When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?
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I have been using Vivaldi since the first technical preview. I was a big fan of Opera before that (having bought my own copy back when you still could!) so I was intrigued by the arrival of a browser that seemed to be attempting to reclaim some/all of Opera's vaunted customisability. I was put off by the fact that it ran on Chromium, but promises of keyboard-driven browsing, tab stacks, and an impending mail client.
In 2020, I'm still waiting on that mail client ;), but features that ensure Vivaldi remains my default browser include:
- Web panels: Having Notion live here, and be accessible with a few key strokes is amazing, and something I can't replicate with any other browser (except maybe Fluid, to some extent).
- UI hiding: I mostly use the keyboard when browsing, so being able to hide unneeded GUI elements to free up more screen real estate for web content is incredibly valuable for me. It's also handy when I'm working with my therapy clients (most often kids) over Zoom and want to limit their ability to click on tabs and other GUI elements that could serve to distract them from the task at hand.
- Quick commands: Greatly decreases reliance on the rodent.
- Tab tiling: This is another one that has come into its own with teletherapy over Zoom for me. With tab tiling, I can split the browser between a browser or text on the one hand, and a worksheet/some other task I want my patient to complete.
I use very many more of Vivaldi's features on top of the ones just listed, but these are the ones that are probably my 'killer apps' within the app. They are the features for which I have persisted with Vivaldi despite how un-fun it was to run it on old, slow hardware, or the fact that it doesn't support some of the nice media-decoding or native-performance boons of Safari.
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I've been using Vivaldi since V1.x - I don't recall exactly, but it instantly became my primary browser, filling a hole that had been dug years prior. I'm not sure when it occurred, right then or later on, but it feels more like home than Presto did -- Presto had too many sites that wouldn't work. Every browser has sites that don't work in it; Vivaldi has very few in my experience, even less that matter.
My favorite feature is the customizablility -- the "browser that adapts to you." Functionality that I use is highly configurable, functionality I don't want can be disabled or hidden. This is root of Vivaldi's superiority,
I make extensive use of:
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panels - being able to create your own panels is clutch, having them behave just like the native panels as if they were part of the browser to begin with. The panel is pretty much always open in my browser, and it's easy to use with just the mouse or just the keyboard, and obviously both combined. My custom panels run the full height of my fullscreen display, and include websites, mods, internal pages and extensions. It is one of the most useful pieces of functionality Vivaldi offers, creating highly productive workflows that just aren't possible elsewhere.
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bookmark management - having the ability to see two distinct views of my bookmarks simultaneously in a tab and in the panel makes bookmark management much more powerful than other browsers. There is room for improvement here, if there weren't we're simply not thinking enough; but anything that hasn't already been submitted as a feature request already, I'll submit when I have time or think of a new feature.
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tabs & tab stacks - I put the tab bar on the left and the panel on the right; on wide displays this helps to center the content on the screen. The window panel makes large numbers of tabs manageable, and Vivaldi is more than capable of handling hundreds, even thousands of tabs. Renaming a tab group before saving it so they get saved into a bookmark folder of the same name is great. As is moving a group to a new window before saving that window as a session. All these little things add up to supreme tab management.
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keyboard shortcuts - Vivaldi exposes way more actions than other browsers for assigning custom & multiple keyboard shortcuts. This enables very productive workflows either with the keyboard only, or when combined with the mouse. Vivaldi should always be thinking about what other actions to expose, especially when introducing new features.
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mouse gestures - again Vivaldi exposes a ton of actions. Just like with keyboard shortcuts, coming up with a semantic scheme where parts of a gesture (or shortcut) have meaning makes it easy to utilize the large number of actions avaliable for customization without the need for constantly referencing a cheat sheet (though a cheat sheet helps the first few weeks after you customize everything). Configuring a lot of actions enables highly productive workflows either with the mouse only, or in combination with the keyboard. Again, Vivaldi should always be thinking of new actions to expose, especially when introducing a new feature.
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sync - now that the Android version is available, Vivaldi is my primary on my phone as well. Being able to create bookmarks that sync to the desktop, share tabs directly to other instances of Vivaldi, or share tab groups indirectly, Vivaldi has dramatically increased my productivity on my phone. There is of course much room for growth, the Android version being so new, with extension support being by far the number 1 thing I desire; but it's already impressively mature.
