I’ve updated styling code to allow more customization. To change global tabs font family and font size you should now use the following format:
Style resources settings
The result is the same as in the previous post:
Default tabs style
Custom tabs style
More customization means that now you can, for example, set Italic font style only for the selected tab name:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:TabsStudio="clr-namespace:TabsStudio;assembly=TabsStudio">
<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabNameLabel">
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsTabSelected" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Control.FontStyle" Value="Italic"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</ResourceDictionary>
The result is:
Custom selected tab name
Notice how the not selected tab name and extensions on the selected tab stay in the normal font style.
I’m working on enabling visual tabs customization. The idea is to use powerful XAML for it. For example, to change tabs font family and font size the following style can be used:
Tabs Studio Style Settings
The result is:
Default tabs style
Custom tabs style
Validation box checks for errors in markup. For example, if we enter invalid value 12ptx instead of 12pt, the following error is displayed:
Style validation error
The next step is to allow individual elements customization. For example, a shadow effect for extensions or a font color for the selected tab.
Ctrl+Tab is usually used to switch windows using keyboard in Visual Studio IDE:
IDE Navigator
IDE Navigator has two columns: Active Files column for tabbed windows and Active Tool Windows for tool windows. Selected by default window (stdafx.hpp in the example above) is in Active Files column as Ctrl+Tab corresponds to the Window.NextDocumentWindowNav command. Similar Window.NextToolWindowNav command (without default shortcut) starts with default window selected in Active Tool Windows column. IDE Navigator supports arrow keys (left, right, up, down) and mouse for window selection.
Another command Window.ShowEzMDIFileList with default shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow shows alphabetically sorted list of tabbed windows:
Tabbed windows list
In this pop-up window you can navigate using up and down arrow keys, mouse and by typing first letter(s) of window name. For example, typing as selects AssemblyInfo.cpp.
Besides Tabs Studio there are other Visual Studio tabs add-ins, though none of it is in active development now:
-
WndTabs by Oz Solomon. Supports Visual C++ 6. I was a happy WndTabs user myself until Visual Studio .NET came out. Source code is available.
-
VSTabs by Jonathan Payne. Supports Visual Studio 2003. Very small feature set. Source code is available.
-
EasyTabs by Sven Ritter. EasyTabs for Visual Studio 2005/2008 original announcement in German, English translation. Supports Visual Studio 2005/2008. Developed on the basis of WndTabs. Source code is not available, but download is free.
Tabs Studio v1.0.1 micro update is released – added grouping for .ascx, .ascx.cs, .master, .master.cs extensions.
