Forum Discussion
Discussion - Set Aside Tabs and Warn on Close
Jacques Van de Meerssche This is a great idea and would solve my problem (the jarring workflow to restore tabs closed from a browser exit). I think it's also a good introduction to collections for all users. You could even built a mini tutorial in there the first time the user closes the browser -- on the next open, a pop-up with "we've put all the tabs you had open in a collection in case you need them".
That makes the most sense to me, especially since the "continue where I left off" option in the "On Startup" settings page doesn't work that way (seems to only restore tabs if the browser was force-closed).
[EDIT] Apologies, didn't check the date -- I see the feature was sort-of implemented in one of the latest dev releases. Haven't had my coffee yet...
that will restore your previous tabs if they were all in the same window.
HotCakeXThanks for guiding everyone on how to push through request. I'll say what I said on other topics here. I really don't like how collections work compared to "set these tabs aside" it was simpler to use that way and whatever you do you can save quickly.. Now if you close out of tabs you no longer need you have to save/update the collection again. The set aside remembered what changed you did to the tabs you re-opened. Collections isn't doing that currently.
As other said, it might make more sense to combine the two things. The idea of collections was to allow it to be opened on other systems. Well just make that possible for set tabs aside. Firefox, Chrome and all those browsers do updates regularly. Edge should do the same and keep introducing new features on every version, but a little at a time so users can be trained on how to use them. They all started with just a few key features that made them stick out and built on it.
BTW there is at least 3 topics that I know of on this, which one matters the most to development. Is it this one?
- Spoiler
xunderworldx wrote:HotCakeXThanks for guiding everyone on how to push through request. I'll say what I said on other topics here. I really don't like how collections work compared to "set these tabs aside" it was simpler to use that way and whatever you do you can save quickly.. Now if you close out of tabs you no longer need you have to save/update the collection again. The set aside remembered what changed you did to the tabs you re-opened. Collections isn't doing that currently.
As other said, it might make more sense to combine the two things. The idea of collections was to allow it to be opened on other systems. Well just make that possible for set tabs aside. Firefox, Chrome and all those browsers do updates regularly. Edge should do the same and keep introducing new features on every version, but a little at a time so users can be trained on how to use them. They all started with just a few key features that made them stick out and built on it.
BTW there is at least 3 topics that I know of on this, which one matters the most to development. Is it this one?
Thanks, I'm not sure which one matters more to them but they do read all of the topics, judging by the replies we get on each topic
So I think here are the changes that still need to happen to the Collections:
- Edge needs an ability to add all open tabs to an existing collection, instead of adding all open tabs to a new collection every time.
- There need to be a dedicated button added to each Collection for easy opening of all Collection items. (there is already the Collections button to open the panel)
- when we open a Collection's items, that were made out of open tabs, in new tabs, any changes we make to those tabs, such as closing them or going to a different address, should be reflected back to the Collection. and the opened tabs should be put in a tab group, separate from the rest of the tabs that were already open or pinned. tab groups are a great way to separate tabs and show they belong together using a group name and a special color. the color can be random but the group name can have the same name as the Collection name.
This all sounds right to me.
MS could implement Set Aside independently of Collections, but honestly these features are so similar it would be more confusing to have two separate areas for this. They should merge them.
There are two main features here:
- More permanently saving a specific set of tabs for reuse (Collections)
- Temporarily suspending a dynamic set of tabs (Set Aside)
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of the value of #1. Isn't that just a bookmarks folder? Maybe we should work on making bookmarks better.
It's very clear to me what the value of #2 is.
90% of the time I am online, I have a zillion tabs open with different amazon products to compare, or pages about a research topic or whatever. Then I need to move on to some other task and I don't need those tabs taking up memory until I'm ready for them again. It's ridiculous how many tabs and windows I leave open for several days only because "I'm not done with them yet". I may want multiple sets of tabs for different tasks and be able to name them.
Literally at this moment I have an Amazon and Bed Bath page open to a product (to remind me to look into them later today), and 5 tabs of different Edge insider topics I want to read at some point. They will probably stay open until this evening when I have time. Maybe even tomorrow. It's a waste of memory.
If I open a new tab or close an existing tab from the set, I want it to stay in sync. Ideally it would be literally suspended tabs (saving any in-progress work) and not just refreshing the URLs when reopened, but I understand if that can't be done. And when I'm finished (I picked a product and made a purchase), I want the whole thing to disappear (maybe if I close the window of open tabs). I don't need them saved long term. To me it's like temporarily putting a file on the desktop while I'm working with it.
It may need to require a new window or utilize tab groups (current feature available in flags) because that adds a label in the tab bar. Otherwise, it would be hard for the browser to know which new tabs should be added to the temporarily set aside tabs and which are completely unrelated.
Also related, if I change my profile from Personal to Work, I want my personal tabs to suspend there until I switch back to that profile or open it in new window. I may start something in the morning in personal, pause to switch to work, and come back to personal in the evening.
As far as warning you about closing all open tabs, I personally don't want that feature, but it's surprising to me that it's not already available. I'd rather have it as an option I can turn off. Maybe there should be a button in that window to "set tabs aside" instead of closing them. Or maybe there should be a running temporary set of "last opened tabs" in the collections window. We already have this feature in the history menu, it should be trivial to make it a visible set in the collections window. That said, hopefully people who share a computer are aware that anyone can see or reopen their last session.
