(Guide/Review) Vertigo Tabs is a simple vertical tabs extension for Firefox

[Karlston]

Vertigo Tabs is a simple vertical tabs extension for Firefox

 

Having a lot of tabs open in Firefox and struggling to manage them is something that many users are all too familiar with. Other browsers, like Vivaldi with Tab Stacking, and Microsoft Edge with vertical tabs offer a much better experience or at least different options for organizing and switching between tabs.

 

 

With Firefox however, you will need to rely on extensions to help you. Vertigo Tabs is a user-friendly sidebar add-on that you may want to try.

 

Click the Show Sidebars button on the Firefox toolbar, to view the extension's interface. The add-on lists all tabs that are open in the current window. Left-click on a tab to switch the focus to it. You may drag and drop tabs to rearrange their location in the list. Unfortunately, Vertigo Tabs does not support drag and drop to open links quickly.

 

The goal of the extension is to offer a simple experience, without any modifications to the settings. Translation, it has absolutely no buttons whatsoever. The biggest hurdle is probably to open and close tabs. You'll need to rely on keyboard shortcuts for these commands, or use the tab bar, which sort of negates the add-on's purpose.

 

 

To close a tab in Vertigo Tabs, hover over one in the list and click the middle-mouse button. I recommend using it with an add-on like Undo Closed Tabs Button, it has a list of all the recently closed tabs, which can be useful in case you closed the wrong tab by mistake.

 

Vertigo Tabs does not hide the tab bar, as a matter of fact no plugin can, due to limitations in the WebExtensions API. If you want to hide the tab bar, you must do so by editing/creating the userChrome.css file. Paste the following line in the document, and you are good to go.

#TabsToolbar {visibility: collapse;}

 

I'm sure advanced users will find ways to make it even better, perhaps by hiding the title bar for a more immersive experience. Speaking of which, Vertigo Tabs is a really cool way to access your tabs in full screen mode.

 

The extension has no right-click menu, which means you cannot use it to manage your tabs, open new tabs, etc. It doesn't indicate whether a tab is related to a Firefox Container either, which may make it difficult for more tech-savvy users.

 

Vertigo Tabs is an open source extension. I feel the add-on is a bit too simple, but that seems to be the plugin's goal. Still, I would have liked to have a search bar at the very least, that doesn't mess with any settings, and can help manage tabs more efficiently. The reason I found the add-on to be useful is because it lists the title of each tab, which makes it faster to switch between tabs without messing with the tab bar.

 

If the extension doesn't tickle your fancy, Visual Tabs and Sidebar+ are a couple of alternatives add-ons that you be interested in. Personally, I think Simple Tab Groups is better, not only does it have a sidebar, it also has its own right-click menu and allows you to group tabs. If you just want to manage tabs without a sidebar, take a look at Tab Manager Plus.

 

Landing page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vertigo-tabs/

 

 

Vertigo Tabs is a simple vertical tabs extension for Firefox