+1

An increasing amount of users have already said they would greatly appreciate having tabs.  People didn't think that tabs would be useful in web-browsers either but imagine trying to go back now!  I think tabs would best best as a vertical stripe down the side rather than across the top.
Regards from Tom :)

+1 If you agree that this would be a great feature to add to OpenOffice/LibreOffice, add yourself to the CC list, everyone can see how many people are subscribed and if the number gets high enough it might get some attention.

Relevant discussions in nabble:

http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/tabs-in-LibreOffice-like-you-can-do-for-MS-Word-td2993290.html

http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Windows-Tab-for-LibO-F4-repeating-function-td2498149.html

*** Bug 42429 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 53251 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 54078 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Tabbed interface is interesting idea. I would like to leave few remarks before you start to implement it.

I am heavy user of tabs in Firefox. Usually have 10+ and sometime two windows full of tabs. I use them in Finder (mac) thanks to TotalFinder too.

But....
First I'm heavy keyboard shortcuts user. When idea is not well implemented it can be nightmare. Mouse clickers will be fine anyway but not keyboard users.
Apps that use tabs usually employ own set of shortcut to switch between tabs if they employ one. They can have different one on different platform. It can became mess a bit.
And shortcuts that work for US user may not work for international users because keys are not common on their keyboard layouts and nobody paid attention to that.

I'm Mac and WinXP user. You have to have computer in head to keep all those variants in mind and be able to use them.

In Finder I have no clue how cycle through window with command+` because I have to enter apostrofe with character viewer. And not sore I have right key on PC keyboard i use with mac.

For example:
Firefox on Mac use command++alt+arrow, on Win it use ctlr+tab and ctrl+shift+tab that is difficult for one hand
Safari om Mac use command+shift+arrow, on Win I don't know.
Finder on Mac use that weird command+` but I use ctl+tab thanks to Witch extension.

When you have all document as separate windows you can switch easily with alt+tab on windows. I do not know whether I can switch them in LO on Mac at all. I can but with help of Witch.

So please implement it with that in mind. Tabbed interface requiring a mouse to be usable would be downgrade.

Thanks a lot.

Frantisek

5 more people want this, http://forum.ubuntu.org.cn/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=401081

Because many Chinese tend to have only modifiable documents for exchange purpose; tab make copy / refer to other documents easier.

They also request split docuement view, allow 2 docment display in single instance together.

I don't need those functions though.

*** Bug 64847 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 71451 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 42429 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Summary amended for clarity (better distinction from bug 33173).

The code for such things was written in 1994 and no one is going to touch it without a solid incentive. "+1", "I need that feature", etc. comments are, on the other hand, just spam.

Could be considered to be dependent on bug #33232 (workspaces), but also note that there is some negative feedback described in bug #101776, where "tabbed views" are not considered kosher at this point in time.

However, the good news is that workspaces seems to have some traction, and tabbed (multi document) views as in here, seem quite popular (I too am a great fan - but what I really want is configurable workspaces and many and flexible options for navigation aids - surely we deserve the best :)

Also, tabs are certainly needed to make the proprietary Adobe DreamWeaver obsolete - see bug #101772

*** Bug 104021 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 106768 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 114250 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 123307 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 33173 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 37806 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 38401 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 111431 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 121809 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Changing priority to 'high' since the number of duplicates is 5 or higher

Created attachment 156244 [details]
right click to add division/tab

Right click on division tab pops up this menu

Created attachment 156245 [details]
division properties 1

menu lets you do many things including change properties

Created attachment 156246 [details]
division properties 2

Created attachment 156247 [details]
after changing name

After changing name.

(In reply to Xisco Faulí from comment #43)
> Changing priority to 'high' since the number of duplicates is 5 or higher

Thank you soooo much! I added some screen shots. To really understand the power of tabbed divisions you really have to use them for a while or pick up one of the old books on eBay.

It will install under Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. You have to first enable the Administrator account, not just be logged in with administrator privs. The same "might" work for Windows 10 but most claim the product simply either won't install or run under Windows 10. Might want to create XP VM for testing. 

Definitely install in a VM. The common complaint is that it installs older versions of fonts over top of newer, better looking versions of the same fonts. Some instructions on how to "fix" that can be found in the comments at this download link.

https://archive.org/details/LotusSmartSuite99

Another supposed download link.

https://softadvice.informer.com/Lotus_Word_Pro_Viewer.html

The only difficult thing is getting the LWP spec. I haven't seen it in years. There appears to now be a murky little circle still understanding it. Deb printing claims to support everything under the sun.
https://debprinting.com/page/accepted-file-formats

This document converter site also claims to support it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=14&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjH59qH-5bmAhWQMd8KHR64C0gQFjANegQICBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etyn.com%2Ftools%2Fdocument-converter&usg=AOvVaw2T_a2okvxER7LaHrVOdUCb

Yes, LO claims LWP support, but, as others monitoring this will most likely chime in, not really. I had an awful lot of lwp files from back in the day, some of which I needed. I used to use the VM->WordPro->File-SaveAs to get the bulk of them. Launching network search now to find any remaining. If they are not for companies still in business and not for systems still in use I will provide. Most of that stuff was created during my OS/2 Warp days so it should be relatively safe to allow into the wild.

