XYplorer Beta Club
I would like to request an option for the user to instantiate Tab Groups in the interface. By default, this would not be enabled, but the user could enable it. The Tab Groups would be a second navigation row containing named items which would be collections of tabs. Each Tab Group, like the tabs themselves, could be dragged between panes. Tabs could be dragged between tab groups.
At first, this request may sound superfluous. Please bear with me.
I thoroughly enjoy using the Session Manager script, which works very well for maintaining work "sessions" or "environments."
However, a significant limitation of this approach is that the various contexts of work aren't visible; you have to open a menu and work with separate dialogues to see and manage the other sessions you may want to interact with. Basically, the sessions are "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" until you look at your session list.
Now, imagine that in the row above normal tabs, you have another row which contains named groupings of the tabs. Here is an example of a particular set of tab groups and tabs:
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Group: Fruit
Tabs:
-Cherry
-Apple
-Orange
Group: Vegetables
Tabs:
-Cucumber
-Squash
Group: Important Reports
Tabs:
-Quarterly Reports
-Weekly Estimates
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Why is this useful?
1. Easier organization/navigation: As the number of tabs in a pane grows into a long list, the user has to either scroll back and forth or use a long drop-down menu, and in either case the tabs can't be logically grouped except by linear order. If tab groups existed, the user can easily and quickly jump back and forth into topical groupings of tabs.
2. Bird's-eye view/reminders of all items to be addressed: Instead of having to jump back-and-forth in a session menu, the user can set things up to see, at-a-glance, all the folders needing to be dealt with for the day/week/etc. While some users wouldn't necessarily appreciate this, other users strongly prefer to have a complete visual overview, which this would afford. It allows the user to create a "complete" work context in one view instead of having to navigate to find the complete picture.
3. Simplify and replace need for tabsets/sessions for many users: Using a few tab groups, a user might be able to set up all the locations they need to access, removing the need for complication through a combination of catalog/tabsets/sessions. Let's say a user has 30 locations she commonly uses. In current panes, having all 30 open results in a lengthy list of tabs in each pane and unwieldy navigation. But if the user grouped the 30 locations into roughly 5 groups of roughly 6 tabs each, then everything could be comfortably represented on-screen at once. The tabs could remain open and the user could simply navigate the groups to find the tabs desired.
You might say, "Just use Tabsets. They do what you're talking about." But not really - because you still have to drive through menus and change contexts. Even if you're using hotkeys or some other method, you're having to remember in your mind the off-screen things you need to access. What I'm proposing allows the user to configure a larger, more organized set of items on-screen simultaneously, for quick navigation and administration. Items are visually available at a glance, instead of accessed through menus.
Having used "Tab Group" features in a number of other contexts, I have found it to be an important, even essential, productivity booster. I believe this would provide a major leap in simplicity and usability for a number of users.