Time flies with the speed of a bullet. It seems that very recently we have seen a version of the browser Vivaldi 1.0, but now it’s time to talk about a new release of Vivaldi 2.0.
Between these two versions there were several more stable assemblies, but all of us – developers, and, of course, users – were waiting for something more, something that would not only change the version number, but also understand that in the life of the browser and all its users there comes a new stage, which, in turn, will become the starting point for taking the next vertex.
However, let’s not try to predict the future and let’s study the present, which is not less interesting than the events of the coming days.
So, a sharp change in the numbering should have clear and serious motives, and we have them. A couple of years ago many online communities conducted a survey about new features that they would like to see in the browser, and the most popular query then was synchronization. And, as they say, we built-built and, at last, built. So here it is.
Synchronization
After installing the browser, you will see a new welcome page, which is also a tool for the initial configuration of the browser:
Everything here is quite intuitive, so it does not require special explanation. We import everything that is needed from other browsers, choose the theme of the design, define the placement of the tabs and go finally to the main culprit of the celebration:
To begin with, we need to make some preparations to launch this miracle machine called Vivaldi Sync. If you do not already have an account on the Vivaldi.net community portal – now is the time to fix this mistake and create it using the “Register” button, if you have already been prudently registered before, then use the username and password from your account for setup synchronization:
After successfully logging into your account, you will go to the setup page of the actual synchronization:
Here you can choose which data to synchronize, and also assign a highly recommended master password for additional protection of your data. Of course, you can refuse this additional security measure, but in this case, if some intruder accidentally takes over your password and login from Vivaldi.net, he can also spy on your synchronized data.
And with a master password, the chances of losing your data are rapidly decreasing to zero at a rate proportional to the complexity of the master password being chosen.
So, after all these preliminary simple manipulations, it starts the synchronization and gets the expected result:
At the moment, the synchronization works between the versions of the browser installed on different computers, but in the future, of course, the mobile version will also be added here. But it will be later, not earlier than next year.
By the way, you can further change the list of synchronized data at any time – the corresponding tools are presented in the browser settings. And now you can safely close the settings window and return to the welcome page:
And we need to do this for one simple reason: synchronization is good, but in this release, there are other innovations, although not so noticeable, adding a little more convenience to the process of working with the browser. Therefore, we quickly finish the work with the welcome page and start studying other novelties.
“Floating” sidebar
Since the first appearance of a fairly functional sidebar in the Vivaldi browser, users have asked to do it even better. For example, you can place this panel on top of an open page so that you do not reformat the content of the site you are viewing every time you go to the notes or the download bar.
However, at the same time, requests were made not to do this on the other hand – not to lose important data on the page being viewed by the sidebar.
It decides to go and meet both sides arguing and make a “floating” sidebar, but at the same time leave the opportunity to turn off this feature. For this, the corresponding item appeared in the settings, and not even one:
Actually, the first tick allows the panel to open on top of the web page, and the second checkbox activates the function of hiding the panel automatically when clicking on its borders:
Well, if you do not need it all – just shoot both jackdaws and use the familiar sidebar.
Working with placed tabs
Another novelty also adds convenience to the work in the browser. And also is the implementation of custom, that is, your requests. With this version you have the opportunity to change the size of the tabs placed in one window using a simple drag and drop:
Here you can note that you can change not only the width but also the height of the placed tabs. While all your changes will be remembered by the browser and restored the next time you start the browser or when you open a saved session.
Reading in a column
And one more small, but also demanded improvement, touched the visual scrolling of tabs. This is a tape that looks like a film, which is scrolled with Ctrl + Tab and allows you to quickly select the desired page from a large list of open tabs, guided by the thumbnails of the pages. Now you can change the appearance of this tape, turning it into a list with the sketch shown on the left:
This option allows you to display more tabs in one block, which makes it easier to find the right one.
What New Features Included:
- Improve Syncing of Bookmarks, settings, etc.
- Add options that support floating/overlay panels
- Resize tiled tabs easily
- List layout for Visual tab-cycler
- Add predefined shortcuts for moving tabs left and right: Windows/Linux = “Ctrl+Shift+PgUp/PgDn”; macOS = “⌘+⇧+↑/↓”
- Tile new tabs in a tab-stack
- Holding Command/Control opens a new tab on history buttons
- Web panel suggestions with icons
- Many Speed dial suggestions by using favicons
- Awesome welcome page slot
- Updated Default Themes for 2.0: Added “Vivaldi” as our new default theme, replaced “Redmond” with “Beach”
- Minimum active tab-width setting
More pleasant things
In fact, we found a lot of small improvements, which can be listed for a long time, but all of them, despite the imperceptibility, increase the comfort when performing routine operations and create a unique and easy style of work in the browser. So, for example, we added to the settings the ability to set the minimum allowed width of the active tab, which avoids accidentally closing it with a lot of open tabs:
Or, for example, we add an intuitive graphic hint to some settings for a visual representation of what this function does:
Someone will definitely like the ability to open recently closed tabs by clicking the middle mouse button on the shopping cart. And someone will be happy with the changed prompts when creating a new Express-panel cell or when adding a web-panel.
Each of us, find something special in Vivaldi 2.0, allowing to make work in it as comfortable, fast and really unlike similar actions in other browsers. Actually, this is what distinguishes the program created to serve people, from programs that force people to serve them. Vivaldi is really yours and our browser.