Just finished testing install on Windows 10 64-bit Pro from CD. Works just fine. Must be Admin, not just a user with Admin privs. Had to install printer in VM. Default Oracle Virtualbox will have NAT as network device setup. This allows Internet but not local net access. Must changed to Bridged for local network printer access. Sadly you won't have Internet access then. Thankfully you can change this on the fly without restarting the VM.

NAS is taking it's sweet time hunting for .lwp extensions.

Could this be done as an extra toolbar? Then it could be arranged as the user likes, or hidden if wished. A toolbar with all the open documents listed on it, and the ability to switch from one document to another, and to rearrange the tabs with drag and drop.

(In reply to Lynne Connolly from comment #50)
> Could this be done as an extra toolbar? Then it could be arranged as the
> user likes, or hidden if wished. A toolbar with all the open documents
> listed on it, and the ability to switch from one document to another, and to
> rearrange the tabs with drag and drop.

What everyone seems to be missing is these aren't separate document files. All tabbed divisions exist in a single LWP file. I un-hid the comments which someone flagged as off-topic so you can have a better idea of what people are really asking for. Those images are highly relevant to understanding this.

A tabbed division is "conceptually" a separate document but it physically exists in the hierarchy tree of the LWP file. 

When you change the position of a tabbed division, i.e. dragging it between 2 others, you physically change its hierarchical position in the file. You can save that file, copy to a thumb drive, take to another machine, and it will open up with those tabs in that order.

Unless the OpenDocument specification is going to expand/change, this isn't something that can be "faked" into LO. Others can way in, but as far as I know, LWP was the only file format to support this.

Scrivener has something now, but I don't know what it is.

(In reply to roland from comment #51)
> What everyone seems to be missing is these aren't separate document files.
> All tabbed divisions exist in a single LWP file. I un-hid the comments which
> someone flagged as off-topic so you can have a better idea of what people
> are really asking for. Those images are highly relevant to understanding
> this.

What's being missed is that this bug is for documents per tab.  The bug for divisions/sections per tab is 33173.

Hello, good morning everyone.

Some position on this Guides feature as it would make LibreOffice very powerful and I believe that more users of Microsoft Office would migrate to LibreOffice.

  Currently OnyOffice already has this feature.

in OnlyOffice this feature is native

See this attached image.

https://ibb.co/r4dPWsx

https://mega.nz/file/lvhTmDoC#fwXtaYfy4iugnujHaTH19nl2o4qWyE1RQ8ZdmzOGzd0

Anyway, from my POV it should be optional, since in my (current) daily job, I use many LO windows tiled and I need them that way, since I have to assemble and translate technical manuals.

(In reply to luciano_f from comment #54)
> in OnlyOffice this feature is native
> 
> See this attached image.
> 
> https://ibb.co/r4dPWsx
> 
> https://mega.nz/file/lvhTmDoC#fwXtaYfy4iugnujHaTH19nl2o4qWyE1RQ8ZdmzOGzd0

I believe most LO users would welcome tabs for switching between opened files. This would be great for productivity.

The current design of LibreOffice consists of a title bar that has nothing but the filename. Hence, it would be possible to adopt a layout similar to OnlyOffice's. Another good example is Firefox's design when you hide the title bar.

However, I'd like to point out that:
1) OnlyOffice allows to have tabs from different applications (spreadsheets, presentations and text documents) in the same window. I personally would prefer to have tabs grouped by application.

2) Some users do not like tabs to switch between files. Therefore, if this feature is to be implemented, it should be optional. This could be done by adding an option to the Tools -> Options -> View dialog. There could be a "Open new files as tabs" checkbox.

(In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #56)

> I believe most LO users would welcome tabs for switching between opened
> files. This would be great for productivity.

We have been using Master PDF Editor to fill in tax forms the past two weeks.  It also supports tabbed files.  The tabs are a wonderful productivity tool.  We also have the option of using PDF Studio, which does not support tabbed documents.  It is much more difficult to use when you have multiple documents open.

I doubt LO will ever implement this unless we can put together a crowd source funding to cover the labour involved.

Created attachment 165505 [details]
StarOffice 5.2 with seven open tabs

I'd also love to have a tabbed UI in LibreOffice. 

