Auto-Tab Stacking Feature

Auto-Tab Stacking Feature

I would like if we could enable a feature that automatically stacks tabs if they have the domain in common or when opening links from search results or a news blog. Like when you open a bunch of Google or Youtube results and they become stacked automatically. Similar to how the Windows 7 taskbar works, when you open the same program, it gets grouped with the original windows/program.

It would make tab stacking much easier and efficient, especially if you open up multiple links at the same time from search results or from a news blog and don't want the Tab Bar to be cluttered.

So basically 2 options added in to the tab options and aren't enabled by default.
1. Automatically tab stack with the same domain/site.
2. Automatically tab stack when creating a new tab from another tab
(2 would be similar to how IE8/9 'grouping' tabs work)

I love the tab stacking feature, but I close them much too often to be bothered to stack them on my own. This way, they would be stacked automatically for my convenience.

I hope I suggested this in a clear way, I'm not the best at explaining things sometimes.

(Posted this 15 minutes or so ago, but in the wrong section. So I thought I should post in the right section and add a bit more to it)

Originally posted by acfikkert:

I really like this idea, but there are some little problems with this idea. So what about new users who don't know about Tab Stacking? They can't find their tabs? Maybe when stacking tabs automatically, the browser automatically opens the stack?

You have a really good point here. For example take me, I switched from Firefox 4 to Opera 11 in March 2011. I didn't knew about anything except highly popular Speed Dial. If Automatic Tab Stacking would have been there, it would have been complicated for me. Although I would continue to use Opera because I have an interest in exploring browsers, some people who just do simple browsing like checking mail would simply switch to another browser.

Originally posted by acfikkert:

I really like this idea, but there are some little problems with this idea. So what about new users who don't know about Tab Stacking? They can't find their tabs? Maybe when stacking tabs automatically, the browser automatically opens the stack?

jop, that's the way it worked in the preview. it created automatically expanded tab stacks for all links you opened in new tabs and if you did a "new tab" it created another stack next to it (with the original stack staying extended). Thus you had some sort of natural structure which at the same time was more or less transparent if you didn't use it. (that's what makes it so sad they removed it).

+1 ! i think this feature would be awesome! BRING IT BACK! =D

Originally posted by ignaciomunoz88:

+1 ! i think this feature would be awesome! BRING IT BACK! =D

Must be disabled by default.

Swapnil99pro: please read my post (2 above)

I want it too! even if disabled by default, or hidden in opera:config

+1

Originally posted by Swapnil99pro:

Originally posted by ignaciomunoz88:

+1 ! i think this feature would be awesome! BRING IT BACK! =D

Must be disabled by default.

wouldnt matter if it comes disabled by default. But a new option at tabs preferences could be enough to bring back this feature

+1

I see many problems with automatic stacking, but it would be perfect if, for example, when clicking on a link with the middle mouse button you got the current behavior (new non-stacked tab) and when clicking Ctrl+middle button you got a new tab stacked with the current one.

Originally posted by slalaurette:

I see many problems with automatic stacking

like which?

Originally posted by slalaurette:

clicking on a link with the middle mouse button you got the current behavior (new non-stacked tab) and when clicking Ctrl+middle button you got a new tab stacked with the current one

-1

+1

I was thinking about posting a similar feature request here last night. I came back this morning to commit to it and see that it's been done. I like the OP's ideas. Mine was just a "stack by default" behaviour and when you wanted to create a new group, you just pulled out the tab you wanted to start the new group with and any tabs opened from links, CTRL + T (or whatever) would automatically open in the respective group of the active window. The tab stacks are a great idea, especially when doing research on the web. These ideas would make them way more efficient to use. As it stands, it's just a lot to ask of the user to stop what they're doing to organize their tabs. Anyway, thanks and keep up the good work!

Originally posted by jptrosclair:

I was thinking about posting a similar feature request here last night. I came back this morning to commit to it and see that it's been done. I like the OP's ideas. Mine was just a "stack by default" behaviour and when you wanted to create a new group, you just pulled out the tab you wanted to start the new group with and any tabs opened from links, CTRL + T (or whatever) would automatically open in the respective group of the active window. The tab stacks are a great idea, especially when doing research on the web. These ideas would make them way more efficient to use. As it stands, it's just a lot to ask of the user to stop what they're doing to organize their tabs. Anyway, thanks and keep up the good work!

+1

Originally posted by ignaciomunoz88:

Originally posted by jptrosclair:

I was thinking about posting a similar feature request here last night. I came back this morning to commit to it and see that it's been done. I like the OP's ideas. Mine was just a "stack by default" behaviour and when you wanted to create a new group, you just pulled out the tab you wanted to start the new group with and any tabs opened from links, CTRL + T (or whatever) would automatically open in the respective group of the active window. The tab stacks are a great idea, especially when doing research on the web. These ideas would make them way more efficient to use. As it stands, it's just a lot to ask of the user to stop what they're doing to organize their tabs. Anyway, thanks and keep up the good work!

