When I open a file in VS Code using Ctrl/Cmd+P, the file is opened in the current tab group of the current editor (even if the file is already open in another tab group).
I am sure there is a setting that will switch the behaviour so that if the file I am opening is already open in another tab group, then the editor will switch to the tab of the already open file (in the another tab group).
But what is the setting to configure this behaviour? 🤔
Setting is Workbench > Editor: Reveal If Open
// Controls whether an editor is revealed in any of the visible
groups if opened. If disabled, an editor will prefer to open in the
currently active editor group. If enabled, an already opened editor
will be revealed instead of opened again in the currently active
editor group. Note that there are some cases where this setting is
ignored, e.g. when forcing an editor to open in a specific group or to
the side of the currently active group.
"workbench.editor.revealIfOpen": true,
I have used this to open file in new tab, but It will not open redundant tabs
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false,
I recently started using Visual Studio Code and I would like to know, is a way to open files in a new tab? Currently whenever I open a new file the files I currently have open disappear. I say new tab, but any option that will let me open a new file in the same window as the old one works.
I have tried disabling Preview Mode through the workbench settings as shown in this answer: How to config vscode to open files always in a new tab?. However, when I choose Open or Open Recent the new file still replaces my old file.
Thanks.
Once you have to open your settings file, add the "workbench.editor.enablePreview" property and set value to false.
For 1.21.1 version.
In user settings =>
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false,
"workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen"
the best way i found.
Starting with VSCode 1.52 (Nov. 2020), you should not have any more issue: all files will open in new tabs, even in preview mode.
Better handling of preview editors:
Preview editors are now better handled with numerous improvements based on feedback and making this feature work more consistent.
The setting workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen is now disabled by default so that editors opening from quick open will not appear in preview mode anymore.
When you start a navigation (e.g. go to definition), the editor you start from will move out of preview mode to keep it open while the new editor will be in preview mode until you navigate further.
We changed all of our custom trees (the ones used from extensions or Git changes view for example) to work more consistently like our built-in trees (like the explorer).
This means, the following interactions now apply to all of them:
double-click or mouse-middle-click to open non-preview
Enter to open non-preview (Space to open in preview-mode)
Note: if you are the author of an extension that is leveraging our custom tree API, you can benefit from this change as well.
Make sure to use vscode.open or vscode.diff commands for the TreeItem.command and you are in!
A new menu item in the editor overflow menu allows to quickly turn off preview editors altogether:
You need to double click on the name of the file. Also, it needs to be done swiftly elsewhere you will be opening in the same tab.
You can drag and drop file near to the opened tab and the file will open in new tab.
Thanks everyone. Double clicking and dragging was useful, but it still didn't solve my problem when opening files from different projects with the "Open File" menu command. I found that Multi-root Workspaces is what I was looking for. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/multi-root-workspaces
This is likely due to Visual Studio Code opening file in what's called "Preview Mode", which allows you to quickly view files, ideally if a tab is in Preview Mode then its title in the tab bar, will be italic.
To disable Preview Mode set "workbench.editor.enablePreview": false in your settings file or use the "workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen" option to disable it only from the quick open menu.
Alternatively, use command palette CTL+Shift+P (to get all settings) VScode settings then in User => Workbench => Editor Management you can uncheck Enable Preview and Enable Preview from Quick Open to get the same results described above
In Visual Studio Code, whenever I close a file, the next open file becomes active in the editor and the Side Bar moves to that file's location in the folder structure. This is usually not the behavior I want. I often want to open another file in the same location as the one I just closed, but now my Side Bar has shifted around to what could be a totally different place in a large project.
I like the behavior of the main Visual Studio product where the Solution does not automatically shift. Instead, if I want to see where in the solution a file is, I can use a keyboard shortcut to move there ("Find File in Solution"), instead of automatically moving there every time the active file changes.
Is there any way to change/disable this functionality in VSCode?
The is an option explorer.autoReveal in settings (either user or workspace) which controls if the explorer should automatically reveal files when opening them.
Open VS User Settings (Preferences > User Settings). This will open two side-by-side documents.
Add a new "explorer.autoReveal": false setting to the User Settings document on the right if it's not already there. This is so you aren't editing the Default Setting directly, but instead adding to it.
Save the User Settings file.
in Version: 1.42.1
Open VS User Settings (Preferences > User Settings).
