Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust thumbnail size, instead pushes tabs out of view with scroll bar

GeeZuZz

If my memory serves me right, tabs were previously automatically made smaller, until thumbnail wasn't even visible.

In a recent update, something changed, and I get an annoying scrollbar, and tabs hidden out of view.

Seems like maybe the change is that it no longer makes tabs smaller than shown on my screenshot (while previously it kept making them smaller until only title was visible)

Is this a bug, or a feature? I find it it very confusing and difficult to use now.

Pesala

@GeeZuZz It is an intentional change. Thumbnails make little sense. Disable them and use the Popup Thumbnails instead.

GeeZuZz

@Pesala said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:

@GeeZuZz It is an intentional change. Thumbnails make little sense. Disable them and use the Popup Thumbnails instead.

In my opinion thumbnails are extremely useful to identify the correct tab quickly, so disabling them is not an option.

It functioned very elegantly before, so I don't understand exactly what this change achieved.

It could at least be an option.

Kirbynski

Wholly agree. Having auto adjusting tab height (I usually have my tabs on the left side) with thumbnails helped my workflow immensely and the most recent update seems to have removed this.

So there really is no way to reenable it? Would be a shame

EDIT: I went through the changelog and found this line:
[Tabs] Thumbnails should have a minimum height when shown “left” or “right” (VB-77184)
Seems like that's what did it?

lbfelix

Same problem here, my user experience worsened a lot! I love tab thumbnails and the scrollbar suddendly appear making browsing really annoyng and the GUI whith a "new" horrific retro style

GeeZuZz

@Kirbynski said in

EDIT: I went through the changelog and found this line:
[Tabs] Thumbnails should have a minimum height when shown “left” or “right” (VB-77184)
Seems like that's what did it?

Looks like it, and it really makes no sense. What good does the thumbnail do, when they are pushed outside view and not visible..

Seems very obvious that displaying all tabs, should be more important than displaying the full thumbnail...

Pesala

@GeeZuZz said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:
What good does the thumbnail do, when it is compressed to a few pixels to make it fit on the tab bar?

Open only as many tabs as will fit the tab bar with the thumbnail previews fully expanded
Scroll down to view additional tabs
Stack tabs in groups
Disable tab thumbnails and rely on popup thumbnails instead.

lbfelix

@Pesala said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:

@GeeZuZz said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:
What good does the thumbnail do, when it is compressed to a few pixels to make it fit on the tab bar?

Open only as many tabs as will fit the tab bar with the thumbnail previews fully expanded

Scroll down to view additional tabs

Stack tabs in groups

Disable tab thumbnails and rely on popup thumbnails instead.

I strongly disagree on all of that.

What good does the thumbnail do, when it is compressed to a few pixels to make it fit on the tab bar?

It does a lot of good until it's compressed than it worked perfectly in previous version reducing the thumbnails to title only when needed but keeping all the tabs visible and immediately accessible.

Open only as many tabs as will fit the tab bar with the thumbnail previews fully expanded

That's a joke I assume. Nobody will counts the number of tab before a stupid feature/bug hide the new ones

Scroll down to view additional tabs

Why?!? The previous versions worked fine without that! It's annoying and just stupid

Stack tabs in groups

Why?I don't want that, it's just more work for nothing, and I hate tab stacking option, I always disable it.

Disable tab thumbnails and rely on popup thumbnails instead.

Sure, and why were thumbnail option present on tab? Maybe because someone liked it?

Pesala

@lbfelix The thumbnails are useless if reduced below a certain size. That is why some users filed a bug report, and the bug was fixed, as per the changelog.

Thumbnails should have a minimum height when shown “left” or “right” (VB-77184)

No joke intended. There is no need to count tabs to see that the tab bar is full. Close some tabs, stack some tabs, or expect to scroll to reach the excess tabs.

The previous versions did not work fine. See VB-77814. People just got used to the way that it worked badly.

The Thumbnail option is available for those who like them. The default is disabled.

Those who like tab thumbnails, should open fewer tabs, or scroll to reach those currently hidden out of view.

sk1x1

@Pesala said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:

Those who like tab thumbnails, should open fewer tabs, or scroll to reach those currently hidden out of view.

This is not solution for everyone. I would also rather have previous behavior as OP as I am using multiple windows (one with many tabs, one with lesser) and new behavior is just confusing.

burkharm

I strongly agree with @GeeZuZz!

It worked perfectly before the update and I was really happy. I don't like this new "feature" now.
I love to have thumbnails on and have only the thumbnails disappear (but not whole tab) when having too many tabs open.

I think it would be really nice to have an option to enable / disable a "minimum thumbnail height" or something similar.

GeeZuZz

@Pesala said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:

@lbfelix The thumbnails are useless if reduced below a certain size.

