Bug 46726

*** Bug 48065 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(This bug should be closed)        It already exists, just right click on a toolbar and choose 'Configure   Toolbars', in the dialog that showns, on the left side, you can search for an  entry labeled "Close current tab" and add it to the toolbar you with (there is  another entry labeled "Add new tab").    Another way (faster) to close tab is to use the Ctrl+w shortcut. 

Much better though would be to impliment it the way galeon and QTella impliment  it, having a small X on the tab. See  http://qtella.sourceforge.net/qtella_snap02.jpg for what I mean, on a QT app. 

Please read the bug report. It asks for a _BUTTON_. Not right click, not a key  
shortcut. Both are not easy to use, it is easy to close the false tab. I would 
prefer a decent GUI to close tabs, either like Mozilla or like galeon.  
  
At the moment the tab GUI is IMHO not up to KDE standards. The tabs are very  
hard to use and look different than the other toolbars:  
  
* The "arrow" gui to move to tabs that are not on the screen is much worse than   
  the GUI for overcrowded tool bars. Why reinvent the wheel?  
  
* The Tab position is fixed to the top. Why not allow the tabs on the bottom?  
  Konsole puts them  at the bottom by default. 
 
* There is no obvious way to close a tab. 

Moritz, that button already exists, along with the 'Open new tab' (read my 
comment) Konqueror only needs to have it added by default to the toolbars. But 
I would still prefer a close button on each tab like Qtella does. I also think 
that the arrow to move between tabs is horrible, I would like a lot more the 
tabs to resize. 

Another very nice feature would be the ability to move a tabs's position by dragging the tab to a new location, and/or the ability to "break off" a tab by simply dragging it to the desktop 

Yes, someone understands me :) A close button on each tab, aka Galeon. This 
makes closing a specific tab a single-click affair.

Also, while I think of it, another suggestion (if this isn't the place I 
apologise, but at least it'll receive critique):

That once a link has been selected to open in a new tab (middle mouse button 
for me) that the tab appears immediately and then loads the page. This is also 
how Galeon behaves. Currently the tab only appears if the page is accessible. 
If you click on multiple links in sequence to queue a number of page loads, 
any links that are dead or slow and don't immediately respond will cause the 
next click to load a page in a tab to 'overwrite' the request of the previous 
one. Makes it a pain following links on/to slow sites.

I would like to submit that the single removecurrenttab button is sufficient 
for me. It may also be sufficient for others, but I would like to be able to 
put it on the tab toolbar instead of my normal toolbar. I customize my toolbar
(s) down so that I only have the one main toolbar, placing the location box and 
all there. Currently, I also have the Close Current Tab button there, but it 
makes more sense the way mozilla handles it.

I would also like to see a close button on each tab, like in Galeon. This makes
it easier to close inactive tabs.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page QTella doesn't have a close button
on any of its tabs. It's a static pixmap, not a button (notice the fact that it
doesn't change when you click on it). It will not work in Konqueror because
QTabs have space for only one pixmap. In Konqueror that space is already used
for the so called favicon. 
I'll be writting a completely new tab widget for Konqueror after 3.1 is out and
most probably I'll make the close buttons placemant configurable.

hi,

there should NOT be a close button on every single tab, this is a waste of space
and it is ugly. Please do only one button at the end (like mozilla).
Screen-space is too precious to waste it with 10 times the same button.
As said earlier, mozilla does the tabs the right way !!

I have to contradict that. It's no waste because having only one close button has a major 
disadvantage: you can't close tabs that aren't focused. So having a close button on every tab 
make very good sense. 

You cant close a window that is not focused either. If you try you actually focus it at the same 
time. 
 
I think being able to right click on a tab and choosing close is good enough for unfocused 
windows. I do think the by far most common action is to close the current tab, not an 
unfocused one. If you add a close button to each tab, you increase the risk of having someone 
click on the wrong one. You also either reduce the size of the text label, or the ammount of 
tabs you can have on the screen before they have to be squeezed, or the text gets unreadable 
because it gets too small to hold any text. (and the latter you increase dramatically) 
 
I personally think this is plenty of reason as to why a close button on each tab is not a good 
idea. 
 
