pin tab and tab icons

[unel]

I would like to be able to pin tabs. And that they can be distinguished, output (optionally) icon based on file type

[mkrishtopa]

+1

upd in 2016: it was so long time ago, I migrated to Atom and forgot about ST, but this feature is still in open state, lol :-D

[craigcoles]

+2 :raised_hands:

[versedi]

+1

[danyim]

+1

[devstuff]

+1

[djfrsn]

+3.14

[craigcoles]

@djfrsn I see what you did there :smirk:

[fewfre]

+1

[FichteFoll]

Please use Github's reactions instead of "+1"ing posts. Thank you.

[whileLooper]

lol~~ ppl just like the old fashion @FichteFoll

[FichteFoll]

@whileLooper if they prefer to have their comments deleted and their voice not heard, fine by me.

[nleo]

Describe my use case

I use TODO plugin for Sublime and open file with my project TODO and want to pin it like FF tab so this tab be first and take little space and I can access it time to time.

[silverwind]

Some info about functionality from my other issue below.

---

Firefox has a method to pin (and unpin) certain tabs. Pinning a tab

• prevents keyboard shortcuts from closing the tab
• reduces the tab's width to just a icon (Maybe use a simple pin icon in Sublime's case)

I could see this helping one from accidentially closing tabs as well as save some horizontal screen space on the tab bar. I'm used to press and hold CMD+W to clean up my workspace, and having it stop at or, even better skip pinned tabs would surely be helpful.

[webzorg]

WTH, it's 2018, Come on...

[rdeodoo]

WTH, it's 2018, Come on...

Now it is 2019, still no icon based on file type on tabs. I'd like to move from Atom to Sublime, that's just the missing feature keeping me from doing it :cry: .

[xxKeith20xx]

hello from the year 2019 - no results here either https://packagecontrol.io/search/pin%20tab

[wbond]

+1 comments and "can't believe it is {year} and this isn't implemented" aren't really helpful. Helping the development team understand what you would like and how you see it working would be more productive in terms of deciding if this is something we want to implement, and if so what priority it should have.

If you'd like to see this, perhaps propose some details, such as:

• How would pinning work, what does it mean?
• Can you close a pinned tab like normally, or do you have to use an alternate method?
• Would a warning be presented if you tried to close a pinned tab?
• How would pinned tabs and tab scrolling work?
• What if you have 30 tabs open and a pinned tab?
• Should pinned tabs always be first in the tab header?
• What type of icon are you looking for?
• Should the icon be based on the file type, or custom icons?
• What is the purpose of adding an icon to the tab?
• Can you provide a screenshot of a mockup of what you think the icon should look like?

[gkiely]

• How would pinning work, what does it mean? Same as chrome, right click -> pin and unpin. Ideally with the ability to map a shortcut to it to pin and unpin.
• Can you close a pinned tab like normally, or do you have to use an alternate method? Right click -> close, or cmd+w.
• Would a warning be presented if you tried to close a pinned tab? No
• How would pinned tabs and tab scrolling work? If this is just left right scrolling, same as normal.
• What if you have 30 tabs open and a pinned tab? Pinned tab is at the left
• Should pinned tabs always be first in the tab header? Yes
• What type of icon are you looking for? First letter or filetype
• Should the icon be based on the file type, or custom icons? File type
• What is the purpose of adding an icon to the tab? In chrome it's to identify the website, in sublime I would say to identify the file/file type.
• Can you provide a screenshot of a mockup of what you think the icon should look like? No

[wbond]

@gkiely

Same as chrome, right click -> pin and unpin. Ideally with the ability to map a shortcut to it to pin and unpin.

So Chrome is really different than Sublime Text, and so it isn't clear to me how the "pinned tab" paradigm translates. Chrome doesn't save your tabs by default when you exit, whereas Sublime Text does.

Rather than just saying "make it work like this different program", I'd be more interested in specific ideas of how it would work in the context of Sublime Text.

Right click -> close, or cmd+w.

Hmm, so this sounds like a normal tab. What makes it "pinned" if it closes just as a normal tab does?

In chrome it's to identify the website, in sublime I would say to identify the file/file type.

This seems like a weak argument. The filename is right there. In Chrome you have a page title, and often times that begins with something other than the name of the site, so a favicon helps.

Let's imagine the default icon set with a source icon, markup icon, text icon, other icon, image icon. The fact that the first file is a source file seems less helpful that what source file it is.

---

Based on your responses, I still don't really have an idea of what a "pinned tab" would mean to you, functionality wise. It sounds pretty much like a regular tab, but "pinned." Is it that it is always kept as the left-most tab until it is closed?

