Working with Perspectives

Perspectives define the initial set and layout of views in the Workbench window. They provide a set of functionality aimed at accomplishing a specific type of task or working with specific types of resources.

See the Related tasks links for more details.

Switching Between Perspectives

Open perspectives are represented by icons on the perspective bar. When you have more than one perspective open, you can switch between them by clicking the icons on the shortcut bar.

Specifying the Default Perspective

The default perspective is indicated in the Select Perspective dialog (accessible via the Window > Open Perspective > Other... menu). The pre-defined default perspective is indicated by the word default in brackets following the perspective name, for example, Edition (default).

To change the default perspective:

• Open the General > Perspectives preference page.
• Select the perspective that you want to define as the default from the list of available perspectives, and click Make Default. The default indicator moves to the perspective that you selected.
• Click OK.

Opening Perspectives

Perspectives provide combinations of views and editors that are suited to performing a particular set of tasks. For example, you would normally open the Debug perspective to debug a Python script.

To open a new perspective:

• Click the Open Perspective button on the shortcut bar on the left side of the Workbench window. (This provides the same function as the Window > Open Perspective menu on the menu bar.)
• To see a complete list of perspectives, select Other... from the drop-down menu.
• Select the perspective that you want to open.

When the perspective opens, the title bar of the window it is in changes to display the name of the perspective. In addition, an icon is added to the shortcut bar, allowing you to quickly switch back to that perspective from other perspectives in the same window.

By default, a perspective will open in the same window. If you would rather it opened in a new window, change the setting in the General > Perspectives preference page.

Changing where Perspectives Open

You can change the default behavior for how perspectives are opened in the Workbench.

• Open the General > Perspectives preference page.
• Select either In the same window or In a new window from the Open a new perspective group.
• Click OK.

Configuring Perspectives

In addition to configuring the layout of your perspective, you can also control several other key aspects of a perspective.

Through:

• File > New submenu.
• Window > Open Perspective submenu.
• Window > Show View submenu.
• Action sets (buttons and menu options) that show up on the toolbar and menu bar.

To configure a perspective:

• Switch to the perspective that you want to configure.
• Select Window > Customize Perspective....
• Expand the item that you want to customize.
• Use the checkboxes to select which elements you want to see on drop-down menus in the selected perspective. Items you do not select will still be accessible by clicking the Other menu option.
• Click OK.

Saving a User-Defined Perspective

If you have modified a perspective by adding, deleting, or moving (docking) views, you can save your changes for future use.

• Switch to the perspective that you want to save.
• Click Window > Save Perspective As....
• Type a new name for the perspective into the Name field.
• Click OK.

The name of the new perspective is added to the Window > Open Perspective menu.

Deleting a User-Defined Perspective

You can delete perspectives that you defined yourself, but not those that are delivered with the Workbench.

• Open the General > Perspectives preference page.
• From the Available perspectives list, select the one that you want to delete and click Delete.
• Click OK.

Resetting Perspectives

To restore a perspective to its original layout:

• Open the General > Perspectives preference page.
• From the Available perspectives list, select the perspective you want to restore.
• Click Reset.
• Click OK.

Working with Views and Editors

Views and editors are the main visual entities that appear in the Workbench. In any given perspective there is a single editor area, which can contain multiple editors and a number of surrounding views that provide context.

The Workbench provides a number of operations for working with views and editors.

Opening Views

Perspectives offer pre-defined combinations of views and editors. To open a view that is not included in the current perspective, select Window > Show View from the main menu bar.

You can create fast views to provide quick access to views that you use often.

After adding a view to the current perspective, you may wish to save your new layout by clicking Window > Save Perspective As....

Moving and Docking Views

To change the location of a view in the current perspective:

• Drag the view by its title bar. Do not release the left mouse button yet.
• As you move the view around the Workbench, the mouse pointer changes to one of the drop cursors shown in the table below. The drop cursor indicates where the view will be docked if you release the left mouse button. To see the drop cursor change, drag the view over the left, right, top, or bottom border of another view or editor. You may also drag the view outside of the Workbench area to turn it into a Detached view.
• When the view is in the location that you want, relative to the view or editor area underneath the drop cursor, release the left mouse button.
• (Optional) If you want to save your changes, select Window > Save Perspective As... from the main menu bar.
• Note that a group of stacked views can be dragged using the empty space to the right of the view tabs.

