Windows and the current-window view

SessionPaw is built around windows. One window usually holds one piece of work: a paper, a client, a bug. Give it a name and it becomes easy to find again.

Window cards

Each open window is a card in Side View.

• Title bar: name, tab count, and buttons that appear on hover.
• Arrow on the left: fold or unfold the card. Right-click the arrow to fold or unfold all cards at once.
• Click the title bar: brings that window to the front.
• Icon left of the card: shows if the window is minimized, maximized, full screen or incognito.
• Hover the tab count: it turns into a red × that closes the window.

Special cards

Card	What it is
Quick List (top, with a lock)	Not a real window. See Quick List.
Popup Windows (pink)	All small popup-style windows (no tab strip), collected in one card. Closing it asks you to confirm first.
Dark card with an eye-off icon	An incognito window.

Side View does not list itself.

Names

• Click the window title and type a name. Press Enter or click away.
• A window without a name shows its first tab's title in grey.
• From any web page: select text, right-click, then SessionPaw → Name window with "…".
• In Concept Mode, renaming a window card renames the real window too.

Names are saved with sessions. The saved snapshot keeps each window's name, and Session Manager shows it. Opening the session again gives each new window its old name back.

Names belong to the open window. After a browser restart, windows get new identities and their names may be lost. Save a session if a name matters.

Colors

Right-click the window title and click one of the three dots at the top of the menu: Blue, Green or Amber. The card takes a light wash of that color: the title bar, the card and every other tab row. There is no color mark next to the name, so you can put your own emoji there.

Windows you have not colored are blue. Recent Tabs is red and popup windows are violet.

Want more or less color? Click the palette button and, under Window tint on the Themes page, pick Soft (the default) or Strong.

Window right-click menu

Item	What it does
Color dots	Set the window color.
Merge into…	Moves this window's tabs into another window. See Merge windows. On a tab group card it reads Move group to… and moves just that group.
Reset position	Moves and resizes this window so it sits beside Side View.
Hibernate	Frees the memory of every tab in this window.
Copy titles / Copy URLs / Copy titles and URLs	Copies all tabs in the window, one per block.
Save window	Saves this window as a session. Right-click to save it to Cloud instead.
Save and close window	Saves, then closes the window. Right-click to save to Cloud.
Suggest name / Summarize	Names or summarizes this window with AI. With AI off, a small Set up tag shows and clicking opens the AI settings.
Organize this window	AI sorts this window's tabs into named tab groups. See Organize this window. With AI off, clicking opens the AI settings.

On a tab group card the header says Tab group, and the save items save only that group. If a window holds nothing but one tab group, click the header to switch between the window menu and the group menu.

Merge windows

When two windows are really one task, put them together.

• Drag: hold a window title and drop it on the middle of another window card.
  • The whole card lights up with Merge into this window. Let go to merge.
  • Dropping on the top or bottom edge of a card still just reorders windows.
• Menu: right-click a window title → Merge into… → pick a window.
• After merging:
  • The tabs go to the end of the other window, in their order.
  • Pinned tabs stay pinned, and tab groups move as whole groups.
  • The old window closes. The other window keeps its name and color.
• Click Undo in the bar at the top to bring the old window back with its order, pinned tabs, groups, name and color.
• Normal and incognito windows can't be merged.
• Quick List and Popup Windows aren't real windows, so they can't be merged.

Select several at once

• Click Select at the left of the second row at the top of Side View to start selecting.
• While selecting:
  • Each row shows a checkbox on the left. Clicking a row checks or unchecks it instead of switching to it.
  • Shift-click checks everything between the last row you clicked and this one.
  • Clicking a window title checks the whole window. The collapse arrow still works.
  • Tabs and windows can't be selected together: checking a window clears the selected tabs, and the other way round.
  • The box next to Select selects all tabs in the expanded windows. Click it again to clear.
  • Quick List and Popup Windows don't take part.
• A bar appears at the bottom:
  • For tabs: Move to new window, Group, Save (as a session), Close.
  • For windows: Merge (into the window you selected first), Save all, Close all.
  • After closing, click Undo in the bar at the top to reopen them.
• To stop, click Select again, click ✕ on the bar, press Esc, or run one of the bar actions.
• Drag one selected tab and all selected tabs move with it, in order.
• The selection isn't saved, and closed tabs drop out of it.

