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Vandle

Help · Kinds of tab

Web

Open sites in a built-in Chromium browser, save them, use dev tools and extensions, and check their certificate.

A Web tab is a Chromium browser inside Vandle. Each tab runs in a browser profile and over a route, so one site can be signed in twice, or reached through a proxy, without touching your other tabs.

The keys below are the defaults. You can change every one of them under Settings > Hotkeys.

Open a site

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+T and choose Web.
  2. Type an address, for example qsp.app. Without a scheme, Vandle uses https://.
  3. Click Connect directly: …. Enter opens the highlighted row; the arrow keys move the highlight.

Words with spaces, or anything that is not an address, become Search for: … and open a DuckDuckGo search.

The list also offers:

  • your saved sites,
  • Web tabs that are already open,
  • pages you visited before. The cross on such a row (Remove from history) forgets it.

Two rows sit at the bottom of the picker:

  • Profile - which browser profile the new tab uses. It starts as the profile of the tab in front. See Browser profiles.
  • Route - how the new tab gets out. It shows once you have a proxy. See Routes.

An open tab is only offered when it uses the same profile and route as you have chosen. Otherwise you get a new tab.

Go to another address

Press Ctrl+L, or click the page title at the top of the window. The picker opens as Address, filled with the current address.

  • Enter loads the address in this tab.
  • Ctrl+Enter opens it in a new tab with the same profile.

Move around the page

Action Key
Back Alt+Left
Forward Alt+Right
Reload Ctrl+Shift+R
Developer tools F12

The reload button also sits at the left end of the bar at the top.

A link that opens a new tab, or a middle click, opens a new Web tab in the same profile and route. By default you stay on the page you are reading, and the new tab loads when you first open it.

To jump to the new tab instead, turn on Switch to links opened in a new tab under Settings > Defaults > Web.

A link that asks for a new window opens in a second Vandle window. A link opened in an incognito window opens in the Private profile.

Use the developer tools

Press F12. The developer tools open on the right side of the tab. Drag the divider to give them more or less room. Press F12 again to close them.

Use extensions

Click the puzzle icon (Extensions) at the top right. The menu shows:

  • In this profile - the extensions installed in this tab's profile. Click one to open its popup or options page in a tab.
  • Search the Chrome Web Store - opens the store in a new tab, in the same profile. Install extensions there as in Chrome.
  • Manage extensions - opens chrome://extensions for this profile.

Extensions belong to a profile. A tab in another profile does not see them.

Check the connection and certificate

The lock left of the page title shows whether the page is encrypted:

  • green - encrypted and verified,
  • yellow - parts of the page loaded unencrypted, or the certificate expires within 14 days,
  • red - unencrypted, the certificate could not be verified, or it has expired.

An open lock means the page, or a part of it, travels unencrypted, or its certificate has a problem.

Click it to see Issued to, Issuer and Valid. Inspect in Toolbox opens the certificate tool with this site's address and route already filled in.

The chip at the top right shows the tab's route and how long the page took to load. Click it to Check the name, Check the route or Check the public IP from this tab. See Routes.

Save a site

An unsaved tab appears under TABS in the sidebar. To keep it:

  • drag it up into PINNED, or
  • right-click it and choose Pin.

The saved site keeps its profile. Tabs in the Private profile cannot be pinned.

Right-click a saved site for more:

  • Edit… - change Name, Address, Route and Browser profile.
  • Save current page as address - the site opens at the page the tab shows now. Appears while the site is open.
  • Move to profile - opens the page again in another profile. See Browser profiles.

Use Vandle as your default browser

Open Settings > Defaults. Under Web:

  • On Windows, click Open Windows settings and choose Vandle for HTTP and HTTPS. Choose it for PDFs and pictures too if they should open in Vandle. The row only shows when Vandle was set up with its Windows installer.
  • On Linux, click Make default.

Links from other programs then open as new Web tabs, in the Standard profile and without a proxy.

Open local files

Drop an HTML, PDF, picture or text file on the Vandle window. It opens in a Web tab.