You can also move a view by using the pop-up menu for the view. (Left-click on the icon at the left end of the view's title bar, or right-click anywhere else in the view's title bar). As well as moving the view this menu will provide shortcut options for turning a view into either a Fast or Detached view.

Rearranging Tabbed Views

In addition to dragging and dropping (docking) views inside the Workbench, you can rearrange the order of views within a tabbed notebook.

• Click on the tab of the view that you want to move and drag it to where you want it. A stack symbol appears as you drag the view across other view tabs.
• Release the mouse button when you have the view tab in the desired location. The view that you selected is now moved.

Creating Fast Views

Fast views are hidden views that can be quickly opened and closed. They work like other views except they do not take up space in your Workbench window.

To create a fast view:

• Click the title bar of the view that you want. Hold the mouse button down.
• Drag the view to the Fast View bar and release the mouse button. By default, the shortcut bar is located in the lower-left corner of the window.

Alternatively, you can click on the button located on the left side of the Fast View bar which will present you with a selection of views. Choosing one of these views will add it to the Fast View bar immediately.

The icon for the view that you dragged now appears on the shortcut bar. You can look at the view by clicking its icon on the shortcut bar. As soon as you click somewhere else outside the view, it is hidden again.

To restore the view to its original location (and remove it from the Fast View bar), toggle the fast view item in the view button's context menu.

You can also create and restore fast views by selecting Fast View from the context menu that opens when you click the icon on the left side of the view's title bar.

Working with Fast Views

If you have converted the Project Explorer to a fast view it will appear in the shortcut bar as shown below.

To work with a fast view:

• In the shortcut bar click on the Project Explorer fast view button.
• Observe the Project Explorer view slides out from the shortcut bar.
• You can use the Project Explorer fast view as you would normally.
• To hide the fast view simply click off of it or click on the Minimize button on the fast view's toolbar

Note: If you open a file from the Project Explorer fast view, the fast view will automatically hide itself to allow you to work with the file. To convert a fast view that has been maximized back to a regular-sized view, select Restore from the context menu of the icon in the top left corner of the view.

To reposition a fast view, drag the fast view's title bar (or close the fast view and then drag its button from the shortcut bar) and drop it on the workbench like a normal view.

Detaching Views

Detached views are views that are shown in a separate window with a smaller trim. They work like other views except they are always shown in front of the Workbench window. It is supported on Windows only.

To detach a view:

• If the Workbench window is maximized, resize it so that it does not fill the entire screen.
• Click the title bar of the view that you want to detach. Hold the mouse button down.
• Drag the view to the outside of the Workbench window and release the mouse button.

To restore the view to be shown inside of the Workbench window, drag it into the Workbench window.

You can also detach a view by selecting Detached from the context menu that opens when you click the icon on the left side of the view's title bar.

Opening Files for Editing

You can launch an editor for a given file in several ways.

• By right-clicking the file in the Project Explorer view and then selecting Open from the pop-up menu.
• By double-clicking the file in one of the navigation views.

All of the above alternatives open the file in the default editor for that type of file. To open it in a different editor, select Open With from the file's pop-up menu.

Editing Files Outside the Workbench

To edit a Workbench resource outside the Workbench:

• Navigate in the file system to the Workbench's installation directory. Go into the workspace directory and open the file that you want to edit with the external editor.
• Edit the file as needed. Save and close it as usual.
• Important: Go back to the Workbench, right-click the edited file in one of the navigation views, and select Refresh from the pop-up menu. The Workbench will perform any necessary update operations to process the changes that you made outside the Workbench.

Tip: If you work with external editors regularly, you may want to enable auto-refresh. This can be done by opening the General > Workspace preference page, and checking the Refresh automatically option. When this option is enabled, any external changes will be automatically discovered by the Workbench. Depending on the platform this may not happen immediately.

Tiling Editors

The Workbench allows you to have multiple files open in multiple editors. Unlike views, editors cannot be dragged outside the Workbench to create new windows. However, you can tile editor sessions within the editor area, in order to view source files side by side.

With two or more files open in the editor area, select one of the editor tabs.

Holding down the left mouse button, drag that editor over the left, right, the top or bottom border of the editor area. Notice that the mouse pointer changes to a drop cursor that indicates where the editor session will be moved when you release the mouse button.

(Optional) Drag the borders of the editor area or each editor, to resize as desired.

This is a similar operation to moving and docking views inside the Workbench, except that all editor sessions must be contained within the editor area.