I frequently edit about 20 files at the same time, I prefer the document tabs to the document selector as they require less screen space.
However, when you have a lot of files open, it can take a lot of scanning across to find the file you want, so my suggestion is to be able to colour code them? Here's a very quickly drawn example:
You could either colour each tab manually via a dropdown list (right click on the tab for example) or just use document classes to specify a different colour for each type of file, eg .TXT files are red where as .HTML files are blue.
Personally I like the concept but not the suggested solution. I think to colour the whole of a tab goes against UI design guidelines but certainly to associate a different icon with each document class would make sense.
Also colour-coding the files in the file selector would work for me.
I like the tabbed selector too, and also have problems figuring out where I am in it. It's very hard to see which tab is active (at least with the fonts etc. I use)-- the border shading is too subtle. An option to [b]bold-face[/b] the font of the active tab (or to colour it in) would help me out.
I would be quite happy if the active document tab could be a different color from the rest, or perhaps the text of the tab could be more prominent instead. Also, if a document has not been saved, the asterisk should be more visible.
I wonder if TextPad developers really read these suggestions. I made the same suggestion well over a year ago.
Does anyone else have an issue with the fact that when you reload a workspace it loads the documents in a different order? It would be great if you could shunt them round a little and have the more important ones on the left for example? Some kind of manual sorting ability?
By the way csexton, I see your point about interfering with UI guidelines, but surely the point of the UI is to display things clearly and make life easier, not just to be pretty?
The colours I chose were for example only, I'm sure a more subtle selection would look better!