Since Staroffice was actually able to do that, I wonder whether the code is still functional in LibreOffice? 

Please see the screenshot of StarOffice 5.2 with 7 open tabs at the bottom of the window. In fact, StarOffice went that far, that the tabbed UI included all StarOffice applications. In the screenshot, you see tabs of Writer, Calc and Draw.

It is not going to happen.  The economic model for Open Source is to give the code away for free and charge for the maintenance.   Until we get some mechanism in place, like crowd sourcing, to hire a LO developer to work on this and several other wonderful RFE's, then it will sit here until we all die of old age.  They deserve to get paid for what they do.

*** Bug 142723 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I was thinking something along the lines of excel/sheets where you could add or remove pages as you want  this is my +1

People looking for a document-per-tab and using Windows 10 might want to try out Groupy from Stardock Systems: https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/

(In reply to Michael Warner from comment #65)
> People looking for a document-per-tab and using Windows 10 might want to try
> out Groupy from Stardock Systems: https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/

Groupy doesn't work well with libreoffice at all.. Have tried it multiple times, and although it may work well for a single session, it has a history of not working correctly with libreoffice..

I'd like to also request, should tabs ever become a thing, that it would be good to be able to separate a document from a tab (ie into a new window), so that documents can still be viewed side by side if necessary..

(In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #56)
> (In reply to luciano_f from comment #54)
> > in OnlyOffice this feature is native
> > 
> > See this attached image.
> > 
> > https://ibb.co/r4dPWsx
> > 
> > https://mega.nz/file/lvhTmDoC#fwXtaYfy4iugnujHaTH19nl2o4qWyE1RQ8ZdmzOGzd0
> 
> I believe most LO users would welcome tabs for switching between opened
> files. This would be great for productivity.
> 
> The current design of LibreOffice consists of a title bar that has nothing
> but the filename.

IMO putting only the filename and title in the title bar is a good thing. I wouldn't mind the ability to have tabs, but I don't agree with them occupying title bar space. I do not care for this trend of jamming a bunch of stuff into the title bar, until there is nowhere left you can click just to move the window around. 

> Hence, it would be possible to adopt a layout similar to
> OnlyOffice's. Another good example is Firefox's design when you hide the
> title bar.

If this happens, it needs to be an option that I can turn off.

(In reply to Michael Warner from comment #68)

> IMO putting only the filename and title in the title bar is a good thing. I
> wouldn't mind the ability to have tabs, but I don't agree with them
> occupying title bar space. I do not care for this trend of jamming a bunch
> of stuff into the title bar, until there is nowhere left you can click just
> to move the window around. 
> 
> > Hence, it would be possible to adopt a layout similar to
> > OnlyOffice's. Another good example is Firefox's design when you hide the
> > title bar.
> 
> If this happens, it needs to be an option that I can turn off.

+1, maintaining custom Client Side Decoration cross-platform (as Chrome/Chromium & Edge browsers do) would be an order of magnitude more complex and too much native code.  The FireFox approach (inside a single application frame with no CSD) is much simpler.

Only reasonable direction for providing "tabbed" MDI is extending VCL's current Window functions as a new view mode.  And agree the mode needs to be user controlled, i.e. toggled on-off, set number of tab documents, tear off to new frame, etc.

Keep in mind that LibreOffice Calc already uses tabs within a single document to allow multiple worksheets.  These tabs are shown towards the bottom - below the cells but above the search drop down and the status bar beneath that.  So that would be another challenge to deal with in considering adding tabs for multiple documents.  Somehow, you'd have to clearly differentiate between multiple tabs within a single document, from multiple tabs showing separate documents.

Not saying that allowing an MDI interface for LibreOffice documents is a bad idea.  I found this issue because I was looking to see if this was already possible. :)

*** Bug 152645 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Created attachment 184357 [details]
Concept with tabs in LibreOffice

I wish they would implement a tabbed interface as it is very helpful in productivity.
I would like it to be like the concept of the image

(In reply to Michael FA from comment #74)
> Created attachment 184357 [details]
> I would like it to be like the concept of the image

That shows simple tabbed MDI, but suggests using a Client Side Decoration (CSD) to hold the document tabs. 

Possible, but doing CSD consistently cross platform requires native os/DE code (topic of WF bug 113388), but doers decide.

More likely the MDI would first be implemented within the cross-platform application frame, and then possibly extended with native code needed for CSD a UI.

I would like to create a small summary of the research, mockups and so on that have been done this topics. I will also incorporate my own arguments in here: 

**Why I need tabs**

I use LibreOffice Writer for various purposes, such as writing reports, articles, letters, and notes. I often need to work on multiple documents at the same time, compare them, copy and paste content between them, or refer to them for information. However, without tabs, I have to open each document in a separate window, which clutters my desktop, consumes more memory, and makes it harder to navigate and manage them.

