About Controlling the Display of the Drawing Space

By controlling the display of dockable windows and toolbars, locking the position of toolbars and dockable windows, and using two monitors, you can optimize your drawing environment.

Control the Display of Dockable Windows

Many windows, such as the Project Manager, the tool palettes, and the Data Manager, are dockable. Each window can be docked, anchored, or floating.

Commands for changing the display of dockable windows are available on a shortcut menu. You can change the following options for dockable windows:

• Size. You can change the size of a window and resize the panes.
• Allow Docking. Dock or anchor a dockable window. A docked window adheres to one side of the application window, causing the drawing area to be resized.
• Anchor. Attach, or anchor, a dockable window or palette to the left or right side of the drawing area. An anchored window rolls open and closed as the cursor moves across it. When an anchored window is open, its content overlaps the drawing area. An anchored window cannot be set to stay open. The Allow Docking option must be selected before you can anchor a window.
• Auto-hide. Display a floating window that opens and closes as the cursor moves across it. When this option is cleared, the window stays open.
• Transparency. Display a window as transparent so that it does not obscure objects under it. This option is not available for all windows or when hardware acceleration is turned on.

Control the Display of Toolbars

You can display or hide toolbars and control whether they are docked or floating in the drawing area.

A docked toolbar is attached to any edge of the drawing area. You can resize, and reposition undocked toolbars.

Lock the Position of Toolbars and Dockable Windows

After you have arranged toolbars and windows the way you want to display them, you can lock their positions. Locked toolbars and windows can still be opened and closed, and items can be added and deleted.

Use Keytips to Access Common Tools

You can use the keyboard to access the Application Menu, Quick Access tool bar, and ribbon.

Press the ALT key to display shortcut keys for common tools in the application window.

When you select a keytip, more keytips are displayed for that tool.

Use Dual Monitors to Optimize the Drawing Area

To create a larger drawing space, you can use two monitors. For example, you can use one monitor to display the drawing area, while the other monitor displays the tools for working in the drawing area such as the tool palette, Project Manager, Data Manager, and so on.

For more information about setting up dual monitors, see the instructions provided with your monitors.