Forum Discussion
MicrosoftDiscussion - Set Aside Tabs and Warn on Close
Hi Insiders, we have received a lot of feedback about how you would like to close your tabs with the option of easily finding and reopening them later as you move between different workflows. Specifically, many of you are asking for the Tab Set Aside feature from the previous version of Microsoft Edge to be brought back. Some of you are also asking for a prompt to help avoid losing all your tabs such that you can’t find them again if you accidentally close the browser.
• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window
• Bring the tab set aside feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge
Each of these requests seem related to the fact that many of you have a lot of tabs open at once across many tasks and workflows. This leads to a situation where it can often be difficult to manage all of your tabs at the same time, and each additional tab makes it difficult to deal with all of the rest (e.g. tabs get smaller, harder to read each titles, many similar tab icons begin to blur together, etc.). But it can also be scary to close tabs and declutter your workspace, for fear of not being able to find things again later if you need to. We have definitely experienced this problem ourselves, observed it in our research and conversations with users, and agree it is an area where we want to invest in tools to help you be more productive across various tasks. We are actively investigating the best way to address this problem and would love your help and input as we proceed to make sure we get the experience just right.
We have looked through your feedback, and there are definitely some very valid reasons for why there was value in the Set Aside feature such as: Helping you pick up on a task later without leaving the tabs open when you aren’t using them, organizing your tabs into groups related to a similar task, and a short term home for more transient tasks that didn’t warrant saving in a permanent location such as Favorites.
We also reviewed feedback on the Set Aside feature itself from people actually using it in the previous version of Microsoft Edge, and there were some very valid critiques on how it worked and how it could be improved. For example, the Set Aside buttons being in a location where they were often accidentally clicked causing some to think their tabs had disappeared, requests to be able to set aside a subset of the currently open tabs rather than “all or nothing”, or requests to rename and personalize tab groups further to more easily find them again later.
The request for a prompt before closing the browser also feels related, because if people could always confidently find and reopen any of their previous tabs, then there would be less fear or concern about losing tabs if they are accidently closed. This would allow people to feel free to declutter and reduce the number of open tabs with no fear about finding them later if needed, and more easily focus on the subset of tabs they are working on now.
As we begin this journey of investigating how best to address these requests, we are asking for your help. Please continue to tell us more about your experience with Set Aside and closing tabs in Microsoft Edge, why these features are important to you in which types of tasks, what did and didn’t work for you about previous implementations, and how you would improve on these scenarios going forward.
Elliot Kirk "• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window" - This should be entered as an option so that the user has the option to enable or disable it. I personally do not need to be asked before closing the browser (i.e. all open tabs) and I would like to be able to turn it off.
- Yes, something in edge://settings would do just fine.
There are lots of things being covered in one single topic, I really hope all the comments are read and considered.
I for one want the same things you mentioned above:
• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window
• Bring the tab set aside feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge
Tabs set aside also looks good in the same place, top left corner of the browser.
it won't be somewhere that people will accidentally click on all the time because there is literally nothing interesting or actionable in there right now. the X mark for closing tabs are on the right sides so in the top left corner there is nothing. so putting Tabs set aside button/icon on there won't cause any problem.
when we put our tabs set aside, we should be able remove single tabs in a group as well.
And you mentioned Tab Grouping (which can currently be activated using Tab Groups Flag)
Tab grouping needs so much improvements
here is more info about it:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/tab-grouping-needs-so-much-improvements/m-p/1082319
Also it would be great if the groups that we make and put websites/tabs in were remembered again.
so for example I create a tab group and put YouTube tab in it, set the color to red and name it YouTube tabs. now i close my browser and click on YouTube favorite item again but then i have to recreate my group, name it, set its color etc. this should not happen and all of the preferences should be remembered and saved,Why not combine Set Aside Tabs with Collections. Save all open tabs to a new collection and have the option to reopen them all from there at a later time. Best of both worlds. By the way I love the Collection feature.
I think Jacques is really onto something.
Fully agree.TBH, I never use the Collections feature because I can't export anything there to my current note-taking application (Notion). But, I would LOVE using Collections for Setting Aside Tabs! And, oooh, could we maybe have opening all the tabs in a Collection at once?
- Maybe if enough people ask for it we could have an export to button that exports to the program or location of our choice
Jacques Van de Meerssche The collections feature is useful, but compared to the set tabs aside feature, it feels slow and cramped. Also in set tabs aside, I can scroll sideways to see the tabs that are in that collection instead of having to open it like in collections.
- If they want to add all tabs to a collection, they should still put a button for 1 click action to add all tabs into a collection.
YES x 100. That's my idea also, i've even submitted it through Send Feedback. Combining this or even replacing it with Collection is a great idea.
My other most loved extension is vTabs for chrome. Where you can have vertical searchable list of your tabs, with a popup or sliding out from left or right side of browser.
ikjadoonSo instead of defaulting to "New Collection" with the option to enter your own description MS could just default to the current date as a name instead.cjc2112
Elliot Kirk Setting aside tabs can be useful for many different reasons. I have used the feature in the past when working on a particular project in Classic Edge. Being asked whether to close all tabs is also a useful feature.
I think there is room for both Set Aside Tabs and Collections in Edge, but the features need to be publicised to all.