Tabs would solve this problem by allowing me to switch between documents by clicking on the tabs, drag and drop tabs to reorder them, close tabs with a single click, or open new tabs with a keyboard shortcut. Tabs would also save my session state, so that I could reopen all the documents I was working on when I close LibreOffice Writer.

Tabs would not only improve my productivity and efficiency, but also my user satisfaction and enjoyment. Tabs would make LibreOffice Writer more modern, intuitive, and consistent with other applications that I use regularly. For example, the Adobe suite uses tabs extensively for its applications such as Photoshop. Tabs would also give me more control and flexibility over how I work with documents.

**How tabs could work**

Tabs could be implemented as an optional feature that users can enable or disable in the settings. Tabs could also have some customization options, such as color, position, size, shape, or icon. Tabs could be compatible with existing features of LibreOffice Writer, such as split view, zoom level, or document properties.

To illustrate how tabs could look like in LibreOffice Writer, Here are some mockups based on the existing user interface and some examples from other applications. You can see them below or at these links:

Mockup 1: Tabs at the top of the window with icons and close buttons

- https://bug-attachments.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=184357

Mockup 2: Tabs at the bottom of the window

- https://bug-attachments.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=165505


**How tabs could support side by side view**

Another possible feature that could enhance the usability of tabs in LibreOffice Writer is the ability to view two or more tabs side by side in the same window. This would allow users to compare, edit, or copy content between different documents without switching tabs or windows. This feature could be similar to the split view or the side by side windows that are already available in LibreOffice Writer, but with tabs instead of subwindows.

To illustrate how side by side tabs could look like in LibreOffice Writer, here a mockup:

- https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/File:LO-Tabs-SideBySide.png

Mockup 3: Side by side tabs in LibreOffice Writer

**What others think about tabs**

I'm not alone in wanting this feature. There are many other users who have expressed their interest and support for tabs in LibreOffice Writer on various forums and platforms. Some of them have also created mockups, sketches, or screenshots of how tabs could look like in LibreOffice Writer. Here are some links to some of them:

- https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/opening-multiple-files-in-tabs-optional-function-or-extension/61520
- https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/feature-request-open-various-files-in-different-tabs-in-writer/4064
- https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/has-any-thought-been-given-to-tabbed-pages-in-documents/3963/2

I hope you will consider adding this feature to LibreOffice Writer in the future. I think it would make a huge difference for many users like me who rely on LibreOffice Writer for their daily work.

**How tabs could be developed**

As for the technical solution for implementing tabs in LibreOffice Writer, I have done some research and found some possible approaches that could be used by the developers. Here are some of 

- Using Qt’s QMdiArea class, which provides a standard workspace for managing multiple document interface (MDI) windows.his class allows creating subwindows that can be tiled, cascaded, minimized, maximized, or closed. Each subwindow can have its own menu bar, tool bar, and status bar. QMdiArea also supports tabbed views of subwindows, which can be switched by clicking on the tabs or using keyboard shortcuts. QMdiArea is already used by some applications that have tabs, such as Qt Creator or KDevelop.
- Using GtkNotebook widget, which provides a container for multiple pages of content that can be accessed by tabs. Each page can contain any type of widget, such as a text view or an image. GtkNotebook also supports drag and drop of tabs, scrolling of tabs, and adding or removing pages dynamically. GtkNotebook is already used by some applications that have tabs, such as Gedit or Geany.
- Using LibreOffice’s own implementation of tabs, which could be based on the existing code for split view or zoom level. This would require modifying the user interface and the document model to support multiple documents in one window. This would also require adding new options and commands for managing tabs, such as opening, closing, switching, reordering, or saving tabs.

**Challenges and Limitations**

- How to handle tabs that have different zoom levels, page styles, or document properties.
- How to synchronize scrolling, cursor movement, or selection between tabs.
- How to manage memory consumption and performance when displaying multiple documents at once.
- How to ensure compatibility and consistency with existing features of LibreOffice Writer, such as split view, side by side windows, or full screen mode.

Therefore, this feature would require careful design and testing before it can be implemented and released.

Ummm... You seem to have removed and closed too many things.

"Tabbed pages in documents" refers to the Lotus WordPro ability to have tabbed divisions ___within___ a document. Authors and researchers use this to group chapters, TOC, Index, research notes, etc. Tabs could be flagged to be included in print or not. Same with export to other file types like PDF. 

All of these tabbed divisions exist within a single document.


At a higher level, yes, the tabs you speak of (one tab per document) also existed. I don't have WordPro installed on any machine right now as I'm using Linux on many machines, but yes, a different tab size/style/color/position was used to ___switch between__ documents.