I think it is a good idea to add a favicon to each tab though. Both because it adds an icon 
which can often aid in distinguishing the different sites, even if the tabs are so small that you 
cant really read its label. And because this space can be used to indicate whatever the page is 
still loading. 
 
Some features are fine if you only have a few tabs, but gets problematic once you hit 20 tabs. 
I think the close button on each tab is one of those. 

It should be an option.  I find it convenient and use it often, even if you do
not.  It is much more tedious to do two clicks (right click, then close, or
click on the tab then hit the close tab button) than a single click.  I have
gotten used to not accidently clicking the wrong tab (and hardly did it anyway).

Then i would dare call you a non-standard user. It is not very common that people close 
documents they dont have active. 
 
I hardly think this should be configureable, at least not in the gui. While i appreciate 
configurability, it can also go to far. 

I'm sorry, because you don't use a feature then its configurability gone too
far?  Let's do a survey of galeon users!  Lets find out how many of them who
have the option enjoy it and use it (because it can be turned off).  I don't
think we should ask people who don't have the feature available, because they
will have difficulty imagining situations where it is useful.  But if we ask
people who have had the feature there then we can get a good idea if it gets
used or not.

How many is a good result? 5%?  10%?  20%?

No, i have voted to remove options that i personally used before because they were only 
complicated things without giving a real benefit. 
 
I think this is one of those things. If there are options for every little thing that people would 
like to tweak, then we would get 10 times as many options as we have now.  
 
I have expressed why i think a close button on each tab is a poor idea, and at least should be 
turned off by default (space waste, error prone, strange order of work). And i also think this is 
such a small thing that we are down into the too many options domain.  
 
This is my last message on the topic of the close buttons, unless something significant is 
added to the discussion. 

Subject: Re:  Please add button to close tabs like in mozilla

I also am a fan of having a close button on every tab, and I don't think the
loss of space is a big deal -- especially if there is also a favicon on each
tab, you hardly need the label to distinguish them. However, I am also worried
about the problem of option bloat. Would it be possible to implement this as a
plugin/extension? This is the way mozilla does it and it seems to work well --
the normal installation has sensible defaults and a limited set of options, and
extensions can be used to add in all the options that power users like.

Does konqueror's architecture support this approach?

Just to comment on this, after people said it wasn't useful I've been paying
attention to how often I use this feature.  I'd say about 1/4 of every tabs I
close are done via this feature in Galeon.  So I can't see why you would say it
will never be used.  It is hard to imagine it being useful if you haven't used
it, but for me who uses it all the time I feel like I'm stuck in a brace or a
mud pit without it.

*** Bug 53177 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I find it completely strange that not only tabs, but even the sidebar, have no visible way to close 
them without using the RMB or a menu option. 
 
Surely closing tabs, and closing the sidebar, are not unusual actions. 
 
Whether we do mozilla style or galeon style is not very important to me, but I think that as 
common an action as this should be accessible via a normal button. 

Could a reordering of the RMB menu be enough? 
 
Now they appear in this order: 
New tab, Duplicate tab| Detach tab, CLOSE TAB| Reload, Reload all t.| Close Other t. 
 
My guess is that New, Duplicate, Detach are not that often used... (I have never used 
them sine I put open in new tab as my middle button). First reason for low use is that 
they can not be used unless you actually have ONE tab... 
 
If Close tab was first it would be very easy to use. Would this be enough? 
 
Proposed order: 
CLOSE TAB, Detach tab| New tab, Duplicate tab| Reload, Reload all t.| Close Other t. 
 
Logically "Close other tabs" belongs last in the first group but it is dangerous to have 
it close to "New tab". Accidents do happen... 

I believe there are going to be tab close buttons on the new tab bar Zack and others 
are designing, along with a "new tab" button. 

Also, until then, could I suggest this situation would be greatly improved if the tab 
toolbar was VISIBLE by default? I was using tabs in Konq for almost 2 months before 
someone told me I could add a close tab button to the toolbar. These options are not 
easy to access for the common user ( most people do not customiize their toolbars ) 
and it is such a widely requested item I suspect no one knows it already exists. 

(1) In my opinion, messing with the RMB is not enough. RMB options are only used by power 
users, as lots of usability info attests. We need an easy and obvious way to close tabs. 
 
