Tabs and Documents

Every file you open becomes a tab at the top of the editor area, whether it is a Markdown note, a source file, or anything else you are working on. You can have as many tabs open at once as you want; Slate does not put a cap on it. Open another file from the sidebar, drag one onto the window, or use the keyboard shortcut for File Open. The new tab appears at the right of the strip and becomes active.

Click a tab to make it active. The editor swaps in that document and the view goes back to whatever you had it set to last for that tab.

If you have many tabs open and they overflow the strip, scroll the strip horizontally with a trackpad or wheel to bring the rest into view.

Click the small × on the right of a tab to close it. If the document has unsaved edits, Slate pauses and asks whether you want to save them first. You can save, discard, or cancel and keep the tab open.

A tab is not just a filename. It remembers:

• Which view you had selected (Plain, WYSIWYG, Reading).
• Whether split mode was on, and the split ratio.
• The scroll position in the editor and in the preview.
• The cursor position and current selection.

That means a draft can sit in WYSIWYG with a paragraph selected, while your reference notes are in Reading scrolled halfway down, and switching between the tabs keeps each tab's state intact.

When you quit Slate, the set of open tabs and their state are saved. Launching again restores them, so you can pick up where you left off without re-opening files one at a time.

If a file has been moved or deleted between sessions, Slate reports the missing tab with a small notice and removes it. Other tabs are unaffected.