Tab != Tab

I guess we need to use the following vernacular

DocumentTab

DivisionTab

(In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #80)
> Ummm... You seem to have removed and closed too many things.
> ...

Not really.

Completely different UI -- MulitiDocumentInterface (MDI) as here for bug 37134 *NOT* to be confused with "division/section per tab" UI for a single document as for see also bug 33173

Both independently remain valid use case and potential work flows.

(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #81)
> (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #80)
> > Ummm... You seem to have removed and closed too many things.
> > ...
> 
> Not really.
> 
> Completely different UI -- MulitiDocumentInterface (MDI) as here for bug
> 37134 *NOT* to be confused with "division/section per tab" UI for a single
> document as for see also bug 33173
> 
> Both independently remain valid use case and potential work flows.

Yes, really. Maybe it wasn't you, but they got closed as part of this with someone thinking TAB == TAB.

37806  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions
38401  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro
152645 refers to the Lotus Spreadsheet 

None of these are referring to the MDI tabs you/this is referring to. They've just gotten mushed together.

(In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #82)
> ...
> 37806  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions
> 38401  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro
> 152645 refers to the Lotus Spreadsheet 
> 
> None of these are referring to the MDI tabs you/this is referring to.
> They've just gotten mushed together.

Actually bug 37806 and bug 152645 are both *correctly* here for MDI, bug 38401 was incorrectly dupped here and should have remained on bug 33174. I moved that one back.

(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #83)
> (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #82)
> > ...
> > 37806  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions
> > 38401  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro
> > 152645 refers to the Lotus Spreadsheet 
> > 
> > None of these are referring to the MDI tabs you/this is referring to.
> > They've just gotten mushed together.
> 
> Actually bug 37806 and bug 152645 are both *correctly* here for MDI, bug
> 38401 was incorrectly dupped here and should have remained on bug 33174. I
> moved that one back.

37806 was opened by ***me*** and it was most definitely about Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions within a single document. 

Later, a bunch of people who confused TAB == TAB tried to morph it into MDI.

152645 is also not covered by this bug. While one could stretch it to an MDI interface, it is really "one tab per application" where one tab has a Word document, another has a spreadsheet, another has Impress drawing. This bug is specifically for one application having one tab per singular document. It does not cover a single application having one tab for a spreadsheet, one tab for a drawing, one tab for a text document ...

(In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #84)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #83)
> > (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #82)
> > > ...
> > > 37806  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions
> > > 38401  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro
> > > 152645 refers to the Lotus Spreadsheet 
> > > 
> > > None of these are referring to the MDI tabs you/this is referring to.
> > > They've just gotten mushed together.
> > 
> > Actually bug 37806 and bug 152645 are both *correctly* here for MDI, bug
> > 38401 was incorrectly dupped here and should have remained on bug 33174. I
> > moved that one back.
> 
> 37806 was opened by ***me*** and it was most definitely about Lotus WordPro
> tabbed divisions within a single document. 
> 

Nope, from bug 37806

"WordPro also had an MDI interface, which LibreOffice desperately needs to get back to.  On the main menu at the top was a "Window" item.  All documents were open within the single instance of WordPro.  You switch documents by pressing ALT-W then, after the window menu appeared, a digit 1-9.  If more than 9 documents were open at one time (not that likely given the memory of the day) the last entry was "m" for more documents.  Pressing "m" would cause a window with all document names to appear.  You scrolled through the list and hit enter on the one you wanted.  This worked in both Windows and OS/2."

And that valid facet belongs here with MDI.

> 152645 is also not covered by this bug. While one could stretch it to an MDI
> interface, it is really "one tab per application" where one tab has a Word
> document, another has a spreadsheet, another has Impress drawing. This bug
> is specifically for one application having one tab per singular document. It
> does not cover a single application having one tab for a spreadsheet, one
> tab for a drawing, one tab for a text document ...

Maybe, but would be the same dev effort. Remains here for conciseness as the "doer will decide" the implimentation, devs choice with some UX input to cover the functional requirements.  *Best* to keep it simple

One enhancement for MDI, one enhancement for Divisions per document.  How multi-modues get mixed into the UI is less of an issue than the framework needed to handle MDI and to handle per document divisions.

