Kinook, with some more UR experience under my belt, a few thoughts if I may on Tabs & Favorites & Hoisting:
(1) Already in 2007 Roadmap (excellent)
--- Open new tab blank (cnewtonne)
--- Make additional instances of same item in multiple tabs read-only
--- Support copy/cut/paste between hoisted tabs
(2) For consideration please
--- Rearrange tabs like Firefox (TMF)
Obvious.
--- Lock Tab (TMF)
I like this one. Right-click on a tab already presents a popup menu, perhaps you can add a new menu item to the bottom that says "Lock Tab". What impact should this have? Well, let's say I have a few tabs open, one of which has an item with a little checklist of what I want to do in the next half-an-hour. I remember to open up a NEW tab to work on task (1). So far so good. However, when I go back to my checklist to read task (2), I forget to open a new tab when clicking an item in the Data Explorer pane!
I suggest that when the user is looking at a "locked" tab , clicking an item in the Data Explorer pane automatically opens a NEW tab to present the selected item. BTW: the new menu item should of course toggle between "Lock Tab" and "Unlock Tab" depending on the lock status of the tab. Furthermore, whilst looking at a locked tab, when the user selects "Close Tab" from this menu, they should be prompted to confirm that they really want to close a locked tab.
--- New global option: "Open in new tab when going to a favourite"
Previously I asked for a "new tab" and "hoist" option in the "Organize Favorites" dialog box. However, with most of my favorites I want to open in new tab and hoist tree. Therefore, I propose the relatively simple addition of the above option alongside the existing option "Hoist Tree When going to a favorite". This would give me the behaviour I want 90% of the time when using favourites. With the existing <Ctrl+Click> behaviour, perhaps it toggles between open in new/current tab depending on whether the option is turned off/on. For example, with the "new tab" option OFF, <Ctrl+Click> opens the favorite in NEW tab, with it ON, <Ctrl+Click> opens the favorite in CURRENT tab.
--- Explorer Tree context menu: "Open & Hoist in New Tab"
The right-click menu in the Data Explorer pane already has "Open in New Tab".
What about a new menu item just below it with "Open & Hoist in New Tab"?