+1

+2

I really think that tab stacking looses all its efficiency if we have to stack manually every single tab, like in the current versions.

In fact, the feature is designed to help user to organize its workspace when there are a lot of open tabs; nevertheless it is in this case that the current system is the less efficient...

I see something like:

• Middle click on a link: opens a tab in the current stack
• New tab action (example, double click on empty space of tab bar): opens a new tab in a new stack
• In shortcut parameters: a dedicated action to open a new tab in the same stack, and an other in a new stack; so that user can assign their own shortcuts or mouse gesture to the wanted behaviour

It would be good if tabs in the tab bar could behave like in the Window manager - thus you would be able to mark several tabs (e.g. with Ctrl held down and with some indication for tabs that are marked) and then drag them onto another one to create a stack.

what I really want is a simple solution: open new tab inside the existing stack

Originally posted by D1sasterp1ece:

It would be good if tabs in the tab bar could behave like in the Window manager - thus you would be able to mark several tabs (e.g. with Ctrl held down and with some indication for tabs that are marked) and then drag them onto another one to create a stack.

I had the same idea as you, except that you would be able to mark several tabs and then mark a single tab that would automatically absorb the other marked tabs to create a stack. This principle is similar to the poles of a magnet: you assign the minuses to the selected tabs and then assign a plus to a single selected tab (or vice versa). As a result, plus and minus attract each other automatically, leading to creation of a stack.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-tab-focus/

It should work like the way how Firefox had... hmm.

This feature should be added as an extension. I don't know how flexible(or not) the extensions api is so I'm not really sure if it's possible.

+1

I would also like an option to load multiple bookmarks into a tab group or stack.

+1

YES! Please implement this asap, it would make stacking infinitely more useful.

And there should be an option to view stacked via a "pull down" menu. So that by clicking on a group arrow, a scrollable downward list appears. That would make it easier to distinguish between tabs in cases where you have many tabs and opening the stack makes each tab too small to tell which website in open.

+100500

Originally posted by An-Opera-tor:

#2 is like Color Coded Internet Explorer tabs where if you open a tab off from another tab they have the same color

maybe IE`s tab rainbow - is too much,
but the tab stack should definitely have slightly different color than the regular tabs:
because that tiny arrow at the right-hand side of a tab not seemed to be significant enough for the human`s brain to fix it quickly.

+1
I have been waiting for first feature since they introduced tab stacking but they left it out!
2nd one would also be nice!

+1, for the different color of tab stack!

Opera Desktopteam should do it
+1

Originally posted by greench:

Opera Desktopteam should do it

Agreed - but first it needs to implement an option to disable tab stacking.

really Swapnil99pro, dis/enable option and later an auto tab stacking option

AutoStack tabs into stacks containing n tabs each when total number of tabs crosses x
Say when the number of Tabs I have crosses 40 then they get autostacked to 4 stacks containing 10 tabs each.

This idea could be further refined by adding the following ideas :
1. Automatically tab stack with the same domain/site.
2. Automatically tab stack when creating a new tab from another tab
(2 would be similar to how IE8/9 'grouping' tabs work)

How can this be organised :
When the number of Tabs crosses 40 -----> A dialogue opens asking the user if he wants tabs stacked A.Domainwise, B.Parent tab wise or C.Just 4 stacks of 10 tabs . The user can be given an option among the preferences of whether to open a dialogue box everytime to decide how he wants the tabs stacked or to just make a setting that will apply automatically if the 41st Tab is opened (maybe a yes/no dialogue will still be required in that case)

I hope I've been lucid enough in describing what I see mentally.

Another essential feature should be - When we open a new tab by using a link on a page that is within a stack, the new tab should open within the same stack. Right now, the new page opens outside the stack.

What do you think?

+1

why not to give the possibility to make an alt-shift-click to open a new tab in an existing or new group and ctrl-alt-shift-click to open it in a background-tab in this group? don't think there is such an option right now
.. should work with shift-alt-t as well to create a new tab in this group

Any official response from the team? :B

I hope if it ever gets done that it will be disabled by default or at the very least, not forced on us like many other features opera implements nowadays.

I hate tab stacking in windows 7(which is why I was so happy when I discovered that we can disable it) and automatic tab stacking in opera would screw up my current sorting system where I have multiple main pages of different site in one stack an open temporary pages outside of it.

Also, good luck getting a response from the opera team, they very rarely give one around here.

I think a practical way to go about doing this is to combine the Pinned Tab feature and Auto stacking. Once a Tab is pinned, clicking links on the page should add them to a stack (containing both the original pinned tab and now the newly opened links from it).

This would fulfill people's demands for agressive pinning whence the pinned page is unclickable. And it also allows you to chose when you want to autostack tabs.

What do you think?

i think that auto tab stacking should be optional, but keeping pinned sites just like now. Pinned sites are meant to be relevant all time. Stacks of tabs should be used to follow one workflow each (or at least thats how i would use it) so everytime that i ctrl+click from within a strack, the new tab should be stacked auto.

