We know most of you guys somehow love Google Chrome. Why not? It’s a great browser with so many features. One of the prominent features is that you can manages tabs efficiently in Google Chrome. However, sometimes there could be many tabs open idle consuming more resources and trying to handle tab by tab is a hectic task. Therefore, in this article we will explore some of the effective ways to manage tabs in Google Chrome.
Related: How to block ads in Google Chrome?
Tabs, Windows and Other Modes
Before we explore further, many users confuse between different terms used in Google Chrome like tabs and windows.
- Startup page is a landing page that opens when you first time launch the browser. You can customize the startup page to open a new tab, home page or any custom website.
- Home page is the one you can access by clicking on the home button left side of the address bar. If you don’t see the home button, learn how to enable it in the settings. You can setup home page to any of your favorite site you visit frequently or leave it as a new tab page.
- Press the + icon on the title bar to open a new tab on the same window.
- You can open multiple instances of Google Chrome by opening a new window from the settings menu or use keyboard shortcuts “Control + N” on Windows and “Command + N” on macOS. Each window can have multiple tabs.
- Google Chrome also allows you to browse using incognito and guest modes. These two options will help you to browse the web anonymously without leaving any history of your browsing.
7 Ways to Manage Tabs in Chrome
There are two ways of managing Chrome tabs – using Chrome’s built-in features and with third party extensions from Chrome Web Store. Below are the seven ways to manage tabs in Chrome.
- Reopen closed tabs
- Pinning tabs
- Drag and drop tabs
- Close multiple tabs
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Continuing where you left before
- Using extensions
1. Reopen Closed Tabs
After finishing the work, most of you just close the browser directly. However, sometimes you may need to open the previously closed tabs again. Generally, you can do this by going to the history and open the tabs one-by-one.
But, there is a simple way to reopen closed tab quickly in Chrome. Just right click on the empty area of the Chrome menu bar and click on “Reopen closed tab”. You can also right click on any of the tabs and choose “Reopen Closed Tab” option.
If you love keyboard shortcuts then press “Control + Shift + T” on Windows and “Command + Shift + T” keys on Mac to reopen the previously closed tab. You can press the keys to open the closed tabs one-by-one in new tab.
2. Pin Tabs
This option allows you to pin the important tabs as a small icon on the top left corner of Chrome. Right-click on the tab and select the option “Pin tab”. Now you will see the selected tab has been pinned successfully to the first position.
Pinning the tabs makes more space for you to work. This option also prevents them from closing by accident so that all your work won’t be erased. The favicon will still be there and switching of tab using “Control + Tab” keys will still work.
3. Drag and Drop Tabs
This feature allows you to drag a tab to a new window. For doing this, just click and hold on the tab you want to move and drag the tab down and leave. It will automatically create a new window.
This might be helpful when you have too many tabs opened in Chrome and there is no more space to add new tabs. Besides dragging a tab to a new window, you can also drag any Chrome tabs left or right to rearrange the order of the tabs. Once the tabs are in the required order, you can use “Control + number” or “Command + number” to access the particular tabs in sequence.
4. Close Multiple Tabs
When you have too many tabs opened, maybe you need to close them all at once. You can do that in different ways. One way is you to close a single tab by pressing “Control + W” or “Command + W”. Alternatively, you can right-click on the tab and choose “Close tab”.
You can also close all other tabs except leaving the one which is currently open. In order to this, simply right-click on the tab and choose “Close other tabs” option.
Finally, you can close all the tabs from the right-hand side but leaving the left ones. Right-click on the tab and choose “Close tabs to the right” option.
Note, Chrome will not warn when you close the browser with multiple tabs opened. So, ensure to complete all your work before closing the browser.
5. Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcuts are great in terms of making things easier. They can make your work faster in Chrome especially in managing tabs. Here are some of the shortcuts to manage tabs in Chrome.
- “Control + T” or “Command + T” to open a new tab.
- Jump to the last tab in the currently opened window by pressing “Control +9” or “Command + 9” keys.
- “Control + W” allows you to close tab one by one.
6. Enable Continue Where You Left Off
This feature in Chrome is used to continue using all the tabs from where you left last time. This is quite useful in doing continuation of work like you want to close the browser and read the articles later. In order to enable this feature, open a new tab and type the command URL “chrome://settings” in the address bar. Scroll down a bit and under “On start-up” section, click on “Continue where you left off”.
From now onwards, when you open the browser, Chrome will launch all your previously closed tabs that were open when you closed the browser. Remember, this will be useful only when you closed the browser with open tabs. If you have closed all the tabs before completely quitting the browser then you will see a new tab page like normal.
7. Using Extensions for Managing Chrome Tabs
An extension can be really helpful in managing the Chrome tabs. For example, The Great Suspender is one such extension that helps to manage Chrome tabs.
- To add and use this extension, visit Chrome web store, search for “The Great Suspender” and hit enter key.
- Click on “Add to Chrome” button and then click on “Add extension” button to install the extension on your Chrome browser.
- The extension can help you to suspend the idle tabs after a certain time. You can set the time like after few seconds, minutes or even days.
- It also supports multiple tabs suspension. It’s really amazing and you should definitely use it.
- Click on the extension icon at the right of the address bar and open “Settings”. Under “General settings” section, set the time for automatically suspending the tabs. Click on “Save settings” for the changes to take effect.
Conclusion
We hope this article helped you in understanding Chrome tabs and manage them effectively. Note that you may different options on Windows and macOS when you right click on the tab.
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