Ideas to improve AVANT

[TyrAntilles]

After the old Opera 12.17 becomes obsolete, I think AVANT is the next great browser I found so far, and I tried a lot of browsers. Yes, I switched to Avant from Opera 12.17, an almost perfect browser for me, but it's old Presto engine was abandoned by it's devs, to their shame!
Avant currently have many VERY nice features very well implemented, for which I really really like this browser. I won't enumerate the good things here. Instead, I will make a list with possible improvements, like fixes for it's few problems and stuff I would like to see on AVANT BROWSER, to make it even better, in my view:

- OPTION TO: (MOST IMPORTANT FOR ME): Customize appearance with option to place the TABS BAR on the sides! With new 29inch monitors with very wide aspect, is very impractical to have tabs and toolbars on top or bottom. I REALLY REALLY want them on the sides (on left). This is almost a deal breaker for me that makes me to look for browsers that offer this feature.
Even Firefox have an extension called "Side Tabs" that do just this.

- OPTION TO: Add custom search engine the way old Opera 12.17 was able to do, by right-clicking any search bar on any webpage and then "Create Search".
Currently Avant offers Options > Search Engine > Web Search > User defined = to add a new search engine entering Name and URL. The problem is that is no way to find the correct URL, except to import it from the old Opera.
For example, to create a search on Softpedia site (http://www.softpedia.com), search works right on Avant only if I enter URL: http://win.softpedia.com/dyn-search.php?search_term=%s created automatically by Opera.

- OPTION TO: Hide Avant DOWNLOADER for good or let it sit on taskbar. Every time I start a download, Avant downloader pops up on top and I have to manually close it to hide it everytime. Very annoying, but otherwise Avant downloader is nice and useful.

- SOLVE CRASHES: sometimes, when I open may downloads in the same time, or open/close many windows very fast, or on rare occasions simply load some webpages normally, Avant becomes unstable and sometimes crashes.

- SOLVE RESTORE ON TOP: when I restore Avant from taskbar, many times it comes on the back of the other windows I have on screen, not on top. Very annoying because I need to minimize all my other windows to be able to see Avant.

- SPLIT VIEW acts weird sometimes, when I try to resize the two windows. Also, it's functionality don't seem very clear to me. I usually open two Avast instances and place them side by side, which do the same thing. Plus I couldn't find a way at first sight to close the other window once opened, without closing the entire browser.

- SOLVE DOWNLOADS NOT STARTING: In rare occasions only on some sites, my downloads do not start. I click download link and nothing happens. When I open other browser, the link work correctly.

[xiaobing]

The requests have been recorded, the developer will consider it.

- SPLIT VIEW acts weird sometimes, when I try to resize the two windows. Also, it's functionality don't seem very clear to me. I usually open two Avast instances and place them side by side, which do the same thing. Plus I couldn't find a way at first sight to close the other window once opened, without closing the entire browser.

Click View>split view to close the other window.

SOLVE RESTORE ON TOP: when I restore Avant from taskbar, many times it comes on the back of the other windows I have on screen, not on top. Very annoying because I need to minimize all my other windows to be able to see Avant.

It may be helpful if you minimize Avant and then maximize it again via clicking the Avant icon on task bar.

- SOLVE DOWNLOADS NOT STARTING: In rare occasions only on some sites, my downloads do not start. I click download link and nothing happens. When I open other browser, the link work correctly.

Could you please give me the page that has problem next time you encounter this problem?

[TyrAntilles]

Thank you for your replay.

Click View>split view to close the other window.

You are right, I missed that button. In this case, Split View is useful for me, even more on a very wide monitor. Problem solved.

It may be helpful if you minimize Avant and then maximize it again via clicking the Avant icon on task bar.

Yes, I do this all the time, but sometimes there are windows that still stay on top of Avant window, even after I minimize and maximize again. Sometimes only page surface area of Avant remain on bottom, while toolbars and tabs bar manage to get on top. When this happen I need to click page area to bring the page on top without minimizing the other windows.

Could you please give me the page that has problem next time you encounter this problem?

OK, next time when I encounter this problem I will send example.

[TyrAntilles]

I found one of the sites that give AVANT problem with downloads. Unfortunately that site is private domain and I am not allowed to send it here. What I can say is I tried to download something from it from a link and downloads didn't start in Avant, but started when I tried with other browser.

From Avant I tried to download that file 5 times and each time Avant created on my download folder a file with 0 bit size. The five files with 0 bits were named:

1452344241043.DownloadFile
1452344269440.DownloadFile
1452344280613.DownloadFile
1452344304399.DownloadFile
1452344314816.DownloadFile

When I will encounter other site with this problem that I can paste address here, I will report.

[frank6888]

How about adding a "Read to me" tool or extension for us who's vision is declining or are plain lazy to read larger text articles in webpages. Add some voice option. Just an idea.