No they are not. A thumbnail as small as 2 pixels high, can in some cases be enough to distinguish one tab from another.

There are several people in this thread agreeing that it was working perfectly before, and I even found more threads about it here:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/97380/v-6-7-vertical-tabs-thumbnail-size/13
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/98732/how-to-remove-the-tab-slider-in-new-update

How many people have complained about thumbnails NOT having a minimum size? One person in one bug report? Are there any threads about it?

Anyway, this whole discussion could be avoided by just making it an option.

MartinezZ

Oh-My-God. I search now how can I manage with this bug and if someone report that and... it is not bug?

Its useless now - automatically height of thumbs depends on how many tabs are opened is basic.

Bring it back asap, please, and follow one gold rule: "If it works, don't touch on it" !!!

k4in

I'm here to add my voice on this, the previous behavior was perfectly fine, I never had an issue with it since I started using Vivaldi I think 6 years ago?

It blows my mind how it was decided to change the default working behavior without making it an option.

lbfelix

@Pesala said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust tab size, instead introduces scroll bar:

@lbfelix The thumbnails are useless if reduced below a certain size. That is why some users filed a bug report, and the bug was fixed, as per the changelog.

No, the thumbnails are useful even smaller, as it was before; but in case is much better to disable thumbs instead of inserting an hateful scrollbar, or give an option for that.
The "bug" is resolved whit the introduction of another one, by far worst then the previous one

No joke intended. There is no need to count tabs to see that the tab bar is full. Close some tabs, stack some tabs, or expect to scroll to reach the excess tabs.
The previous versions did not work fine. See VB-77814. People just got used to the way that it worked badly.
The Thumbnail option is available for those who like them. The default is disabled.

Just no. The thumbnail option now is broken. closing tabs, stack them, or scroll finding Nemo are not a solution to a problem that wasn't present before

Those who like tab thumbnails, should open fewer tabs, or scroll to reach those currently hidden out of view.

Really? So the answer is just use as we want? Should I switch to Safari? I'm here for the strong customization options, if they are removed Vivaldi make very little sense to me.

mcsdwarken

Same story here, missing the autoresizable thumbnails/previews a lot... Could this be added as a setting so that people could decide whether they want it or not?

mcsdwarken

@Pesala for me, the idea of resizable thumbnails makes sense.

When I have 1 to 10 tabs open they all fit with full height thumbnails, I can easily see what tab I need.
When I have 11 to 20 tabs open, it is still possible to do that as the thumbnails are half size.
Up to about 40 thumbnails it is still visible and allows quick identification of a necessary tab.
Above that amount, I have to rely on popup thumbnail.

Now, without that feature, as from 10 tabs I already have to scroll or do something else to find the tab I need.

I would be great if this behavior could be configurable with a setting.

eiapopeia

Same for me.
All the "solutions" mentioned here are useless to me.

Use fewer tabs: Thank you, but I want to use as many tabs as I need. Currently I have 4 Windows open with six to 26 Tabs (some pinned, many grouped), and yes I also have 10 workspaces for pages I only use in other contexts. The browser should help not force me.
Use tab scrollbar: This is the worst solution. It is not even possible to use the mouse wheel or double finger scroll because that would scroll through the tabs instead of scrolling the tab bar
Disable Thumbnails: I want thumbnails and it worked with the auto-resize that they helped for a lot of tabs open. If I disable thumbnails, I have much speed to lose in the browser and a lot of extra brainwork to do.

What about an adjustable minimal height of thumbnails (with a minimum of zero)? That would be something I would see as the Vivaldi way!
Even 10px thumbnails are better than none. And much better than a tab I can not even see because its hidden in a scroll bar.

GeeZuZz

Very disappointed to learn that Vivaldi have closed the bug report I filed about this UX issue as "invalid". VB-107359

So apparently they don't intend to fix this issue

Maybe they thought we'd get used to it, but after several months I still find it so incredibly annoying that I consider "tabs with thumbnails on side" to no longer be usable. a feature that was unique to Vivaldi.

IMO regardless of whether the thumbnails should be fully dynamic, the implementation is awful from a UX standpoint.

Tabs are hidden with no very obvious indication that they are out of view.
The scrollbar can appear as part of the web site.
The scollbar is not usable with mouse wheel, since it instead changes tabs.

It's so bad that I would rather it showed a warning "tab bar full, close some?" than to just hide them out of view.

DoctorG

@GeeZuZz said in Vertical tab bar no longer auto adjust thumbnail size, instead pushes tabs out of view with scroll bar:

they implementation is awful from a UX standpoint.

Hmm, i can understand your frustration when the interface changes and reduces usability for you.

But i guess the previous shrinking of tabs was more a bug than a feature.