Add support for vertical tabs

[santiagopuentep]

Add a big boost in developer productivity by adding support for vertical tabs for files. This is a basic feature in most browsers and is requested by many users.

Tabs are one of the most used features in VSCode in my opinion and improving them has a direct and strong impact in productivity. It would allow for many more tabs to be opened at the same time, without having to scroll them all the time, and could open up possibilities like grouping or archiving in the future.

Duplicates of this issue (that were closed for some reason) have 57 upvotes combined:

25 upvotes: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/75749 28 upvotes: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/85527 4 upvotes: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/65193

The following extension has almost 10,000 installs, but it requires a hack to work (I couldn't do it):

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=pzuraq.vertical-tab-bar

[Slion]

The Explorer side Panel has an Open Editors section which is basically vertical tabs.

[TannerPlauche]

* Change the .vscode/settings.json
* Select View > Appearance > Secondary Side Bar
* Use the Command Pallette (Ctrl + Shift + P) to "Focus on Open Editors View" to get the view to appear in the Primary Side bar
* Drag that view into the Secondary Side Bar.

Thanks. This gave me the closest vscode experience to what I want. I also agree that this feature should be implemented. My whole team uses vscode, so I use it out of convenience and team-continuity. This aesthetic feature would make navigating open files much easier.

[JeremyTBradshaw]

Yes please to vertical tabs!

[Davidos533]

We need it, when opened very many tabs, left side tabs position is comfortable!

[goulashsoup]

4 years open, and no progress...

[alanxp]

4 years open, and no progress...

And they wont do it..

They think that they already added vertical tabs since they have like recent tabs on vertical, but they dont understand that if we make a group of tabs in another window within the same proyect, we wont have the vertical tabs that window.

Thats the problem, that they dont really understand the need of vertical tabs.

I hope they do, it would be an awesome feature and a must have

[ofek]

This feature is a critical accessibility concern for me. I have a severe neuromuscular disorder (SMA) and all I can use is a mouse. Using the mouse is quite strenuous so I try to rely on key bindings on my on-screen keyboard where I can to avoid having to move the mouse a lot. With many horizontal tabs I have no choice but to cycle through them sequentially to target the one I want, having to maintain a mental model of a long list. Here's an example (turn sound on):

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/26b3286a-1d2d-4472-a586-e542e669833a

With vertical tabs there is much less of a cognitive burden because one is able to see the most proximate 30-40 tabs rather than only ~10 or less. Additionally, I can not only cycle through them more efficiently but I can target them more easily with voice commands to move the mouse to specific areas on the screen or even use AI that is able to see what I see.

The proposed workaround to use the Open Editors view in lieu of tabs is insufficient for the following reasons:

1. Visually they are not tabs but rather a simple list of files plus a very small icon, this causes eyestrain just as much as having to quickly cycle through dozens of tabs sequentially (luckily I don't have epilepsy)
2. Files with the same base name don't expand to include more of the path so there are duplicate entries without context until you go to it
3. The list of files is global rather than per editor as one would expect to reduce clutter and have logical groupings
4. The default location is underneath the file explorer which means it competes for visual space with the contents of the directory/repository
5. In order to get more visual space you have to enable the secondary side bar and drag the editors over there (remember moving around the screen is difficult let alone clicking while doing so)
6. If you do utilize the secondary side bar there is no way to move that between the file explorer and the editors so you have to look at the directory structure on one side and "tabs" on the other

[rrmistry]

I wanted to update this thread regarding vertical tabs implementation. After discussing this feature with the Theia IDE community (https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/discussions/13974), I've submitted a formal feature request in their repository: https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/issues/13979

Given Theia's high level of API compatibility with VS Code, I'm seriously considering switching to Theia if they implement vertical tabs. I believe many developers here might feel the same way.

If you're as eager for vertical tabs as I am, I encourage you to show your support by upvoting the Theia issue. A strong show of interest could accelerate the feature's development and potentially influence other IDEs (including VS Code) to reconsider its implementation.

This could be a significant step forward for those of us who've been advocating for vertical tabs. Let's show there's real demand for this feature across the developer community.

Thank you for your continued interest and support on this issue!

[ardeal]

how about this feature? is it implemented in the latest vscode? :)

I have been waiting for this feature for around 2 years: Move editor tab of vscode to left side

[teub]

@vscode-triage-bot vscode-triage-bot assigned bpasero on Oct 7, 2020 @bpasero bpasero added feature-request workbench-tabs labels on Oct 8, 2020 @bpasero bpasero removed their assignment on Oct 8, 2020

=> maybe the reason why there is no development on this issue despite the massive user demand is that it is unassigned ?