Configuring the Layout of the Views and Editors

All the Oxygen XML Editor views available in the Editor Perspective, XSLT Debugger Perspective, and XQuery Debugger Perspective are dockable. To open a view, select it from the Window > Show View menu. You can hide a view by closing it with the button at the top-right corner of the view, or with the Window > Hide current view action.

You can drag any view to any margin of another view or editor inside the Oxygen XML Editor window. Once you create a layout that suites your needs, you are able to save it from Window > Export Layout. Oxygen XML Editor creates a layout file containing the preferences of the saved layout. To load a layout, go to Window > Load Layout. To reset it, select Window > Reset Layout.

Note: The Load Layout menu lets you select between the default layout, a predefined layout, or a custom layout. The changes you make using the Load Layout menu are also reflected in the Application Layout preferences page.

The changes you make to any layout are preserved between working sessions. Also, changing to a different layout and returning to the previous one does not alter the changes you made to the first layout. The predefined layout files are saved in the preferences directory of Oxygen XML Editor.

To gain more editing space in the Oxygen XML Editor window, click Toggle auto-hide in any view. This button sets the view in the auto-hide state, making it visible only as a vertical tab, at the margins of the Oxygen XML Editor window. To display a view in the auto-hide state, hover its side-tab with your cursor, or click it to keep the view visible until you click elsewhere. A view can also be set to a floating state by using the Toggle floating action, making it independent from the rest of the Oxygen XML Editor window.

You can drag the editors and arrange them in any order you like, both horizontally and vertically.

The next figure presents two editors arranged as horizontal tiles. To arrange them vertically, drag one of them on top of the other. In the example below, the personal.xml file was dragged over the personal-schema.xml file. When doing this, a dark gray rectangle marks the rearranged layout.

Figure: Drag and Drop Editors

You can also tile or stack all open editors, both in the Editor Perspective or in the Database Perspective, using the following actions from the Editor toolbar or Window menu:

Synchronous scrolling: Select this action to scroll through the tiled editors at the same time.
Tile Editors Horizontally: Splits the editing area into horizontal tiles, one for each open file.
Tile Editors Vertically: Splits the editing area into vertical tiles, one for each open file.
Stack Editors: The reverse of the Tile Editors Horizontally/Vertically actions. Stacks all open editors.

Note: When tiled, you can still drag and drop the editors, but note that they are docked in the same way as a window/view (instead of just tabs). You are actually rearranging the editor windows, so drag the editor tab and drop it to one of the sides of an editor (left/right/top/bottom). While dragging, you will see the grey dark rectangle aligned to one of the sides of the editor, or around the entire editor window. If you drop it to one of the sides it will dock to that side of the editor. If you drop it when the rectangle is around the entire window of the editor it will get stacked on top of that editor. You can also grab one of the stacked editors and tile it to one of the sides.

You can divide the editing area vertically and horizontally using the following actions available in the Editor toolbar and Window menu:

Split horizontally - Splits the editor horizontally. This is useful for comparing and merging content between two documents.
Split vertically - Splits the editor vertically. This is useful for comparing and merging content between two documents.
Unsplit - Removes a split action on the editing area.

To maximize or restore the editors, go to Window > Maximize/Restore Editor Area.

When the opened documents titles do not fit in the tab strip, the scroll wheel can be used to scroll the editor title tabs to the left or right, the same as the two arrows on the top-right. You can also switch between edited files by using the Next editor and Previous editor actions from the Window menu, or by using their respective keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl F6 (Meta F6 on OS X) and Ctrl Shift F6 (Meta Shift F6 on OS X)). These two actions display a small popup window that allows you to cycle through all opened files.

To watch our video demonstration about dockable and floating views and editors in Oxygen XML Editor, go to http://oxygenxml.com/demo/Dockable_Views.html.