assistance-engine/docs/developer.avapframework.com/USER_GUIDE_CustomLayout.md

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AVAP TM Dev Studio comes with a simple user interface and
convenient default layout. At the same time, AVAP TM Dev Studio
provides options and settings to let you customize the UI layout to suit
your preferences and work style. In this topic, we'll highlight
various UI customizations so you can display views, editors, and panels in
the way that's most productive for you.
This article starts by discussing Workbench customizations to rearrange UI
elements such as the side bars, views, and panels. Later in the article,
we'll cover customization of the Editor region with editor groups,
split editors, and editor tabs.
``
## Workbench
### Primary side bar
The default (Primary) side bar shows views such as the File
Explorer, Search, and Source Control on the left of the workbench. If
you'd prefer it on the right, you can:
* Right-click the Activity bar and select{' '} Move Primary Side Bar Right .
* Run View: Toggle Primary Side Bar Position to switch the Primary side bar right and left.
* Set the Workbench > Side Bar: Location {' '} (workbench.sideBar.location) setting to right.
### Secondary side bar
By default, AVAP TM Dev Studio shows all views in the{' '}
Primary Side Bar located to the left of the editor
region. If you like another place to display views, you can open the{' '}
Secondary Side Bar to the right and drag and drop views
into that side bar.
This can be useful if you'd like to see two views at the same time,
for example, the File Explorer on the left and Source Control view on the
right:
To display the Secondary side bar, you can:
* Run View: Toggle Secondary Side Bar Visibility {' '} (Ctrl+Alt+B).
* Check the View > Appearance >{' '} Secondary Side Bar menu item.
The Secondary side bar is initially empty but you can drag and drop views
and panels into it and the layout is preserved across your AVAP
TM Dev Studio sessions.
### Activity bar position
By default, the Activity bar moves with the Primary side bar and remains
on the outer edge of the workbench. You can also choose to hide the
Activity bar or move it to the top of the Primary side bar. The{' '}
Activity Bar Position menu available from the Activity
bar context menu or under View >{' '}
Appearance has the options Side ,{' '}
Top , or Hidden .
When the Activity bar is in the top position, the Account {' '}
and Manage buttons, usually at the bottom of the Activity
bar, move to the right side of the title bar.
### Panel
The Panel region displays UI elements such as the Problems, Terminal, and
Output panels and by default is located under the editor region.
### Panel position
You can also move the region to the left or right of the editor with the{' '}
Move Panel commands:
* View: Move Panel Left ( `workbench.action.positionPanelLeft` )
* View: Move Panel Right ( `workbench.action.positionPanelRight` )
* View: Move Panel To Bottom ( `workbench.action.positionPanelBottom` )
You can configure these options in the menu under View {' '}
> Appearance > Panel Position ,
Panel title bar context menu, or using the new{' '}
View: Move Panel commands.
### Panel alignment
This option lets you configure how far the bottom Panel spans across your
window. There are four options:
* Center - This is the default behavior. The panel spans the width of the editor area only.
* Justify - The panel spans the full width of the window.
* Left - The panel spans from the left edge of the window to the right edge of the editor area.
* Right - The panel spans from the right edge of the window to the left edge of the editor area.
With all Panel alignment options, the Activity Bar is considered the edge
of the window.
You can configure these options in the menu under View {' '}
> Appearance > Align Panel , Panel
title context menu, or using the new{' '}
Set Panel Alignment to... commands.
### Maximize Panel size
When the Panel alignment is Center , you can quickly
toggle the Panel region to fill the entire editor area with the{' '}
Maximize Panel Size chevron button in the upper right of
the Panel region. The chevron button points downwards in the maximized
panel to restore the panel to the original size.
You can also maximize the Panel region via the{' '}
View: Toggle Maximized Panel command.
### Customize Layout control
The AVAP TM Dev Studio title bar also has buttons to toggle the
visibility of the main UI elements (Side bars and Panel region).
The rightmost button brings up the Customize Layout {' '}
dropdown, where you can further change the visibility and layout of
various UI elements and includes several layout modes:
The layout modes are:
* Full Screen - Set the editor to fill the full display screen. View: Toggle Full Screen ( `F11` ).
* Zen Mode - Hide all UI except for the editor area.{' '} View: Toggle Zen Mode ( `Ctrl+K Z` ).
* Centered Layout - Centers the editor inside the editor region. View: Toggle Centered Layout .
### Drag and drop views and panels
AVAP TM Dev Studio has a default layout of views and panels in
the Primary Side bar and Panel region but you can drag and drop views and
panels between these regions. For example, you can drag and drop the
Source Control view into the Panel region or put the Problems panel into
the Primary Side bar:
You can also add views and panels to existing view or panel to create
groups. For example, you could move the Output panel to the Explorer view
group by dragging over the Explorer Activity bar item and then dropping
into the view:
You are not limited to using the mouse for moving views and panels. You
can also customize layouts via the keyboard with the{' '}
View: Move View and{' '}
View: Move Focused View commands, where dropdowns let you
pick the UI element to move and the destination, either a location like
the Side bar or Panel region or an existing view or panel to create a
group.
## Tool bars
Most AVAP TM Dev Studio views and panels have tool bars
displayed on the top right of their UI. For example, the Search view has a
tool bar with actions such as Refresh ,{' '}
Clear Search Results , etc.:
### Hide items in tool bars
If you think a tool bar is too busy and you'd like to hide less
frequently used actions, you can right-click on any action and select its{' '}
Hide command (for example{' '}
Hide 'Clear Search Results' ) or uncheck any
of the actions from the dropdown. Hidden actions are moved to the ...{' '}
More Actions menu and can be invoked from there.
To restore an action to the tool bar, right-click the tool bar button area
and select the Reset Menu command or recheck the hidden
action. To restore all menus in AVAP TM Dev Studio, run{' '}
View: Reset All Menus from the Command Palette
(Ctrl+Shift+P).
## Editor
You can customize the layout of the AVAP TM Dev Studio editor
region independently of the workbench user interface. By default, the
editor region displays useful features such as the minimap, breadcrumbs,
editor tabs, and has optional UI such as Sticky Scroll. You can also
adjust the layout of the editors themselves.
### Minimap and breadcrumbs
The View > Appearance menu has a
section for customizing the editor region. There you'll find toggles
for:
* Minimap - A visual overview of your current file.{' '} View: Toggle Minimap .
* Breadcrumbs - Display folder, file, and current symbol information for the active file.{' '} View: Toggle Breadcrumbs .
* Sticky Scroll - Display nested symbol scopes in the active file. View: Toggle Sticky Scroll .
### Editor groups
By default, each opened editor goes into the same{' '}
editor group and adds a new editor tab to the right. You
can create new editor groups in order to group similar or related files,
or to allow side by side editing of the same file. Create a new editor
group by dragging an editor to the side, or using one of the{' '}
Split commands in the context menu to duplicate the
current editor into a new editor group to the left, right, above, or
below.
The Split editor commands are also available from the{' '}
View > Editor Layout menu and through
the Command Palette.
If you'd like to go quickly between vertical and horizontal editor
group layout, you can use the{' '}
Toggle Vertical/Horizontal Editor Layout command
(Shift+Alt+0).
### Split in group
You can also split an editor in the same group for side by side editing
with the View: Split Editor in Group command (Ctrl+K
Ctrl+Shift+).
When using the split in group feature, there are specific commands for
toggling this mode and navigating between the two split editors:
* View: Split Editor in Group - Split the current editor.
* View: Toggle Split Editor in Group - Toggle between split mode for the active editor.
* View: Join Editor in Group - Go back to a single editor for the active file.
* View: Toggle Layout of Split Editor in Group - Toggle between horizontal and vertical layout.
To navigate between the sides:
* View: Focus First Side in Active Editor - Move focus to the first (left or top) side of split editor.
* View: Focus Second Side in Active Editor - Move focus to the second (right or bottom) side.
* View: Focus Other Side in Active Editor - Toggle between the split editor sides.
The Workbench > Editor: Split in Group Layout {' '}
(workbench.editor.splitInGroupLayout) setting lets you set the
preferred split editor layout to either horizontal (default) or
vertical.
### Grid layout
If you'd like more control over the editor group layout, you can use
the grid layout, where you can have multiple rows and columns of editor
groups visible. The View >{' '}
Editor Layout menu lists various editor layout options
(for example, Two Columns ,{' '}
Three Columns , Grid (2x2) )
and you can adjust the group sizes by grabbing and moving the sash between
them.
### Pinned tabs
If you'd like an editor tab to always be visible, you can pin it to
the editor tab bar. You can pin an editor tab from either the context menu
or using the command View: Pin Editor (Ctrl+K
Shift+Enter).
Pinned tabs help access files that are important to you as:
* Pinned tabs always appear first before non-pinned tabs.
* They do not scroll out of view if you have many tabs opened.
* They do not close when using editor tab commands such as{' '} Close Others or Close All .
* They do not close even when you exceed a set limit of opened editors.
Unpin an editor by clicking on the pin icon, using the{' '}
Unpin editor tab context menu item, or the{' '}
View: Unpin Editor command.
You can choose how you'd like to display pinned editors with the{' '}
Workbench > Editor: Pinned Tab Sizing (
`workbench.editor.pinnedTabSizing` ) setting. The options
are:
* `normal` : A pinned tab inherits the look of other tabs (default)
* `shrink` : A pinned tab shrinks to a fixed size showing parts of the editor label.
* `compact` : A pinned tab will only show as icon or first letter of the editor label.
You can also show pinned editor tabs on a separate row above the regular
editor tab bar by setting{' '}
Workbench > Editor: Pinned Tabs On Separate Row . You
can pin and unpin editors by dragging and dropping their tabs between the
two rows.
### Locked editor groups
When using multiple editors, it's common to have one or more that you
want to always keep visible. The locked editor group feature, where an
entire editor group is locked and visible, provides a stable display and
any request to open a new editor will create it in another group. You can
tell whether an editor group is locked by the lock icon in the editor
group tool bar.
You can lock an editor group by selecting Lock Group from
the editor tool bar More Actions ... dropdown or running
the View: Lock Editor Group command.
You can unlock an editor group by clicking on the lock icon or running the{' '}
View: Unlock Editor Group command.
Locked groups behave differently than unlocked groups:
* New editors will not open in a locked group unless explicitly moved there (for example, via drag and drop).
* If a new editor skips a locked group, it will either open in the most recently used unlocked group or create a new group to the side of the locked one.
* The locked state of an editor group is persisted and restored across restarts.
* You can lock empty groups as well, allowing for a more stable editor layout.
The primary use case is for terminals in the editor area For example, you
might want to edit text on the left and have a terminal on the right that
is always visible. When a terminal editor is created and moved to the
side, it will automatically lock. This means that even when the terminal
on the right is focused, opening a file will open it on the left side
without needing to manually change focus first.
Auto locking groups can be configured using the
workbench.editor.autoLockGroups setting, which defaults to only terminal
editors but any editor type can be added to get the same behavior.
The commands related to editor group locking:
* View: Lock Editor Group - Lock the active editor group.
* View: Unlock Editor Group - Unlock the active locked editor group.
* View: Toggle Editor Group Lock - Lock or unlock the active editor group.
You must have more that one editor group for these commands to be
available.
## Next steps
Read on to find out about:
* AVAP TM Dev Studio User Interface - A quick orientation to AVAP TM Dev Studio.
* Basic Editing - Learn about the powerful AVAP TM Dev Studio editor.
* Code Navigation - Move quickly through your source code.