How can I switch between editor windows without minimizing to taskbar?

Lino_von_Burg · July 21, 2014, 6:16pm

In the long run I will get a second monitor but for now I am stuck using a single monitor setup.
My problem with the Unreal Engine 4 editor is that all the additional editors are always on top of the main editor window. Even if I click on the main editors thumbnail-popup in the windows 7 taskbar that doesn’t change. Is there any way to either switch between windows with a simple shortcut or at least make every editor window accessible through alt+tab? I searched through Google and also AnswerHub but didn’t find any answers to that

TJ_V · July 21, 2014, 6:22pm

Hi Lino,

You can grab the extra windows by the tab and drag it to the main editor window, much like the tabs in a web browser.

I hope it helps, TJ

Lino_von_Burg · July 21, 2014, 6:27pm

oh, i didn’t think of that! thank you
is there a shortcut to switch between tabs?

TJ_V · July 21, 2014, 9:19pm

Unfortunately there isn’t any other shortcuts at the moment. The good news is, this has been on our wishlist for quite some time. It is backlogged at the moment but is high priority.

Nameless_Voice · January 3, 2016, 10:01pm

Any news on this?
Subwindows are still always-on-top in UE 4.10.1, and a quick glance at the change notes for UE 4.11 doesn’t mention any change in that behaviour.

Having to either constantly minimise/restore the windows or putting everything into tabs in the main window makes working on a single monitor setup needlessly painful.

TJ_V · January 6, 2016, 6:33pm

Hi Nameless,

This was implemented as Ctrl+Tab. It works very similar to the Windows shortcut (Alt+Tab).

Nameless_Voice · January 6, 2016, 6:43pm

My apologies, I didn’t write my question clearly enough.

I was asking if there was any progress on the bug (or, undesired feature) that makes all of UE4’s sub-windows always on top of the main editor window.
I know that there is the workaround of adding all of your windows as tabs in the main editor interface, but that is somewhat awkward and the original issue still remains.

TJ_V · January 6, 2016, 9:12pm

Sorry about that, I though you were referencing the feature that Lino and I discussed below.

I see what you are talking about now, I added a Feature Request to our tracking software for this. Maybe as a toggle-able checkbox under the Editor Preferences that allows this behavior?

Please keep in mind that this is not a guarantee of implementation, but our developers will look into it further.

Thanks,

TJ

Nameless_Voice · January 6, 2016, 11:41pm

Excellent, thanks!

AssumptionSoup · July 21, 2016, 11:47pm

Is there a ticket number for this? I find Unreal’s window behavior very annoying even on dual monitors.

TJ_V · July 22, 2016, 6:16pm

Hi AssumptionSoup,

The feature request was JIRA UE-25019. However, it was decided that this feature was not to be implemented at this time. If you find more reports from other users asking for this feature, please direct them here and we can consider reopening the ticket.

Nameless_Voice · July 22, 2016, 9:48pm

Well, I’m obviously still interested in seeing it implemented.

anonymous_user_d6a8379a · October 30, 2016, 5:03pm

I voted on the feature, the current behavior is backwards from any other application I’ve ever used. Its really strange to get used to.

Nameless_Voice · October 30, 2016, 5:13pm

Just re-checking this since the thread was bumped.
The title of this JIRA is/was wrong in any case - talks about minimised sub-windows, but the issue is about sub-windows which have not been minimised.
(Minimising them is the current workaround.)

anonymous_user_cf355f8c · January 4, 2017, 10:25pm

Hi, as you’re looking for more users asking for this, I’ll drop my 5(-ish) cents The current behavior is, at least for me, weird and kinda annoying. If the editor is creating windows, I would expect them to behave consistently with other windows: appear on the alt-tab list and stack normally with other apps. Even with two monitors I sometimes use more windows and I want to be able to switch between them normally from keyboard. A workaround is minimizing or selecting other window from taskbar – it distracts me and consumes time, thus reducing work efficiency

Another example of inconsistent behavior: open the editor, open any blueprint, and any other app (say Firefox). With Firefox in focus, select the blueprint editor from taskbar. When you minimize it, main Editor’s window appears – while I expect to see Firefox back. Another issue: with the blueprint editor in focus, if you select main editor window from taskbar, it doesn’t show, you need to minimize the blueprint manually.

(note: I suspect that there are people who like the current behavior, so this could be optional in editor’s settings)

Nialna · February 17, 2018, 1:36pm

I need this feature too. Can’t believe there is no way to make the windows behave like actual windows. Can’t alt tab or anything, I’m constantly minimising/resizing those annoying windows to be able to see the editor, it’s so bad.

anonymous_user_0d16bee7 · May 15, 2021, 3:00am

“High priority” eh? Not sure how priorities work over there. But in my experience, if a high priority issue isn’t resolved within 7 years, it’s probably not actually a priority at all.

Oh well. At least ctrl+tab works to switch between most tabs.

anonymous_user_0d16bee7 · May 15, 2021, 8:05pm

+1. Please fix. This behavior is horribly frustrating, especially for anyone with carpal tunnel or other mobility issues that make it difficult to use a mouse as a primary HUI device.

Also, if the editor preferences window is tabbed in the main window, you can’t ctrl+tab to switch to it.

Also, it would be really nice to have shortcuts to navigate the tabs in blueprint editor.

Also, it would be really helpful to be able to open the keyboard shortcuts with a shortcut, and to have a search filter that operates just on the shortcuts list instead of filtering all of the preferences.

anonymous_user_0d16bee7 · May 15, 2021, 2:52am

+1. Please fix. This behavior is horribly frustrating, especially for anyone with carpal tunnel or other mobility issues that make it difficult to use a mouse as a primary HUI device.

Also, if the editor preferences window is tabbed in the main window, you can’t ctrl+tab to switch to it.

Also, it would be really nice to have shortcuts to navigate the tabs in blueprint editor.

Also, it would be really helpful to be able to open the keyboard shortcuts with a shortcut, and to have a search filter that operates just on the shortcuts list instead of filtering all of the preferences.

Luxalpa · April 15, 2022, 11:37am

+1. Makes the editor very hard to use on 4k monitors. Also makes the Sequencer incredibly difficult to use as there’s no simple way of having the sequencer and the control rig / animation blueprint / physical assets side-by-side.

Honestly I find it baffling that you got out of your way to make this workflow as hard as possible. The default behavior on every operating system is to have different windows that you can focus between. Out of all programs I ever used (that’s a few thousand) this is the only one that doesn’t follow this philosophy and went out of its way to break this default workflow for no reason other than to make the workflow for their developers as hard as possible.