Sublime Forum

Side Bar vs Tabs

#1

Do you prefer to see open files in the side bar, or use tabs?

    • I use the Open Files section of the side bar only
    • I use tabs only
    • I use both
    • I use neither

0 voters

Dev Build 2120 has changed so that the open files are hidden by default in the side bar. I made this change because I get the impression that people mostly just use the tabs, and it provides a more common interface. I’d like to get a feel for it my hunch is correct or not.

FWIW I personally turn the tabs off, as I tend to work with a lot of open files, and the side bar is better for managing that.

Edit: Added 4th option by request

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#2

I personally tend to use both. I prefer using tabs, but when I hit ~30+ tabs, I also use the sidebar a lot.
But, since I only really use the sidebar when I have too many tabs open, does it make sense to alphabetize the sidebar? I mean, I understand what they are sorted the same way as tabs, that makes sense too. But I was also just thinking if I already don’t really have a good clue how my tabs are ordered cuz so damn many are open, then why not sort them alphabetically in the sidebar?

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#3

Sidebar is more compact and can contain more items, so I keep tabs hidden. Tabs are redundant actually, cause the sidebar and tabs display the same list of open files.

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#4

There should be another option in the poll, I think:
I use neither tabs nor the sidebar—I use only goto anything (and cmd+option+up). I used to use just the sidebar, for the same reason that Jon does (i.e. the fact that I never close files so tab titles are unreadable) but I realized over time that I never actually looked at the sidebar, and only ever used goto anything to open a file. Eventually I just turned the sidebar off.

I save files all the time, so for me there’s no functional difference between a file being open and being closed, save for the undo history. (I wouldn’t say no to a persistent undo history though! :stuck_out_tongue: )

That said, there are two reasons I turn on tabs (both of which are things that could be fixed):
• I turn on tabs when I use a multi-row layout, because otherwise there’s no border between the sections (I’m using soda theme—haven’t tried with the normal theme).
• I turn on tabs in order to pull a view out of the window, because you can’t pull the sidebar items out into a new window. :frowning: I don’t think there’s a key combo either.

One other thing that would be totally sweet: If I just have one folder open in an unsaved project (i.e. I "subl ."ed something) could the folder name be displayed where the project name is? This would give me yet another reason to be able to leave the sidebar off.

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#5

Shoot… turns out editing the poll resets the votes :frowning:

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#6

Same here…
It’s the only things that actually prevent me to only use side bar.
A border in multi-row layout would be great.

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#7

I actually use Go To File/Anything a lot more than either the sidebar or tabs.

If I know I’m in the right place, I’ll use tabs. If Go To Anything wont pick up a file in my project (happens a lot) then I’ll use the sidebar to navigate. Open Files is shown, so I can see quickly at a glance, but to me, I always get a feeling that they wont take me to files, even though I know they will.

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#8

I use tabs 99% of the time, but every once in a while show the side bar to see which folders are associated with the project. I rarely expand the project folders - ctrl+p is way better for opening files from the project.

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#9

[quote=“bizoo”]

Same here…
It’s the only things that actually prevent me to only use side bar.
A border in multi-row layout would be great.[/quote]

Same here as well, a border between the panes would be really nice, it’s something that i’ve wanted for quite some time going back to v1 even.

On the issue of tabs vs sidebar. Initially I didn’t really like the sidebar and used tabs mostly, but over time I’ve grown to love the sidebar and use it pretty much exclusively now. I think it’s just a bit weird at first, but once you start using it, it’s a more elegant solution than tabs. I also sort of miss the single key shortcut to show/hide it because I do that a lot, and yeah I just haven’t mapped a key to do that yet.

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#10

I do like the sidebar+open files facility, but I tend to leave the sidebar hidden for screen real-estate reasons. I find it fiddly to switch the sidebar just to see what else I have open, and do a lot of back-and-forth file switching between adjacent tabs with a fast shortcut. So, I pretty much use everything for something. I only ever go without tabs in distraction-free (and should really use go-anywhere more so I don’t have to leave it as much).

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