User Guide

Introduction
Installation
Tab management
General options
Style
Tab grouping
Add-ins
Commands
Uninstallation

Introduction

Tabs Studio is a Microsoft Visual Studio IDE add-in that replaces the built-in window tabs bar with a more advanced one.

Main additional features of the Tabs Studio tabs are multi-row support (making all tabs always visible) and automatic tab grouping (to preserve screen space and to keep relevant tabs close to each other).

Installation

Tabs Studio add-in supports Visual Studio 2005 Standard, Professional and Team Suite editions with .NET 3.0 installed; Visual Studio 2008 Standard, Professional and Team System editions; Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Premium and Ultimate. Tabs Studio supports SQL Server Management Studio 2005, 2008, 2008 Express, 2008 R2, 2008 R2 Express. Windows 7, Vista and XP are supported.

Tabs Studio msi installer runs for the current user and installs Tabs Studio add-in for all supported Visual Studio and SSMS versions that are present on the computer. Installation doesn't require admin rights or elevation. If Tabs Studio is installed to the Documents folder on a network share, set the FullTrust CAS policy for the network Addins directory for VS 2008 and enable the loadFromRemoteSources switch in devenv.exe.config for VS 2010. To install a new version of Tabs Studio over the current one just run the new installer (there is no need to uninstall an older version manually).

When installation ends, start Visual Studio and new Tabs Studio tabs should replace the built-in Visual Studio tabs bar.

Tab management

Single tab can represent single or multiple Visual Studio windows. Left click on an extension in a tab group to switch to the window with highlighted extension. Middle click on a tab or on an extension in a tab group to close the associated window. Right click to open context menu.

Drag tab with mouse to change tab position relative to other tabs. To place moving tab after another tab, drop it on the right half of the target tab. To place moving tab before another tab, drop it on the left half of the target tab.

General options

Tab name can contain a path to a file when working on ASP.NET web projects: Path in a tab name . When Remove path from tab name option is checked - path is removed: Path in a tab name removed .

Instead of the standard tabs position at the top of a code window, the Show tabs in a separate window option moves tabs to a separate Visual Studio tool window that you can resize and position any way you like. TabsStudio.Connect.ShowTabsWindow command makes this tool window visible in case it was closed.

Three tabs layouts are available. Wrap layout retains original tab width and doesn’t try to distribute tabs between rows evenly. Stack layout places tabs in a single vertical stack and should be useful when having a separate tabs window on a side of a code window.

Style

Style allows you to customize visual representation of tabs. For example, following style changes tabs font family to Consolas and increases tabs font size to 12 points:

<Style TargetType="TabsStudio:Tabs" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultTabsStyle}">
    <Setter Property="Control.FontFamily" Value="Consolas"/>
    <Setter Property="Control.FontSize" Value="12pt"/>
</Style>

See dedicated Style page for more information.

Tab grouping

By default tabs with the same name and from the same folder are grouped together. You can additionally group tabs by extension or by name prefix. You can allow tabs from different folders to group together. See dedicated Tab grouping page for more information.

Add-ins

Custom .NET add-ins can be developed for Tabs Studio using Tabs Studio extensibility infrastructure. See dedicated Add-ins page for more information.

Commands

To access Tabs Studio functions using customizable keyboard shortcuts, toolbar buttons and menu items, following Visual Studio commands are available:

Full command name	Toolbar button text	Command
TabsStudio.Connect.About	About Tabs Studio	Open the Tabs Studio About dialog
TabsStudio.Connect.Options	Tabs Studio Options	Open the Tabs Studio Options dialog
TabsStudio.Connect.Addins	Tabs Studio Add-in Manager	Open the Tabs Studio Add-in Manager dialog
TabsStudio.Connect.CloseTab	Close Tab	Close Selected Tab
TabsStudio.Connect.NextTabExtension	Next Tab Extension	Activate Next Extension in Selected Tab
TabsStudio.Connect.PreviousTabExtension	Previous Tab Extension	Activate Previous Extension in Selected Tab
TabsStudio.Connect.PreviouslySelectedTab	Previously Selected Tab	Activate Previously Selected Tab
TabsStudio.Connect.OpenCorrespondingFile	Open Corresponding File	Open Related File with the Same Name
TabsStudio.Connect.DetachTabGroup	Detach Tab Group	Create Floating Window for Selected Tab Group
TabsStudio.Connect.ShowTabsWindow	Tabs Window	Show Separate Tabs Window

Uninstallation

To temporarily disable Tabs Studio add-in go to Tools - Add-in Manager in Visual Studio and uncheck the Tabs Studio entry:

To disable Tabs Studio add-in in SQL Server Management Studio 2008 set HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\Addins\TabsStudio.Connect\LoadBehavior to 0. For SSMS 2005 the key is HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\Addins\TabsStudio.Connect\LoadBehavior.

To delete Tabs Studio toolbar in SQL Server Management Studio go to the Tools menu - Customize - select Tabs Studio toolbar - Delete.

To completely uninstall Tabs Studio add-in go to standard Programs and Features Control Panel applet:

Control Panel Programs and Features with Tabs Studio Installed