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speed dials - I typically have about a half dozen speed dials at any given time; it varies depending on my work, with a few permanent speed dials along with a few dedicated to current projects. Being able to toggle any bookmark folder as a speed dial was a brilliant design choice.
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mods - modifications are a specific type of customizablility, and a very powerful one at that -- a power not shared by most browsers.
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extensions - without support for extensions Vivaldi would have a lot more work on its hands. Though I understand the move to build a native blocker for ads & trackers, I don't expect it to ever reach parity with the tools I use (a complete replacement for uBlock Origin, uMatrix, uBO Extra, NanoBlocker, Decentraleyes). Stylus, though not as critical as blocking tools, is an essential tool for me, and is far more than just a dark reading function. This is also not a complete list of the extensions I use.
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custom search engines - I have a couple dozen or more custom search engines defined. Being able to access pretty much any search tool on the internet through the search field in the address bar definitely saves time. The more you define, the more time you save; I even define multiple engines per search tool sometimes by using different search parameters. I also define a nickname for every engine, as this improves the usability for keyboard workflows.
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theming - functions like this may seem trivial to some, but that's the beauty of Vivaldi. As I already mentioned, the functionality I don't want can easily be disabled or hidden. There are plenty of things Vivaldi can do that I don't care about. What's important is that it does do the things I care about well. The customizablility of Vivaldi keeps unused functionality from feeling like bloat. Furthermore, other people do find use for them, and that brings me to the next feature I make extensive use of...
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the community - some might say the community preceeded the browser. The forum is my primary means of interacting with the community. The people here are incredibly helpful. It's among the very best online forums, I wouldn't spend as much time here as I do if that weren't true. The diligent assistance people provide, the additional functionality provided for Vivaldi itself through mods, all these positive contributions inspire me to give back by assisting others when I can, and submitting bugs & feature requests. Time is limited, I can't do this everywhere, but this is a community worth my time.
Cheers,
BoneTone -
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I started using the first Technical Preview in January 2015.
My favourite feature is shortcuts (keyboard and mouse gestures). My most used gestures are:
- History Back = GestureLeft
- History Forward = GestureRight
- Scroll Page to Top = GestureUp (Home)
- Scroll Page to Bottom = GestureDown (End)
- Panel = GestureRight, GestureLeft (F4)
- Settings = GestureLeft, GestureRight (Alt+P)
- Open Link in Background Tab (Over a Link) = GestureDown
- Open Link in New Tab (Over a Link) = GestureUp, GestureRight
- Paste and Go = GestureUp, GestureRight
- Reopen Closed Tab = GestureDown, GestureUp
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I came across Vivaldi in 2016 and I was hooked on it from the first moment, seeing its great features that differentiated it significantly from any other browser I have tried (almost all). I have seen from the beginning the great potential it has, adding a community, which has almost become family.
Although at the beginning in its v.1 it was not very stable and sometimes I had a dead birdy on the screen, until today I have never regretted using this beauty, where I only see 2 failures, it is tremendously addictive and after using it, any other browser seems Tatty.
The functions that I use the most are the Web Panel, the notes, the vertical tabs that no other has, apart from being able to stack them and view several tiled pages. -
@BoneTone
I luuuuuurve reading stuff like this! What a really well-considered passionate post -- fabbo, teehee.@BoneTone said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
tabs & tab stacks - I put the tab bar on the left and the panel on the right
Oh noooo, now you've done it [now i might need to play around all over again]! That used to be my arrangement too [& its reverse], but for a comparatively long time now i have them both on the rhs.
Since my recent discovery of the mod to reduce pinned tabs to an iconised grid, my panel is [mostly] closed [but visible], & my adjacent tab-column [at max default width] has static thumbnails off but hover thumbnails on. Prior to my discovery of that mod, i kept the panel open all the time, displaying the Window Panel which i used as a defacto TreeStyleTab functionality, & i kept the tabs-column minimised.
My primary reason for the decision to place both those features on the same side was ergonomic; to minimise the amount of trans-screen mousing i needed [my original placement was one on each side, for a sense of aesthetic balance, but soon enough the ergonomics won out].
