Photoshop: Better Tabs (with more "features")

Report · Sep 27, 2012

My co-worker and I (and I would assume the majority of tabbed Photoshop users), agree that the tabs are a huge improvement over the older versions of Photoshop. But it doesn't appear a whole lot has changed with CS6. And change is what the tabs need.

Firstly, simply put, they need to work more like a browser works. Spend a day in Google Chrome and then try to use Photoshop's tabbing system. So many features are missing from Photoshop's tabs. Re-arranging tabs is possible, but quite cumbersome. If I accidentally pull a tab out of the row, it's hard to put it back into place. I can't simply drag one tab all the way to the left. I have to carefully make sure it doesn't come out of the row while I'm doing it.

Also, the tabs should shrink horizontally when there are a lot of them. Having to click the "expand" arrows to see all the tabs is quite annoying. The tabs could definitely decrease in width even more, when more tabs are present. Or even give the option to stack the tabs into multiple rows. At the very least, if I do click the expand arrow to reveal the other tabs, it would be useful to be able to drag a tab out of the list and in between the other "visible" tabs.

Lastly (for now), there really needs to be a feature that allows me to right-click on a tab and then click "close all other tabs".

Surely Photoshop's tabs were inspired my browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, so please make it work like a user would expect. Thanks!

Report · Sep 28, 2012

I couldn't agree more. Yes, the tabs do technically 'work', but it's a real hassle to rearrange them on the fly. This is especially true when you're trying to drag assets from one canvas to another.

Stacked tabs'd be great. More responsive tabs (on drag/hover) would be even better. But as you said, Chrome tabs is where the bar has been set.

Report · Dec 03, 2012

Good suggestions. Fully agreed.

Additionally, why not allow middle mouse button clicks to close tabs (equivalent of clicking the tab's X button), also just like Chrome and every other browser.

Report · Mar 25, 2013

Absolutely, one of the biggest problems.. Multi-Row Tabs please, on an expandable Tabs bar which auto-hides

Report · Mar 25, 2013

Or make a Tabs/Open Documents Panel

Report · Sep 10, 2013

And please make tabs behave like document windows so you can drag stuff to them.

Report · Oct 23, 2013

I often have to produce a lot of UI elements from one or more PSDs, and PSDs beget PSDs. Most of the time, I have at least 3-4 documents open in tabs. It would be wonderful to be able to navigate between tabs like in a browser, using shortcut keys or mouse button(s) or macros.

In addition to that, while I can drag a layer from one document to another, I would love to be able to drag a layer from a document into another document's tab, and either have it make that tab active to permit me to drop the layer into the layer palette or allow me to use the tab itself as a drop target and add the layer atop whichever is the currently active one.

Report · Oct 23, 2013

Document tabs are helpful, but I wish they had all the functionality I enjoy in almost all other programs with tabs. I'd love to see these improvements:

- Add "Select Next Tab" and "Select Previous Tab" to the menu and allow me to assign a keyboard shortcut like other PS actions.

- Cycling through tabbed documents should respect the order of my tabs. It's confusing when it jumps around to different windows or different points in the tab order.

- Allow me to dock a floating window in the middle of other tabs, not just as a new tab at the end.

Report · Oct 23, 2013

It'd be excellent if there were more options to configure the tab bar, like multiple tab rows, maximum tab width, etc. Even better, it'd be great if it worked kind of like a browser, where tabs would auto-resize themselves so they all fit. Right now, I have 6 documents open, but only 3 of them fit in the tab bar because their names are really long. Gets annoying.

Report · Oct 23, 2013

The tab bar is the worst thing about Photoshop

The tab bar needs to allow dragging and dropping from external sources more easily.. as it sits, you can only drag & drop the tiniest little square on the far right if your tab bar is full.. and its hard to find most of the time

There should be a thin bar section above the tabs that runs the length of the tab bar, that you can drag & drop items to

And Tabs are impossible to find.. what if you dont know the name of an open image? and you have 30 open images?

literally impossible to find

scrolling your mouse wheel up & down whilst hovering over the tab bar should scroll through all tabs left & right, as fast as you scroll.. that should definitely be in Preferences, if not Default

or even a Ctrl+Mouse-click+Drag left or right to get that lazy immobile tab bar doing something useful

Report · Dec 08, 2013

add multipages panel

Report · Nov 13, 2014

Let's get this going! Only able to have 4 tabs usable at once? Come on.

Report · Nov 13, 2014

Um, no, you can have many document tabs available and usable at once.
What lead you to believe that there was a limit of 4?

