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2021.2
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  3. Editor tabs

Editor tabs

Last modified: 13 September 2021

Every time you open a file in the editor, a dedicated tab is added to the editor frame, with a label displaying the filename.

tip

If VCS integration is enabled, filenames in editor tabs are highlighted according to VCS file status colors.

Manage editor tabs

  • Use commands in Window | Editor Tabs menu.

  • Right-click a tab and use its context menu.

  • Click a tab label with the middle mouse button or click Close on the tab label to close the tab.

  • Alt-click Close on the tab label to close all other tabs except the pinned ones.

  • Use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+F4 to close the active tab, Alt+Right/Alt+Left to switch to the next or previous tab.

Open files in the preview tab

The preview tab allows you to view files in a single tab one by one without opening each file in a new tab. This is helpful if you need to look through several files without exceeding the tab limit.

  1. In the Project tool window Alt+1, click the Show Options Menu button and select the Enable Preview Tab option.

    You can also enable the preview tab in Settings/Preferences | General | Editor Tabs | Opening Policy.

  2. In the Project tool window, select a file that is not already open in any other tab.

    The name of the file is written in italic to indicate the preview mode. Any other file that you select will replace the previous one in the preview tab.

    Start editing the file to exit the preview mode and change it to a regular tab.

    Note that when the preview tab is enabled, the Open Files with Single Click option is ignored. Double-click a file to open it in a regular tab.

tip

You can extend the editor area to the whole size of the IDE window by temporarily hiding all tool windows — press Ctrl+Shift+F12 or double-click the current editor tab.

Change the maximum number of open files

MPS limits the number of files that you can simultaneously open in the editor. When the number of open files reaches the limit, the editor closes the less recent tabs (unless they are pinned) according to the tab closing policy, which is defined in the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S By default, the maximum number of open files is limited to 10, but you can change it if necessary.

Change position of tab labels or disable tabs altogether

By default, the tab labels appear at the top of the editor, but you can change their placement as required, and have tab labels at the bottom, left, or right sides of the editor. You can also disable editor tab altogether so that the entire editor frame is dedicated to a single document, and each new document you open replaces the previous one. Note that the tab label placement is a global setting that applies to all projects.

tip

If you choose to set a small limit for open tabs or disable tabs, use the View | Recent files Ctrl+E command to quickly switch between files that you are working on.

Navigate editor tabs

You can jump from one tab to another as your editing session requires. While you move between the editor tabs, MPS remembers the caret position within each opened file.

Navigate open editor tabs

  • Right-click the current editor tab and choose Select Next/Previous Tab from the context menu.

  • Press Alt+Right or Alt+Left to move the focus to the editor tab located next to the right or to the left from the active editor tab.

  • Press Ctrl+Tab to use the Switcher. While holding down Ctrl, you can use Tab or Shift+Tab to pick the desired editor tab in the right-hand part of the popup:

Go back and forth through the history of visited tabs

  • On the main toolbar, click Icons actions back or Icons actions forward.

  • Choose Navigate | Back / Forward from the main menu.

  • Press Ctrl+Alt+Left or Ctrl+Alt+Right.

  • Press Ctrl+E or N/A to navigate to the recently veiwed or edited files.

  • On a macOS computer, you can use the three-finger right-to-left and left-to-right swipe gestures.

If too many tabs are opened and shown in a single row, the less recent tabs are hidden.

View hidden editor tabs and select the active editor

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Choose Window | Editor Tabs | Show Hidden Tabs from the main menu.

    • Click Icons general more tabs in the upper right corner of the editor area.

  2. Click the name of the desired document:

    View all tabs

The command Show All Tabs and the icon Icons general more tabs are only available when:

  • The Show tabs in single row checkbox is selected in the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

  • Some of the opened tabs are not visible because they do not fit in the editor window.

Pin and unpin tabs

When the specified tab limit is reached, MPS will close old tabs when you open new documents. To prevent a tab from being closed automatically, you can pin this tab.

To pin or unpin a tab, right-click it and choose Pin Tab or Unpin Tab from the context menu.

When a tab is pinned, there is a special marker on it, which you can click to unpin the tab.

You can also pin and unpin tabs by dragging and dropping them over other pinned or unpinned tabs.

If you tend to open a lot of tabs, you can keep all your pinned tabs in one row. To do so, select Show pinned tabs in a separate row on the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

When some tabs are pinned, you can leave only them and close all unpinned tabs — right-click any editor tab and choose Close All but Pinned from the context menu.

Split editor window

You can split the editor window into as many panes as required, each one containing multiple tabs. A single file can be open in several split panes. For example, you can scroll through a part of a file having another part of the file in view in another pane.

You can split the editor by dragging and dropping a tab to the side of the main editor window. Pinned tabs are always displayed on the left-hand side of the tab bar.

https://resources.jetbrains.com/help/img/idea/2021.2/tabmanagement.png
Gif

Another option is to choose any file in the Solution Explorer and open it in the right split, so that the currently opened document also stays visible. To do so, press Shift+Enter when the desired file is focused in the Solution Explorer or right-click it and choose Edit | Edit 'file' in Right Split from the context menu.

Split tabs using menu commands

  1. Switch to the desired editor tab and right-click it.

  2. To split an editor tab and create another tab for the document, choose Split Vertically or Split Horizontally from the context menu.

  3. To create a new tab group and move an editor tab to this group without creating another tab for the document, choose Split and Move Right or Split and Move Down from the context menu.

  4. To change the splitter orientation, choose Change Splitter Orientation from the context menu.

  5. To move the splitter providing more or less space for one of the tabs, set the caret in this tab and choose Window | Editor Tabs | Stretch Editor to Top/Left/Bottom/Right from the menu.

  6. To switch focus between split tabs, choose Window | Editor Tabs | Goto Next/Previous Splitter from the menu.

  7. To remove the splitter, choose one of the following commands from the context menu:

    • To remove splitting in the active tab, choose Unsplit.

    • To remove splitting in all the open editor tabs, choose Unsplit All.

tip

Most of the actions for managing split tabs do not have default shortcuts, but you can assign your own shortcuts to any of these actions.

Open editor tabs in separate windows

You can detach editor tabs from the main editor area, and move them to separate windows. The detached editor tabs can be split or unsplit, and you can drag editor tabs between windows.

Arrange tabs in the alphabetical order

To have editor tabs always arranged in the alphabetical order, select Sort tabs alphabetically on the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

When this option is enabled, you will not be able to drag and drop tabs within the same tab group.