Organize this window

When one window holds a pile of tabs on different topics, AI can sort them into tab groups.

1. Right-click the window title and click Organize this window.
2. It first shows about how many tabs will be sent to your AI service.
   • Only titles and addresses are sent, without anything after ? or #.
   • With your own API key (Ollama and LM Studio included), intranet and sign-in pages are not sent. They stay ungrouped.
   • Built-in browser AI runs on your device, so those pages are included.
   • Pinned tabs are not touched.
3. Click Suggest groups. AI proposes 2 to 8 groups, each with a short name.
   • Click a group name to change it.
   • Show tabs lists a group's tabs. Move out takes one tab out of the group.
   • Don't group drops a whole group.
   • Tabs that fit nowhere are listed under Ungrouped.
4. Click Apply. The tab groups are created, each group's tabs sit together, and groups come first.
   • Tab groups the window already had are replaced.
   • Click Undo in the message at the top to get the old order and the old groups back.
5. Cancel changes nothing.

• In a very big window, only the first 180 tabs are sent (3 rounds of 60). The rest stay ungrouped.
• If the browser has no tab groups (Firefox, for example), Apply becomes Reorder tabs and only moves tabs so each topic sits together.

Layout: Side View and your windows

SessionPaw keeps Side View on one edge of the screen and moves your browser windows next to it.

• New windows are moved and sized automatically. Turn this off in Settings → Auto set new window position and size.
• Reset All Position (the cross-arrows button at the top of Side View) puts Side View back on its edge and lines up every normal window beside it.
• Right-click the empty space in the list for the Global menu:
  • Reopen last closed: brings back the last tab or window you closed.
  • New window: opens a new browser window beside Side View.
  • Reset side view size
  • Reset window sizes
• Right-click the toolbar icon for Open SideView, Reset SideView Position, Reset This Window Position and Reset All Position.

Settings that change the layout

Open Settings from the gear at the bottom right of Side View.

Setting	What it does
Dock Side View on the right	Puts Side View on the right edge. Turns off Override View.
Enable Narrow Side View	A narrower Side View (on by default). Small screens always get the narrow one.
Enable Override View	Left side only. Browser windows overlap most of Side View instead of sitting fully beside it. Clicking a tab then leaves you in that browser window.
Auto set new window position and size	Moves new windows beside Side View.
Window layout (calibrate)	Record your own position and size for new windows. Each screen keeps its own record; screens without one use the default layout.

Screen size also matters:

• On a small screen, if a browser window would end up narrower than about 800, it stops making room for Drop Area first, which then sits on top of it. If it is still too narrow, it fills the screen and Side View sits on top too.
• On an ultrawide screen, a browser window is at most 2560 wide. The rest stays empty.
• Session Manager, Devices and Bookmarks open at most 1600 × 1200, in the middle of the screen.

Popup windows

A popup window is a small window without a tab strip. It is handy for a video, a chat or a reference page you want to keep in view.

• Tab right-click menu in Side View → Open in popup window.
• Page right-click menu → SessionPaw → Popup current tab.
• In the Popup, the Pop out tab button at the bottom right.

To bring it back: tab menu → Move to normal window, or page menu → SessionPaw → Restore to normal window.

Drop Area

Drop Area is a tray for things you collect while browsing: files, pictures, links and bits of text.

• Click the box icon at the far right of the Side View bottom bar. Drop Area opens as a narrow window docked to the right edge of the screen, and your other windows make room for it. Click the icon again to close it.
• Drag things in, paste them, or pick files. You can also drag a tab row, or a whole window card, from Side View into it. Each tab becomes a link.
• Group items, rename them, copy them, or save them as files. A group of links can open as a new window.
• Items stay on this computer, in this browser. They don't sync. Closing the window does not delete them.

The current-window view

Sometimes you only care about the window you are in.

• Press Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac) to open SessionPaw in the browser's own side panel.
• Three tabs sit at the top: This window, All windows and Drop Area.
• It starts on This window: only the tabs of the window you are in.
• Pick All windows to see every window, or Drop Area to see your tray.
• Next time you open the side panel, it comes back to the tab you picked last.

The Popup also works on the current window only, but it shows tools for the current tab instead of a list. See Popup tools.