Opening Editor Tabs - Workflow Optimization

General Feedback & Requests
1

Hey guys!

I think it would greatly improve workflow if opening assets had one more customization setting. When you open an asset with no other assets open, it always pops up into full screen mode, in it’s own window. I would love to have an option that places the opened asset directly as a tab in the current window. is great for people that work only on one screen to have design documents, 2D/3D software, tutorial videos or even Epic’s live stream running on the other monitor.

My current workflow is:

  1. Open Level
  2. Open Asset (opens up in separate full-screen window -.-)
  3. Drag off the Asset tab.
  4. Place asset tab next to the Level tab.
  5. Go back to the Level tab to see the Content Browser.
  6. Open additional assets (they appear next to the opened tabs now! yay!)

I have to repeat steps 2 to 5, every time I have closed all previously opened assets. (Say I open a blueprint, change it, close it, open another one - BAM it goes back to full-screen!). The process is even more tedious when I open multiple assets at once (because I have to drag off each one of them once at a time, or go back, open a single asset and then I am safe to open more assets as a batch to get the desired behavior). Oh and restoring the tabs next time I open the Editor doesn’t cut it for me. I like to get a fresh start every day so that I don’t have tabs cluttering my screen, also I work on multiple PCs.

I would like to propose any of these solutions (in descending order of usefulness):

a) Add “Open new asset tabs in current window” option in “Editor Preferences > General - Appearance > User Interface”
b) Add Context menu option in Content Browser (Right-click, “Open as tab”)
c) Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+E to open up as a tab (keep Ctrl+E to use the current logic)

P.S.: I love to have tabs when working on one screen! Huge time-saver when you have 3-8 assets open most of the time, which happens a lot in blueprinting. :wink:

2

+1000 for feedback.
I also like to work using system of tabs.
I believe that with the suggestions you made, the workflow would be improved.

3

+1
The standard behaviour really bugs me too, often i only do blueprint editing for hours and i prefer to use my second monitor for other things.

4

Yes times infinity! I’m 99% sure will be changed in 4.5 to make multiple tabs workflows smoother.

5

Yep, I manually move tabs out to other monitors when I need them, it would be incredibly helpful if I could always have tabs open in the same window even if they were outside the main window before.

Should I make a new thread to request Control+Tab and Control+Shift+Tab to switch open tabs back and forth?

6

I didn’t want to clutter up thread, but I added a similar regarding tabs and windows on multiple monitors HERE. :slight_smile:

7

Hope it’s ok to bump oldie, couldn’t find any other info regarding . Any news? :slight_smile: It’s obviously not high priority, but it’s certainly one of those slow knifes into the side of my morale while using the editor. Every time I open a level having to move newly opened blueprint editors back into my main window so that I can see what’s going on in visual studio, etc.

Cheers

8

is filed and I hope we get to it soon as I also miss the functionality very much.

Things are still in flux and might change before release, but opening asset tabs in the same window as the level editor is currently the default behavior in the 4.7 branch.

Cheers,
Michael Noland

9

Workflow Optimization: Opening EditorTabs – Always Open Tabs Next to Current option

I would like to request an option of permanently opening new tabs to the right of the current one to «Editor Preferences –> General –> Appearance –> User Interface».

+1000

10

The main idea of my request that I would like always return to previously opened tab after closing new-opened one, i.e.

  1. I’m on Tab1 now, selecting some asset (Asset1) from my Content Browser.

  2. Double-clicking on Asset1 opens new tab, which always at the rightest position of my tabs panel, i.e. there are may be a lot of another tabs between Tab1 and Asset1, e.g. Tab1, … TabN, Asset1.

  3. Closing the tab Asset1 doesn’t returns me to Tab1 which has been opened before, though I don’t switched tabs while moving from the first step to current. So after closing Asset1 I’m on TabN, not as expected.

As you may observe, returning to previously opened tab it is a bit another than I requested in previous post. IMAO it is not an option to be customized, it is an adequate behavior in most applications that I know.

11

Did get done?

I basically always want the new window to open as a tab. It’s a real workflow buzzkill otherwise

12

Did get done?

I basically always want the new window to open as a tab. It’s a real workflow buzzkill otherwise
[/QUOTE]

Edit from the menu bar, Editor Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> User Interface -> Asset Editor Open Location

There’s lots of options for where the window should go when you open an asset.

13

Thank-you very much DonkeyPotato! I just found my way here today, fuming and frustrated and frazzled, tired of having editors pop open in my face - and tired of accidentally closing UE4 when I close the Editgor instead of the Tab!

Now life is back to being another day in paradise every day - Much Gratitude!

~