Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

I’ve updated tabs layout algorithms in Tabs Studio to keep the preview tab in the last and right aligned position. For the horizontal tabs layout, the preview tab is now always in the right corner and on the last row with normal tabs, if there is space, or below them:

The preview tab on the last row

If you use vertical tabs in Visual Studio 2012, the preview tab is now always at the bottom of normal tabs and to the right:

The preview tab at the bottom of vertical tabs in Visual Studio 2012

Visual Studio 2012 is now available to MSDN subscribers:

Visual Studio 2012 splash screen

I don’t see any changes in default Visual Studio tabs behavior comparing to Release Candidate, but they slightly changed packages registration and I had to update the Tabs Studio installer. With the update, Tabs Studio is now compatible with VS 2012 RTM as well:

Tabs Studio in Visual Studio 2012 RTM

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.8.1.

Visual Studio 2012 RC was released about two weeks ago:

Visual Studio 2012 RC splash screen

Tab colors were changed, most noticeable are the blue color for the selected tab the purple color for the preview tab. Tabs Studio style was updated to reflect these changes:

Selected tab in Visual Studio 2012 RC

For those working with tab groups, in VS 2012 Tabs Studio now supports the Float all command to float a whole tab group out of the main window and the Move all to next/previous tab group commands:

New tab context menu commands in Visual Studio 2012

Floating tab group in Visual Studio 2012

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.8.0.

The preview tab in Visual Studio 11 is a separate reusable tab displayed in the right corner of the document tabs well. In Tabs Studio the preview tab is opened in the last tab position:

The preview tab in Tabs Studio

All relevant add-ins like Sorter, AutoOpener, PriorityGroup and OpenNext were updated to ignore the preview tab and don’t move it from the last position. I’ve added the new IsPreviewTab property to style the preview tab and show the, also new, Open button that transforms the preview tab into the regular tab.

In the Tab Coloring Rule dialog you can now access the preview tab property similar to the other properties like selected tab and previously selected tab. Most of the time, I think, you will set it to False to keep the default preview tab look. (Note, that I’ve also changed, sometimes confusing, three state checkboxes to descriptive comboboxes):

Preview tab property setup in the Tab Coloring Rule dialog

If you are interested in custom VS 11 styling, see the new light and dark default style definitions. Next I plan to add support for floating tab groups in Visual Studio 11.

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.6.3.

I’ve added preliminary support for Visual Studio 11 Beta. For both light and dark themes in VS I’ve added predefined styles in Tabs Studio (see light and dark style definitions) and the corresponding style is selected automatically on startup depending on your Visual Studio settings:

Tabs Studio with the light theme in Visual Studio 11 Beta

Tabs Studio with the dark theme in Visual Studio 11 Beta

Next I plan to add support for the preview tab and for floating tab groups.

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.6.2.

Visual Studio 11 Beta was released this week (see what’s new):

Visual Studio 11 Beta splash screen

Very little has changed in tabs behavior since the developer preview (see my older blog post Document tabs in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview), but the UI theme is all new:

Visual Studio 11 Beta light color theme

Plus there is also the dark theme:

Visual Studio 11 Beta color theme options

Visual Studio 11 Beta dark color theme

One more color change is for the scenario when you have several tab groups or floating document windows. In Visual Studio 2010, selected but inactive document tab had two states: last active document group or not. See how in the following screenshot MainWindow.xaml.vb is gray and its tab group has gray underline (MainWindow.xaml.vb was the selected document before I switched to Solution Exlorer), Application.xaml.vb is almost transparent and its tab group has corresponding underline:

Special color for the tab group with last active document in Visual Studio 2010

In Visual Studio 11 Beta there is no such distinction. All inactive tab groups are just grey:

Same color for inactive tab groups in Visual Studio 11 Beta

I’ve not found significant changes in VS 11 tabs customization comparing to the developer preview:

Tabs and windows options in Visual Studio 11 Beta

Remember Visual Studio 2010 Beta release when Microsoft introduced WPF UI? This beta again completely changed VS look and feel. Let’s see whether customers’ feedback to add some color back to Visual Studio 11 prompts Microsoft to reconsider the latest design.

I’ve added basic support for Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview – all tabs functionality that was available in VS 2010 is now available in VS 11.

The new preview tab is displayed as a normal tab, but you can see the blue under line when it is selected. To manually promote this tab you can use the Window menu and the keyboard shortcut (btw this screenshot was made on Windows 8):

Promote preview tab command in Visual Studio menu

I don’t know how useful the preview tab will be. It can be turned off in Visual Studio options. On the other hand, floating tab groups are definitely useful and I will try my best to support them in a next release.

I noticed one new problem in VS 11 – tabs in a separate window can get light grey background inheriting style from a Visual Studio control up in the tree. To work around this, use the following custom style (it is the same example style that disables blue inactive tab background on mouse over):

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tab" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabStyle}">
  <Setter Property="Template">
    <Setter.Value>

      <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type TabsStudio:Tab}">
        <Border Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" Padding="5,1,5,1" 
                      BorderThickness="1,1,1,0" BorderBrush="Gray">
        <ContentPresenter Name="Content" ContentSource="Header"
              HorizontalAlignment="{Binding Path=HorizontalContentAlignment, 
                RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ItemsControl}}}"/>
        </Border>
      </ControlTemplate>
    </Setter.Value>

  </Setter>
</Style>

Download link: Tabs Studio v2.5.0.

Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview was released this week:

Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview

Tabs can be pinned now and remain always visible – in the same row with normal tabs, in a separate row above normal tabs and in several rows above normal tabs:

Pinned tabs in a separate row above normal tabs

Documents opened indirectly, e.g. when you hit a breakpoint in a new file, are displayed in a special preview tab. When you hit a next breakpoint in another new file, the preview tab displays the new file and “forgets” about the previous one. Thus reducing the number of open documents:

The blue preview tab during debugging

Floating documents can be grouped in a separate window and have tab groups within this separate window:

Floating document in a separate window with two vertical tab groups

Several self-explanatory options are available to customize tabs and windows behavior:

Tabs and windows options

I’ve managed to run Tabs Studio in the new IDE, but need more time to make a proper release:

Tabs Studio tabs in Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview