Best Free Software
Windows 7, 8.1 or 10
Vivaldi 4.1
Vivaldi’s developers don’t hang around. A few weeks after its big 4.0 update, which added a translation tool, email client, calendar and RSS feed reader, comes version 4.1 which, while smaller, still contains smart new features.
The most useful is the marvellously named Accordion Tabs, which gives you a third (and we think much tidier) way to view your browser tabs when you’re using the Tab Stacks option. Tab Stacks lets you place your tabs into groups, freeing up space on the browser’s bar.
Previously there were only two views: Compact (giving an indication of how many tabs are in a stack) and Two-level (showing a second row of tabs below the main one). With the Accordion setting on, your tabs are hidden until you click the arrow button (see below). At this point, the tabs will unfurl to the right.
The other major new feature is Command Chains. These let you ‘chain’ together a string of commands, such as having your favourite websites appear as square tiles. To use it, open Settings, select Quick Commands on the left, then scroll down to Command Chains. You’ll see three chains already there – ‘Open Links and Tile’, ‘Close Other and Open Defined Tab’, and ‘Toggle Full Screen and Reader Mode’ – but you can create your own by clicking the plus button, and selecting some actions to add using the dropdown menus. There are over 200 commands to choose from (read more on Vivaldi’s blog: www.snipca. com/39047).
When you’ve made your chain, make sure it works by clicking the Test Chain button. If so, you then need to give it a name. You can run the chain by pressing F2 and typing its name, or creating a specific keyboard shortcut for it.