I’ve never been good about remembering to close cabinet doors in the kitchen, so I guess it’s no surprise that I don’t close browser tabs, either. I always have multiple browser tabs open on my computer at any given time.

In my defense, when it comes to browser tabs, it’s often more efficient to leave them open if you’re going to need to get back to that page again—for example, if you’re researching a complex topic and you need to jump around between websites. Or if you’re doing an online presentation and you need to get to various websites quickly as part of your demonstration.

But having 10 or 20 or more browser tabs open at the same time clutters up your title bar. What’s more, depending on how many things you’re working on, it may take some searching to get back to the tab you need—reducing the efficiency of leaving them open.

If you use Google Chrome, there’s a solution: Create groups for your tabs.

Just right-click on an open tab and you’ll get the option to create a group. Color code the tab to make it easy to spot. The groups toggle open and close with a click. When you don’t need the group anymore, just close it and it’s gone.

Right-click on the tab to add a group.

 

Create a new group by naming it. Choose a color for the tab.

 

When you open a new tab, you can add it to an existing group or create a new group.

 

Color-coded tabs make it easy to locate groups.

 

When you don't need the group anymore, simply close it and it disappears.

 

Other browsers—Firefox, Edge (Explorer), Safari, etc.—have the same feature. I can’t tell you specifically how to group tabs in other browsers, but I’m sure it’s similar to Chrome’s process. You can Google it.

I created the screenshots in this post with Snagit. To learn more about this tool, check out Snagit: Simple, Powerful Screen Capture Software.

Jacquelyn Lynn
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