@BoneTone said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
custom search engines - ... Being able to access pretty much any search tool on the internet through the search field in the address bar definitely saves time. The more you define, the more time you save
This is a magnificent feature, without which i could not have created this essential one: http://www.montypython.net/search/search.php?q=%s
And there was much rejoicing...
@Catweazle said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
tremendously addictive ... any other browser seems Tatty
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@Steffie But he's doing it backwards. Panel goes on the left, and tabs on the right.
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@Ayespy Haaaaaaaaaaaaa -- you're both doing it wrong!
:face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye:
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@Ayespy said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
@Steffie But he's doing it backwards. Panel goes on the left, and tabs on the right.
You'd hate where my start menu & task bar are in Windows then... task bar on the right, puts the start menu in the top right -- caddycorner to where it is by default. In Linux I don't use a start menu, and task bars, though I have two of them, are off by default and rarely ever turned on. To get a start menu, I just right- click anywhere on the desktop or hit the context menu key with the desktop in focus.
@Steffie Thanks for the kind words. Centering the content on screen is the most ergonomic part of having the tab bar & panel on opposite sides. I don't see tab tiles unless I hover, but I didn't use a mod for that, it's just Vivaldi settings. I don't interact much with the tab bar directly, however, mostly I use the window panel to manage my tabs. The panel is always showing, but I've got a few dozen panels created, of which I probably use ~8-12 most frequently.
Hiding the tab bar or panel, or making any of my most used panels appear is just a mouse gesture or keyboard shortcut away. Same with focusing either, or activating(/moving/selecting) up/down the panels(/tabs). All of the shortcuts & gestures are closely related for similar actions, those semantic schemes I talking about. I plan to publish a blog post(s) on that, I just need to find the time.
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My another favourite feature was added recently - Speed Dial navigation with arrow keys. Very useful when using Vivaldi on the big TV display.
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@Stardust I thought this had always been possible, or maybe it was the tab key. But somehow I was navigating the speed dial in our TV with the keyboard.
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@BoneTone I don't remember when exactly this feature was added but it wasn't available at the beginning. BTW I made a Feature Request https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/30277/speed-dial-navigation-using-arrow-keys
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The thing I really like about Vivaldi is the theming. I can change some of the colours.
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Nearly since the first moment. Came from Opera as it dies. Loved it!
(Use the Mail-/Feed-Client since today)First I was a bit afraid. But new is new. So I started to arrange with the new setup. And what should I say? It´s good. Only that you need an addon for everything - in this point Opera was better!
Last but not least: The comunity is fantastic. If you don´t know - there is one who knows.
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Vivaldi 2 point something.
Quick commands is my favourite feature. Now, every time, I use another browser, I keep thinking "The only way is to Ctrl+T?"
I mostly use Quick Commands for bookmarks and searching but never for finding a tab. -
@aqm said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
for finding a tab
To find tabs in a long list of them, I just use the search feature of the window panel.
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@Stardust said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
My another favourite feature was added recently - Speed Dial navigation with arrow keys. Very useful when using Vivaldi on the big TV display.
Is this a setting that has to be enabled? It doesn't work for me out of the box, and I can't find a setting that would seem to enable the feature you describe.
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I started using Vivaldi at around 1997 I think (<presto era). Then after some 15+ years I took a break while it was taking its break, then back with it again. My favourite feature is JvT.
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@purgat0ri said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
Is this a setting that has to be enabled? It doesn't work for me out of the box, and I can't find a setting that would seem to enable the feature you describe.
Try to enable this setting: Focus Page Content on New Tab
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@npro said in When did you start using Vivaldi and what’s your favourite feature?:
started using Vivaldi at around 1997
Um, huh? I'm certain that you're making some cunning reference here, but i'm too dimwitted to grasp it. V TP1 was Jan/Feb 2015, so...
Yes yes, i know i'll be embarrassed once you let me know what you actually meant there.
I wondered if you simply meant Opera Presto, but that can't be it either, because you also said
<presto era
. Did Opera have a pre-Presto version?From the Likes, obviously three other people do understand your clever ruse. I wish i didn't have to ask.
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@Steffie c'mon, you are so clever you eat those (/edit: this kind of writing I mean) for breakfast!
Did Opera have a pre-Presto version?