ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2021-06-04 04:53 pm

Tab Usage

This article talks about tab usage, including some different ways people use them or feel about them.
* short-term storage of information (me)
* keep tabs that they know they'll never get around to reading
* a sort of external memory bank (me)
* a manifestation of everything that's on my mind right now. Or the things that should be on my mind right now...
* feeling flustered by having so many tabs open — a situation called "tab overload" — * feeling ashamed that they appeared disorganized by having so many tabs up at once

Also, they sometimes crash a browser or a computer. This is annoying, but some people find the value of the tabs exceeds their risk.


The issue is not tabs as a tool. The issue is whether or not you are able to examine that tool and find a way to use it that works for you -- or determine it is more trouble than it's worth and avoid it.

I use my tab bar like a bookshelf. The left side has my static tabs: things I access frequently, like my blog and the Time-and-Date page. The right side has my active tabs: things that change rapidly as I look up a topic, close it, and look up something else. In the middle is, yes, a bunch of cruft that I mean to work with or visit occasionally, but don't have a better way of storing where I'll remember it. This method works excellently for me, and I am greatly aggravated if the browser crashes in a way that erases that stack of tabs. So I have a backup list of the URLs. That way a crash loses only a small subset of the tabs. I use the tab bar all day long, every day; it's one of the most-used computer features for me. That doesn't mean it is good for everyone. It means I know how my brain works and how to use tools accordingly, provided those tools are potentially of use to me in some way.

One suggested improvement is a way to sort tabs into groups and subgroups. Well, I'm already doing that on a lateral spectrum. A different interface for such sorting might make that easier, or harder.
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)

Open tabs

[personal profile] dialecticdreamer 2021-06-04 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I keep several work tabs open all the time. (My word count spreadsheet, for example.) I keep my research tabs open only as long as I'm working on the topic, but I definitely need a better way to organize the reference links that I want to keep. My bookmarks folder has been useless for three years or more.
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)

[personal profile] dewline 2021-06-05 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
Tab overload?

That's supposed to be a thing for me?
ihavenoarms: (Default)

[personal profile] ihavenoarms 2021-06-05 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
great post
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)

Re: Open tabs

[personal profile] mdlbear 2021-06-05 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)

I probably ought to write up the way I use tabs and bookmarks. In order of increasing stability, there are tabs, the bookmark toolbar (with folders and sometimes sub-folders to categorize things), and a page full of links that I call the Quick Reference page. Before the advent of the bookmarks toolbar, I attached it to my browser's "Home" button.

dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)

Re: Open tabs

[personal profile] dialecticdreamer 2021-06-05 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm betting that you have different tracking and foci, because you're more math-focused than I am!