Search for "explorer auto reveal" without quotes.
Now uncheck the checkbox.
There is a new setting in v1.46 that will select the files in the explorer but not scroll to reveal them:
We have introduced a new value focusNoScroll to the
explorer.autoReveal setting. For this value Explorer will
automatically select files when opening them but will not reveal them.
from v1.46 release notes.
So that setting will highlight the active editor in the explorer but not scroll to it.
I am using Visual Studio Code 1.3.1 with the newly introduced tabs.
When I click on files, the first file will open in a tab. If I do not make any changes to this file, the second clicked file will open in the same tab.
How can I avoid this and make Visual Studio Code always open a new tab?
When you [single-]click a file in the left sidebar's file browser or open it from the quick open menu (Ctrl-P, type the file name, Enter), Visual Studio Code opens it in what's called "Preview Mode", which allows you to quickly view files.
Preview Mode tabs are not kept open. As soon as you go to open another file from the sidebar, the existing Preview Mode tab (if one exists) is used. You can determine if a tab is in Preview Mode, by looking at its title in the tab bar. If the title is italic, the tab is in preview mode.
To open a file for editing (i.e. don't open in Preview Mode), double-click on the file in the sidebar, or single-click it in the sidebar then double click the title of its Preview Mode tab.
If you want to disable Preview Mode all together, you can do so by setting "workbench.editor.enablePreview": false in your settings file. You can also use the "workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen" option to disable it only from the quick open menu.
Before you can disable Preview Mode, you'll need to open your Settings File.
Pro Tip: You can use the Command Palette(shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P) to open your settings file, just enter "Preferences: Open User Settings"!
Once you've opened your settings file (your settings file should be located on the right), add the "workbench.editor.enablePreview" property, and set its value to false.
You can learn more about Visual Studio Code's "Preview Mode", here.
If you don't want to disable preview mode you can explicitly tell vscode to keep a specific tab open. As mentioned above a tab heading with italic text is in preview mode.
To get a tab out of preview mode you can either right click on the tab and choose keep open or use the shortcut cmd + k enter that is mapped to the command workbench.action.keepEditor.
Furthermore, double-clicking on a tab also gets it out of preview mode (verified in vscode 1.44.0).
I came up with the same problem, and open setting.json file, add the following:
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false
Use workbench.editor.enablePreview: false to disable Preview mode completely.
Use workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen: false to disable Preview mode for the files open from quick open menu.
For 2020:
easy as pie, tap preferences (command ⌘ + , on Mac),
The secret is "Enable preview"
they added it right there:
Turn OFF (uncheck) for NORMAL behavior.
i.e., Turn OFF to avoid the "automatic closing" behavior.
Open in new Tab Solution:
Open the command palette by: Cmd + Shift + K
Open settings file by: Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)
Under user setting, enable Tabs by: "workbench.editor.showTabs": true
Watch for filenames in italic
Note that, the file name on the tab is formatted in italic if it has been opened in Preview Mode.
Quickly take a file out of Preview Mode
To keep the file always available in VSCode editor (that is, to take it out of Preview Mode into normal mode), you can double-click on the tab. Then, you will notice the name becomes non-italic.
Of course, you can simply double-click to open a file. This will open the file in a new tab, skipping the Preview Mode.
Feature or bug?
I believe Preview Mode is helpful especially when you have limited screen space and need to check many files.
For anyone who don't want to disabled Preview Mode.
As I read whole of comments and I found what I preferred that is the shortcut key to pin the opened file from Quick Open/Ctrl+P or that's mean to keep the opened file to the editor, and yes also don't need to switch your hand to the mouse to double-click on files list.
Thanks to #jontem and #MattLBeck.
Call save command with Ctrl+S (⌘+s on Mac) is the easiest way to reach what I preferred.
And if you found out you do this to keep opened file to editor quite frequently, yes I preferred you should setting the option "workbench.editor.enablePreview": false or "workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen": false as others mentioned before.
⚡ Actually, VSCode shows you the preview of a file.
You can disable the preview with this:
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false,
⬇️ Basically just add these two settings and you're good to go.
Menu File → Preferences → User Settings: add this line
"workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen": false
If you want to open a file permanently from "Go To File..." (⌘P), press "right arrow" instead of return.
This also keeps the Go To File... search bar open so you can quickly open multiple files.
This is not a new answer. It is just showing how to do it via UI.
