.

mib2berlin

@MisterThackery
These requests have a handful of votes in Years, I guess not much user need this, I have tab preview disabled.
If you need this so urgently I would not wait for it in Vivaldi.
This is a user forum, the developer only watch the feature requests, they don't read the forum.

MisterThackery

@mib2berlin said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

This is a user forum, the developer only watch the feature requests, they don't read the forum.

Hi, @mib2berlin, and thanks for your reply. I think all the links referred to are in the feature request pages, so hopefully they've been seen by the developers.

You mention that you have the feature turned off. I agree - at the moment the preview is too small to see any details, so effectively it's a pointless feature because it's unusable and it might as well be switched off. I wonder if you, and others, might want to switch it back on if it were easier to use.

Thanks for your "don't wait" advice - usable previews are something I would very much like, rather than "need" (after all, it's just a Web browser, not life and death). I've wanted to move away from Opera ever since I found out it was bought by the Chinese, and Vivaldi is a great alternative. So far, the unusable tab previews are the only shortcoming I've noticed.

Pesala

@MisterThackery I also turned off Tab Previews, and use some CSS to show only tooltips on background tabs too.

/*Hide Tab Thumbnails*/
#vivaldi-tooltip .tooltip .tooltip-item {width: 200px !important; height: auto !important;}
#vivaldi-tooltip .tooltip .thumbnail-image {display: none !important;}

Tab Tooltips.png

MisterThackery

Thanks, @Pesala. If you've turned off the tab previews it's obviously because you don't find them useful. I, however, do find them useful, which is why I'd like them to be legible.

Perhaps the lukewarm support for the requests is because most people have them switched off! I repeat: if they were actually legible maybe more people would want to use them.

mib2berlin

@MisterThackery
No, I don´t need this feature, except one workspace with 11 tabs I open Vivaldi with one tab in the morning and close it with one in the evening.
I would even disable the tool tips if possible everywhere.
But with many tabs the preview is useful, I guess.

Cheers, mib
EDIT: I test the feature in Opera, it is slow and annoys me to dead, disabled.
I cant vote for this request but if other user like it you will get your votes.

npro

@MisterThackery said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

Perhaps the lukewarm support for the requests is because most people have them switched off! I repeat: if they were actually legible maybe more people would want to use them.

Νο, basically almost everyone here coming from the old (pre-chinese-owned, Presto-engine-powered) Opera hated those big previews with Opera 15 and wanted the old ones back, and thankfully VIvaldi devs were thinking the same.

MisterThackery

@npro said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

Νο, basically almost everyone here coming from the old (pre-chinese-owned, Presto-engine-powered) Opera hated those big previews with Opera 15 and wanted the old ones back, and thankfully VIvaldi devs were thinking the same.

Out of interest, could you tell me why people dislike the large previews? I honestly don't see why they would be unpopular, but I am keen to understand other points of view.

MisterThackery

@mib2berlin said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

EDIT: I test the feature in Opera, it is slow and annoys me to dead, disabled.

I agree with you about that - there is too much delay in showing them in Opera and I don't know why they've done it like that. At least when they do appear you can see what's on the page, unlike with Vivaldi.

I still think that a lot of people have previews turned off simply because they are too small to be useful and just get in the way. However, I am open to other points of view, truly.

MisterThackery

@npro said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

Νο, basically almost everyone here coming from the old (pre-chinese-owned, Presto-engine-powered) Opera hated those big previews with Opera 15 and wanted the old ones back, and thankfully VIvaldi devs were thinking the same.

Making it user-selectable (off, small, large)* would keep everyone happy and would surely be one of the simpler features to implement.

(small = like currently, large = like Opera)

ybjrepnfr

@npro said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

basically almost everyone here coming from the old (pre-chinese-owned, Presto-engine-powered) Opera hated those big previews with Opera 15 and wanted the old ones back

Opera 15

you really should hide that behind a content warning before you swear like that!

