Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

There are 4 text elements in a tab: name, extension, name modification marker and extension modification marker. These elements are normally having the same color. Plus, in Visual Studio 2012, close tab button and open preview tab button are drawings also normally having the same color with the text elements. It is much easier to customize colors for all these elements in the new Tabs Studio version.

All elements now by default bind to the tab foreground color. Just set tab foreground color in a style and you are done:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tab" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabStyle}">
      <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Red"/>
</Style>

As always, you can change the color for a specific element too. Plus in VS 2012 you can now change it for the close tab button and the open preview tab button:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:CloseTabButton" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultCloseTabButtonStyle}">
      <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Blue"/>
</Style>

And now you can set tab foreground colors simply in the Tab Coloring Rule dialog depending on tab properties state:

Tab background and foreground rule setup

You can set only background, only foreground or both colors. In the tab coloring rules list, the visible color will be background, foreground and both colors correspondingly:

Visible colors in the tab coloring rules list