Open settings via File => Preference => Settings. The most upvoted answer is the correct choice.
Then in search field type Preview.
After that select Workbench and look for Enable preview options.
Uncheck the boxes.
You can do it via GUI
Search for preview
uncheck the options Enable Preview and Enable Preview from Quick Open
Essentially, there are three settings that one has to update (Preference >> settings):
workbench.editor.enablePreview: set this to globally enable or
disable preview editors
workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen: set this to enable or
disable preview editors when opened from Quick Open
workbench.editor.showTabs: finally one will need to set this
otherwise, there will be no tabs displayed and you will just be
wondering why setting/unsetting the above two did not work
From settings you can find edit settings.json
You need to search by Preview. Please check the below screen short.
Add the below code there:
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false
enabling using GUI
go to Code -> Preferences -> Settings -> User -> Window -> New Window
here Open Files In New Window under drop down list select "on" that's it.
my VS Code version 1.38.1
You need to edit settings.json file, which is located at:
Windows %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json
macOS $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json
Linux $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json
{
"workbench.editor.showTabs": true,
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false
}
As hktang above indicates:
one Click opens the file in preview mode (header text in italics)
Double click the same file, it goes out of preview-mode (header text changes from italic to normal font)
I think this is a "comprimise" feature allowing users, to "navigate" both worlds; preview and none-preview.
All you do is click the file to open it in the right panel.
Then immediately double click it to keep it there.
Or - just treble click. File opens in none preview mode.
HTH
Paul S.
Go to File > Preferences > Settings
Search for workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen
Set it to false or uncheck it.
to open another file in a new tab keeping the current file open,
first double click (left click) the current file
then click (single click) the new file
in this way, the new file will be opened in another tab
#OR
you can drag the new file from vs code project explorer and drop it beside opened tab, exactly where the new tab will be opened
Actually, VSCode shows you the preview of a file when you open it. If you want to open files in a new tab, just disable the preview with this setting (paste this in the settings.json file).
"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false,
— you can take it one step further and use this setting
"workbench.startupEditor": "newUntitledFile",
— It will open your VSCode editor with a blank new untitled file to quickly get started.
For those who using Windows OS:
Press Ctrl + Shift + P
Select Preferences: Open Settings (JSON) from the list
Select all and Paste this
{ "workbench.editor.enablePreview": false }
That's it now it will open in a new tab instead of replacing on the existing one.
For reference look at the screenshot below:
Simple and Best way is whenever you open new file it is in preview mode so simply press the CTRL + K and then press ENTER then you done with preview mode , Now this file will remain always open until you closed it that's what you need to do ....
1. Double-click your files instead of single-clicking.
Instead of single clicking on your files, (like I do in the previous GIF) double-click. This will tell VS Code that you want the file to stay open when you switch to a new file.
Here's my beautiful demonstration of this:
2. Double-click the tab you want to keep open
This works if the tab you are working with is in "Preview Mode" (italicized) and you want it to stay open when you open another file.
3. Right click your tab and select "Keep Open"
This one's self-explanatory. Simply right-click on the Preview Mode tab on the tab at the top of your screen (while it's italicized) and click on "Keep Open" once the context menu pops up.
Here's my beautiful demonstration of this:
When you single-click a file in the left sidebar's file browser or open it from the quick open menu (Ctrl-P, type the file name, Enter), Visual Studio Code opens it in what's called "Preview Mode", which allows you to quickly view files.
It's a feature, not a bug.
Very often while programming you will only need to open a file for a small window of time, to "preview" its contents.
FOR MORE INFO
One simple solution is, instead of making changes in settings of vscode, whenever you open a file through a reference,you will see that the file is in preview mode(the name of file is in italic) and in the sidebar you will see that same preview file in focus just double tap it and it will be pinned on the tab,so that it wont get replaced by another file in preview mode.
This is so confusing. All developers I asked didn't appreciate this default behavior.
I use cmd + P to open project files.
In my case, I also had to set workbench.editor.showTabs property to true (in addition to workbench.editor.enablePreview)
I'm not sure how it got changed to false. Maybe, I've accidentally set it to false using some shortcut.
Settings -> Workbench -> Editor Management -> Enable Preview
for me, shift + enter did the trick.
If you have opened a file in preview mode and want to open new file in another tab:
For Mac: use cmd + p -> find the file and alt + enter.