Help

Kolona replaces the new tab page in Chrome. Every new tab shows your links, arranged in columns you name yourself.

Install

Add Kolona from the Chrome Web Store, then open a new tab. Chrome may ask whether to keep the new tab page that Kolona provides; choose Keep it. Kolona needs no account: everything you add stays in this browser.

The first screen

An empty board shows Start here with two buttons:

• Create your first section adds an empty column and opens its name for editing. Type a name and press Enter.
• Import from this browser turns your Chrome bookmarks into columns, one column per folder. Chrome asks for permission to read bookmarks the first time.

You can also import an HTML bookmarks file or a Kolona export later, from Settings → Data. See Import and export.

Add more columns

• Click + in the toolbar (New section), or press Shift + N.
• In a column’s menu, choose New section to the right.
• While you drag a link, drop it on the empty slot after the last column to start a new column with it.

A new column is called “New section” until you rename it. Double-click a column’s name to rename it at any time.

Add links

Press N or click Add link at the bottom of a column, then fill in Title and Address. From any other page, use Save to Kolona instead; see Saving tabs.

Open Settings with the gear icon in the toolbar. Press ? on the board to see every keyboard shortcut.

The column menu

Each column has a menu in its header:

• Rename: edit the column’s name. Double-clicking the name does the same.
• Sort A–Z: sort the links in the column by title.
• Duplicate: copy the column and its links. The copy is placed right after the original and gets “copy” added to its name.
• New section to the right: add an empty column next to this one.
• Move left and Move right: move the column one place.
• Delete column: remove the column and its links. A message appears with Undo.

The arrow next to a column’s name collapses it. A collapsed column shows only its name and how many links it holds; click the arrow again to expand it.

Drag and drop

• Drag a link to move it within a column or to another column.
• Drag a column by its header to change the order of columns.
• Drag a row from Recent tabs into a column to save that page. The tab itself stays open.
• While you drag, an empty slot appears after the last column. Drop a link there to start a new column with it, or drop a column there to move it to the end.

Every change can be undone with ⌘ Z (Ctrl + Z on Windows), up to twenty steps back.

Links

Each link has a menu with Open in new tab, Copy link, Edit, Move up, Move down and Delete. Edit lets you change the title and the address; changes apply immediately.

Workspaces

A workspace is a separate board with its own columns and its own appearance: wallpaper, theme, density and the rest. Use them to keep, say, Work, Home and Reading apart.

• The workspace switcher in the toolbar shows the current workspace’s emoji and name. Click it to switch, or choose Manage workspaces.
• In Settings → Workspaces, type a name, pick an emoji and click Add to create a workspace. Each row has Switch and a delete button. You can’t delete the last workspace.
• A new workspace starts with a copy of the current workspace’s settings, so it looks the same until you change it. It starts with no columns.
• Deleting a workspace removes its columns and links. A message appears with Undo.

Kolona remembers which workspace was open on each device. Switching workspaces clears the undo history.

Unlimited workspaces are part of Pro. Free includes one.

Save to Kolona

Press Alt + Shift + S on any page, or right-click the page and choose Save to Kolona. A small window opens with the page’s Title and URL. Pick a Column (and a Workspace, if you have more than one) and click Save. Press Esc to close it without saving.

To save a link without opening it, right-click the link and choose Save link to Kolona.

Save every tab in a window

Alt + Shift + A saves every tab in the current window to a column called Inbox (Kolona adds it if it doesn’t exist) and opens Kolona to show them. On the board, the Save open tabs button in the toolbar saves the tabs open in all your windows.

Links that are already in that column are skipped, so saving twice does not create duplicates. Kolona compares addresses without the part after # and without a trailing slash.

Search from the address bar

Type kl, then a space, in Chrome’s address bar, then a few words. Kolona suggests matching links (title and column) from your first workspace. Pick one to open it. Press Enter on plain text to search the web with your default search engine instead.

Recent tabs

Under your columns, Recent tabs lists the pages you opened lately, grouped by Last hour, Today, Yesterday and Last 7 days. Open tabs are marked as such. Each row has a menu:

• Switch to tab (for tabs that are still open)
• Open in new tab
• Copy link
• Save to Kolona…, which asks for a column
• Close tab
• Remove from list

Clear list in the header empties the list. You can also drag a row straight into a column. Settings → Tabs → Recent tabs sets how far back the list goes. The list is kept only on this device, and pages from incognito windows never appear in it.

