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Tabbed document interface

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File:Tabbed document interface.png
An example of tabbed document interface, illustrated with Opera

In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that relies on tabbed panes to hold child windows. This style of interface may work in conjunction with a full multiple document interface (MDI) or as an alternative. In the latter case, it is more limited than MDI: it is only possible to display only one child window at a time in the parent window; they cannot be tiled or cascaded (typical MDI operations). Hence, some criticize that TDI is not really MDI, but SDI. However, in general it is still considered to be MDI as multiple documents are handled at a time.

Tabbed browsing

Web browsers are notable for implementing this kind of interface (called tabbed browsing). BookLink Technologies pioneered this interface design in its InternetWorks browser in 1994. Independently, the founders of Opera built an MDI based browser in the same year (a technical preview not available publicly, a public release was made in 1996). The tabbed interface approach was then followed by the Internet Explorer shell NetCaptor in 1997. With the release of version 4 in 2000, Opera supplemented its existing MDI interface with the tabbed interface. These pioneers were followed by a number of others like Mozilla in 2001 (through the MultiZilla extension in April of 2001 and a built-in tabbed browsing mode added to Mozilla 0.9.5 in October of 2001) and Safari in 2003. As of March 2005, most current graphical web browsers, with the notable exception of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (it has been stated IE 7 will support it), natively support a TDI. Software, such as the freeware Crazy Browser, is available to add a TDI around Internet Explorer. OmniWeb version 5, released August 2004, includes visual tabbed browsing which displays preview images of pages in a drawer to the left or right of the main browser window.

Compared to SDI

Advantage

One important advantage of the tabbed document interface is that it holds many different documents logically under the one window, instead of holding a large number of small child windows. Another is that sets of related documents can be grouped within each of several windows. Using tabs instead of new windows to display content creates a smaller memory footprint and therefore reduces the strain on the operating system (however, opening several tabs at once will temporarily bog down the system).

Disadvantage

Although the tabbed document interface does allow for multiple views under one window, there are problems with this interface. One such problem is dealing with many tabs at once. When a window is tabbed to a certain number that exceeds the available resolution of the monitor, the tabs clutter up (this is the same problem as with SDI but moved to another place in the user interface).

Multi-row tabs are a second issue that will appear in menu dialogs in some programs. Dealing with multiple rows of tabs in one window has two disadvanges:

  • It creates excess window clutter
  • It complicates what should be an easy-to-read dialog

Finding a specific tab in a 3 or 4 level tabular interface can be difficult for some people. Part of the issue with this difficulty lies in the lack of any sorting scheme. Tabs can be strewn about without any sense of order, thus looking for a tab provides no meaningful understanding of a position to a tab relative to other tabs. Additionally, the clutter created by mutiple tabs can create a dialog that is unusually small, with the tabs above it dominating the window.

Thus, although tabbed windows work great in environments where there is a minimal necessity for tabs (around ten tabs or less), this scheme does not scale, and can quickly be as overwhelming as the multiple document interface is when applied to large numbers of documents.

Compared to MDI

Advantage

For people used to SDI, MDI can be confusing as windows can be hidden behind other windows. Some MDI applications lack a taskbar or menu to allow quick access to all windows, so in some cases a window can only be found by closing all others. TDI windows ("tabs") are always maximized, and all TDI applications have a taskbar or menu to allow direct access to any tab. It is nearly impossible for windows to get "lost" inside TDI.

Disadvantage

TDI windows must always be maximized, and as a result two tabs cannot be visible at the same time. This makes comparing of documents or easy copy-and-pasting between two documents impossible. Full MDI interfaces allow for tiling or cascading of child windows, and do not suffer from these limitations.

One example of an application that allows either TDI or MDI browsing is the Opera web browser. Using TDI by default, this application also supports full MDI. Opera can in fact also run as an SDI application.

Example programs

Web browsers

Text editors

Spreadsheet programs

Instant messengers

Terminal program

Window managers

See also

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