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Tabs

Press Page Down and Page Up to switch slides

Introduction

Multiple web documents and messaging views are accessible as tabs on the tab bar. You can organize your tabs in stacks.

Tabs can be rearranged on the tab bar by dragging and dropping them. You can reposition the tab bar using the tab context menu.

Opening tabs

There are numerous ways to open a new tab:

• from the menu, select File > New Tab
• use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + T
• click the plus icon ("+") on the tab bar
• double-click the tab bar

to open a link in a new tab:

• Right-click (or Ctrl-click) a link, and select Open in New Tab from the link context menu
• ⌘-click a link

and to open a link in a background tab:

• Right-click (or Ctrl-click) a link, and select Open in Background Tab from the link context menu
• ⌘-Shift-click a link

New tabs opened from within a stack via the link context menu remain within the stack.

Closing tabs

To close an active tab:

• use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + W
• click the close icon ("X") on the tab
• Shift-click the tab

To recover a closed tab, click on the "Closed Tabs" icon on the right side of the tab bar, and select the tab. Note that you cannot recover closed private tabs.

Tab stacking

In analogy with stacks of paper on your desk, tab stacking helps you to organize your tabs, by collecting related tabs into a group.

To create a stack, drag a tab so that it overlaps with any other tab, and drop it when the tab on bottom has a visible shadow. An arrow on the right side of a tab reveals the presence of a stack. Clicking on it expands or collapses the stack. Alternatively, hover the stack to show a set of clickable thumbnails.

To unstack a set of tabs, or close the entire stack, right-click (or Ctrl-click) the tab stack, and choose one of the options under Tab Stack in the tab context menu.

See the introductory video Tab stacking in Opera 11.

Visual tabs

To more easily identify your tabs, you may choose to display them as thumbnails. Find the drag handle marked by three dots on the bottom of the tab bar. You can expand the tabs to display them as larger thumbnails by either middle clicking or double clicking the drag handle. Middle or double click the handle again to collapse them back into plain tabs. Alternatively, drag the handle with your mouse to display the thumbnails in an intermediate size.

If you do not want the visual tabs and drag handle to display, you can disable this option in one of several ways:

• go to Preferences > Advanced > Tabs and deselect "Enable thumbnails in tabs"
• right-click the tab bar, select "Customize" from the context menu, and deselect "Enable thumbnails in tabs"
• go to Tools > Appearance > Toolbars, select the tab bar, and deselect "Enable thumbnails in tabs"

Private tabs

To browse without leaving any trace of the websites you visit, you can use a private tab. This is especially useful if you are using someone else's computer, or planning a surprise that you want to keep secret. When you close a private tab, the following data related to the tab is deleted:

• browsing history
• items in cache
• cookies
• logins

A closed private tab cannot be recovered from the "Closed Tabs" drop-down on the right side of the tab bar.

While private tabs do not leave any record of the websites you visit, if you deliberately save data, for example, if you save a bookmark, or download a file, it will still be visible after the tab is closed.

Create a private tab

To create a private tab, select File > New Private Tab from the menu. Alternatively, Ctrl-click the tab bar and select "New Private Tab" from the context menu.

Close a private tab

Close a private tab in the same way as a normal tab. To close all the private tabs you have open at once, Ctrl-click a tab and select "Close All Private Tabs".

Private windows

If you prefer to use separate windows when browsing, rather than tabs, you can create a private window by selecting File > New Private Window. Closing the window removes all traces of your browsing.

Tab context menu

Right-click (or Ctrl-click) a tab to see its context menu.

Tab Stack	Unstacks the tabs in a tab stack, or closes the stack
New Tab	Opens a new tab
Clone Tab	Opens a copy of the current tab, retaining its history
Create Follower Tab	Opens a background tab. Any link you click in the current tab will open in the follower tab
New Private Tab	Opens a private tab
Pin Tab	Protects the tab from being closed, particularly useful for chat sessions
Close	Closes the current tab
Close All but Active	Closes all tabs except the current tab
Close All Private Tabs	Closes all private tabs
Tab Bar Placement	Moves the tab bar to the top (default), bottom, right, or left of the browser window
Customize...	Customize the tab bar

Tab preferences

Opera > Preferences > Advanced > Tabs

The preferences let you tweak Opera's tab setup to your liking.

When cycling through tabs with Option + Tab

By holding the Option key and repeatedly pressing Tab, you can cycle through all the tabs you have open within the active Opera window. This setting allows you to choose what order the tabs should be cycled in, and whether you want to see the list of open tabs while you are cycling through them.

Cycle in recently used order

The default setting places the recently used tabs at the top of the list

Cycle in tab bar order

This setting lists the tabs in the order that they appear on the tab bar

Cycle without showing list

This setting uses tab bar order, but does not show the list

Show thumbnails in tab cycle

Check "Show thumbnails in tab cycle" to display a thumbnail of the selected tab in the tab cycle.

When closing a tab

Activate the last active tab

The default setting returns focus to the most recently used tab

Activate the next tab

This setting returns focus to the next tab on the tab bar

Activate first tab opened from current tab

This setting returns focus to tabs created from within the closed tab

Reuse current tab

When you open an item from the panels, such as a bookmark, the default action is to open the document in the current tab. If you prefer such items to be opened in a new tab, uncheck "Reuse current tab".

Open new tab next to active

By default, new tabs are added at the end of the tab bar. Check "Open new tab next to active" if you want new tabs to appear next to the active tab on the tab bar.

Show thumbnails when hovering tabs

By default, a thumbnail of the page is shown when hovering a tab. To disable this behavior, uncheck "Show thumbnails when hovering tabs".

Enable thumbnails in tabs

See Visual tabs.

Additional tab options

Show close button on each tab

By default, a close button is displayed on each tab. Uncheck "Show close button on each tab" to remove the close buttons.

Open windows instead of tabs

By default, new tabs open within a single Opera application window. Select "Open windows instead of tabs" to make new tabs open in a separate window.

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