[Forrest]

Originally Posted by Handycam

Personally, I don't need to be looking at thumbnails of all the pages I have open in tabs -- that why I opened them in TABS, to keep them available in the background. I never understood the value of that drawer.

Graphical tabs simply offer visual indication. Graphical tabs are to browsing what application icons are to the dock. I can glance at a tab and see what it is more quickly than reading it. Additionally, the side-tabs make it much easier to see what the tabs are. Once Safari reaches 15 tabs or so, the names of each tab are so small they rarely give the user enough info without having to mouse over each one. Furthermore, after so many tabs are created, I have to click on some arrows to see the rest of the tabs listed out.

[Handycam]

Well, I hope (and sort of expect) we'll see a drawer replacement like the ones in OmniGraffle Pro 5.0b1. It's very nice.

[Schlaefer]

Originally Posted by Handycam

Well, I hope (and sort of expect) we'll see a drawer replacement like the ones in OmniGraffle Pro 5.0b1. It's very nice.

I hope not, it is everything I was afraid it would be. Show Canvases and/or Lists or change their size and the mouse limbo to bring back your view on the content begins …

[Chiller]

Personally, the tab drawer is the only item keeping me from returning to OW from Safari. The amount of screen area lost via the drawer is huge vs. a tab bar.

[owuser]

Originally Posted by Chiller

Personally, the tab drawer is the only item keeping me from returning to OW from Safari. The amount of screen area lost via the drawer is huge vs. a tab bar.

I've owned and enjoyed OmniWeb for a while now. However I remember reading user reviews on Macupdate, before I made the purchase, to get a general feel for the opinions others had. Chiller's post reminded me of the large amount of reviewers saying some variant of "I like this browser except for the tabs", and I have to wonder why traditional tabs haven't been added yet. It's obvious that there is a demand for the choice, but I suppose the OmniGroup have their reasons.

I can see why people prefer thumbnail tabs, and I can see why people would enjoy Safari-like tabs. Arguing about the functionality or practicality of one type over the other is a cyclical debate, and the optimal solution would be to let users simply have a choice between the two - without breaking any functionality of the current tabs.

[Splutter]

Originally Posted by astark

One functional benefit of a column over a drawer is that the toolbar would not have to change size when switching to tabbed browsing. For me, jumping to tabbed browsing currently makes my bookmarks bar take up a second line--sort of annoying.

Take a look at Shiira v2 - now it has the option of putting the 'Page Dock' at the bottom, left or right of the page

[rje]

I want to see traditional tabbed browsing. No more drawer.

[pjb]

I'm putting my vote in for the graphical tabs in their own space which is resizable (at least in one direction, two would be better). This means I prefer the way it is now to making it look like Mail (or Preview, where I find the resize from the lower right hand corner is awkward). Perhaps there's room for improvement by using such techniques as in the expanding translucent gray box to show folder contents in the new Dock when its installed on the side of the screen. Separating the page viewer from the thumbnail viewer altogether, but have them tied to each other in some subtle way, would be an advance. Going for a unified look is just not worth it (IMHO).

[arglborps]

Originally Posted by rje

I want to see traditional tabbed browsing. No more drawer.

You just should have the option to use either as in Shiira. If OW ever implements "normal" tabs, please make sure they display at least the favicon for every site on the tab, otherwise it would be quite a step back. Visual cues can make a huge difference.

[Floach]

Another vote for standard tabs. PLEASE!