Have you ever found yourself sharing your screen in a meeting or class, only to realize you have countless tabs open and can’t find the right one? Whether you’re teaching, collaborating on a team project, or managing multiple tasks, too many tabs can slow down your workflow. Fortunately, Microsoft 365 (M365) tools—available to all Northeastern faculty, staff, and students—can help streamline your workflow and keep you organized.
Smart strategies to reduce tab overload
1. Microsoft Edge vertical tabs and collections
If you’re using Microsoft Edge on a Mac or Windows PC, enable Vertical Tabs to neatly stack and manage open pages in a sidebar. This allows for moving tabs to the side of the screen and makes it easier to quickly scan, identify, and switch to the correct tab.
Collections allow you to group related sites—perfect for research, course planning, or project management. This allows you to pick up where you left off and is synced across your signed-in devices, so you can open pages you saved for later.
Google Chrome offers a similar tab group feature and even has a new AI tool you can use to help organize tabs for you.
2. Store and access file links in OneDrive, SharePoint, or Lists
Instead of keeping multiple tabs open for documents, save them in OneDrive, SharePoint, or Lists. This enables organized collaboration in real time without needing separate tabs for each file, and you can access everything seamlessly through Teams or your Office apps. You can easily access M365 apps and content when you’re signed in to your Northeastern account in any browser.
3. Use Microsoft Teams as a central hub
Stop juggling multiple tabs for emails, chats, and documents—Microsoft Teams can centralize it all in one place. Faculty can store course materials in Team Channels, staff can collaborate within department workspaces, and students can manage group projects in one single location. Pin frequently used websites, apps, or documents to your Teams navigation bar for quick access.
4. Save articles and resources for later
Instead of leaving research articles or reference pages open all day, use OneNote to clip and save them for later review. When you copy and paste web content into OneNote, the pasted-from URL is automatically attached to the content.
5. Automatically Manage Inactive Tabs
Enable Edge’s Sleeping Tabs to reduce memory usage and keep inactive tabs from slowing down your device. This feature puts inactive background tabs to sleep after a set time interval.
6. Quickly search open tabs
Can’t find the tab you need? Use keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl + Shift + A or Command + Shift + A to quickly search across all open tabs instead of clicking through them one by one.
Optimize your workflow with M365
With Microsoft 365 tools, Northeastern faculty, staff, and students can simplify digital clutter and stay organized. Whether you’re teaching in Canvas, collaborating in Teams, or researching for a project, leveraging these features can save time and improve efficiency.
Do you have a favorite tab-management trick or a tip that can help faculty, staff, or students work smarter, collaborate more effectively, or use technology better? Share IT! Submit an idea for Tech Update articles and more today.