Stash a window

Click the Kolona icon in Chrome’s toolbar, or press Alt + Shift + X. Every tab in the window is put away as one group and closed. Pinned tabs, tabs playing sound and browser pages stay open. A message confirms how many tabs were stashed, with View and Undo.

On the board, the toolbar has Stash this window’s tabs and Stashed tabs.

Stashed tabs

The Stashed tabs window has two lists:

• Stashed: groups you put away yourself.
• Auto-closed: tabs Kolona closed because you hadn’t looked at them in a while.

For each group you can:

• Open a single tab, or Open all. Tabs open in the background, and the group stays in the list.
• Save as column: turn the whole group into a column.
• Delete group.

To keep only some tabs, tick them, choose a Column and click Save to column.

Groups are removed after the time set in Settings → Tabs → Keep stashed tabs for: 1 day, 7 days or 30 days.

Auto-close

Turn on Close old tabs automatically in Settings → Tabs, then choose After how long: a number of Days, Hours or Minutes. Tabs you haven’t looked at for that long close on their own and wait under Auto-closed, so nothing is lost.

Kolona never auto-closes pinned tabs, tabs playing sound, the tab you are on, or tabs in incognito windows. Two more settings give you control:

• Leave tabs in groups alone keeps tabs that belong to a Chrome tab group open.
• Never close takes a list of sites, one per line. Common mail, calendar and video-call sites are on it to begin with.

Auto-close checks for old tabs when you open a new tab.

Search

Press ⌘ K (Ctrl + K on Windows) or / to jump to the search box, then type. Kolona searches at once:

• the links in all your workspaces,
• your open tabs,
• your stashed tabs,
• pages you visited or closed recently.

Each result says where it comes from, for example the workspace and column, Open tab, Stashed or Closed with how long ago.

• Enter opens the first result, or searches the web if nothing matches.
• Shift + Enter always searches the web, with your default search engine.
• ↓ moves into the results.
• If a page is already open in a tab, choosing it switches to that tab instead of opening it again.

Settings → Tabs → Remember closed tabs for sets how long closed pages stay searchable: 7, 30 or 90 days. This history is kept only on this device and never includes incognito windows.

Smart search

Smart search finds pages by what they are about, not only by the exact words. “that site comparing Stripe and Paddle” can find a page titled “Stripe vs Paddle: which payment platform fits a SaaS”, even though the words differ, and it works across languages.

Smart search is part of Pro.

• Turn it on: Settings → Tabs → Smart search. Kolona downloads a language model of about 135 MB once, from Hugging Face. The status line under the switch shows the download, then Indexing, then Ready with the number of pages.
• In the results: pages found only by meaning are marked with a ✨ sparkles icon (Matched by meaning). Results that match your words come first.
• What is indexed: only the title, the domain and the words in the page’s address. Kolona never reads the content of the pages you visit. Incognito windows are never indexed.
• Where it runs: the model runs inside the extension, on your computer. Nothing you search for, and none of your titles, leaves the device. The index is not synced and is not part of an export.
• Turn it off: switch Smart search off. The index is deleted; the downloaded model stays, and Delete model (135 MB) appears under the switch to remove it as well.

The Smart search switch belongs to each device, so turning it on on one computer does not download the model on the others.

Everything here is in Settings → Data. Imported items go into the workspace you have open.

From this browser

Import from this browser reads your Chrome bookmarks. Every folder becomes its own column, named with its full path, for example “Bookmarks bar / Work / Docs”. Links that sit outside any folder go to a column called “Imported”. Empty folders are skipped, and if a column with the same name already exists, the links are added to it.

Chrome asks for permission to read your bookmarks the first time. Kolona uses this permission only while importing. If you decline, you can still import an HTML file.

An HTML file

Import an HTML file accepts the standard bookmarks file that any browser can export (the “Netscape” format used by Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge). Folders become columns in the same way.

A Kolona export

Import a Kolona export reads a file made with Export everything. It merges by id: items that are new are added, and for items that exist on both sides the newer version wins. Nothing on your board is deleted.