Report · Nov 13, 2014

Well, um, if I have more than 4 tabs open: due to lengthy file names only 4 of them show at once. The rest are "hidden" in the overflow menu. A real pain when trying to work on multiple documents at once. Open Chrome. Get a sense of how real tabs should work.

Report · Nov 13, 2014

Jon . . . let's tone it down.

This sort of attitude isn't going to help convince anyone to change things.

Don't forget - it wasn't long ago Photoshop had NO tabs whatsoever.

All it does is exasperate the developers when the users are impossible to please. Trust me, it's not inspiring.

Report · Nov 13, 2014

There is no such simple limit to the number of visible tabs in Photoshop. How many are visible at once can depend on the filenames (which determines the width of each tab), and the size of your window.

All the views (tabs and windows) are still available in the Window menu if you need to find a particular view that is not currently visible in a tab.

Report · Nov 14, 2014

And what about the hover, which shows the preview after you place your mouse over the tab?

Report · Dec 09, 2015

Could hire the guys that built the tabbing for Acrobat DC. It's at least an upgrade from the current PS tabbing.

Report · Dec 29, 2015

I'd like to suggest that the the tabs not have the Filename AND the Selected Layer both appear. This makes the tabs extremely long. Maybe it's only my preference but I can't see any reason to have the currently selected Layer name also in the tab title.

Report · Jun 01, 2016

Since last year you have possibility set bigger height. But thats all.

Report · Jun 01, 2016

It feels like a mini-game trying to re-order tabs. Embrace the fun!

Report · Jun 10, 2016

Not a game to me, it's pathetic that this won't get addressed. Too busy with your "flavor of the month" novelty gimmicks to get anything fixed, Adobe?

Sounds like the programmers have a ridiculous level of proof they have to reach before the Adobe execs will let them break away from implementing more data logging and marketing sh*t to get around to actually fixing current issues.

Retarded interface changes...good grasp on priority hierarchy. Half-implemented, chaotic tabs that only a absolute moron would approve for public release. All-day, every day, every time, stupid, f***ing, miniature Open dialog windows, etc.

This sh*t would never fly if we weren't all locked in to this godd@mn subscription B.S. They'd fix everything and it would be the top priority. Not because it would be the right thing to do but because nobody would pay to "upgrade" this level of product. Doesn't matter what machine, what hardware, what OS you work on, everything feels like you're on an iMac from 1998.

Subscription? You get what you get and you like it.

Report · Jun 10, 2016

^ So sad, yet so true. I'm still baffled that they not only approved the current tabbing, but have not noticeably improved upon it since implementation. It's like they don't have any "power users" in-house to test the product.

I really wish someone would step up to the plate to take on Photoshop...so Adobe could actually start getting nervous, instead of locking everyone into a subscription. I'm always tempted to go back to fully-paid-for versions (before the CC)... since they're essentially the same UI anyway. You know... since there is nothing useful about their so-called "cloud" anyway. I mean... they even took away syncing of settings...

Report · Jun 11, 2016

It's like they don't have any "power users" in-house to test the product.

Adobe has prerelease testers which are professionals with access to new versions and they are not adobe employees. I am in this program, but I am not sure how big impact has these testers. It does not seem to be too big. So your assertion might be true.

Report · Jun 11, 2016

I have a hunch that currently most of the pre-release testing methods are automated processes. Fine for certain areas but not fine for the bulk of real-world application usage.

Report · Jun 11, 2016

"If you don't like the tabs, you aren't using it properly" I imagine the indignant little shyts are saying to themselves. "This is how smart people use it, with this exact workflow, if you're doing something else you're not as smart as me. I'm a programmer, which we all know is the smartest thing on the planet"..

That's just a problem with 99% of programmers. What they most likely need to get them to see reality is a good hard punch in the face. Maybe then they'll realize there's something out there besides their own ego.

Ctrl + Clicking any tab should tile your entire work area with thumbnails of all tabs. It should be a locked thumbnail view. You click on a thumbnail and its layers and panels pop up to the right. Drag a layer of your choice onto any other thumbnail and release to expand that image and work on that layer. Or don't release and dragging a layer or layers or objects etc to hover over a thumbnail brings up that thumbnails layers panel where you can drag back and drop them.

Then you can click select boxes on the thumbnails and choose to close all, move, duplicate, save, save as, delete, combine to new, or revert to saved.
But nono.. The "pros" at adobe don't need that, so you don't either. Just follow their tutorials and like their pages and some day you can work just like them..