When “tabs”, “tab groups” and “styles”, are all combined together in unison functionality, they provide a very powerful system for contiguously organizing disjointed information into definable and instantly recallable preset architectures required by many types of multifarious projects.
For example: a project that uses five different directories or folders located in separate locations requiring continuous switching back and forth across all five directories. You can save this as a “tab group” for later recall to use again and again, for the same project or similar.
Now, if you have multiple reoccurring projects, each having different stets of folders, then they can all have their own assigned tab group to quickly recall and apply to any given lister.
Now take this a step further. If you use dual lister layouts and have a particular project requiring different preset tab groups (e.g. different combinations of tab groups on each side of the dual lister’s layout) this configuration can be saved as a “style” for instant recall. The style remembers both lister windows and “tab groups” exactly as they are while saved as a whole.
Note: The difference between tab groups and styles with tabs is (tab groups can be applied to any single lister window without altering the other lister window in a dual lister configuration); however, they can only be applied to one lister window at a time. If you need to save the entire dual lister window’s layout (e.g. tab groups on both sides exactly as they are) then save this to a style to capture the entire configuration as a whole.
Now, take this into the dynamic mix: You can use variations of tab locking to allow or prevent tab labels from changing when you switch directories while in the current active tab. Tabs by default “are set to a dynamic state”, meaning (e.g. their label name will change to match the folder name if it’s changed by selecting a different folder or directory while that tab is active). Now, if it’s set to locked, its label will stay the same and a new tab will open up in the tab group and become the new active tab (i.e. if the folder or directory is changed while the locked tab was active). Further, if you click back on the locked tab, it will return to the folder or directory it’s labeled for. I probably just confused this more!
What’s the reason for these locking variations? Depending on your workflow, and how you will use the tabs, it offers flexibility for how the tabs will behave as you change folders via in the lister’s window or using the actual tabs.
To fully understand the exact functionality of the locking types, first apply each locking type to a different tab in a tab group and use the lister window to switch folders in each tab and see how they behave. Second, after doing this, click on each one of the tabs to see if they do what you expect them to do. At first, it may seem like they don’t make sense to why they work like this. But if you keep working with them, trying different variations, you will see the consistency for how they work and how they can be used for different reasons.
Personally, I use tabs for multimedia work flow. I keep many different types of graphics applications open simultaneously and contiguous in memory, requiring the passing of files back and forth between all of them. To further help with this, I use “Direct Folders” to set an applications (open/save) window to a lister window’s directory by just clicking on the lister window; nice!
I hope this helps more than it confuses. Cheers!!!
Good luck!
or when i take a break from my PC work.