Arrange the screen to suit you

Everything on the screen can move. The one place that lists every choice is View › Panel layout…, and each is also in Settings.

The standard layout

The screen starts arranged the way most people find quickest, and the same way the drawing-office programs do it: the tools at the far left; one panel beside them whose tabs are Pages, Properties, Layers, Groups and Contents; and the whole right side left to the drawing, and to the Dato Room when you are in one (it docks on the right, or floats when the window is too narrow to spare the room). The properties of whatever you select are also in the bar along the top.

Nothing is fixed. Drag any tab out of the panel and it comes away in your hand; drop it on the right edge to dock it there, or leave it floating. To start over, choose a layout in Settings › Appearance › Layout (or View › Panel layout…):

• Standard (recommended): the arrangement above.
• Properties on the right: Pages on the left and Properties as a panel of its own on the right, the way many PDF programs start.
• Wide drawing: the panels put away to the quick strip so the sheet has the whole window; any panel is one press away.

Panels

• Pages and Properties can sit on either side, or along the top or bottom. Right-click a panel's title, or drag it to an edge.
• Drag a panel out of its place and it floats. Drag it back to an edge to dock it again.
• Drag the edge between a panel and the drawing to change its size.
• Lock the panels stops you moving them by accident once you have them how you like.

The quick strip

A thin strip of small icons that opens each panel without giving up room. Turn it on from View, and use Minimise the panels to the quick strip to get the whole sheet in front of you at once. Right-click it to switch between icons and words.

The tool rail

The column of tools can go on any of the four edges. Right-click it, or drag it to the edge you want. Set up the tools puts the tools for one kind of job at the top; every tool stays available either way.

Windows that follow the room you have

• Help, the action log, the title block and the other windows that float over the drawing start at a size taken from your window: larger in a big one, smaller in a small one, and never larger than the window itself. Drag a window's corner to make it bigger; what it shows grows with it, so a taller action log lists more.
• Fill the window, the button in the corner of Help and the action log, makes one as large as the window allows. The same button puts it back where it was.
• Large dialogs, such as reviewing drawing numbers, have that button too, and set out their contents in as many columns as fit. Settings › Advanced › Large windows makes them open filled.
• Narrow, a window folds its side columns away rather than squeezing them: in Help the contents become a Contents button.

Bigger, smaller, darker

• Interface size: Compact, Standard, Comfortable or custom, for the size of everything but the drawing.
• Switch between light and dark in the View menu, or follow your computer's setting.
• Focus mode (F) hides the panels. Full screen is F11.

1. Try the quick strip: View › Quick strip, then Minimise the panels to the quick strip.
2. Drag the Pages panel to the other side, and drag its edge to resize it.
3. If you don’t like the result, View › Panel layout… has the layouts, and Reset the layout puts you back on the standard.

Using two screens ›

In DatoMark Open Panel layout