The other thing that would be useful to understand is, what do you want to accomplish with a pinned tab? What would you say one or two uses of pinned tabs would be? I'm not referring to "being able to pin a tab." I want to know why you want to pin the tab. What does/would it do in your workflow?

---

Gathering this sort of response from various users can hopefully help formulate what people see pinned tabs doing or accomplishing.

[silverwind]

How would pinning work, what does it mean?

Reduce a tab to just a icon and prevent it from being accidentially closed.

Can you close a pinned tab like normally, or do you have to use an alternate method?

Right-Click -> "Close" should definitely work, other methods probably not (CTRL-W, Middle-Click).

Would a warning be presented if you tried to close a pinned tab?

No, just don't close it.

How would pinned tabs and tab scrolling work?

Not sure what tab scrolling refers to but my intuition says it should act like a normal tab.

What if you have 30 tabs open and a pinned tab?

Pinned tabs should probably always stay in the viewport.

Should pinned tabs always be first in the tab header?

Yes.

What type of icon are you looking for?

File type icon, same as in sidebar.

Should the icon be based on the file type, or custom icons?

File type.

What is the purpose of adding an icon to the tab?

Making the tab as slim as possible.

Can you provide a screenshot of a mockup of what you think the icon should look like?

Should just map to the icon in the sidebar. If extensions like https://packagecontrol.io/packages/A%20File%20Icon are installed, source icon from there if possible.

[wbond]

@silverwind

It seems your intent is to make the tab small. What sort of workflow are you envisioning using this with?

Using a file type icon probably wouldn't present much info at all, unless you have a really tiny project. I mean, I understand why Chrome does that, since almost every site has a unique favicon, but that would not be the case with file type icons.

[silverwind]

I do keep a "notepad" style tab which I use for things like todo lists or pasting snippets and such and it would be quite useful to have it quickly reachable without it taking up the space of a full tab or the danger of accidential closing via CTRL-W (I like to hold down CTRL-W to close all tabs).

[wbond]

@silverwind Okay, thanks for the info!

[webzorg]

If there's a confusion about definition of pinned tabs, I'd say there are three core aspects to it.

• smaller tab(header) size
• pin to left (ctrl+shift+page-up/down won't move it) and as @silverwind mentioned ctrl+w wouldn't close it either
• use file extension symbol as a favicon

I think most people would agree with this definition

[xxKeith20xx]

I use a tab for a todo.md file as well that I always keep in the far left. Another good use for a pinned tab would be for the find results page. The placement of that tab feels unpredictable when you are in a large number of files.

[brendenl]

@wbond I appreciate your responding, and I agree +1 and sarcastic comments aren't helpful.

For me the biggest reason I want this is because I go through a lot of files throughout a day and I have reference files I'd like to be quick and easy to access, but because files are opened just right of the open tab, it really scatters things around.

• How would pinning work, what does it mean? Pinned tabs lose their x button, slim down and show only file name ( and type if you want )
• Can you close a pinned tab like normally, or do you have to use an alternate method? No x button to close, right-click close works, unpinning and closing, probably wouldn't want ctrl+w to close it in case someones spamming closed unneeded files.
• Would a warning be presented if you tried to close a pinned tab? I don't mind either way.
• How would pinned tabs and tab scrolling work? They'd scroll like normal. I would actually prefer not to have them always in the viewport. I'd like them treated as any other tab, just far left and not with new tabs being placed between them.
• What if you have 30 tabs open and a pinned tab? Pinned tab will be far left.
• Should pinned tabs always be first in the tab header? Yes!
• What type of icon are you looking for? I think if people want to be able to assign icons that's fine, but I think filename will do.
• Should the icon be based on the file type, or custom icons? ability for both would be cool
• What is the purpose of adding an icon to the tab? Distinguish against others? I'm not sure, I don't think they'd help me.
• Can you provide a screenshot of a mockup of what you think the icon should look like?

[arcturus140]

I would like to pin tabs that are of important reference. I want to quickly access them but I do not want to focus on them. Pinned tabs absolutely must be on the right side for me!

My focus is on the left side. The reason for this is that I am reading text from left to right.

[reuben]

Another crucial aspect of pinned tabs is the ease of switching to them. The fact that they're pinned to the left side of the tab bar means that I can always press Cmd+1 to go to my first pinned tab, and Cmd+2 to go to my second pinned tab, etc., since opening new files/tabs will not place them to the left of pinned tabs, or in between them.

