Tab Navigation

Navigate between tabs with history, cycling, and smart sorting.

Vertical Tabs provides multiple ways to move between tabs: browser-style back/forward, sequential cycling, and jumping to finished tasks.

Browser-like history

Every tab switch is recorded in a navigation history, similar to a web browser.

Action	Shortcut
Go back to the previous tab	`⌘ Cmd` + `[`
Go forward to the next tab	`⌘ Cmd` + `]`

If a tab in the history has been closed, it is skipped.

Mouse back/forward buttons

If the mouse has back and forward side buttons, they work for tab history navigation. Press the back button to go to the previous tab and the forward button to go to the next, matching ⌘ Cmd + [ and ⌘ Cmd + ].

On Windows and Linux, Vertical Tabs listens for the native app-command event, so side buttons work out of the box with most mice.

On macOS, Vertical Tabs listens for swipe gestures. This means it works with trackpad swipe gestures natively, and with mouse side buttons through utilities like SensibleSideButtons, Mac Mouse Fix, or Logitech Options that translate side-button presses into swipe events.

Tab cycling

Cycle through tabs in the current workspace:

Action	Shortcut
Previous tab in the workspace	`⇧ Shift` + `⌘ Cmd` + `[`
Next tab in the workspace	`⇧ Shift` + `⌘ Cmd` + `]`

Cycling wraps around at the end of the list.

Finished tab cycling

Jump between tabs where the last command has completed:

Action	Shortcut
Previous finished tab	`⌘ Cmd` + `Option` + `[`
Next finished tab	`⌘ Cmd` + `Option` + `]`

Tab sort order

Tabs within each workspace can be sorted in two ways:

Creation Order (default). Tabs stay in the order they were created.
Recent Activity. Tabs used most recently appear at the top.

To change the sort order:

Open Settings and look for the tab sort option, or
Click the three-dot menu on any workspace header and select Sort by recent or Sort by creation order