Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

I’ve created a new add-in OrderKeeper that remembers a tab position when it is closed and restores the position when the tab is reopened. It should address the problem with tabs reordering when a project is externally modified by updating from source control or switching branches. You may also find stable tab position useful when you manually close and reopen a tab.

Download link: OrderKeeper v1.0.0.

Automatic tab grouping is essential for efficient organization of document tabs in Visual Studio. Tabs Studio by default automatically groups tabs with different extensions and the same name:

Additionally, you can set up automatic coloring, sorting and grouping of tabs based on tab name, project or document path. For example, let’s explore different options to organize tabs with the word Client: ClientHouse.cs, ClientPayments.cs and BusinessClient.cs.

To color all client tabs with a slightly transparent green color, you can create a tab coloring rule with Tab name regex=Client and Background=<SolidColorBrush Color=”#7D8FBC8F”/>:

To position client tabs near each other, enable the Sorter add-in, delete the default Sort by tab name rule and add a new sorting rule with Rule type=TabName and Match regex=(?<M>Client). Checking the Create super group option will additionally visually separate the group with a margin (configured in the Tabs style):

Finally, if you want to group client tabs in one extended tab, Title grouping regex=(?<Name>Client)(?<Ext>.+)|(?<Name>(.*[/\\])?.+?)(?<Ext>\..+) will group ClientHouse.cs and ClientPayments.cs:

You can add BusinessClient.cs to this group as well, but it depends on how you want to display it. For example, the following variations are possible:

1. Set Title grouping regex=(?<Ext>.*)(?<Name>Client)(?<Ext>.+)|(?<Name> (.*[/\\])?.+?)(?<Ext>\..+)

2. Install and enable the ITransform add-in.

3. In ITransform add-in options set Interface regex=^(?<Prefix>.+)(?<Name>Client)(?<Ext>.+)$

4. In ITransform add-in options set Replacement regex to ${Prefix} or ${Prefix}${Ext} or ${Prefix}${Name}${Ext} corresponding to the variations listed above.

PriorityGroup, MvcGroup and Sorter add-ins group tabs together. PriorityGroup places important tabs to the beginning, MvcGroup groups ASP.NET MVC controller and view tabs near each other, Sorter groups tabs by project, path, part of the tab name, highlight index etc.

I’m introducing a new concept – super group to describe a group of tabs and customize its presentation. For example, the following screenshots show 3 super groups of tabs organized by project and separated with 20 pixels margin in horizontal and vertical tab layouts:

To make it all work, Tabs Studio core provides super group properties, Tabs Studio add-ins set these properties for super group tabs, the tabs style uses super group properties to define presentation, the tabs layout algorithm in Tabs Studio core adds margin between super groups.

Tabs SuperGroupMargin double property defines margin between super groups in pixels. Default value is 0 – no margin between groups. 20 is a good value to visually separate groups. A large value like 9999 with the horizontal tabs layout will force groups to take separate rows:

To set SuperGroupMargin use the following style:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tabs" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabsStyle}">
	<Setter Property="SuperGroupMargin" Value="20"/>
</Style>

Tab SuperGroupIsFirstTab and Tab SuperGroupIsLastTab properties are True for the first and the last tabs in each super group. They can be used to apply a special style to the beginning and the end of a super group.

Tab SuperGroupName property is a string assigned to each tab in a super group. PriorityGroup add-in sets it to “[PriorityGroup]”. MvcGroup – to “[MvcGroup]”. Sorter – to “[Sorter] <Rule name>” resulting in “[Sorter] Project”, “[Sorter] Tests” etc. It can be used to set a distinct background color to these groups.

In Sorter add-in you have an option to “Create super group” for certain rules. You don’t want groups when sorting tabs alphabetically, but grouping tabs by project, path or a part of tab name will help separate them visually:

I have ideas to add more functionality supporting super groups (context menu commands, styles) and I’m waiting for your feedback based on actual usage.

Download link: Tabs Studio v4.3.0.

Update: See Super commands for super groups for additional context menu commands.

I’ve added support for multiple captures of the Name and Ext groups in the Title grouping regex. For example,
(?<Name>.+?)-(?<Name>.+?)(?<Ext>\..+) will create the MainWindow name from the Main-Window.xaml tab. (?<Ext>Test)(?<Name>.+?)(?<Ext>\..+) will create the Test.xaml extension from the TestWindow.xaml. You can use as many separate Name and Ext groups as you need, the resulting string will be concatenated from all captures. It allows you to capture multiple parts of the original tab title as the name or extension. Technically I just switched to the built-in Group.Captures .NET regex feature.

Download link: Tabs Studio v3.1.5.

Update: Connell Watkins shared his use of multiple captures to group lots of similar files.