Proposal: Compact Mode for TabView

[cricketthomas]

Proposal: Compact Mode for TabView

Summary

Introduce a CompactMode property to the TabView control in WinUI, enabling a more space-efficient layout by reducing tab padding, hiding close buttons, and optionally collapsing tab headers into icons or tooltips.

Rationale

• Improves usability in applications with limited screen real estate (e.g., side panels, tool windows).
• Aligns with modern UI trends favoring minimalism and adaptive layouts.
• Provides parity with other tabbed interfaces (e.g., Visual Studio, Edge) that offer compact or icon-only tab modes.
• Enhances developer flexibility in customizing the user experience.

Scope

Capability	Priority
Developers can enable a compact layout via a TabView.CompactMode property	Must
Compact mode reduces tab header padding and optionally hides close buttons	Must

Important Notes

Visual Studio 2022 Preview shows an elegant and efficient use of compact fluent v2 styles and allowing developers easy access to replicate the best MDI IDE would be awesome.

Usage Example (XAML):

<TabView CompactMode="Compact">
    <TabViewItem IconSource="Home" ToolTipService.ToolTip="Home" />
    <TabViewItem IconSource="Settings" ToolTipService.ToolTip="Settings" />
</TabView>

[sabareesanms]

TabView comes in simple compact design by default. It can also be customized by overriding the template as well. You can have a look at the following example.

<TabView Grid.Row="1"> <TabViewItem Header="Tab1"></TabViewItem> <TabViewItem Header="Tab2"></TabViewItem> <TabViewItem Header="Tab3"></TabViewItem> <TabViewItem Header="Tab4"></TabViewItem> </TabView>