Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

If you like the original Visual Studio 2010 tabs theme you can use the excellent Visual Studio 2010 style for Tabs Studio by Jameel Al-Aziz. But, as this style changes many aspects of tabs presentation, it also overrides custom colors that you assign with tab coloring rules in Tabs Studio presentation options. (Of course, you can implement all coloring rules as style rules, it just requires working directly with XAML). Below is a simple style that closer to the overall Visual Studio 2010 theme and still supports additional tab coloring rules.

The following style changes tab text color from default black to white for not selected and not highlighted tabs:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabName" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabNameStyle}">
  <Style.Triggers>
  <MultiDataTrigger>
            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsMouseOver, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsTabSelected, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
      </MultiDataTrigger>
  </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabExtension" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabExtensionStyle}">
  <Style.Triggers>
  <MultiDataTrigger>
            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsMouseOver, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsTabSelected, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
      </MultiDataTrigger>
  </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabNameModificationMarker" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabNameModificationMarkerStyle}">
  <Style.Triggers>
  <MultiDataTrigger>
            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsMouseOver, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsTabSelected, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
      </MultiDataTrigger>
  </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabExtensionModificationMarker" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabExtensionModificationMarkerStyle}">
  <Style.Triggers>
  <MultiDataTrigger>
            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsMouseOver, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
                <Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsTabSelected, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType=TabsStudio:Tab}}" Value="False"/>
            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
            <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
      </MultiDataTrigger>
  </Style.Triggers>
</Style>

Plus you need to create a tab coloring rule for not selected tabs with transparent background:

<SolidColorBrush Color="Transparent"/>

It is very important that this rule be the first one in your tab coloring rules so that additional tab coloring rules could override it with custom colors. Below is the new tabs look:

Now you can for example set a specific color for a project with Tab coloring rules. As tab text is white, you need to use dark colors for background or use normal colors with transparency (to set transparency level, use the Opacity slider in the Color Picker dialog):


Additionally you can set selected but unfocused tab background to gray as in the original Visual Studio 2010 theme:

<Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsGroupFocused, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" Value="False"/>
<Condition Binding="{Binding Path=IsGroupWithLastActiveDocument, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" Value="True"/>

<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0" EndPoint="0,1">
  <GradientStop Color="#FFFDFDFD" Offset="0"/>
  <GradientStop Color="#FFD5DAE3" Offset="0.49"/>
  <GradientStop Color="#FFCED4DF" Offset="0.5"/>
  <GradientStop Color="#FFCED4DF" Offset="1"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>

Update: Added white color to modification markers in the style.

In Visual Studio 2010 horizontal tab alignment is a little off, note the close tab button is near the tab name instead of being docked to the right:

In Visual Studio 2008 and even in the Visual Studio 2010 floating tool window tab alignment is correct:

Turns out horizontal tab alignment is Stretch by default in TabItem‘s control template, but also inherited from the HorizontalContentAlignment property of a ItemsControl visual ancestor. Tabs Studio doesn’t use ItemsControl (this is why in Visual Studio 2008 and in the separate Visual Studio 2010 window tab alignment is correct), but there is ItemsControl with HorizontalContentAlignment=Left in Visual Studio IDE that is found when tabs are above the code editor.

I’ve added ItemsControl to Tabs Studio controls tree:

TabsHost : ContentControl
|
 - TabsItemsControl : ItemsControl
   |
    - Tabs : Panel
     |
      - Tab : TabItem

With the default style:

<Style x:Key="DefaultTabsItemsControlStyle0" TargetType="TabsStudio:TabsItemsControl">
  <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Stretch"/>
</Style>

In the next Tabs Studio release, horizontal tab alignment is Stretch by default in all scenarios:

If you prefer old left alignment, you will be able to set it with the following custom style:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:TabsItemsControl" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabsItemsControlStyle}">
  <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Left"/>
</Style>