Showing multiple URLs

With Polypane, you can show multiple different URLs side by side. whether it's ti compare your local development site with the live production version, testing different pages of your site simultaneously, or comparing your site with competitors.

Decoupling panes for different URLs

By default, all panes in Polypane navigate together through navigation sync. However, you can decouple individual panes to show different URLs while keeping others synchronized.

Disabling navigation sync for a pane

To show a different URL in a specific pane:

1. Click the emulation settings button in the pane header (devices icon)
2. Go to the "Network" tab
3. Toggle off "Sync navigation"

When navigation sync is disabled for a pane:

• The pane title transforms into an address bar where you can enter any URL
• A broken link icon appears before the URL to indicate this pane is decoupled
• This pane will no longer follow navigation changes from other panes
• Other panes will continue to sync with each other

Common use cases for multiple URLs

Local vs. Production comparison: Load your development site in some panes and your live site in others to compare changes, spot differences, or ensure consistency.

Multi-page testing: Display different pages of your site simultaneously to test navigation flows, check consistency across pages, or verify global changes like header/footer updates.

Competitive analysis: Compare your site side by side with competitor sites to analyze design patterns, performance, or user experience approaches.

A/B testing: Show different versions of the same page to compare designs, layouts, or content variations.

Working with sessions for multiple URLs

When using multiple URLs, you might also want to use different sessions to test various user states across your different URLs:

• Test logged-in vs. logged-out states
• Compare different user roles or permissions
• Test with different language preferences
• Simulate various user data scenarios

Each pane can have its own session, allowing you to test complex scenarios where different URLs might need different authentication states or user contexts.

Disabling synced interactions for multiple URLs

When showing different URLs, you typically want to disable synced interactions since:

• The pages might have different layouts and structures
• Interactions shouldn't be replicated across different sites
• Scrolling and clicking should be independent per URL

To disable interaction syncing:

1. Right-click the sync button in the address bar
2. Select "Disable all" to turn off all interaction syncing
3. Or selectively disable specific interactions like scroll sync, click sync, etc.

This prevents unintended interactions from affecting all panes when they're showing different content.