Desktop Tips

Tip #153

November 18, 2022

In Vivaldi your History of visited web pages is not just an endless list. Instead History in Vivaldi is a detailed overview backed by statistics and presented in a nice, visual way.

To view your full history, use one of the following options to open the page:

• Click on History on the top menu of the Start Page.
• Go to  Vivaldi menu > Tools > History.
• Enter vivaldi://history in the Address Field.
• Type “History” in Quick Commands.
• Right-click on the  History Panel button and select Open in > New Tab.
• Use the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl H / ⌘ Y.

Switch between the different views (List, Day, Week and Month) from the top right corner to see not just the pages you’ve visited but also statistics, which show you your browsing activity, when you were most active, what kind of websites you visited and how you ended up there. 

Tip #152

November 17, 2022

Creativity has no limits and with the Themes editor in Vivaldi, you can let it run wild. Change the colors, add a custom background, tweak the settings and you have yourself a custom theme. Would be a shame to keep it to yourself. Themes.vivaldi.net is the place where Vivaldi users can share their creations with the community and already over 3000 themes have been published on the website.

Here’s how you can share your theme:

1. Go to Settings > Themes > Library and select the theme you want to share.
2. Click on Export Theme below the themes.
3. Save the ZIP file to your computer.
4. Go to Vivaldi Themes on https://themes.vivaldi.net.
5. Log in to your Vivaldi account.
6. Click Upload in the top right corner of the page.
7. Fill in the details about the theme (in English) and upload the ZIP file.
8. When you’re ready, click Create theme.

Vivaldi Team will review your theme and publish it. You’ll be notified once the theme has been published (also, when for some reason, the theme was rejected).

Tip #149

November 14, 2022

Backup encryption key is an alternative method to the encryption password for decrypting your Sync data. Like with the encryption password, your backup encryption key is never sent to us or any other third party, which ensures that we cannot decrypt your data. For it to be useful, you need to save the key in a safe location, while you can access your Sync settings with the encryption password.

Save the backup encryption key

1. Log in to your Vivaldi account in Settings > Sync.
2. Enter the encryption password.
3. Below your account info, look for Save Backup Encryption Key. On Android, look for Backup Encryption Key near the bottom of the Settings page.
4. Click on it and save the key file to your device.

The key is valid until you reset the remote Sync data. We recommend storing the key file in a location that can survive something irreparable to your device, such as an external memory drive or a trusted cloud service.

Use the backup encryption key

1. Log in to your Vivaldi account in Settings > Sync.
2. When asked for the encryption password, click Load Encryption Key.
3. Click Load and find the key file.
4. Click Open.
5. Start syncing.

Tip #148

November 11, 2022

Need to work more with an email than just read through it? Double-click on the message to open it in a new tab. That allows you to keep the message open while checking other emails and use browser features, such as pinning, grouping, tiling (shown on the screenshot below), and more on the tab.

Tip #145

November 8, 2022

There are more ways to close tabs in Vivaldi than can be counted on one hand. In this tip post we’ll introduce you to two lesser known options.

Option 1 is to double-click on the tab with the left mouse button. It works best when you want to close the active tab, but can be used to close background tabs as well. To use this option, first go to Settings > Tabs > Tab Handling and enable Close Tab on Double Click.

Option 2 is to click on the tab with the middle mouse button (commonly mouse’s scroll wheel). It works in the Window Panel as well.

To see other ways to close tabs in Vivaldi, visit the Help page about Opening and closing Tabs.

In case you got carried away with closing tabs, check Tip #95 to see how to reopen recently closed tabs.

Tip #144

November 7, 2022

If you have a Chromecast device connected to your TV, you can display audio-visual content, browser tabs or even your computer’s whole screen from Vivaldi on the TV screen.

To start casting:

1. Make sure your Chromecast is set up and ready to use.
2. Right-click on the web page or go to  Vivaldi menu > File.
3. Select Cast.
4. Choose whether you want to cast a file, a tab or mirror your desktop.
5. Click on the device you want to cast to.