(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #85)
> (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #84)
> > (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #83)
> > > (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #82)
> > > > ...
> > > > 37806  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro tabbed divisions
> > > > 38401  specifically refers to Lotus WordPro
> > > > 152645 refers to the Lotus Spreadsheet 
> > > > 
> > > > None of these are referring to the MDI tabs you/this is referring to.
> > > > They've just gotten mushed together.
> > > 
> > > Actually bug 37806 and bug 152645 are both *correctly* here for MDI, bug
> > > 38401 was incorrectly dupped here and should have remained on bug 33174. I
> > > moved that one back.
> > 
> > 37806 was opened by ***me*** and it was most definitely about Lotus WordPro
> > tabbed divisions within a single document. 
> > 
> 
> Nope, from bug 37806
> 
> "WordPro also had an MDI interface, which LibreOffice desperately needs to
> get back to.  On the main menu at the top was a "Window" item.  All
> documents were open within the single instance of WordPro.  You switch
> documents by pressing ALT-W then, after the window menu appeared, a digit
> 1-9.  If more than 9 documents were open at one time (not that likely given
> the memory of the day) the last entry was "m" for more documents.  Pressing
> "m" would cause a window with all document names to appear.  You scrolled
> through the list and hit enter on the one you wanted.  This worked in both
> Windows and OS/2."
> 
> And that valid facet belongs here with MDI.
> 
> > 152645 is also not covered by this bug. While one could stretch it to an MDI
> > interface, it is really "one tab per application" where one tab has a Word
> > document, another has a spreadsheet, another has Impress drawing. This bug
> > is specifically for one application having one tab per singular document. It
> > does not cover a single application having one tab for a spreadsheet, one
> > tab for a drawing, one tab for a text document ...
> 
> Maybe, but would be the same dev effort. Remains here for conciseness as the
> "doer will decide" the implimentation, devs choice with some UX input to
> cover the functional requirements.  *Best* to keep it simple
> 
> One enhancement for MDI, one enhancement for Divisions per document.  How
> multi-modues get mixed into the UI is less of an issue than the framework
> needed to handle MDI and to handle per document divisions.

***Yes***
The very first line

"Under Lotus WordPro, each document had tabbed document sections with the tabs running down the right side of a document."

This might well come under a different topic, but I'd like to see this feature added at the same time as tabs:

I've used the softmaker office suite in the past, which also has tabbed document feature, and one great additional feature it has is that if I close a window, along with all the open tabs with documents I'm working on, and then open it again later, the office suite remembers exactly where I was at, so opens everything with the cursors positioned exactly where they had been in my previous session.

Tabs on libreoffice should do the same thing.. be able to recall a session and open things were one left off.. this would be especially useful for when working on a project with several related documents.. and save us time opening each document separately, which can be a drag when you're working on a dozen different documents that all belong together..

(In reply to mango wodzak from comment #87)
> This might well come under a different topic, but I'd like to see this
> feature added at the same time as tabs:
> ...

Probably something along these lines, bcz for any UI framework to support a tabbed MDI and split handling of ODF document model into divisions/sections, it would also require some effort with the MRU and the "Edit View" viewports (Shift <F5>) recorded to ODF and user profile.

*** Bug 156204 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I need this. Atlantis Word Processor has this and it’s very useful, especially when paired with “Reload open documents at startup”.

*** Bug 157711 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to Regis Perdreau from comment #92)
> This ticket is open since 2011... it's a good interesting feature although.
> The question are : is it feasible without breaking everything ? Who can do
> it ?

Given how LO habitually breaks everything, especially image handling, is that even a concern. I had to stop using LO for anything that mattered because release to release I could not be certain of opening an existing document and having it displayed anywhere near the same.

As is indicated by the images, StarOffice 5.2 actually had this feature.

(In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #93)

> Given how LO habitually breaks everything, especially image handling, is
> that even a concern. I had to stop using LO for anything that mattered
> because release to release I could not be certain of opening an existing
> document and having it displayed anywhere near the same.
> 
> As is indicated by the images, StarOffice 5.2 actually had this feature.

Hi Roland,

What we are experiencing here is the downside of the open source economics model.  You give the code away for free, then hold the user hostage for corrections and enhancements.  And the developers do deserve to be paid for what they do.  Unfortunately, individuals can not afford to to put the developers on their payroll.  So this very, very legitimate request gets ignored year after year after year.

I personally use the wildly abandoned Word Pro, which runs circles around LO, and LO when I have to share things with customers.  If I would have to describe LO in a single word, I'd have to say it would be "awkward".   Division tabs would go so, so far to improve that complaint, but unless someone with deep pockets sets forward, don't hold your breath.

-T

Created attachment 192721 [details]
Lotus Symphony tabbed documents

(In reply to Todd from comment #94)
> (In reply to Roland Hughes from comment #93)
> 
> 
> What we are experiencing here is the downside of the open source economics
> model.  You give the code away for free, then hold the user hostage for
> corrections and enhancements.  And the developers do deserve to be paid for
> what they do.  Unfortunately, individuals can not afford to to put the
> developers on their payroll.  So this very, very legitimate request gets
> ignored year after year after year.

