VideosConfiguring the Interface of Oxygen

Table of Contents
  • Introduction00:36
  • Dockable Views01:27
  • Customizing Toolbars01:50
  • Dockable Editors01:09
  • Predefined Layouts01:43
  • Changing Oxygen's Appearance00:30

Overview

Duration: 07:17
This video demonstration shows you how to manage the dockable views, editors, and predefined layouts. It also shows you how to customize the toolbars and the appearance of the user interface.

Transcript

00:00:07In this video demonstration we'll see how oXygen's flexible layout works.
00:00:12Thus you can customize the interface to closely match both your project's specific workflow
00:00:17and your personal preferences.
00:00:20The views inside the window are dockable, floatable and hideable.
00:00:25They can be dragged and docked to the margin of any view, to the margin of the main window,
00:00:31or even outside of it, to form any desired layout.
00:00:38As an example, let's suppose that we want to move the Model view in a different location.
00:00:43Click the view's title bar and drag to reposition it.
00:00:48You can also set the view in the auto-hide state using this button.
00:00:53Note that the view is now displayed as a separate tab in the right side of the main window.
00:00:59Hover the tab to temporarly expand the view.
00:01:04If you no longer wish to display a certain view, click this button to close it.
00:01:13You can display any of the closed views at any time from the Window / Show view menu.
00:01:26The same actions can be performed on the Project view.
00:01:29We can hide it, close it, reopen it, or make it floatable.
00:01:37It can be reopened either using the Window>Show View ... action
00:01:43or from Project >Show Project View action.
00:01:50You can reposition a view between other views by dragging the title bar.
00:01:54While you drag a view, a light blue rectangle marks the position where the view will be docked.
00:02:06You can also customize the toolbar area:
00:02:09toolbars can be moved around to create a more user-friendly interface.
00:02:14You can also choose which toolbars to show or hide in each editor mode for the current
00:02:18perspective or which actions to display in a toolbar.
00:02:22To do this, right-click on any toolbar and select "Configure toolbars" action.
00:02:29This can prove very useful if you want to increase productivity and you want to simplify
00:02:34the toolbar area by removing the toolbars containing actions that are not frequently used.
00:02:40Let's say that you want to leave only the Auhor-specific toolbars
00:02:57...and activate the most frequently used actions.
00:03:01You can also add, remove or change the order of the actions that compose a toolbar.
00:03:08To easily remove a specific toolbar you can also right-click it and choose "Hide"
00:03:14action from the contextual menu.
00:03:16Note the gray border painted around the current toolbar for easier identification.
00:03:24If you want to revert the configuration and layout of the toolbars to a default state
00:03:29you can choose "Reset Toolbar" action from the toolbar contextual menu.
00:03:35The toolbar layout and configuration are saved in the application layout files, together
00:03:40with all other layout changes.
00:03:42To revert the to the application's default layout settings, use the Window / Reset Layout action.
00:03:56Not only the views can be moved around the interface
00:03:59but also the editors can be arranged as you need inside the editing area.
00:04:11You can stack or tile editors individually and you can even mix and match vertical and horizontal tiling.
00:04:24You can also rearrange them one by one in the order that you prefer.
00:04:31To further improve the flexibility of the oXygen layout,
00:04:34you can completely detach an editor from the main window.
00:04:37On multiple-monitor systems, you can even move the detached editor to another monitor.
00:04:48Also, all the tabs inside the Results view can be rearranged just like any other tab
00:04:54or view in the oXygen layout.
00:05:05You can save the current editor layout and reuse it later, or even share it with your team.
00:05:11To save it, click Window -> Export layout.
00:05:18To load a layout, go to Window menu / Load Layout action, then select the 'Custom...'
00:05:25option and browse for the layout file.
00:05:27When working with diferent projects that address different usecases,
00:05:32for example developing XSLT stylesheets or writting technical documentation,
00:05:37it is useful to have a particular application layout for each project.
00:05:42To enable this feature let's go to oXygen's Preferences page and in the Application layout section...
00:05:49check the 'Remember layout changes for each project' option.
00:05:57To demonstrate this feature we have already configured two projects:
00:06:02one for XSLT development and another one for XML Authoring.
00:06:08For each project we have configured a specific layout, more suited to that particular task.
00:06:13First we'll load the first project (XSLT development)... oXygen restored the exact layout state, including
00:06:21toolbars, editors and views, like the Transformation Scenario View or/and the Outline view.
00:06:29Now we'll open the XML Authoring project which completely changes the oXygen layout,
00:06:34more suited to a technical writer.
00:06:36Now oXygen displays dedicated authoring views like the Review Panel and the DITA Maps Manager View.
00:06:49Starting with version 17, you can change the appearance of the user interface from the
00:06:54application's preferences page.
00:06:56This option allows you to set a color theme that will be applied over the entire user interface.
00:07:03We choose to apply a dark Graphite theme, but the full effect is seen after restarting oXygen.
00:07:13And this concludes our demonstration.
00:07:15Thanks for watching!

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