Some websites detect a Chromecast connection and display the casting option on the website. Look for the  Cast button, for example, on a video player’s menu.

Tip #143

November 4, 2022

Unless you’ve disabled it from Settings, Vivaldi offers to save your login passwords in the browser. Your password is also saved when you use Vivaldi’s Sync, Mail and Calendar features.

To view saved login credentials on desktop:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Passwords.
2. Click on Show Saved Passwords.
3. In the table of saved login credentials, click on Show Password in the passwords column.
4. Verify yourself through your operating system’s authentication window.
5. Check the password.
6. When done, click on Hide Password.

To view saved login credentials on Android.

1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > Settings > General > Passwords.
2. In the list of saved login credentials, tap on the saved login.
3. Click on Show Password on the right side of the saved password.
4. Verify yourself through your mobile device’s authentication window.
5. Check the password.
6. When done, click on Hide Password.

You also need to verify yourself when copying the password without viewing it first.

Tip #142

November 3, 2022

If you have set up multiple mail accounts in Vivaldi Mail, you can switch who you’re sending emails as in the message composer.

1. Start writing a new email, either by composing a new message or by replying to/forwarding a received message.
2. In the email composer, in the sender section (From:), click on the displayed email.
3. Select the email address you want to send the message as from the drop down menu.

Tip #140

November 1, 2022

If you’ve noticed yourself using Mouse Gestures without intending to, for example, reloaded a web page with a slight drag downwards instead of just right-clicking on it, increase the stroke length to prevent it from happening. To do that:

1. Go to Settings > Mouse > Gesture Sensitivity.
2. Update the minimum stroke length.

Tip #139

October 31, 2022

Many of Vivaldi’s key features, such as Bookmarks, Notes, Mail and your Web Panels, can be accessed from the browser’s sidebar. If you’re not using all these features, consider hiding the Panels you don’t need.

To toggle the visibility of a Panel:

1. Right-click on any of the Panels.
2. Hover over the Panels option in the context menu.
3. Click on the panel you want to hide or show, if you’ve hidden it in the past.

Panels and Web Panels that are hidden don’t have a check mark in front of their name.

Tip #138

October 28, 2022

If dragging a slider, for example, to zoom in on a web page doesn’t feel quite right for you, go to Settings > Appearance, enable Use Buttons in Range Control and see if that works better. Then you can do the changes by clicking the + and – buttons.

Range controls are used for the following settings:

• Adjust web page or tab zoom levels in the bottom right corner of the browser window.
• Change the size of the user interface.
• Limit accent color saturation and color contrast in the Themes editor.
• Change active tab’s minimum width on the Tab Bar.
• Choose the delay time for tab stacking when using the drag and drop method.
• Set minimum stroke length for mouse gestures.
• Update default web page zoom.
• Adjust font settings for Reader View.

Tip #137

October 27, 2022

Everyone can find their preferred method of adding bookmarks in Vivaldi. See the list below and try them all to see which ones you like best.

• Click on the  Bookmark Page button on the right side of the Address Field.
• Use the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+D / ⌘ D.
• Type “Create Bookmark” in Quick Commands.
• Select Add Active Tab in the Bookmark Menu.
• Right-click on the web page and select Bookmark Page from the context menu.
• Right-click on the web page’s tab on the Tab Bar and select Bookmark Tab from the context menu.
• Right-click on a bookmark folder or empty area in the Bookmark Panel or on the Bookmark Bar and select Bookmark Active Page.
• Drag the link (starting from  Site info button on the Address Bar) to the destination folder in the Bookmark Panel or Bookmark Bar.
• Create a Mouse Gesture for the action.
• Add one manually in the Bookmark Panel or Bookmark Manager.
• Click Add New Speed Dial on the Speed Dial on the Start Page to create a Speed Dial bookmark.
• Right-click on an empty area on the Speed Dial and select Add Bookmark to Speed Dial, if you’ve hidden the button Add button.