Locking tabs

EdM · Post by **EdM** » 2006 Feb 02, 22:43

Have you considered building in an option to lock selected tabs so their folder location can't be changed? I think tabs would serve as a good bookmarking system, but I sometimes go to other folders within the active tab, thus changing that tab location to the last visited folder. It would be helpful to lock or freeze a given tab so that it can't be changed, or so that it somehow returns to the originally displayed folder when it was locked, whenever I switch tabs or panes.

If you understand my intent, is there a better way to acheive the same thing, apart from bookmarks?

Thanks,
Ed

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 03, 00:11

I had requested this feature the day tabs were first introduced in Xplorer2. I guess it never made it to the Nikos todo list

EdM, you have my full support for this request.

Xplorer2 lock tab behavior should be similar to locked tabs in Maxthon or Firefox (with Tab mix plugin). So if a user tries to open a folder in a locked tab it should open in a new tab in the same pane. You can make it funky if Alt modifier is used. In this case you may open the folder in a new tab in the opposite pane.

This feature will be useful where you have a parent folder containing various sub folders and you want to open all the subfolder in different tabs. E.g. I have a download folder with various subfolders like pics, movies, mp3s, TV shows etc. If I could just go inside download folder and lock it, I can easily open all the subfolders in new tabs by simply double clicking on them in the locked tab. This behavior is similar to how (Ctrl + Ins) work, but it activates the new tab and is bit cumbersome.

It would be great to have this activating behavior of newly open tab optional like Maxthon. If it not set you'll stay in download folder (the locked tab), otherwise xplorer2 will automatically switch to the newly open tab. Activation type could be toggled from menu or a toolbar button.

Post by **nikos** » 2006 Feb 03, 07:55

i'm not sure what you are after but have you tried ctrl+alt+ins?

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2006 Feb 03, 08:21

No I think they are asking for some tabs with permanent address. Like keeping some panes open with a fixed folder in each.

You can close the tab(s), and reload it(them) using shortcut to the folder group or a single tab.

But when opened, you can't load anything else in it.

A slight variation from our bookmark concept.

Is that it, snakebyte?

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 03, 19:08

By a locked tab, I mean a tab which is non browsable, i.e. the path it is pointing to will not change unless you unlock it.

If you try to open a folder in a locked tab by double clicking, it should open in a new tab. The contents of a locked tab will remain unchanged.

I'll try to explain how this works in Maxthon. Let’s say I search for some keyword on Google and then I lock that page (hotkey: Alt+X). Now to see the search results in new tab, I simply have to left click on the links on the main Google page which is locked. The results will automatically open in new tabs. There is no need to right click and select "Open in New Window".

I’m looking for a similar behavior from xplorer2, where contents of a locked tab will not change.

Nikos, if you find time try out the tabbed behavior of Maxthon. I guess its the most powerful and flexible browser out there. I prefer it over firefox.

Windows Explorer:Xplorer2 :: IE:Maxthon

narayan wrote: You can close the tab(s), and reload it(them) using shortcut to the folder group or a single tab.

But when opened, you can't load anything else in it.
A slight variation from our bookmark concept.

Narayan, but I'm not looking for some thing so complicated. I just looking for an option to lock the address of an open tab so that it becomes non browsable. Try out maxthon and try to lock a tab. You'll understand what I mean. Also try out the option "Activate new tab".

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 03, 19:17

nikos wrote:... but have you tried ctrl+alt+ins?

Well Nikos, I was the one who convinced you to put this feature in Xplorer2. Yeha, I'm aware of this hot key

viewtopic.php?t=2623

Post by **nikos** » 2006 Feb 04, 12:14

so what you're saying is that you want to achieve with d-click what is already available with ctrl+ins (or a click on the new tab button). It's not such a radical improvement over what's already available, no?

wasker · Post by **wasker** » 2006 Feb 04, 14:50

I'm another one for "locked tabs". I finally understood why do I need them,

but those constant browsing in wrong tabs makes me crazy. That'd be great to have an ability to say that this particular tab shows only C:\Windows (whatever) and never goes up level or down level.

warrenrh · Post by **warrenrh** » 2006 Feb 04, 18:02

I’m yet another user that would like “locked tabs” – the ability to indicate that a particular tab’s folder location can’t be changed – as discussed above. A locked tab, meaning a tab were the path it is pointing to will not change unless you unlock it.

