SWT has a widget set for handling tabs: org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TabFolder . For those of you familiar with Swing, TabFolder is the SWT counterpart of javax.swing.TabbedPane . Creating a tab folder is relatively easy - here is an example code block from the SWT snippets:

Display display = new Display();
Shell shell = new Shell(display);
shell.setLayout(new FillLayout());
 
TabFolder tabFolder = new TabFolder (shell2, SWT.NONE);
for (int i=0; i<6; i++) {
 TabItem item = new TabItem (tabFolder, SWT.NULL);
 item.setText ("Tab Item " + i);
 Text text = new Text(tabFolder, SWT.BORDER | SWT.MULTI);
 text.setText("Content for Item "+i);
 item.setControl(text);
}
tabFolder.setSize (400, 200);
 
shell.pack ();
shell.open ();
while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
 if (!display.readAndDispatch()) 
  display.sleep();
}
display.dispose();

The default tab folder has its limitations, however. Because it uses a native 'tab' widget, it is limited to what each native platform is capable of. That averages out to the bare minimum required of tab widgets. That means no tabs on the bottom of the pane (you can orient the tabs on the bottom, but they won't look right on most platforms), no buttons or controls on the tab itself, and no extra graphical options for the tab. Those of you who have used Eclipse or Azureus (and are aware both are written using SWT) are probably aware that there is a way to achieve all of these things with tabs through SWT.

The org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder ('custom' tab folder) is a special widget that models a traditional widget (as are all of the org.eclipse.swt.custom.* widgets), but adds functionality not available on the default platform.

Usage of the CTabFolder should look very familiar to the regular tab folder:

Display display = new Display();
Shell shell = new Shell(display);
shell.setLayout(new FillLayout());
 
CTabFolder tabFolder = new CTabFolder(shell, SWT.NONE);
 
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
 CTabItem item = new CTabItem(tabFolder, SWT.NONE);
 item.setText("Tab Item "+i);
 Text text = new Text(folder, SWT.BORDER | SWT.MULTI);
 text.setText("Content for Item "+i);
 item.setControl(text);
}
 
tabFolder.setSize(400, 200);
 
shell.pack ();
shell.open ();
while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
 if (!display.readAndDispatch()) 
  display.sleep();
}
display.dispose();

In fact, this code is identical with the exception of the construction of the CTabFolder and the CTabItem classes themselves.



So, how can you take advantage of the 'custom' features? To add a close button to the tab items, simply construct the CTabFolder with the SWT.CLOSE constant:

CTabFolder tabFolder = new CTabFolder(shell, SWT.CLOSE);
// optional setting - enables close buttons only on selected tab (defaults to true)
tabFolder.setUnselectedCloseVisible(false);

To change the orientation of the tabs (from top to bottom), simply construct the tab folder with the SWT.BOTTOM constant:

CTabFolder tabFolder = new CTabFolder(shell, SWT.CLOSE | SWT.BOTTOM);

Finally, to give the tabs that nifty 'swoosh' that can be seen in Eclipse, set the 'simple' property on the folder to false:

tabFolder.setSimple(false);

Here is a comprehensive test class:

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabItem;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FillLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.*;
 
public class TabsTest {
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		Display display = new Display();
		Shell shell = new Shell(display);
		shell.setLayout(new FillLayout());
	
		Shell shell2 = new Shell(display);
		shell2.setLayout(new FillLayout());
		CTabFolder folder = new CTabFolder(shell, SWT.CLOSE | SWT.BOTTOM);
		folder.setUnselectedCloseVisible(false);
		folder.setSimple(false);
		for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
			CTabItem item = new CTabItem(folder, SWT.NONE);
			item.setText("Tab Item "+i);
			Text text = new Text(folder, SWT.BORDER | SWT.MULTI);
			text.setText("Content for Item "+i);
			item.setControl(text);
		}
		
		folder.setSize (400, 200);
		
		
		TabFolder tabFolder = new TabFolder (shell2, SWT.NONE);
		for (int i=0; i<6; i++) {
			TabItem item = new TabItem (tabFolder, SWT.NULL);
			item.setText ("Tab Item " + i);
			Text text = new Text(tabFolder, SWT.BORDER | SWT.MULTI);
			text.setText("Content for Item "+i);
			item.setControl(text);
		}
		tabFolder.setSize (400, 200);
		
		shell.pack ();
		shell.open ();
		shell2.pack();
		shell2.open();
		while (!shell.isDisposed () || !shell2.isDisposed()) {
			if (!display.readAndDispatch ()) display.sleep ();
		}
		display.dispose ();
		
	}
}

A couple other things to mention - the core TabFolder provides scroll buttons for navigating through tabs when there isn't enough room display each tab. The CTabFolder brings the custom chevron with it: