Feature Request: Tabbed Editor

[simon4477]

@yu-i-i, @svdvonde There is an open issue for Tabbed Editor on the official Overleaf repo since 2016. Their excuse for not implementing this feature is that the common users don't have enough "technical skills" to use Tabbed Editor :D.

Question: How hard would it be to implement such a feature? This is a must have feature for any project having more than one source file. It's very inconvenient to open ten tabs in the browser and switching back and forth between them not knowing which file is open in which tab. I can also contribute to implement it. Can we implement this feature to bring tabs to the editor because let's face it, the overleaf devs have no intentions to implement it? It would be an awesome feature.

[svdvonde]

My main concern with extending this project (that I'm not involved in, btw. I'm just a user) with custom features that touch a lot of the code would be difficulty in keeping the project up-to-date with future releases of Overleaf CE. Not just minor releases in the 5.x.x range, but potentially with major releases as well. This is most valuable to me.

Tabs would be nice for sure, but what's the case against opening 2 browser tabs? Some browsers (e.g., edge) natively support split-screen viewing of 2 tabs simultaneously. Overleaf is pretty nice for this since you can easily collapse the left/right hand side of the editor. Perhaps a simpler solution that solves some of the workflow issues that tabs would solve is something along those lines.

[simon4477]

@svdvonde Tabs are necessary for larger projects such as books etc., where multiple files need to be open. My issue is not with two or three browser tabs, but with more. Split screen is not helpful because the pdf preview needs to be open too. In my opinion, tabs support will be very helpful.

[yu-i-i]

I definitely don’t have the skills and/or time to implement this feature. I'm afraid I don’t even have enough experience to estimate how much work it would require.

It seems like it would also involve significant changes to the backend. For example, a file in a non-active tab can be modified by another user, so switching to that tab would require fetching the updated file from the server (and this file probably not yet in MongoDB). Of course, only the changes should be fetched, which means those changes need to be tracked somehow, and so on.

Also, such a major patch would make it quite difficult to keep the fork in sync with upstream. If the feature were implemented with high quality and included automated tests, it might be accepted upstream - but that’s a lot of work.

Still, I’d be happy if someone decided to take this on, and I’d be glad to contribute as well.

[crew-carson]

For this use case, what specifically is missing from the existing file tree sidebar on the left, other than that being like vertical tabs instead of horizontal tabs?

[yu-i-i]

The file tree sidebar on the left is a poor man’s substitute for tabs. It loads the entire file, so switching between files isn’t "instantaneous".