Typically I have a couple of tabs that I always try to have pointing to the same place within my file system. Sometimes I accidentally navigate off these locations for a particular tab. Selectively locking certain tabs would stop these accidents.

Echoing snakebite above: “EdM, you have my full support for this request.”

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 04, 18:27

nikos wrote:so what you're saying is that you want to achieve with d-click what is already available with ctrl+ins (or a click on the new tab button). It's not such a radical improvement over what's already available, no?

Yes, it has the same effect as Ctrl+Ins. I already mentioned that in my post earlier. You can do anything in xplorer2 but some actions may require more clicks, keypress or combination of both.

What I'm suggesting here will make xplorere2 more easier to use. Let’s go back to the download folder example I had mentioned earlier. To open 5 sub-folders of a parent folder in new tabs would require following steps
1. Browse to parent folder
2. Lock the parent folder (using hotkey or any toolbar button)
3. D-click (or Alt+D-click) 5 times on the folders you want to open in new tabs.

Current you have to
1. Browse to parent folder
2. Select the first folder and press Ctrl+Ins or (Ctrl+Alt+Ins)
3. Switch back to parent tab (Leave keyboard, use mouse)
4. Select next folder and press Ctrl+Ins (leave mouse, use keyboard)
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all the folders have opened in new tabs.

What you must realize here is that, step 3- switching back to parent tab is most cumbersome of all. As the number of tabs increases it becomes difficult to locate the parent tab and switch back to it.

Apart from the advantage of locked tab that I mentioned above, you may also gain following benefits from it
1. The address of a locked tab will not change. This means if you frequently open a folder a lot you can open it once and lock it. You don’t have to open or browse to that folder again. It will always be there.

2. When a user tries to close a locked tab, you can show a warning – “You are trying to close a locked tab. Are you sure?” This will take care of accidental tab closures using d-click.

3. Loading a folder group closes all folders in the active pane and it opens new group folders. Now, if I happen to have a locked folder in the same pane, this action would not close that locked tab but rest of the folders and then open the group folders. I can’t count number of instances where I wanted to keep a tab open but also load group folders at the same time.

You may use a new icon, or an icon overlay to represent a locked tab.

kf · Post by kf » 2006 Feb 04, 19:19

While this discussion is going on, let me add one small thing. It would also be nice to have tabs that can only browse to subfolders. In other words, tabs that are locked in one direction (up) only. This way you can browse within a folder but not be taken away from it's parent. Just a suggestion...

Kevin

laimanl · Post by **laimanl** » 2006 Feb 04, 21:00

I think it is nice to have this "locked tab" feature.
What I used to do to get around this is :
Select the folder I want to browse.
Click the tab icon on the toolbar.

Since we are talking about this, is it possible to have an option "open new tab in background" ? It means after I have done the above action, the focus is still on original tab and not the new tab. Then I can open few new tabs before I go to check one by one. Or I can select more than one folder and click the tab icon, all the folders I selected will be opened to the individual tabs.

Thanks

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 04, 22:20

laimanl wrote:Or I can select more than one folder and click the tab icon, all the folders I selected will be opened to the individual tabs.

I like this idea!. The same should be applicable for Ctrl+Ins as well. If I choose multiple folders and press Ctrl+Ins, it should open all those folders in new tabs.

Post by **nikos** » 2006 Feb 06, 12:43

yes that looks much cleaner than having locked modes and all

snakebyte · Post by **snakebyte** » 2006 Feb 06, 19:38

Yeah, this is one solution to the problem. But having locked tabs have other advantages too.

snakebyte wrote: 1. The address of a locked tab will not change. This means if you frequently open a folder a lot you can open it once and lock it. You don’t have to open or browse to that folder again. It will always be there.

2. When a user tries to close a locked tab, you can show a warning – “You are trying to close a locked tab. Are you sure?” This will take care of accidental tab closures using d-click.

3. Loading a folder group closes all folders in the active pane and it opens new group folders. Now, if I happen to have a locked folder in the same pane, this action would not close that locked tab but rest of the folders and then open the group folders. I can’t count number of instances where I wanted to keep a tab open but also load group folders at the same time.

Think about it and let us know if you think having locked tabs is worth implementing (maybe somewhere in the future)