Allow to close multiple tabs without moving the mouse after closing one

[maximilianschmitt]

Hi! I love the new shrink tab sizing in the latest version of Code. It feels much more natural to me because I now have a much better idea of which editors are open in which pane and how many are open in total.

There's an awesome thing that Chrome does when you're closing tabs – it doesn't resize the tabs while you're closing them. This allows you to close many tabs by just clicking repeatedly. It's a small details but it makes the experience a lot smoother in my opinion:

For comparison, here is how closing multiple tabs currently behaves in VS Code:

I think the behaviour is something like this:

If the user just closed a tab by clicking, and there is a tab to the right,
don't resize the tabs until the user moves the mouse pointer out from the tabs bar.

When you close a tab that is currently active, select the tab
to the right next (not the previously selected tab).

[feargswalsh92]

This doesn't exactly solve this problem but in case you didn't know VSCode supports the Cmd+W keyboard shortcut that I use in chrome to close multiple tabs in a row. This helps me a lot with closing a bunch at once.

[maximilianschmitt]

Thanks @feargswalsh92, I use that shortcut all the time but sometimes using the mouse is more convenient. :)

[stclairdaniel]

Is there any update here? I couldn't find any recent conversations but this is something that still bugs me.

[MichaelAldrich]

Would love an update on this.

[paweston70]

There is an alternative - workbench.editor.tabCloseButton can be positioned on the left, that way the mouse pointer always remains in the same place, but a user naturally gravitates to the right to close a tab, so it would be quicker, but just slightly annoying.

[adamreisnz]

Atom implemented something similar here: atom/tabs#300

I've moved to VS Code from frustration with Atom's slowness, but this feature is a +💯

[Kylar13]

I'd love this feature!
The close button to the left feels plain wrong, and the Cmd + W shortcut is not the same behavior, since for example I usually do this when I wanna close all tabs but one, and Cmd + W will close a tab and focus the last open one, and while this is usually the desired behavior, it's not what you'd want in this use case.
Cmd + W and Ctrl + Tab just feels clunky.

[Kenobi-the-2nd]

For those of you looking for similar functionality (i.e., selection of multiple tabs), please see the feature request here, and upvote it if you would like to see this feature added.

[ian-h-chamberlain]

@Kenobi-the-2nd That issue was automatically closed and conversation locked, but it appears to have received the requisite number of votes (21 of 20 required) for consideration in the backlog. Do you know if there is a way to have it reopened for consideration? I would love both that functionality and the one described in this issue, but it seems that is no longer a possibility 😞

It appears that someone even made an attempt to implement it (!) based on the linked commit: CSCD01@5966234

[adamreisnz]

Moreover, this issue has 50+ upvotes too.

[kanlukasz]

If you want to close the tab by tab and not move the cursor, you can use the middle mouse button (clickable scroll button). You can click anywhere on the tab and then it will close.
Of course, this is a half-way solution, but better than nothing

[JohnRThomas]

Looks like it's been more than a year since this was last commented on. I'd like to see this feature too, any update?

[rohitghali]

Any update on this? Really frustrating managing tabs in vscode.

[kchoo1118]

Any updates?

[teejay-87]

I would add that, for this to function properly, all tabs should be the same size, otherwise you have long-name files' tabs longer than others, and you need to move the cursor left and right for each tab you want to close.

I think having all tabs same size, like in Chrome, should be an option too.

[adamreisnz]

How can we put together/fund a bounty to have this issue fixed and addressed?

It has 90+ upvotes, and been open for almost 5 years, but still hasn't been picked up. At this point I am willing to pay for having this solved, as it drives me bonkers every time I want to close a set of tabs.

[ZioCain]

Another solution could be having the close button on the left, like Opera browser does.
This way, no need to have tabs the same size, you don't have to move the mouse to close multiple tabs

[gjsjohnmurray]

@ZioCain this is already an option: "workbench.editor.tabCloseButton": "left"

[starball5]

Related on Stack Overflow: Is there a way to make all editor tabs in VS Code's workbench the same width?

[jacekkopecky]

@bpasero would it be OK if I pick up #40750 and bring it up to current vscode as a solution to this? Chrome-like nice responsive tabs don't seem to be in the pipeline, and recently every time I was irritated by the differently sized tabs, I thought that simply fixed-size tabs would be quite alright for me.

[bpasero]

I cannot make any promises when or if at all I can look at it, but if we ever had an option for it, we should have it with the existing setting as a choice:

[jacekkopecky]

@bpasero yes, it would be an option "fixed" in there, with a further option for the actual width the user wants.

[jacekkopecky]

@bpasero maybe you can have a look at #181729? 8-) I know, no promises, and I do understand.

[bpasero]

A new workbench.editor.tabSizing option fixed came in via #181729 that:

• keeps tabs the same size irrespective to the content
• keeps that size when closing a tab for as long as the mouse is over the tab bar

Thanks Jacek!

[maximilianschmitt]

This is amazing. Thanks @jacekkopecky and @bpasero!! 🎉