As more and more of our daily lives moved to the computer during this past year, I found myself creating some bad, albeit unavoidable, habits. The worst of those was almost certainly the opening of countless browser tabs, often to the point of being unable to keep track of where I was supposed to be working at any given time.
There are plenty of arguments to be made about why we should not have so many tabs open at one time – the practice is bad for our computers, our brains, and our productivity. However, there are also plenty of reasons why we simply must have a lot of tabs open to keep all of the balls we are juggling in the air. A new feature of Google Chrome has rolled out that will assist with managing this necessary evil – Tab Groups.
You can create a Tab Group by right-clicking on a tab in Google Chrome and selecting the “Add Tab to Group” option. If you haven’t created any groups yet, you’ll be prompted to make a new one. Give the group a name and, if you are so inclined, choose a color for your new group. To reap the maximum benefits of this feature, you’ll want to have a few tabs open in each group.
Once you’ve grouped your tabs, you’ll notice how much more space you have on your navigation bar. You can open and close groupings by clicking on the title so that you manage what you see. If you are done with all of the tabs in one grouping, you can right click the group to close all the tabs at once. You can also right click the group to move all the tabs into a new window if you’d like to separate them further.
Finally, your groups will remain as they are even if you close your browser, as long as you have selected the “Continue where you left off” option in the “On Startup” section of your Chrome settings.
Staying organized on the computer is an ongoing struggle for all of us. Sorting your tabs into groups will help you manage what you see and control your workflows. If you have questions about using Tab Groups, feel free to contact Instructional Tech for further assistance.
