Make Panel Toggle hide/show only the panel, with the sidebar permanently visible

[nimanyu]

Currently, clicking the Panel Toggle hides both the Sidebar and the Panel. In my opinion, it would be more intuitive to have the sidebar permanently showing, with the Toggle hiding/showing the most recent Panel.

In the current implementation of the Panel Toggle, after toggling off a panel, say, downloads, if one wishes to use a different panel, say, bookmarks, they have to first click on the toggle to show the sidebar (and the downloads panel with it), then click on the icon on sidebar to open bookmarks.

The sidebar doesn't occupy a lot of screen area so having it on all the time should not be a problem. The Toggle would allow to quickly hide/unhide the active panel, with the always-on sidebar for easy switching. This seems to be something that wouldn't be too difficult to implement.

(Edit: I just saw that I had made a similar post couple years back, but all the replies to it suggested using shortcuts instead)

[Pesala]

@nimanyu If you like to keep the Panel Toolbar always on screen why do you need the Panel Toggle? Just click the active panel's icon again to close it.

[dude99]

@nimanyu Try enabled Auto-close inactive panel?

Also, this CSS mod may be helpful to you, it eliminate the need to constantly disabled/enabled the panel manually: https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/378402

Then, there is a js mod that auto-click the panel toggle on mouseover, search the modification forum to get it.

NOTE: You can read the 1st pinned topic in modification forum to learn how to install CSS mod.

[nimanyu]

@Pesala Clicking a small button to repeatedly hide/unhide a panel is much more tedious than simply taking your cursor to the edge of the screen and clicking. I know I might be sounding too finicky, but this was how All-In-One Toolbar for Firefox worked (before Quantum) and this is one of the things that Vivaldi could adopt (and Tree Style Tabs). Toolbars imo are not something so large that they would require repeated hiding/unhiding.

[nimanyu]

@dude99 Yes, I found about it as I was about to start writing this post. Autohide does the trick for me, although I'll have to disable it if I ever have to do some work where I need to have the panel constantly visible and switch between the panel and main tab. Not something I'd have to do frequently though.

Another reason for the post is that imo the panel toolbar, and toolbars in general, are not something large enough to warrant a dedicated switch. Imagine having a switch for the status bar, address bar etc. Their purpose is to be on hand at all times. Having the switch only for the panel (and not the panel toolbar) makes more sense to me (I could be wrong though).

[Pesala]

Autohide has its pros and cons. If, like me, you use two monitors, the toggle can be difficult to hit when working on the left hand monitor.

Another alternative would be to toggle the active panel by clicking anywhere on the blank area of the Panel Toolbar, though some users fill it up with web panels.

A mouse gesture: GestureRight, GestureLeft works best for me if using the mouse. F4 is easier as I usually have my hands on the the keyboard.

Autohide would work well for toggling fullscreen mode at the top of the Window, as I have my Windows Taskbar on autohide at the bottom.

The Panel toggle wastes a lot of space for what little it does.

[LonM]

Thank you for your request. As this post has had less than 5 votes over 4 years it will now be archived. You can make a new request if you feel it is still needed in the browser.