> I think you should make a distinction between tab switching and tab
> organization.  Tab switching will be done a lot, whereas most users
> will probably never mess with reorganizing their tabs
Yep, agree.

> and those that
> do will probably spend some time getting an organization they like,
> then stop messing with it.  I think it makes sense to separate the two
> UIs.
>
> I think a drop down menu (or more realistically a pop-up menu) is the
> simplest way to handle too many tabs.  This menu can also have some
> auxiliary functions, such as "organize tabs" which will bring up the
> separate tab organization UI (analogous to Firefox's bookmark menu and
> the "Organize bookmarks" menu item).
The first step could be to make the menu items draggable and organize
order of tabs by drag-and-drop (just like in bookmarks folder on the
bookmark
toolbar)

> It could also contain some
> predefined tab-sets such as "HTML+CSS tabs", "JavaScript tabs", "Net
> tabs", etc.  If the user creates custom tab sets, they'd show up in
> the menu as well.
>
> So you might get a menu like:
>
> Console
> HTML
> CSS
> Script
> DOM
> Net
> Firecookie
> FirePHP
> YSlow
> Firediff
> ----------
> Organize tabs...
> ---------
> Basic tabs
> HTML & CSS tabs
> JavaScript tabs
> Net tabs
> My custom tabs 1
> My custom tabs 2
I like this idea and I think this could be a second step if users
make a request for it.

> I would put all the installed extensions in the menu, not just the
> tabs that have overflowed the tab bar.  This way the menu contents
> don't change every time you resize the browser window.
Yes

> The switcher menu should be easy to implement since it's pretty much a
> conventional menu.  The "Organize tabs" UI is another thing
> altogether.  However, having a dedicated UI for it should simplify
> implementation.
>
> There should probably be some sort of visual affordance for the menu,
> but I'm not sure what it should be.  I can't visualize an icon that
> means "switch tabs", certainly not one that will fit in 16x16 icon.
> You could put a count of installed tabs on the tab bar before the
> first tab, and connect the menu to that.  But that's the kind of UI
> that UI designers make fun of programmers for.
An icon would be great, so far I think a small arrow (the same used
for Firefox tabs) can be used instead. Users are familiar with it and
so, it
doesn't have to be a big problem.

Thanks for the feedback!
Honza


> On Jan 8, 6:08 am, "Honza (Jan Odvarko)" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Yesterday, I have posted a short proposal how to solve a problem with
> > too many panels in Firebug (coming from extensions).
>
> > Here is the original 
> > issue:http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=1842
>
> > And the blog 
> > post:http://www.softwareishard.com/blog/firebug/too-many-panels-problem-in...
>
> > If you have any ideas/wishes/proposals how to solve this problem (so
> > the UX is best possible) please respond on my blog or follow here.
>
> > Thanks!
> > Honza
>
>
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