- There are several scenarios for Set Aside tabs, let say I am doing research on something and I open up multiple tabs , visit websites and I end up with so many open tabs, I am not doing this research forever, so may be I want to keep tabs for few days and once I done with research let them go, in this case, it won't worth to add them to favorite and then delete favorites or browse through History (as I might open up other non-related tabs that day) and set aside is very useful.
I also regularly looking for developer related questions and open up multiple tabs and I am into same scenario, if I keep add everything in Favorite it is very confusing and I am lost and Set tab aside was a fast way to quickly get everything in one place for short time. Set tab aside actually could integrate into favorites too. So let say I open multiple tabs and set them aside then I have another Window with multiple tabs, I want ability so if I set them aside I could select to set them aside as new folder or include into existing folder. And when I right click, I could rename, delete or add to favorite. It would be interesting if look and feel of Favorites was look like Set Tab aside so we could see preview of website and this look should be customizable and see like list of folders or thumbnail of website and of course ability to Sync across devices.
For close tab prompt, it should be simple , in the setting there should be an option asking prompt if I want to close tabs. It normally happens by accident, let say I have multiple programs (including Microsoft Edge) and I try to close one of them and accidently close Microsoft Edge too. In past, it shows notification and prevent from accidental close down but in new Microsoft Edge, accident happens and everything close. Those who don't like this feature could just turn it off but people like myself would see it very helpful.- Yes, I agree with you, especially when I am trying to fill out a PDF or paying for something online and Accidentally close all the tabs. With this feature currently missing I have to find and retype all the information whereas if this was added I wouldn't lose the information and would act as a safeguard.
The Set Aside Tabs feature is by far my favorite feature in Classic Edge. Actually, it is the main reason I gravitate to Edge. The feature provides the ability to organize multiple workflow easily while preventing my poor RAM from thrashing.
I know that you have concerns about the placement of the buttons. I personally like the placement as it provides a low-friction way to manage my workflows. Perhaps, a switch in Settings would make everyone happy.
However, the most important things is to bring back the functionality, even if combined with Collections.
Sorry in advance for the bad grammar, I have limited time today.
Two parts to this reply: Keeping all my tabs in a window, and keeping my tabs open because they are doing something.
Part 1: I always keep all my tabs in one window, but why is this? I could have a window for my scheduling, (list of tasks and calendar) a window for my music and entertainment (Pandora and Youtube) and a window for my each of my current projects. I keep everything in the same window because it's much easier and faster to jump between tabs than it is to jump between windows. There are two reasons for this. First, multiple windows means going to a tab is a two-step process. Click the window you want, then click the tab. However, more importantly, in my opinion, is the issue of identification. Windows of Edge can either look like this:
or like this:
Or maybe even like this:
The issue is that tabs have favicons, making it easy to know the contents of every tab. Windows have the application's favicon, and the text depends on which tab is open in that window. Why is this important for setting aside tabs? Well, a large part of the reason why Set Aside Tabs was "all or nothing" for me was that I kept all my tabs together in an "all or nothing" window.
Part 2: why the "close all tabs" warning is important. I am not concerned about losing all my tabs and not being able to reopen them. If I close all my tabs then reopen microsoft Edge, I can simply right click in the tab bar, choose "reopen closed window", and get all my tabs back. If that's too much of a chore, I can just hit ctrl+shift+t on my keyboard. The real reason why I don't want to close my tabs by accident is that some of my tabs are doing important things. If I have a 3 paragraph Amazon review in a tab, and the tab is closed, restoring the tab does not bring back my draft. When all my tabs close unexpectedly, I lose any in-progress downloads, music, video streams, and text box contents. The URL isn't the important part.
I have to get to class now, have a great rest of your day!
WolfIcefang If you are referring to what I think you are then I've suggested this feature multiple times in different places. I would like the option to have only the icon pop up in the horizontal tabs like I mentioned similar to verticle tabs how they only show the icon. and then when you click on an icon (the thumbtack pin) you would get the icon plus the text in horizontal tabs like in verticle tabs currently on canary and developer edge.
- well, then you are one of the lucky users that would check the box that says always close all tabs then if this feature is added (which it should be).
I thought i would also add my 2 cents to this discussion. As i am really trying to get into the New Edge but there are some key items that need to be implemented.
• Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window
- The browser should give a choice to close all tabs or specific tab. That being said, it should also be customizable such that the user can turn the feature on/off.
• Bring the tab set aside feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge
- YES! i was trying to use collections and it is no where near as streamlined experience. Was frustrated on the collections location and its layout. But reading through some of the comments, i believe the collections and set aside features could be combined.
- Keep Set Aside button locations in upper left hand corner
- Keep organization of Set Aside but add ability to name tab groupings
- Keep the syncing of collections
- Have the ability to add current page to set aside tabs
- Combine the sharing tab features of both
This is just the top of my head key items that I thought of, will update as i think of more.
Elliot Kirk If you are providing a prompt at closing to protect me from accidentally closing all of my tabs, it would be most efficient to have an option to set them aside and close as well. Half the time I close the browser, I meant to set aside my tabs first and am cancelling just to do that before actually closing the window.
So the flow would be "Click X to close browser" > "Are you sure you want to close all of these tabs?" > "Set Aside/Close Them/Cancel"