Export everything

Export everything downloads kolona-export.json, a file with all your workspaces, columns, links and stashed tabs. Keep it as a backup or import it on another computer. Your settings, the Smart search index and your browsing history are not included.

Appearance settings live in Settings → Appearance and Settings → Home screen. Every change applies immediately, and each workspace keeps its own.

Wallpaper

Pick one of the built-in wallpapers, gradients and photos, or choose Upload your own image (up to 4 MB). The panels follow the wallpaper: a light wallpaper gets light panels, a dark one gets dark panels. For your own image, Kolona measures its brightness and decides.

Settings → Appearance

• Theme: Light, Dark or System. Since the wallpaper sets the tone, picking a theme switches to that theme’s default wallpaper.
• Density: Small, Medium or Large rows.
• Layout: Centered keeps the columns in the middle of the screen; Full width uses the whole window.
• Rounded corners: on or off.
• Accent: the colour of buttons, focus and highlights, from seven presets.
• Wallpaper: as above.

Settings → Home screen

What you see above your columns:

• Show clock, with Clock format 24-hour or 12-hour.
• Show greeting: “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and so on, next to the date.

Press ? on the board to see this list in Kolona. It is also in Settings → Shortcuts.

Keys are shown as on a Mac. On Windows and Linux, ⌘ is Ctrl, ⌥ is Alt and ⇧ is Shift, and Redo is Ctrl + Y. Shortcuts work the same on Cyrillic and other non-Latin keyboard layouts: Kolona reads the physical key, so ⌘ K works without switching back to English.

Getting around

Keys	What it does
⌘ K	Focus the search box
/	Focus the search box
↵	In search: open the first result, or search the web if nothing matches
⇧ ↵	In search: search the web
↓	In search: step into the results
↑ ↓	Move between links in a column
← →	Move between columns
↵	Open the focused link
⌘ ↵	Open the focused link in a new tab
⌘ click	Switch to an open tab and keep this page open
C	Copy the focused link
Esc	Close a menu or clear the search
?	Show this list

Editing

Keys	What it does
N	Add a link to the focused column
⇧ N	Add a new section
E	Edit the focused link
Delete	Delete the focused link
⌘ Z	Undo
⌘ ⇧ Z	Redo (Ctrl + Y on Windows)

Rearranging without a mouse

Keys	What it does
Space	Pick up the focused link, then arrows, then Space to drop
⌥ ← ↑ ↓ →	Move the focused link one step
⌘ ← →	Move the focused column left or right

From anywhere in the browser

Keys	What it does
⌥ ⇧ S	Save the current tab
⌥ ⇧ A	Save every tab in this window
⌥ ⇧ X	Stash every tab in this window (or click the Kolona icon)
kl + Space	Search your links from the address bar

The browser-wide shortcuts can be changed at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

Kolona works fully without an account. An account is only needed for sync, which is part of Pro.

What Pro adds

• Sync of your board across every computer where you sign in to Kolona.
• Unlimited workspaces, each with its own look.
• Smart search: find links by meaning, on your device. See Search and Smart search.

Sign in

Open Settings → Account. Choose Continue with Google, or type your Email and Password and click Sign in. New here? Type them and click Create account instead; you may need to confirm your email first.

What syncs

• Your workspaces, columns and links.
• Your settings, including your own wallpaper image.

What stays on each device:

• Stashed and auto-closed tabs.
• Recent tabs and the history of closed pages.
• Smart search: the switch, the downloaded model and the index.
• Which workspace is open.

Changes reach your other devices within seconds while Kolona is open there, or the next time you open a new tab.

The first time you sign in

If both this device and your account already have links, Kolona asks how to combine them before anything is uploaded:

• Keep both: everything from both places. You may see duplicate columns.
• Use account: replace the links on this device with the ones in your account.
• Use this device: replace the links in your account with the ones on this device. Your other devices will lose them.

Choose Not now to decide later; Settings → Account then shows Choose how to combine your links.

While you are signed in

Settings → Account shows the email you signed in with and the sync status, for example Synced just now, with a Sync now button. When you have no connection, the toolbar shows Offline. Your changes stay on this device and sync when you are back online.

Sign out

Click Sign out. Your links stay on this device, and sync stops until you sign in again.

To delete your account and the copy stored for sync, email contact@kolona.app.