The right side does not have equivalent shortcuts for getting to the last tab, or second to last tab, so it makes pinned tabs less useful.

[thorn]

I have a couple of use cases considering tab pinning.

Pinning important tabs

I have a lot of tabs opened (say, 10+) and there are only 2 or 3 that are important so I want to close all other tabs except said 2 or 3 tabs.

What I do now

• Move them one by one using a mouse to the far-left
• Right-click on the rightmost important tab and choose "Close Tabs to the Right"

What I want to be able to do

• Right-click on every important tab and choose "Pin Tab"
• Right-click on any non-important tab and choose "Close Other Tabs"

Why I think this is a better approach

• Moving tabs around with the mouse is a bit slow and error-prone in cases when I drag a wider tab over shorter ones.
• Being able to pin tabs using a quick command menu and having the "Close Other Tabs" command available there may eliminate completely the need to use a mouse.

A quick accessible To-do tab

Having a todo-like tab on the far left that doesn't take a lot of space.

What I do now

• Open a new window with the Todo tab

What I want to be able to do

• Have a tab that doesn't take a lot of screen width and not as easy closable.

Why I think this is a better approach

• Having a small quick accessible tab (CMD + 1) allows not having a separate window opened.

[keith-hall]

@thorn https://packagecontrol.io/packages/MoveTab may help in the interim before pinned tabs are implemented natively, at least with the points you raised regarding moving tabs to the left most position

[arcturus140]

I now have second thoughts about pinned tabs. I don't think a tab with a favicon is going to help me navigate or organize my tabs better.

I cannot handle more than 40 Tabs on SublimeText. I adjusted my workflow accordingly, because I have to close my tabs if I have more open than I can handle. I think this is to the better, if I wouldn't need to do that I would probably work less efficiently.

When the number of open tabs has increased to the point it can no longer be managed I close all other tabs, leaving only one open. This means I'd have to reopen one or two very soon after but it is better than going through 40 Tabs to think whether I need them or not.

I don't care if I am missing a file, if it is not open I simply GoTo Anything... GoTo Anything is also perfect for your todo list or project documentation.

I don't bother reading the filename or where the tab is placed, which colour it has or how wide it is. I am quickly cycling through open files using key bindings. I am only looking at the minimap. By that I can immediately tell which file it is. I even know what it looks like before seeing it. Intuitively, my gut feeling tells me this is the right one. It is very fast.

I don't say this couldn't be improved but I am not convinced there might not be better solutions.

[reformat0r]

Is it still (in version 4 of Sublime now) not possible to add icons to tabs? Working with different programming-languages I find navigating the tabs without icons pretty uncomfortable.

[FichteFoll]

No, this has not been added.

[ChrisWeiser]

@wbond are you still a maintainer of this project? Are the requirements put forth by @gkiely , @silverwind , and @thorn clear enough to create an issue in your tracking system? If not, what other information would you find helpful?

[wbond]

I wasn't ever a maintainer (that term is typically used with open source projects), but from 2016 until April 2021 I worked for Sublime HQ. I am no longer working for the company, although I am still community member, and still maintain Package Control.

[mixu]

Just another data point in favor of having this feature - it seemed useful enough that VSCode did add the ability to pin tabs in 2020: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_46#_pin-tabs

[dkzeanah]

This might be the sole feature missing making me switch to VSCode which is highly unprefferred to the majority impliments of sublime text. If sublime text remembers files on close and re-open, it has indication of an 'elevated-file' as is, is making it remain to the left most spot and visually uncondensable in the case of 100+ tabs open. (arbitrary theoretical many, See: YoU shouldnt haVe thAT many Open.)

Some mechanisms I can think of is a secondary 'tab-bar' that renders in the main text window (unlike a split screen would act). Again, considering this is almost done/ a version of this IS - already in the 'sidebar'. Sidebar is a treeview and beyond the scope of a pin-tab use-wise - but a selectorization of a file from a secondary menu to appear in the main text window - from a "2nd- tab-bar-section" or of similar nature. I can only assume the majority developers could actualize a labor-projection of what would be involved in making this happen. I understand it's easy to say 'we want it!', but I can't help but also see in a sense - it might not be all-to-difficult giving some prior contextual knowledge of sublimetext.

[platypusguy]

Don't need to make it complex for a first roll out. Just let me click on a tab to pin it so that it's always open. I have several tabs with reference info that I want to always have open. Given how many people have asked for this on this thread and on others that point to this one, I hope it will be a high priority for you guys. Thanks a lot!