@MisterThackery fwiw i entirely agree with you. i use & value v's tab thumbnails, back in the day did ditto with opera presto, but do indeed wish i could enlarge them in a way not tied to the ui zoom setting [which imo was a silly design decision].

as for all the weirdarses who disable the hover preview thumbnails, who can understand crazy as a coconutters?

Pesala

I don't see much differenced between the thumbnails for Opera 12.18 and those for Vivaldi 6.2.
Vivaldi 6.2 Thumbnails.png Opera 12.18 Thumbnails.png
Rendering and caching large thumbnails will take more time. I think showing the actual tab on mouseover is a better solution. One can view the page at full resolution, without caching anything that is not already in cache, and without creating any thumbnail previews. Clicking on the page would make it active at once.

MisterThackery

@Pesala said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

Rendering and caching large thumbnails will take more time. I think showing the actual tab on mouseover is a better solution. One can view the page at full resolution, without caching anything that is not already in cache, and without creating any thumbnail previews. Clicking on the page would make it active at once.

And that's exactly why I raised a new request. @Pesala, I wonder if you even read it before reacting. Check my original post: option c/ is exactly what you have just described.

You say that "rendering and caching large thumbnails will take more time" without attempting to say how much more. Let's get real: processor clocks run at gigahertz, memory is in gigabytes - the whole of the desktop user interface is just a rendered bitmap by the time it appears on your screen. And yet it responds instantly as I click between windows, between photos, between programs. I bet the rendering of thumbnails would take, what, tens of microseconds? A few hundred at most.

You can always find a reason not to do something, but Opera went ahead and did it anyway. So could Vivaldi.

HAVING SAID THAT, I agree that showing the actual tab on mouseover is the best solution by far, so long as it can be switched off. That would be a great innovation for Vivaldi.

Pesala

@MisterThackery said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

I wonder if you even read it before reacting.

Not only did I obviously read all parts of your post, but I took the trouble to locate previously requests of which yours is a duplicate, and post links to them. Then explain how to search for previous feature requests more effectively before posting duplicates.

I get it, you're new here, whilst I have been helping users for nearly ten years, so I spend several minutes helping you find your way around. Please read what I say more carefully before accusing me of not reading your posts.

npro

@MisterThackery said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

Out of interest, could you tell me why people dislike the large previews?

I can't go back 9-10 years now and search for those comments everyone was throwing at Opera at that time , but the basic I guess is that people just needed to distinguish tabs visually instead of viewing previous tabs taking almost the whole screen. Opera's implementation iirc was to see them with Ctrl+Tab as well which created an annoying, unhealthy "stroboscopic" effect. Reason behind was imo that Opera 15 was really developed with tablets in mind, see the need of a big preview for low-resolution tablets, "Stash" instead of Bookmarks, no sidebars , one click buttons, all these attrocities... then after losing their users to Vivaldi they began adding some sanity back.

P.S. in Vivaldi you click the tab you want to see once then click it again to return to your original tab. It's under Tab Features, "Minimize active tab"

MisterThackery

@Pesala said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

@MisterThackery said in Bigger (or user variable) tab previews:

I wonder if you even read it before reacting.

Not only did I obviously read all parts of your post, but I took the trouble to locate previously requests of which yours is a duplicate, and post links to them. Then explain how to search for previous feature requests more effectively before posting duplicates.

I get it, you're new here, whilst I have been helping users for nearly ten years, so I spend several minutes helping you find your way around. Please read what I say more carefully before accusing me of not reading your posts.

My original post was five years ago and is now archived. Things change in five years, which is why I wanted to raise this issue for consideration again.

Adding a vote to a five year old feature request would definitely not bring it to everyone's attention. Especially as my current request is not the same as the original. Hence mentioning it again.

@Pesala - you might be surprised to hear that I really do appreciate the help you give. I simply thought you dismissed my post too quickly on this occasion. We should be allowed to re-raise issues for discussion after several years have passed. As I said, things change.

Just to help me understand - are you actually a member of the Vivaldi development team? You show as an "Ambassador", but I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks.