A method of displaying tab titles in a computer user interface receives a request to display a new tab in a tab area having a length. The new tab has a width and the new tab has a title having a length. The method determines a number of tabs to be displayed in the area and determines if the number of tabs to be displayed multiplied by the tab width is greater than the length of the tab area. If so, the method sets the tab width equal to the length of the tab area divided by the number of tabs. The method determines if the length of the title is greater than the tab width. If so, the method determines if the title has any words in common with any other titles of tabs. If so, the method deletes the common words from the titles, and displays the titles with the deleted common words in the tabs. The method may set a maximum number of tabs to be displayed in the tab area. The maximum number of tabs may be determined by the length of the tab area and a minimum tab width. If the number of tabs is greater than the maximum number of tabs is to be displayed, the method collapses some of the tabs in to a tab of tabs.