Bumping this thread, tired of seeing shallow requests about icons color being 20 times more popular than this one that is one of the most useful of all.

Yes yes and yes !!

Someone that thought about that too.. :) I can't believe that it's not asked more frequently seriously.

It's not like this feature was in ALL cg softwares almost except blender..... And the current way to create delete panel is horrible. A good simple add tab button and right click option menu to close them would be so much better.

They did not add it because the code of the interface was not designed for it yet, but that would be among the top of the TODO list if I was Ton.

It's being considered in Blender: #117954 - Screen Area Editor Tabs - blender - Blender Projects

Bump!

I upvote for this. I envision the handling of Workspace tabs like this. Make the workspace UI more like in Visual Studio IDE with dock able windows. Every Editor and panels would be its own "documents" window. In Visual Studio you can drag-n-drop all your "windows" anywhere you like. Stacked on top of each other, nested on bottom, top and sides. And each tabbed window could have a "Pin" button that makes that panel collapse so its out of the way, and then un-collapses by hovering or clicking tab. Then to replace the Workspace tabs on top, just have a menu on the "Windows" menu where you can save your layouts. Then you can just select a layout for your workflow. Easy replace for the limited workspace.

Without giving it much thought and at face value, I like this one. I'm just afraid of the unforseen consequences, because this is a big feature. But i'll upvote it in the meantime

Totally agreed

My first impression: this would be useful just for switching prom properties to outliner... just as you showed in the mockup. For that I set up a shortcut in the preferences: TAB on the Outliner switches to Properties, and viceversa

I saw what rndpln shown us . It's really look cool. But it switch whole layout. This is not a proposal to replace what he showed. This is a proposal to expand it. Let me explain in more detail.

The method I show (let's call it Unreal's style) is about switching the type of individual part of the interface as simple and fast as possible in one click.

However, this method only makes sense if, as you can see in the video (or if someone worked with Unreal - he will understand what I mean) when switching between tabs - the tab saves its status. So, by switching back, the user has just what he needs in one click.

Let's imagine the script. The user has a complex scene with many objects in which there are several cameras. Imagine a layout similar to that in my images.

Consequently, with such tabs, he can create three where the first one will be viewport with free view and wireframe, the second - camera one, the third - camera two. He also has two tabs with properties and one with outliner, for example. One of the properties tab is object settings , where he expand only what he works with, another with modifiers, and outliner, which he constantly needs at hand, immediately scrolled to point he need (many objects).

The user switches to the camera one, chooses in outliner objects that he needs, goes to one of properties tab, changes what he needs, switches to the camera two to see what it looks like. Then he goes into free look viewport, not losing tab with viewport where already chosen the necessary camera. Again go to outliner, select number of objects, go to properries tab, changes what he need, move selected objects, again go to the camera two, etc.

And this is not a switch of the whole layout. And this is not a slicing workspace many times because user need lot of different stuff at one time. As a result, many small inconvenient windows. And this is not a change the " type " of part of interface. When user have to put the mouse on a small icon, click, choose the desired one from the list, click it again, it opens not like he need (for example, with the properties), make a few more clicks to get what he want to see ...

Switching between tabs I propose is just one click. It's just the quickest and most convenient way to change parts of the interface and get them right away, such as they were before, such as you need without any extra clicks. And without changing all other parts of layout as it was if it work only as a " Layout Tabs" rndpln show us in link.

Icon with plus. It's just a concept. This can be implemented differently. For example, if you click on a small triangle and drag, then the existing window is split, if you just click it - it gives menu where you choice type of window which will be added inside of the existing as a tab. In this version, such a toolkit of tabs in general will not make any visual changes to the default interface. And no icon with a plus sign will take up space. But the mechanics will be. And if for some users it will be convenient, and I think such tabs could be especially relevant on the machines with only one monitor, then the user organizes the work space as he want.

My suggestion is about organizing and optimizing the working space and workflow. Less clicks, quick access, everything you need at hand when it's needed and the way it should be. And if someone does not need it - he does not use it and does not occupy working space by this. It's not about another bells and whistles " because I saw the same in other application and I like it " ...

I've been working in Unreal for few years now. I work with really complex scenes where there is a lot of things and at the same time it is necessary to have at hand many different windows. And such tabs are really handy.

After all, it's just a suggestion. I don't claim that this is the only possible option and it should be just that and nothing else.

I've also been thinking about this since I saw pablo vazquez's interface mockups for tabs. Having something like this and being able to swap tabs like IDEs would allow for some interesting interface options!

@Craig Jones: I would imagine it'd work like how the properties / tools panels work with a little plus button that you can toggle visibility on and off.