Again +1

-1.

From my expirience with different Opera users, tab stacks already creates enough confusion. Better expose full tab and stack handling to extensions, and write simple extension to perform what you want.

Originally posted by movax:

-1.

From my expirience with different Opera users, tab stacks already creates enough confusion. Better expose full tab and stack handling to extensions, and write simple extension to perform what you want.

-10 xD
almost every firefox user ive shown stacks loves them instantly!

I'm missing auto stacking new pages from stacked tabs, will be a great feature! Thanks!

+10 for suggestion #2. (Automatically stack a tab with the other tabs you open from it.)

Originally posted by agnijith:

+10 for suggestion #2. (Automatically stack a tab with the other tabs you open from it.)

+1

+1

When automatic tab stacking was tried by Opera team in an old build, it was removed because of some people disliking it. (I don't understand why, because there are no differences with old classic behaviour if you don't collapse the tabs, but anyway...)

Some people liked this feature, and Opera team said that it would surely come back in a few months, but in an other "improved" way.
Do we have any news about that? Is automatic tab stacking really forgotten?

+1

I don't understand how can opening a new tab from within a stacked group outside of it is even expected, let alone liked. Like right now I'm browsing everything I can about auto tab stacking and have a bunch of threads open. Now if in a thread I find a link I must visit and I middle-click it, it opens all the way outside of the stacked group and I have to navigate through all of the tabs in between if I choose to use the right click + wheel mouse shortcut which I guess everyone uses.

Do people who dislike this feature do things differently?

- 1

Please no! I really hated that windows behavior.

My point is. What if i like my tabs ordered in a different way. Example:

| google A | google A.1 | google B | amazon B | google B.1 | amazon B.1 | amazon C | google C |
instead of:
| google A-C> | amazon A-C> |

You can see the logic? "X.y" , "X-Y" represents the contents of those tabs. Where "A.1" could be watermelons, "B" can be porn and "C" can be news. Why i want watermelons and porn merged?

In any case it had to be optional and should ask user for criteria on how to do things.

+10
I really want this to be made. That is a great new feature.
If Opera does not want to make it, maybe it is possible to make an addon doing this.

Originally posted by eridanired123:

- 1

Please no! I really hated that windows behavior.

My point is. What if i like my tabs ordered in a different way. Example:

| google A | google A.1 | google B | amazon B | google B.1 | amazon B.1 | amazon C | google C |
instead of:
| google A-C> | amazon A-C> |

You can see the logic? "X.y" , "X-Y" represents the contents of those tabs. Where "A.1" could be watermelons, "B" can be porn and "C" can be news. Why i want watermelons and porn merged?

In any case it had to be optional and should ask user for criteria on how to do things.

If I understand what you're saying, I think that you think that this feature would stack all of the tabs from same domain into a single tab. This is not what Auto-Tab stacking would do... I think (I hope).

It simply means that if you have tabs like this :

[google.com "opera auto tab stack"] [ my.opera.com "Auto tab stack feature"] [my.opera.com "Login"] [google "apples"] [wikipedia "apples"]

and you decide to stack the tabs by dragging as such :

{ [google.com "opera auto tab stack"] [ my.opera.com "Auto tab stack feature"] [my.opera.com "Login"] } 
{ [google "apples"] [wikipedia "apples"] }

Now if you clicked a link from [ my.opera.com "Auto tab stack feature"] it should open right next to it.

{ [google.com "opera auto tab stack"] [ my.opera.com "Auto tab stack feature"] [new link opened here] [my.opera.com "Login"] }
{ [google "apples"] [wikipedia "apples"] }

But right now, the new link opens all the way outside of the stack group :

{ [google.com "opera auto tab stack"] [ my.opera.com "Auto tab stack feature"] [my.opera.com "Login"] }
[new link opened here]
{ [google "apples"] [wikipedia "apples"] }

How can this be useful at all? let alone likable!

@fool4prail: That is my idea, too. I can't understand why it opens outside the stack.

1 point - I agree but.. this is little bit complicated.. what is wanted and what not from this..
2 point - disagree.. I wish this little bit corrected.. only when you have pages stacked and open a new page from stacked tabs..

autostacking really should be more effective in CPU/GPU usage etc when the will be ready for this.. for example..when you stacked tabs Opera should not update this tabs and for this is little bit needed auto-tab-stacking

Originally posted by Guilimote:

+1

When automatic tab stacking was tried by Opera team in an old build, it was removed because of some people disliking it. (I don't understand why, because there are no differences with old classic behaviour if you don't collapse the tabs, but anyway...)

Some people liked this feature, and Opera team said that it would surely come back in a few months, but in an other "improved" way.
Do we have any news about that? Is automatic tab stacking really forgotten?

Sorry to quote myself, but if there is someone from Opera reading this blog, can we have an answer to that question?
Is this feature forgotten? Can't we have any news? You promised to get it back

This is THE feature I'm missing.
I was hoping something for Opera 12, but we're already in Beta, and...