Weeel, I paid money for a 5-user license of Textmaker not all that long ago because the free version didn't support running page headers/footers and a few other things. I do not pay for or use their Cloud/online stuff.

OnlyOffice gives away the desktop editors/software for free and sells subscriptions to their cloud/online version used by companies. They did a bang-up job on the desktop editors which run on Linux and many other platforms and they really focused on the collaboration aspect when they went to the cloud services so OnlyOffice is pretty well funded with lots of new features.

It appears LibreOffice online was a complete bust.
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-online/

I'm old so please forgive me if the gray cells cross something but . . .

StarOffice 5.2 had _a_ multi-tab feature (which might have been multiple documents)

StarOffice was the predecessor to OpenOffice, was it not?

Somewhere in the middle between OpenOffice and Oracle's consumption of SUN Microsystems IBM took the OpenOffice code base and created Lotus Symphony (not to be confused with the MS DOS version of Lotus Symphony) which actually supported multiple tabs.

https://www.logikalsolutions.com/wordpress/information-technology/lotus-symphony/

After or about the time there-of the creation of LibreOffice IBM decided the had the new editor they wanted for Lotus Notes and they released the Lotus Symphony code back to the project.


So it's not really a "new feature" request but more of an excavate and find out how this got lost request.

The dirty little secret about funding OpenSource projects is that you have to have a solid code base prior to asking for support contracts and large donations.

Stability == revenue stream

Large sweeping changes so files can't be used between versions == welfare Christmas


> 
> I personally use the wildly abandoned Word Pro, which runs circles around
> LO, and LO when I have to share things with customers.

There are many times I am tempted to set up an OS/2 Warp machine so I can have Lotus SmartSuite again. Thankfully I'm writing more software than books right now.

The last book I wrote with LO is my book on Emacs. I had to use Craigslist to find an editor that would use LO and Linux Mint. That was before Christmas. After posting this I'm going to fire them because they are still not done.

For previous books there was always someone on ServiceScape that would do it and give me a professional editing job in just a couple weeks. Nobody on ServiceScape will touch LO anymore and that is the largest pool of quality freelance editors I have found in my 30+ years of writing.

I would like to work on this. I am working on other patches, so may take a month or so to make some time. But yes I have it in my hit-list.

How I imagine solving it:

Suppose that the UI side is taken care of, then isn't opening a document in a new tab same as clicking on some document from the startcenter (or opening a new document), and just showing a box(tab) with it's name type and maybe save state. And Closing a tab would be same as clicking on the cross button on the top right corner.

And talking about the UI, Notebookbar's "tags" like file, home etc,is the closest analog to tabs I see in LIbreoffice's UI, and studying and modifying that so as to dynamically create those "tags", but for files, with a cross button on the right side, shouldn't be that complicated (maybe). "Would be just the perfect bug for me to work on, incremental and challenging" :).

(In reply to Sahil Gautam from comment #98)
> I would like to work on this. I am working on other patches, so may take a
> month or so to make some time. But yes I have it in my hit-list.
> 
> How I imagine solving it:
> 
> Suppose that the UI side is taken care of, then isn't opening a document in
> a new tab same as clicking on some document from the startcenter (or opening
> a new document), and just showing a box(tab) with it's name type and maybe
> save state. And Closing a tab would be same as clicking on the cross button
> on the top right corner.
> 
> And talking about the UI, Notebookbar's "tags" like file, home etc,is the
> closest analog to tabs I see in LIbreoffice's UI, and studying and modifying
> that so as to dynamically create those "tags", but for files, with a cross
> button on the right side, shouldn't be that complicated (maybe). "Would be
> just the perfect bug for me to work on, incremental and challenging" :).

Weeeelllll

Before you dive into coding, you need to look at the comments someone hid claiming they have no value when they have near limitless value to one who is going to look into this.

First, you have to know what "this" is.

StarOffice which was a predecessor of OpenOffice whose code became Libre Office had one tab per document way back with version 5.2.

Lotus Symphony for 32-bit Ubuntu 8.x also had tab interface and the Navigator. That code was returned by IBM to OpenOffice and by extension Libre Office. The Navigator made it into LO, the tabbed interface did not.

32-bit Symphony can be found here:  https://www.logikalsolutions.com/wordpress/sdm_downloads/lotus-symphony-32-bit-for-ubuntu-8-04/

You can see how to set up Ubuntu 8 32-bit and get the download link for Symphony here:

https://www.logikalsolutions.com/wordpress/information-technology/lotus-symphony/

That will give you a good idea how the one-tab-per-document functionality previously worked with a codebase ancestor. If you want to try to identify where/when the code was checked into Apache OpenOffice from IBM you can dig through this message thread. This might have been lost as part of the Java purge though.

