Notepad++ tab color

Question

Is there a way to change the color of a tab (in the tab bar) according to the path of the file? I tried with the PythonScript plugin, but couldn't find a method to change the color of a tab.

I need this because I edit scripts from two environments at the same time, from a LIVE environment, and from a development environment, and I need to be extra careful when editing a LIVE file.

Answer 1

I was looking for a programmatic way to change the color of the tabs, and reviewed the online documentation of Notepad++ but did not find anything about it. So, instead, I propose the following method for your case, it could be helpful to always know which of your files are from the development environment and which from the live environment:

1. Open a blank instance of Notepad++:
   

2. Now start a macro recording: Press Start Recording button on Notepad++ toolbar:
   

3. Open a new document
   

4. Now you'll have two open blank tabs.
   
   Right click newly open tab and click in option Move to other view from contextual menu
   

5. You'll have a window splitted vertically and your two tabs will be displayed next to each other. You'll use these two tabs as separated "containers" for your files
   

6. Press Stop Recording button:
   

7. Save your just recorded macro:
   
   assign a keyboard shortcut:
   

8. Now you can run that recorded macro (from Macro menu, or invoking keyboard shortcut you assigned), every time you want to work on your two environments.
   

9. (Optional) Right click vertical separator between "containers" and click Rotate to right
   
   Now your "containers" will be split horizontally and will be displayed one above the other. Personally, I'd recommend you this layout.
   

10. Click on the tab at first "container" and from there, open all your "dev" environment files; and analogously open all your "live" environment files from second "container". Note that currently selected container has a more intensely coloured active tab.
    

11. If you notice that your working space is small, drag the separator to increase your current "container" size, but I recommend you not to take it completely towards the end, because it will make difficult to differentiate which of the two "containers" you are working on.
    

Note: If you, mistakenly opened a file of an environment from the wrong "container" you'll always be able to fix that by dragging the tab and dropping it to the other "container":

So you'll always keep control of what files must be on each container.

That's it. I hope this info will be helpful for you.