Editor Tabs

Every time you open a file for editing, a dedicated tab is added to the editor window, next to the active editor tab.

JetBrains Rider can limit the number of tabs opened in the editor simultaneously. When the number of tabs reaches its limit, the editor closes the less recent tabs (unless they are pinned) according to the tab closing policy, which is defined in the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the Settings/Preferences Ctrl+Alt+S By default, the tab limit is 10, but you can change it if necessary.

Manage editor tabs

Use commands in Window | Editor Tabs menu.
Right-click a tab and use its context menu.
Click on the tab label to close the tab or Alt-click it to close all other tabs.
Use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+F4 to close the active tab, Alt+Right/Alt+Left to switch to the next or previous tab.

Configure the behavior of editor tabs

In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Editor | General | Editor Tabs.
Change the maximum allowed number of tabs: type the desired maximum allowed number of the editor tabs to be opened at a time in the Tab limit field.
If the tab limit equals 1, the tabs will be disabled. If you want the editor to never close the tabs, type some unreachable number.
With the disabled tabs, use the View | Recent files Ctrl+E command to quickly switch between files.
By default, the tab headers appear on top of the editor, but you can change their location as required, and have the headers at the bottom, left, or right sides of the editor. Note that the tab header placement is a global setting that applies to all projects.
Use the Placement selector to choose the desired position of tab headers.
To disable editor tabs altogether, select None from the Placement selector.

Open files in the preview tab

The preview tab allows you to view files in a single tab one by one without opening each file in a new tab. This is helpful if you need to look through several files without exceeding the tab limit.

In the Solution explorerAlt+1, click and select the Enable Preview Tab option.
You can also enable the preview tab in Settings/Preferences | General | Editor Tabs | Opening Policy.
In the Solution explorer, select a file that is not already open in any other tab.
The name of the file is written in italic to indicate the preview mode. Any other file that you select will replace the previous one in the preview tab.
Start editing the file to exit the preview mode and change it to a regular tab.
Note that when the preview tab is enabled, the Open Files with Single Click option is ignored. Double-click a file to open it in a regular tab.

Navigate editor tabs

You can jump from one tab to another as your editing session requires. While you move between the editor tabs, JetBrains Rider remembers the caret position within each opened file.

Navigate open editor tabs

Right-click the current editor tab and choose Select Next/Previous Tab from the context menu.
Press Alt+Right or Alt+Left to move the focus to the editor tab located next to the right or to the left from the active editor tab.
Press Ctrl+Tab to use the Switcher. While holding down Ctrl, you can use Tab or Shift+Tab to pick the desired editor tab in the right-hand part of the popup:

Go back and forth through the history of visited tabs

On the main toolbar, click or .
Choose Navigate | Back / Forward from the main menu.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Left or Ctrl+Alt+Right.
Press Ctrl+Eor Ctrl+Shift+Comma to navigate to the recently veiwed or edited files.
On a macOS computer, you can use the three-finger right-to-left and left-to-right swipe gestures.

If too many tabs are opened and shown in a single row, the less recent tabs are hidden.

View hidden editor tabs and select the active editor

Do one of the following:
- Choose Window | Editor Tabs | Show Hidden Tabs from the main menu.
- Click in the upper right corner of the editor area.
Click the name of the desired document:

The command Show All Tabs and the icon are only available when:

The Show tabs in single row checkbox is selected in the Editor | General | Editor Tabs page of the Settings/Preferences Ctrl+Alt+S.
Some of the opened tabs are not visible because they do not fit in the editor window.

Pin and unpin tabs

When the specified tab limit is reached, JetBrains Rider will close old tabs when you open new documents. To prevent a tab from being closed automatically, you can pin this tab. Besides, when you close the editor tabs, you have an option to leave pinned tabs opened and close only the unpinned tabs.

When a tab is pinned, there is a special marker on it:

To pin or unpin a tab, right-click it and choose Pin Tab or Unpin Tab from the context menu.

If some tabs are pinned, you can leave only them and close all unpinned tabs — right-click any editor tab and choose Close All but Pinned from the context menu.

Split editor window

You can split the editor window into as many panes as required, each one containing multiple tabs. A single file can be open in several split panes. For example, you can scroll through a part of a file having another part of the file in view in another pane.

You can split the editor by dragging and dropping a tab to the side of the main editor window. Pinned tabs are always displayed on the left-hand side of the tab bar.

Splitting editor window with drag-and-drop

Another option is to choose any file in the Solution Explorer and open it in the right split, so that the currently opened document also stays visible. To do so, press Shift+Enter when the desired file is focused in the Solution Explorer or right-click it and choose Edit | Edit 'file' in Right Split from the context menu.

Switch to the desired editor tab and right-click it.
To split an editor tab and create another tab for the document, choose Split Vertically or Split Horizontally from the context menu.
To create a new tab group and move an editor tab to this group without creating another tab for the document, choose Split and Move Right or Split and Move Down from the context menu.
To change the splitter orientation, choose Change Splitter Orientation from the context menu.
To move the splitter providing more or less space for one of the tabs, set the caret in this tab and choose Window | Editor Tabs | Stretch Editor to Top/Left/Bottom/Right from the menu.
To switch focus between split tabs, choose Window | Editor Tabs | Goto Next/Previous Splitter from the menu.
To remove the splitter, choose one of the following commands from the context menu:
- To remove splitting in the active tab, choose Unsplit.
- To remove splitting in all the open editor tabs, choose Unsplit All.

Open editor tabs in separate windows

You can detach editor tabs from the main editor area, and move them to separate windows. The detached editor tabs can be split or unsplit, and you can drag editor tabs between windows.

Do one of the following:
- Drag this tab outside of the main window. A preview thumbnail appears:
- Press Shift+F4.
The editor tab opens in a separate window.
To move a detached tab to the main editor area, drag it from its window and drop it next to other tabs:

Arrange tabs in the alphabetical order

The alphabetical sorting of the editor tabs is available regardless of the tabs position. However, alphabetical order for top and bottom placement becomes available, when the Show tabs in single row check command is selected on the Window | Editor Tabs | Tabs Placement menu.

Right-click an editor tab.
Select Sort Tabs by Filename.

If this check command is selected, the tabs headers are presented in alphabetical order. Otherwise, the editor tab headers appear in the opening order of the corresponding files.

Last modified: 20 November 2020

JetBrains Rider 2020.3 Help