There is another bug which gets mentioned much but I don't know the number. That is the one that Tom, I, and many others wish existed. That "this" is Lotus WordPro with tabbed sections and divisions ___within___ a document and a multi-tabbed document interface. Very difficult to describe to one who hasn't used it. Kind of like trying to describe what salt tastes like to someone that has never had any.

You can read about it and see screen shots here:
https://www.logikalsolutions.com/wordpress/information-technology/thank-you-for-your-future-abandonware/

Do a Web search for "Lotus SmartSuite." There are "used software" places selling it. eBay, Amazon, even Offer-Up.

https://offerup.com/item/detail/ee98975a-b2c4-3f55-8b5c-83c94c909e8a

I see that one "reduced" it to $10 from $20. You really need to use the software for a bit to understand __how__ it functioned. Under the hood is different from the UI. It's the UI and single file capability everyone is talking about.

After you've researched both of those you can decide which "this" you wish to work on. You will at least have a much better idea about how to implement without blocking any future enhancement.

(In reply to Sahil Gautam from comment #98)
> How I imagine solving it:
> 
> Suppose that the UI side is taken care of, then isn't opening a document in
> a new tab same as clicking on some document from the startcenter (or opening
> a new document), and just showing a box(tab) with it's name type and maybe
> save state. And Closing a tab would be same as clicking on the cross button
> on the top right corner.
> 
> And talking about the UI, Notebookbar's "tags" like file, home etc,is the
> closest analog to tabs I see in LIbreoffice's UI, and studying and modifying
> that so as to dynamically create those "tags", but for files, with a cross
> button on the right side, shouldn't be that complicated (maybe). "Would be
> just the perfect bug for me to work on, incremental and challenging" :).

Since the "Window" menu maintains a list of all the open documents, could that same code be modified to create a dynamic tabbar?

(In reply to David from comment #100)
> (In reply to Sahil Gautam from comment #98)
> > How I imagine solving it:
> > 
> > Suppose that the UI side is taken care of, then isn't opening a document in
> > a new tab same as clicking on some document from the startcenter (or opening
> > a new document), and just showing a box(tab) with it's name type and maybe
> > save state. And Closing a tab would be same as clicking on the cross button
> > on the top right corner.
> > 
> > And talking about the UI, Notebookbar's "tags" like file, home etc,is the
> > closest analog to tabs I see in LIbreoffice's UI, and studying and modifying
> > that so as to dynamically create those "tags", but for files, with a cross
> > button on the right side, shouldn't be that complicated (maybe). "Would be
> > just the perfect bug for me to work on, incremental and challenging" :).
> 
> Since the "Window" menu maintains a list of all the open documents, could
> that same code be modified to create a dynamic tabbar?

I haven't looked at the code, but it is extremely unlikely. I don't know what cross platform C++ library LO is using, but let us say either Qt or CopperSpice soley for the the sake of conversation. I do this in my RedDiamond editor package on SourceForge which uses CopperSpice (Qt fork). I don't allow multiple instances to be running but I do allow multiple windows. Each window has a group of tabs. (I will upload screen shot so you don't have to read code.) The RDSingleton object creates however many main windows were open last time and the window creation process loads all previously open files and buffers.

The "Window" menu item is tracking instances of MainWindow which is derived from QMainWindow. The tabs each contain an instance of EdtEditWidget.

To implement even simple first-level tab support like I have in RedDiamond one would need to rip out the "central widget" for the Writer main window and stuff it into a DocumentEditWidget then they would have to put a QTabBar as the only thing in MainWindow below the menu. Instead of directly communicating with whatever that single document object was, the main window class would basically need to be gutted to always connect signals and slots between each DocumentEditWidget. Whenever something was triggered it would need to connect with/operate on the DocumentEditObject in the current visible tab.

Actually, now that I think of it you probably want to look at Example2 of my Scintilla fork to CopperSpice.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/csscintilla/

Multiple tabs and an incredibly stripped down edit widget. The mainwindow.cpp file is under 500 lines and you really only care about the first 100. If you are on a Debian based Linux distro you can install the .debs for CopperSpice and CsScintilla from the Files section, then unzip the source file and run the script to build the examples so you can see it run.

I'm not trying to talk down to you, it sounded like you wanted to learn. Doesn't matter what GUI toolkit they are using, conceptually this is how you have to do it.

Kind of shocked when I looked to see they have their own VCL thin wrapper around native stuff. Zinc tried that years ago. I wrote a few books on it. Zinc basically gone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_Application_Framework

Created attachment 192852 [details]
RedDiamond with multiple tabs

Created attachment 192853 [details]
Example2 with multiple tabs

*** Bug 160157 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***