>>As I see it, there is some inconsistency. Suppose I'm viewing a reply in a secondary tab:
>>
>>- if I click on the original "View the map of this thread" button, the map appears in the secondary tab, exactly the way I like it. Clearly, this button action properly respects the currently selected tab
>>
>>- if I then select one or more messages to view from the map, I expect the "View" button action to show those messages in the same, secondary tab. Instead, as I've mentioned before, they overwrite the lower frame of the first UT tab.
>>
>>Why does one action respect the current tab, and the other does not?
>>
>>All modern browsers support tabs. Personally, I use them quite heavily, usually in a hierarchical relationship e.g. grandparent-parent-child etc. I find it annoying if a child tab unexpectedly modifies a parent or grandparent.
>>
>>With all due respect, the way some functions of the UT work now, they are probably violating interface guidelines for tabbed browsing.
>
>I really do not understand the concept of tab here. If by tab you mean a new window, then, as I said, I cannot control that. If by tab, such as "secondary" tab, you are making reference to the bottom frame, then all appears ok for me. Because, when clicking View from the top frame, the messages will appear in the message frame. So, all appears ok to me up to that point. Can you elaborate more on the topic?

"Tabbed browsing" is the industry-standard name for being able to view two or more separate web pages within a single instance of a browser, on separate "tabs" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabbed_browsing ). With FF or IE7+, if you Ctrl-click on a link, by default it opens in a new tab instead of overwriting the current tab. You may also right-click on a link and select "Open link in new tab".

In IE, this feature was introduced with IE7, it was not available with IE6. In IE6, if you wanted to view a new page while retaining the current one, you had to open the link in a new "window", which was a completely new instance of IE6. This "new window" feature is still available in IE7+ but I imagine is not used (as) much anymore.

When discussing this, the normal terminology is:

- a new "window" refers to another completely separate instance of the browser
- a new "tab" refers to a secondary web page displayed simultaneously within the same instance of the browser