Vivaldi is a modern, feature-rich and flexible web browser. It comes with a clean and modern look, which can be easily customized. It also comes with some unique features like tab stacks, page tiling and quick commands. Vivaldi is built on and around modern web technologies such as HTML5, React.js, Node.js, and Node Package Manager (NPM) modules. It uses Chromium’s Blink rendering engine. Vivaldi runs on Windows, Mac and Linux operating system. The first stable public release came out on April 6, 2016. If you are using Vivaldi browser for the first time, please review the following information. It will help you make yourself comfortable with this new browser.
Installing Vivaldi Browser
- Go to official download page (vivaldi.com/download/) and press the download button. Alternatively you can choose the version you want.
- Save the installer file in your computer.
- Go the location in you computer where you saved the installer. Run the installer.
- The installation splash screen will appear. If you want to install Vivaldi browser in a specific location or if you want to set a language other than English, press the Advanced button and set your language and destination folder. Otherwise, go to the next step.
- Press the Accept and Install button. The installation process will start.
Once installation is complete, Vivaldi browser will open with the Start Page. It will show the default Speed Dial. Now it’s your time to start exploring!
Exploring Vivaldi Browser features:
Default Vivaldi browser window consists of following areas or parts: menu bar, tab bar, address bar, web content area, status bar and a side panel. You can show/hide or even change position of these areas from the Settings menu.
Vivaldi Navigation options
- Speed Dial: It is a set of quick links to your favorite sites. Speed dial appears in every new tab. Speed Dials can be organized with folders for convenient access.
- Quick Commands: This feature gives you the power to control different Vivaldi functions with simple text commands. It can be opened from the tools menu.
- Fast Forward button: Located in the address bar, Fast Forward button allows you to jump to a different page in a website. This comes handy in browsing search result pages. No need to press the Next or page number link in Google. Simply press the Fast Forward button to go to next page.
- Rewind button: Rewind button is located in the address bar. This allows you to go back to previously visited domain name.
- Previous and Next button: The Previous and Next button are located in address bar. Previous button allows you to go to previously visited pages. Next button will let you visit the next page, after you used the previous button.
- Address field: Located in Address bar, the address field is for typing the URLs of web pages that you want to load.
- Search field: Search field is located in the Address bar, near the address field. Use it to find web pages on the Internet.
Vivaldi Panels, Tabs and Windows
- Side Panel: Vivaldi comes with a side panel, which offers quick access to Bookmarks Panel, Downloads Panel and Notes panel. You can also add new panels by using the plus sing (+) in the panel.
- Bookmarks Panel: Bookmarks panel can also be accessed from the side panel or from the view menu. You can organize your bookmarks into folders. You can also activate Bookmarks bar from the Settings.
- Downloads panel: Downloads panel displays active and completed downloads.
- Notes Panel: Notes panel allows you to take notes while browsing. You can enrich your notes with URLs, website screenshots, attachments.
- Tab bar: The above the address bar, where title of the tabs are shown. You can add or close tabs from the tab bar. Tab stacks can be created by dragging one tab to another. Pages inside a tab stack can be viewed as page tiles.
- Window: You can create a new window or new private window from the File menu or by using the Quick Commands.
Vivaldi Menu bar and Status Bar
By default menu bar is visible with different menus like File, Edit, View, Tools, Window and Help. The status bar is located at the bottom of the window. Both menu bar and status bar can be turned on/off.
- File menu: Vivaldi file menu contains following options: New tab, New Window, New Private Window, Open File, Close Tab, Close Window, Save Page As, Print, Import Bookmarks and Settings, Export Bookmarks, Open Saved Sessions, Save Open Tabs as Session and Exit.
- Edit Menu: The Edit menu contains following options: undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste and Go, Paste as Plain Text, Select All and Find in Page.
- View Menu: The view menu contains following options: Toggle Horizontal Main Menu, Show/Hide Panel, Show/Hide Status Bar, Show Bookmarks Bar, Bookmarks Panel, Zoom in, Zoom out, Zoom Reset.
- Tools Menu: The tools menu in Vivaldi offers following options: Settings, Quick Commands, Bookmarks, History, Extensions, Plugins, Clear Private Data, Task Manager and Developer Tools.
- Window and Help Menu: Window menu shows link to Go Full screen and also lists all open tab windows. Help menu contains following links: online help page, keyboard cheat sheet, welcome page, online Community, Check for update and About version information.
- Status bar: Status bar display page related options such as page tiling, image toggling, page options and page zooming. Available page options include content blocker, CSS debugger, multiple filter options, transform 3D and more.
How to close Vivaldi Browser?
Usually a browser window can be closed in more than one ways. Vivaldi is no exception. You can close any running Vivaldi window by:
- Using the traditional close button (x sign) on the top right corner of the window.
- Double clicking on the Vivaldi icon on top left corner of the window.
- Opening Quick Commands and selecting Close Window command.
When multiple windows are running, you can close them, one by one, by using any of the above mentioned options. And if you want to close multiple windows at once, go to the File menu and select Exit link from the options. That will close or end all running processed of Vivaldi.
Vivaldi is a web browser of the new age. It intends to offer a flexible and faster browsing experience. We tried it, and it didn’t disappoint us. What’s your take on Vivaldi browser?