(2) But the redesign is still a good idea. I would also say, get rid of "reload" and "reload all" 
completely. I don't see why "reload" should be on the tab menu any more than, say, "view 
source" or any other url-specific action: they are already on the toolbar. (And I am not sure what 
the use case for "reload all" is - is it just for web designers testing pages?) 

RMB only for power users. OK, I accept that if someone care to 
explain how a non power user got those tabs opened in the first place :-) 
 
In bug #48417 it is suggested to use MMB to close tabs. 

LOL. True in a sense. But actually it would be possible to open a new tab from
the Window menu. 

I think more to the point is that there are 266 votes for this idea. As the
original suggestion says, it would be convenient.

The loss to the user is simply some extra space taken up on tabs, which is only
an issue if you have lots of tabs open already - otherwise there is spare space
free anyway. So this seems like an unequivocal gain in 90% of cases. And it's a
very popular bug!

The whole point is that we all want to browse with as little mouse moving, clicking and 
opening menues as possible. I was surprised to read about the existance of a toolbar 
button (though I haven't really ever searched for it..). This toolbar button really should 
be there (both create and close) by default, or put it on each tab. Having to access a 
menu to close a tab irritates me and requires twice the amount of mouse clicks. 

I'd suggest to go the obvious way. Mozilla doesn't do it the obvious way by
having only one close cross which closes only the currently opened tab, users
might think it close the tab right next to it on the left. Galeon does it the
obvious way by offering the close cross on every single tab, but this is a waste
of space and looks ugly imho.

My suggestion is offering the close cross on every single tab, however with the
change that they only replace the usual web site icons when the tab bar has the
focus or the mouse is hovering the tab bar. This way we get an additional
requested feature without completely forsaking the current look and feel and
existing UI rules.

Making the site icon change to a close cross when the mouse hovered over the tab would get 
my vote. That is a truly inspired idea, and the best suggestion yet in this discussion. Thanks, 
Datschge. 

Additional feature request: middle-click a tab to close the tab. This is convenient 
and takes no screen space. By the way, this is the same behaviour as Mozilla. 

> Additional feature request: middle-click a tab to close the tab. This is convenient  
> and takes no screen space. By the way, this is the same behaviour as Mozilla. 
 
Furthermore it's a hidden feature people can only find out accidentally and which, even 
worse, heavily conflicts with the already existing middle-click paste metaphor (mmb 
paste = non destructive, mmb tab close = destructive). However you can promote this 
feature request at bug 48417 if you really want. 
 
 

Subject: Re:  Please add button to close tabs like in mozilla

On April 8, 2003 02:41 pm, you wrote:
> Furthermore it's a hidden feature people can only find out accidentally and
> which, even worse, heavily conflicts with the already existing middle-click
> paste metaphor (mmb paste = non destructive, mmb tab close = destructive).
> However you can promote this feature request at bug 48417 if you really
> want.

I don't really have an opinion either way on this subject, but I would really like
to point out the major flaw in your argument, that being that middle click on the
web page is totally destructive in that it loads an entirely different page (the
URL in the clipboard). So I don't see the "middle click == non destructive"
argument is at all relevant.

Also since middle click on a tab currently does nothing at all, I dont see how
adding this option would be wrong, even if it can only be discovered "accidentally".

> but I would really like  
> to point out the major flaw in your argument, that being that middle click on the  
> web page is totally destructive in that it loads an entirely different page (the  
> URL in the clipboard). So I don't see the "middle click == non destructive"  
> argument is at all relevant.  
 
The back button should work in this case (and does for me). If it doesn't for you report it 
as a bug please. 
  
> Also since middle click on a tab currently does nothing at all, I dont see how  
> adding this option would be wrong, even if it can only be discovered "accidentally". 
 
