Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

I’ve added more organization to add-in settings storage and activation configuration.

Previously add-ins stored global settings in the add-ins directory near the binary files. Now I’ve added the GetAddinSettingsDirectory method to the ITabsStudioEngine interface providing a directory near general Tabs Studio settings. It makes possible to have separate add-in settings for SSMS 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Previously all .dll add-ins from the add-ins directory were loaded at startup. Now the list of active add-ins is stored near general Tabs Studio settings. You control this list as usual from Add-in Manager. It again makes now possible to have separate active add-ins for SSMS 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Export/import settings now save and restore all add-in settings as well.

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.6.0.

I’ve added the ability to sort tabs by project and extension:

A tab can have several extensions. To simplify sorting by extension behavior, only the first extension present on tab creation is used for sorting. You can select the Re-sort tabs context menu command to reset it.

For example, if Sorter is set up to sort only by extension and you open Form1.cs [Design] and stdafx.h:

Now you open stdafx.cpp. The stdafx tab keeps second position because “only the first extension present on tab creation is used for sorting” – in our case .h:

But if we Re-sort tabs, then .cpp becomes the primary extension for the stdafx tab and it moves before Form1:

Please, let me know if you find sorting by extension actually useful for your work 🙂

The updated Sorter add-in is included in Tabs Studio v2.5.7.

Depending on the project type you are working on, Tabs Studio settings and add-ins enabled, tabs may have a path in the tab name. The Sorter add-in compares tab names without path, so for an ASP.NET website project, tabs are sorted like this:

I’ve added the option to sort by full tab name. You can enable it in Tabs Studio – Add-in manager – Sorter options:

With this option enabled the same tabs are now sorted like this:

The updated Sorter add-in is included in Tabs Studio v2.5.6.

If you have a frequently accessed tab that is open for a long time, you may want to position it at the beginning of the list for easier access and better tabs organization. The new PriorityGroup add-in lets you add such tab to the priority group and will keep it at the beginning when this tab is open:

Priority tabs are identified by tab name and work globally across all solutions. To remove a tab from the priority group, right click on the tab and select Remove from priority group.

You can color priority tabs using the new TabsStudioPriorityGroup:Properties.Top property. For example, in the standard Tab Coloring Rule dialog, add the following custom condition:

<Condition Binding="{Binding Path=(TabsStudioPriorityGroup:Properties.Top),
  RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" Value="True"/>

The Sorter add-in now recognizes if PriorityGroup is running and sorts priority tabs first:

PriorityGroup will be included in the next Tabs Studio release.