Tab views

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Best practices

Use a tab view to present closely related areas of content.

Make sure the controls within a pane affect content only in the same pane.

Provide a label for each tab that describes the contents of its pane.

Avoid using a pop-up button to switch between tabs.

Avoid providing more than six tabs in a tab view.

Anatomy

In general, inset a tab view by leaving a margin of window-body area on all sides of a tab view.


For the complete guidance, including worked examples and illustrations, see the canonical page: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/tab-views

Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc. This page is a structured index of Apple’s canonical documentation (snapshot 2025-02-02), provided for quick reference and AI-agent consumption — it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. Read the original at developer.apple.com (opens in new tab).

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