Save, Move, And Reorder the Editor Tabs for MATLAB 2025a

Reorder and swap tabs/groups in MATLAB Editor (R2025a+).

Manage Editor tabs without native API:

• tabs=getTabs() : Backup layout; list open tabs by group (cell arrays of paths/titles).
• reorderTabs(tabOrder, topFile) : Reorder tabs in a group via close-reopen (specify order, anchor file).
• reorderTabColumns(Column1,Column2) :Swap tabs between two groups.
• moveTabs(TabStartFile, column) :Move tabs from tabstartfile to end of that column to a specific tab group column
• openTabs(tabs, topFile) : Open tabs of interest using an ancor

Requires R2025a+. Example:

[tabs] = getTabs;  % Backup & list
reorderTabs(tabs{1}(end:-1:2), tabs{1}{1});  % Reverse group 1
reorderTabColumns(1,2);  % Swap groups

Notes:

Don't interact with Editor during runs, and save your scripts before running this.

Backups saved to <prefdir>/Backups/EditorLayout.

In R2025a+, tab locations are saved deep within matlab.mlsettings (a zipped JSON structure) instead of the old layout.xml format used in previous versions.

If tabs don't go to the correct tab group (activated a tab within desired group) then you need to close and reopen the editor completely. It's a bug with matlab.