I think the tab interface in DT could be refined a bit.
I often use DT side by side with a text editor in which I’m writing a paper (tight squeeze when I’m using a 13" laptop screen). Something DT uniquely allows me to do is to have a large number of PDFs and RTFs open in tabs that I can easily flick between, using split, column or three pane view. A few things would make this more intuitive (and fit with the way a lot of fellow grad students work):
allow drag and drop reordering of tabs
add a tab list drop down or item in the window menu so we can find tabs quickly (useful if you have a large number open)
have the ‘x’ on tabs always displayed so tabs can be closed without having to select them first
have a keyboard shortcut to hide the fileview pane (similar to hiding the sidebar), so the user can easily switch between using DT to view tabs only and to the file view to open more tabs (I know you can resize but a keyboard-driven method would be helpful)
(this is a long shot) undo close tab action?
This is a bit more of a obscure request:
I often want to open a file in a new tab without altering the other tabs. My first impulse is to click on a file in the files pane, which of course, replaces the document viewed in the currently selected tab, which I don’t want Instead I have to either remember to open a new tab, or remember to right click on a new file to ‘open in new tab’ without actually selecting the file. I can’t simply browse through the file list without changing the currently selected tab. So a few suggestions:
an entry in the window menu for ‘new tab’, with a keyboard shortcut. Would make it easier to open a new tab for people used to tabs in browsers
this is less likely, but how about an option to pin tabs (individually or all) so they’re not changed by clicking on a file in the file pane (but back and forward still works)
alternatively, allow the option to open a selection of files in a new window, in tabs (bit extreme)
I’m pretty new to DT, so please let me know if these are silly requests…
I too find the tab interface unintuitive.
I like having several documents open; it seems to me that there ought to be a way to click something and get a fresh tab where I could open another document.
When I click “Open in tabs…” nothing happens. Instead I have to select two documents that are located next to each other, ask DT to ‘open in tabs’ and then use one of those tabs to find the doc I want. This seems less elegant than it ought to be. In MacJournal, for example, there is a button: New Tab, which opens a new tab automatically.
If I am missing something, I hope that someone will point it out to me! I have toyed around with this for a long time and still haven’t found a simple way to do this. I use DT every day; as wonderful as it is, there are still a few little things that bug me - this is one.
Exactly! If tab behaviour in DT could be modelled more closely on browser tabs it’d also be far easier for people new users to understand. Totalfinder (though I realise it actually uses code from browsers, so is a rather different case) does this really well.
+1 for simply copying the default tabs and tab behavior that OS/X uses in Safari. Everybody on a Mac will understand it, nothing will be confusing or strange-seeming.
Any possibility of these suggested improvements to tabs being implemented? Though they’re quite small, I imagine they’d provide a big improvement for a lot of users.
Even just a keyboard shortcut to create new tab, and a tab list to quickly find tabs when many are open would be a great help; its fiddly having to select two files just to get a new tab, and similarly to have to find the small ‘+’ sign to add more.
I noticed there is some old notes talking about Tab behaviors. However some of them has not been addressed.
I do think the Tab interface is important especially when opening a lot of files. I have one thing to add,
Whether it is possible that I can open a new file in an existed window and attach that as a tab in that? I know there is “attach tab” and “detach tab” scripts, however, I believe if it is more convenient that if this function can be implemented so that one could simply double click the file and have that tab attaching function.
just adding my two cents, I believe tabs would work much more intuitively if the tab was elevated to be above the file list and include both the current file list as well as the selected file. this would do away with some of the issues described in this thread (and my personal usability issues with tabs as well).