I'm not aware of a way to revive mmb closed tabs, do you have a suggestion? The 
currently suggestion is destructive and conflicts with the already existing 
non-destructive middle-click paste metaphor. But this is off topic here anyway, please 
continue this discussion at bug 48417. 

because kde already has this feature, it needs better icon placement tools.. 
like phoenix (a more refined mozilla) 
 
phoenix has the expando drop in  component.. 
konqueror only has "spacer" drop in components. 
 
konqueror also needs ability to display text next to the buttons, or text only 
it also needs toolbar groups that move together..  
 
and... very important: ability to put hyperlinks  on the toolbar... NOT normal bookmarks (witch 
would be an improvement).. but right click on a button and change it's url, then when you click 
on it you go there. 
I have a few sites that I visit daily and want one click acess to them. and I don't want the hastle 
of bookmarks  (bookmarks=places where I don't visit often but want to remember) 
 

I am voting for this wish, in the the design layed out in Comment #11 and
Comment #13. Chris

HEAD's Konqueror now supports both Mozilla-like "New Tab" and "Close Tab" 
buttons (if compiled against Qt 3.2) and a variant of "close buttons within 
tabs" (the tabs' icons change to a close button on mouse hover). Both enabled 
by default with GUI for options awaited soon. 

It's really cool that this has been implemented, but do we really need a GUI 
option for this? Shouldn't we just do the right thing? This does not seem like 
a case where the option to enable or disable makes a substantial difference to 
functionality.

Please do it the mozilla way not the galeon way. i for one HATE the way galeon
does it, at least give the user a choice. I often open up many links or
screenshots than  read/look at each one. After that I click the last tab and
jsut press the x in the right multiple times easily closing each tab. I is also
much more consistent, I don't have to worry about whre the tab is, i alway sknow
clicking that X will close the active tab.

How about testing first what has been submitted before continuing commenting? Btw 
this bug is closed now, if there are further or new issues you'll better open a new wish 
report for each of them. 

Yes thats one advantage of that way, but the Galeon /Mozilla w/Tabbrowser 
extentions way also has many advantages, namely the fact that you don't have to be 
on the tab to close it. If you got o a site with a rogue popup, you can close it without 
having to ever even look at it. Or if you open a bunch of pages in middle clicks then 
later decide not to bother with one. Etc. With the normal mozilla it takes two clicks 
and a bunch of mouse moving from the tab area to / from the X button, with Galeon it 
only takes a single click and hardly any movement. 

This is listed as RESOLVED FIXED???!!! 
 
Nooo!!! 
I'll continue to use MozillaFirebird... because I can close tabs by middle 
mouse clicking on them... and I can turn off middle mouse button is paste... 
and it has autoscroll and it has a good keyboard shortcut to increase text 
size...    And I can space buttons where I want them to be in the tool bar. 
 
 
The close tab button should be on the line with the tabs... and there should 
be an option to plac the close tab icon on the tab itself... and there should 
be an option to make middle clicking on a tab close it...  
 
We need these options to actually use your browser. 
It is unusably cluttered because of the tool bars. 
 
making the close tab button be on the same line as the tabs would make the 
browser interface so much easier to navigate. 
 
anyway... I haven't been checking up on development because my corrupted 
konqueror prefereances crashed the entire system... 
 
make this show up as unresolved again please! 
yall dissing our bug/feature requests is dissenchanting.  if it were still 
open some deveoper might see it and make a new patch for it... but it being 
closed means that people are unlikely to see it. 
 
shame. 
maybe I'll get arround to fixing it... my boss likes Konqueror better than 
mozilla... so it would make him happy to be able to use it. 
 
 

Subject: Re:  Please add button to close tabs like in mozilla

> I'll continue to use MozillaFirebird... because I can close tabs by middle  
> mouse clicking on them... and I can turn off middle mouse button is paste... 
 
middle mouse == paste in all KDE. Firebird is not a Desktop Environment so it has its  
own choices but Konqueror must go along with rest of KDE. 
 
>  
> and it has autoscroll and it has a good keyboard shortcut to increase text  
> size...    And I can space buttons where I want them to be in the tool bar.  
>   
Fill a bug for each other bug. 
 
 
>   
> The close tab button should be on the line with the tabs... and there should 
>  
> be an option to plac the close tab icon on the tab itself... and there should 
>  
> be an option to make middle clicking on a tab close it...   
 
Fill a bug for each other bug. 
 
> shame.  
> maybe I'll get arround to fixing it... my boss likes Konqueror better than  
> mozilla... so it would make him happy to be able to use it. 
>  
 
Mozilla is slow. Konqueror is getting there.