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Tab Collections - save and restore

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Its been a while since I added a new idea and its probably too late to do so now but have been keeping up with the progress here and comments. The product has come a long way and appreciate the changes.
 
One last suggestion:
 
It would be so useful if you could save a group of tabs open to different folders and restore that group. In chrome (browser) there is an extension that is called freshstart that does this and is so useful to use for a group of tabs you use over and over linked to pages. In the case of BE, it would allow you to create a group of tabbed folder locations that you use over and over without having to find them each time you need to work on the opened folders.
 
I'm afraid this idea came too late but wanted to add it to your list anyway!
 
Thanks again for your great attitude as to the users and openness to trying new things....

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neugrek wrote May 27, 2012 at 5:31 PM

I don't know if Dimitar or JaykeBird will want to work on this feature but here is a simple mockup I made for it :

Normal icon:
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/204484003.png

Icon clicked:
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/123445004.png

As you can see, I didn't add your "tabs manager" that you've shown us. Not that our beloved developers won't be able to do it (I am sure they can) but here is a simpler way to do it (imo), here is how it could work :

The user opens several tabs. He just clicks on the icon of the slot he wants the tabs to be recorded in (slot 2 for example), then he chooses the sub-menu "Save all current tabs in Slot 2".

All paths could be saved in a txt file, or in a xaml file or even in the registry maybe ? (I am not a coder at all... I don't know how Dimitar or Jayke would handle this part of coding).

Then, if the user directly clicks on the main icon, all tabs would appear.

And let's say, the user just did that task but closed one of the tabs. Cliking on the Slot 2 icon again wouldn't open all tabs, but instead, only the missing recorded tab.

On the mockup, I only made two slots but I think there is enough free space for a third one.

jacobrh94 wrote May 28, 2012 at 2:11 AM

Honestly, I have already had a similar idea.

In Microsoft Excel, there is a feature called Save Workspace. It allows you to save the list of all the spreadsheets you have open in this program, and this list is saved in a file, and when you open the file, Excel opens up and all of those spreadsheets open up again, just like that.

I've wanted to implement this into BetterExplorer for some time now, but I been busy with other things to really work on this.

After the beta release, however, I will definitely work on that idea.

Your idea of having two slots for recorded tabs isn't a bad idea, but the thing is that I personally don't want to be limited to two or three slots. Exporting the list to a file instead allows users to create an unlimited number of files.

However, I can work on adding into the Ribbon something similar to your approach, but it will be more flexible to allow more than two slots.

Anyway, I appreciate your ideas and helpfulness, and I encourage you and everyone else to keep it all coming! :D

JaykeBird

neugrek wrote May 28, 2012 at 11:43 AM

Btw, doesn't BetterExplorer already save last opened tabs at startup ?
(I don't remember... and since I am not at home, I can't test now).

Not being limited to 3 slots would be nice but I wonder.. Having a "Tab Manager" or something similar would also be interesting but I like the idea to display the recorded tabs with a single button click.

Do you plan to create this "Tabs/Workspace Manager" and let the user affect a recorded profile to a button ? Will the user be able to add as many buttons as he wants ? (wouldn't this overload the UI ?) --> That's why I was only thinking of three buttons.

jacobrh94 wrote May 28, 2012 at 5:47 PM

Yes, this Tab Manager idea is just what I was thinking of. It will be a gallery (similar to the Layout group on the View tab), and that will allow for an unlimited number of items.

There won't be any worry about overloading the UI or anything, and honestly, I would expect people who use this feature to have no more than 7 tab groups at most. (I could wrong about that... lol.)

Like, for example, in PowerPoint 2007/2010, on the Insert tab, if you click on the Shapes menu, a gallery pops up and I can easily say there's at least 50 shapes on there. That's the kind of thing I'd use for the Tab Manager.

JaykeBird

jacobrh94 wrote May 28, 2012 at 5:48 PM

And yes, BetterExplorer saves your tabs on startup, but the way that's implemented wouldn't be suitable for what I have in mind.

JaykeBird

neugrek wrote May 28, 2012 at 8:15 PM

I am really curious about the design you're going to use for this feature.
  1. "similar to the Layout group on the View tab"
Will it be something similar to this :
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/430918ScreenShot003.png

Even if you expand this drop-down menu, I don't clearly see where you will add the options to save workspaces.
  1. "Like, for example, in PowerPoint 2007/2010, on the Insert tab, if you click on the Shapes menu, a gallery pops up and I can easily say there's at least 50 shapes on there. That's the kind of thing I'd use for the Tab Manager"
So maybe want a button like this one : http://alturl.com/hy6q9

In this case, I guess we'll have to dig in this drop-down menu, click on a checkbox to enable a workspace, and then click on the main big icon again ?

Like this (mockup) :
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/128614ScreenShot014.png

jacobrh94 wrote May 28, 2012 at 9:00 PM

No, what I'd be doing is a combination of those two. A feature of galleries is that you can add menu items on the bottom of the gallery (i.e. the Styles gallery on the Home tab of Microsoft Word, the Themes gallery on the Design tab of PowerPoint, the Pens gallery on the Draw tab of OneNote, etc.) and that is where the options to save a new workspace and edit/remove workspaces will be.

So, take the gallery you put in the Ribbon on your first mock-up and put it in the "Saved Workspaces" area on the menu of the second mock-up, and you'll have a pretty close idea of what I plan on doing.

There will be a way to delete workspaces as well. You can right-click one and a menu will appear, with options such as "Edit", "Delete", "Rename", and so on.

Sorry if my explanations confused you. You'll have a better idea of what I mean when I make this, after the beta release.

JaykeBird

mileslowe wrote May 29, 2012 at 2:46 PM

I am now glad that I suggested this and am so excited to see the comments on this area and that this functionality might become a reality! Thanks and will watch any progress made on this and be happy to help test it.

jacobrh94 wrote May 31, 2012 at 12:09 AM

It was already an idea I had, but this implementation is much better than my very first idea... Lol. :D

But yeah, it's awesome to have these public discussion areas, because people can throw around ideas and we can talk about them and stuff. A lot of the updates we've made actually started as user suggestions. :)

JaykeBird

jacobrh94 wrote Jun 6, 2012 at 7:19 AM

I will see if I can add it in in the next beta update, but otherwise, it will be a feature in Beta 2.

JaykeBird

neugrek wrote Jul 12, 2012 at 3:27 PM

The project has entirely moved to GitHub.
https://github.com/DimitarCC/BetterExplorer


BettereExplorer on CodePlex will be abandonned soon or later...
No more updates will be added here.

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