(In reply to comment #0)
> Now that tabs go blue after you edit the file, it's quite hard to spot the file
> you are editing amongst the tabs.
> 
> Consider turning the current file another colour, or italicising the title, or
> something.
not sure what the problem here is:
- when editing a file - the tab should be selected
- the title font becomes bold 

> I've also always found it a little annoying that the file is not selected in
> the projects tab either.
try main menu > view > synchronize editor with views

if this shouldn't help feel free to reopen and provide/attach please some more info to the issue - screenshots etc.

thanks

> 
> 7 looks good so far... You haven't gone overboard or wrecked any features I
> use. :-)
> 
> Product Version = NetBeans IDE 7.0 Beta 2 (Build 201102140001)
> Operating System = Windows 7 version 6.1 running on amd64
> Java; VM; Vendor = 1.6.0_24
> Runtime = Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 19.1-b02

Hey,

Call me completely mad, but I sit down at this thing every night, and the active tab is so totally NOT bolded. That happens when you edit a file.

Amongst the tabs now blue and whatever other colour, the slight difference in shading on the active tab IS totally MUCH harder to spot.

Taa for the tip on the other thing it's one less thing for my brain to overload on.

PS Auto-save plugin is not yet available for v7, but you guys should consider making that guy's work an official plugin!

Created attachment 106810 [details]
tabs

You can see in the attached screenshot, that the tabs are clearly distinguishable. The file currently edited (and not yet saved) is rendered in bold.
I understand that it may look different on your machine, but without at least a screenshot i doubt we can even guess what bothers you exactly.
So please, attach a screenshot.

Yeah OK I will attach a screenshot so you can see what it looks like when you are NOT running the most obscure window manager you can find...

Created attachment 106835 [details]
tabs, windows 7

Heh? I am really sorry, but i can't see any problem here. I can clearly say what files are unsaved (IFileHandle.java, because it is rendered blue) and what file/tab has focus at the moment (AudioThreadbase.java, because of the blue gradient background behind the tab title clearly distinguishable from the other grey tabs).
Could you then describe on the sreenshot what actually bugs you? You can't read the blue text on the blue background? You can't distinguish the blue background from the grey one on the other tabs? In the first comment you complained something about font changing color to blue.
Or even better, you suggest what would suit you and how we can help.

From your comments:
> Consider turning the current file another colour, or italicising the title, or
something.
AFAIK, italic font is reserved for read-only files, so out of th question .
> Call me completely mad, but I sit down at this thing every night, and the
active tab is so totally NOT bolded.
bold is reserved for unsaved files, so it does not necessarily mean the active tab has to be bolded, you need to start typing in the file.
> Amongst the tabs now blue and whatever other colour, the slight difference in
shading on the active tab IS totally MUCH harder to spot.
If all the files were black, what would be the difference? If it bothers you so much, redefine the colors all to black in Tools -> Options -> Fonts and Colors -> Versioning

xdesign on cc, maybe they will have an opinion...

Argh god I don't want to argue about it but the blue means it is a locally modified file belonging to an SVN dir.

I just believe the most prominent marking should be reserved for the file I'm editing.

In the case of the screenshot I think the bolded blue file looks like it is far more important than the current file, and OK I'm a blind old coot - it takes too long to distinguish the slight difference in gradient shading when I'm hopping between files to make similar changes to several files, which happens often.

Here is my suggested scheme:

* Italic means readonly, you can stick with that but you're using a strong visual cue for something not terribly important or common, IMHO.
* Colour marking for SVN should be disabled unless I actively engage in SVN use within NetBeans - in my case it just happens that it is an SVN checkout dir.
* Bold is the file I'm editing, this is the strongest cue that can be given.
* Edited files get an icon or asterisk (or use more (bright, primary) colours, whatever)

Or dude - just tell me what you did to get NetBeans into flat look&feel so the things you are saying are true for me. Are you running Linux? NetBeans kinda looked different when I set it up for Linux IIRC, is that a Java difference or a NetBeans difference?

It's why I mentioned before it looks like you're running FVWM or something. :-D

Yes, i am on Linux (Nimbus l&f), i agree the active tab is harder to distinguish on Windows than on Linux.
Until a decision i made how to resolve this, you can:
1) Redefine svn status colors all to black: Tools>Misc>Fonts&Colors>Versioning
2) If you don't want to use subversion, either disable the module in Tools>Plugins>Installed or run the IDE with the following switch:
"-J-Dversioning.unversionedFolders=PATH_TO_SVN_ROOT", where PATH_TO_SVN_ROOT is the root folder of your svn checkout. With this switch, subversion module will exclude the files tree from it's control.

reassigning to xdesign for further evaluation

Using bold font for unsaved files seems to be fairly uncomon in other tab based editing products (textual or visual editors). Typical solution is to use the asterisk symbol or less common italic font. Bold font is usually used as an indicator of selected tab.

The NetBeans solution may mislead users as bold font (especially on Windows) is too strong and may cause confusion about which tab is selected as reported by aybiss.

A few possible solutions to consider for modified file tab indication:

1. asterisk symbol as suggested by aybiss
2. italic font
3. visually modified close button

While #1 may seem a bit archaic, it is probably still the most common solution in other products. We avoided #2 in the past as Windows XP didn't use anti-aliased font by default (if I remember correctly) which made italic unusable. Now we could reconsider it. #3 is a suble indication with obvious drawback on the implementation side as it needs to be designed for every L&F.

I'm attaching a screenshot of #1 and #3.

BTW, I think this is a winsys or editor issue.

Created attachment 107365 [details]
Possible modified file tab indication.

Look at Comment #12, jano suggests some changes in active and not saved editor tabs.

I like bold for unsaved, actually.
I'd rather let user override the background color of the active tab.
I'm on Gnome and the current look of "active tab" is perfect IMO.

Created attachment 108173 [details]
Tabs screenshot on Gnome 2

Reassigning to Platform/Text since the Editor module does not handle this.

Created attachment 120530 [details]
tabs on Ubuntu 12.04 with 7.2 beta

Tabs are now always bold, and there's no indication as to whether the file is saved or not (except that it turns blue thanks to vcs).

excanvas.pack.js file has been modified, but not saved (bold-black)
jquery-1.2.3.min.js file has not been modified (bold-black)
credit_card_entry.js has been modified and saved (bold-blue)

credit_card_entry.js remains bold-blue even when it has not been saved

Petr, can you please try to handle this? Either close it if no longer relevant, discuss on UI team, decide what to do etc. Thanks.

Since nobody objected to the current state marking as fixed.