Introduction
Within just a couple of hours browsing online, your browser can become a jumbled mess of overlooked and duplicated tabs, significantly impairing your productivity. While it may seem a small, daily annoyance, this constant tab searching and context switching wastes valuable time and vastly increases mental stress.
A solution is Tree Style Tabs. Listed vertically in your browser’s sidebar, they provide a hierarchical view, simplifying tab management and helping you to keep track of your online browsing.
In this blog post, we will show you how to create Tree Style Tabs in Google Chrome, as well as sharing an alternative to the tree style tab experience, Horse Browser.
Plus, we’ll provide instructions on how to create Tree Style tabs in the three, remaining major browsers: Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.
How to Create Tree Style Tabs in Google Chrome
- Choose a Third-Party Extension
As of now, Google Chrome does not natively support tree style tabs. That said, you can install an extension that provides this feature and there are several third-party extensions available that you can use. The Tree Tab Sidebar and ‘Tab Outliner’ extensions are popular choices.
Editor's note: For those with privacy concerns, please note that both these extensions request to access your browsing history.
- Install your Chosen Extension
To install either extension, navigate to the Chrome Web Store, search the extension by name, and click on 'Add to Chrome'.
- Enable Your Extension
Once installed, you need to enable and pin the extension. Click on the jigsaw extension icon and then click on the pin symbol next to your chosen extension.
- Organise Your Tabs
With Tree Tab Sidebar, you’ll see that your tabs appear as a list in your sidebar. This extension is pretty basic as you cannot drag-and-drop, rename or group the tabs. Pretty much the only advantage comes from the easier-to-read view and the ability to delete tabs from the sidebar.
On opening Tab Outliner, you will find instructions on how to use the extension to close, open and create hierarchical tab organisation. Tab Outliner has much greater organisational capability than Tree Tab Sidebar but it struggles with a cluttered and - to our mind - confusing user interface.
A Great Alternative to Tree Style Tabs in Chrome: Horse Browser
If you’re looking for an alternative to using third party extensions in Google Chrome, we suggest taking a look at Horse Browser, which offers an incredible upgrade to the tree style tab experience. Horse Browser is a cutting-edge new browser that expands on the idea of tree style tabs and replaces them with its own navigation system, named Trails. Once you start using Trails, there’s no going back to tabs, even Tree Style ones!
- Install Horse Browser
Download Horse Browser and run the download to install. Enter your unique licence key and you’re good to go. Type the URL or search term you wish to get started.
- Browse With Horse Browser’s Unique Trails Feature
Every time you click on a link, Horse Browser automatically opens a new page on the Trail, creating a list of nested pages in one easy-to-read vertical sidebar layout.
- Automatically Track Your Research
Because each page appears uniquely on the Trail, you can easily see how you reached a particular page. You can effortlessly track exactly where you are online. It’s an elegant and intuitive user interface.
- Organise Your Pages
Trails can be expanded or collapsed, whenever you need them, so you can access your pages. You can drag-and-drop pages, easily delete & rename them or add custom emojis to create your own organisational system. You can add Notes and also create Areas and Projects to organise your Trails further. Horse Browser autosaves your pages so they are available every time you open your browser. You can adjust the sidebar width and even collapse it to create a totally minimalist experience. Just expand the sidebar anytime to access your Trails.
Plus, Horse Browser works on a unique user-supported subscription basis and never collects your data. Check out more about Horse Browser here.
How to Create Tree Style Tabs in Mozilla Firefox
- Choose a Third-Party Extension
Mozilla Firefox also does not natively support tree style tabs. However, there are two popular extensions for creating tree style tabs in Firefox - ‘Tree Style Tab’ and ‘Sideberry’.
- Install your Chosen Extension
Visit Firefox Browser Add Ons and search for the extension you desire and click 'Add to Firefox'.
- Run your Chosen Extension
Once installed, you need to enable the extension. Click on the jigsaw extension icon on the righthand corner of the toolbar and click on ‘run extension’.
- Organise Your Tabs
Unfortunately, neither of these extensions automatically replace Firefox’s top-mounted tab bar, which result in duplication and a pretty cluttered screen view. Both extensions present the tree structure pretty nicely, particularly ‘Tree Style Tab’, which allows you to create ‘sibling’ or indented ‘child’ tabs.
However, for us, TST is still far less effective than Horse Browser. In TST, opening new tabs is rather clunky and involves a lot of mental effort as users are given the choice to open tabs as child or sibling tabs as they visit a new site. In contrast, Horse Browser’s automatic Trails provide an effortless user-friendly browsing experience that never breaks your flow when deep-diving online .
How to Create Tree Style Tabs in Safari
Apple has made a pretty good effort in implementing native vertical tabs to its browser, Safari. Here’s how to enable this feature.
- Reveal Safari’s Sidebar
Reveal Safari’s sidebar by clicking on the sidebar symbol at the top left corner of your browser. Once the sidebar is revealed, you’ll find tabs and tab groups listed there. The sidebar also displays bookmarks, your reading list, ‘Shared with You’ links and iCloud tabs.
- Organise your Tabs
You can group, pin, rename and move tabs in Safari’s sidebar. Unfortunately, tabs are listed as a flat - rather than indented / hierarchical - list, so there is much less flexibility and efficiency in organising your tabs. Furthermore, the top-mounted tab bar remains so the view is still pretty cluttered.
How to Create Tree Style Tabs in Microsoft Edge
Like Safari, Microsoft Edge has introduced native vertical tabs, although it’s not that easy to figure out how to access them! Here is our how-to guide.
- Turn On Tree Style Tabs
To turn on tree style tabs, navigate to File > Settings > Appearance and click the Turn On button next to ‘Show vertical tabs for all current browser windows’.
- Organise Your Tabs
Edge allows user to group tabs into grouped tabs but there is no hierarchical structure so organisation is limited. Plus, if you pin a tab, it is moved out of the group to the top of the sidebar, making the user experience confusing and cluttered.
Conclusion
Tree Style Tabs are a powerful tool to enhance your browsing, especially when you’re juggling multiple sites. The vertical format makes it easier to read and manage your open tabs.
Although Chrome and Firefox don’t natively support this tab view, there are third-party extensions available to help you use Tree Style Tabs. Alternatively, Safari and Microsoft Edge offer native Tree Style Tabs but there are limitations to their organisational features.
As an alternative, Horse Browser takes the hierarchical Tree Style Tab structure and creates its own transformational navigation style. We recommend Horse Browser for users who regularly deep-dive online and want to keep track of where they are, while seamlessly organising their browsing. To try Horse Browser for yourself, check it out here.
