Side Tab Bar management

Side tab bars are highly useful because they increase the amount of information available on the screen, as most webpages are vertical and provide a buffer zone to the side of the screen, allowing me to view more of the webpage without having to scroll. However, I have a problem with Opera's side bar. When I exceed the number of tabs displayable on my netbook, tab management becomes wonky and I have to use a difficult to access button with loss of tab management.

As a solution, I'd like to request that the side tab support two features. The first would be to add a slide bar, that could be accessed through keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures, allowing you to flip through screens of tabs. Another solution would be to make space for a new column within the existing tab bar and add a new column. Both solutions would greatly increase the usability of Opera for users who prefer the tab bar to be on the side.

Thanks for reading.

I've been using left side tab bars for some time and you're absolutely right that they become unmanageable with the existing options when they reach the bottom of the page.

Wrapping to multiple lines works fine with top and bottom bars because you don't lose much space or functionality but with side tabs it makes it unworkable. The extender menu is just a band aid because if you spend any time with tabs in the bottom of your page it's a huge chore and manipulating them to the top to be more functional is also very hard. It's even worse if you open a large tab stack that extends beyond the screen.

I like your idea of a scrollbar but I would be just as happy if it utilized the mousewheel while the cursor was over the tab bar. So you could use that to shift your view of all tabs up or down as needed in a very intuitive way with or without a scrollbar. And you wouldn't be disadvantaged if working with tabs at the end of your list like you are with the extender menu. I would personally prefer to have a visible scrollbar be optional for the tab bar just because it's taking up visual real estate that could be manipulated with a mousewheel.


I'm not particularly interested in making multiple columns out of the left or right bar as you're suggesting primarily because it becomes confusing when you go around the world, especially if there's a tab stack involved. Plus, one of the largest benefits I've gained from using a left tab bar has been to read tab titles regardless of how many tabs I have open and when you cut that in half it becomes very hard to use. When I was using a top tab bar I spent nearly all of my time with nothing but icons (I always have dozens of tabs open perpetually) so i don't want to go back to that. But I'm certainly not opposed to someone having that option.

So I wholeheartedly support a sliding screen for left or right tab bars (and for that matter a sliding screen for a top bar with static width "wide tabs") however it gets implemented. But if it responded to mousewheel and had optional scrollbars I would be overjoyed.

I just found out the possibility of left-sided tab bar and I REALLY like it! I can see tab names now, so it makes navigation among them easier.

But without scrolling, as mentioned above, it's not very usable for me. My usual tab count is far higher then how many can fit on my screen. Accessing tabs on the end through extender menu is not comfortable solution. Optional scroll bar is good idea. I would probably have it enabled to know how many tabs are opened.

So I would appreciate scrolling side tab bar functionality in Opera - the best browser

I'd really like tab bar scrolling in particular. The tab panel is a lot handier right now just because it has stuff like that.

Any progress on this?

Can't edit....
Meh, I just use Firefox and Tree Style Tab - https://addons.mozilla.org/cs/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/
My madness for many tabs led me to Fx, sorry Opera, you will be used, not as main browser though.

+1, I would love to see sliding panels (on mouse hover).