At previous companies, when setting up the web applications that I used on a regular basis I would typically set up AutoHotKey shortcuts to launch the web applications in a Google Chrome app window using code similar to this:
Run, [path to chrome.exe] --app="[url to launch]"However, when setting up my laptop at ServiceNow I didn’t have AutoHotKey installed right away so I decided to give Google Chrome tab groups a try. Since using them, I’ve really grown to like them and will probably not go back to the way I was doing it before because the old way cluttered up my taskbar.
To get started, right-click on a tab (or you can shift or control-click tabs to select multiple tabs) and choose Add tab(s) to new group. (I’m not aware of a shortcut key at this time).
Once you click that menu option, you get a popup like this:
Enter the name for the group and choose the color and press enter. (You can use the tab key to navigate to the colors and use the enter key to select the color you want, however you must be on the name field for the enter key to close the popup).
After pressing enter, you will see something like this (notice the colored outline on the tabs).
By single-clicking on the group name you can collapse the group and see something like this:
I typically have multiple tab groups defined and have found tab groups to be extremely useful. There’s only one problem that I would love for Google to add. I typically have a _start bookmark folder defined with things grouped into logical, at least to me, groupings and use the right-click Open all (#) menu option to open them all at one time. What I would love to add to this menu is an Open all (#) in a new tab group menu option, that would be awesome!
Hopefully, this tip was useful and can help you organize your computer a little easier.
12/15/2021 Update: Since writing this article Google has added the feature to open a group of favorites in a tab group:
To take advantage of this, I created the following AutoHotKey macro:
; win+2
#*2::
MouseClick, right
Send {Down}{Down}{Down}{Down}{Enter}
return
Enjoy!!!