Have you ever been overwhelmed with web page overload? If you’re the type of person to have more than two or three web pages open at the same time (like me) then you’ve undoubtedly discovered the usefulness of tabs in the Chrome web browser.
Sometimes, however, you can still find yourself with more tabs open than you can easily keep track of, or you may just need one particular page that you constantly go back to reference. Enter Panelize: a great program that installs as a Chrome extension and allows you to keep multiple pages in view while browsing other pages. Panelize also provides instant access to several Google services quickly displayed in panels.
Panelize is simple in functionality and powerful in it’s usage because it allows you to keep any URL opened in a separate window on top of all the other pages you are browsing. This can be helpful and useful in a number of situations and the best part about Panelize, of course, is that it costs absolutely nothing to download, install and use.
When you install Panelize you will have a new button on your browser bar in the upper right corner that looks like a letter P, which will activate the extension. Simply browse to the page you want to ‘panelize’ and then click the P button. When pressed, the Panelize button will expand to offer you a few different options for the new panel you want to open. You’ll be able to change the size of the resulting panel/window (the default will most likely be 400 x 600 pixels unless you’re using very low resolution on your desktop already) as well as offering the option to store all your used panelized pages in a bookmarks folder in case you need to access them again at short notice.
Once a page has be re-opened as a panel it will stay on top of other windows while you work, which is very handy for keeping reference material in view. You’ll also be able to re-size each panel, and specify different initial sizes per panel, per URL you open. Each time you open a panel it will go into the bookmark folder you have created (Other Bookmarks > Panels by default but this can be changed) and will include the sizing information for each individual panel.
Although I didn’t find any particularly bad bugs with this extension, I did note that very occasionally it would drop a panel I was using underneath other panels when opening a new one, but this occurred less than one out of twenty times. Bearing in mind that the developer is still working on the extension and constantly fixing reported bugs and enhancing features that already work, I was quite impressed by this extension for Chrome so it’s worth providing feedback to the developer in the usual manner if you have suggestions or if you happen to find an issue with it. Until next time, my friends.
- Get Panelize for Chrome here
