Inside a project

Open a project and you're in its workspace: a header across the top, the file you're working on (or the dashboard when nothing is open), the file drawer at the bottom and the Scratch Pad button at the bottom left.

The header

The project dashboard

With no file open, a project shows its dashboard: a greeting, buttons to make each kind of file, your recent files, your favorites and your tags. Click any file to open it.

The colored dots after a file are its tags, one dot per tag; the star marks a favorite. Use the arrow keys to walk the file lists: ↑/↓ move, ←/→ hop between lists side by side, and Enter opens the highlighted file.

Customize the dashboard

Every part of the dashboard can be shown, hidden or moved, and there are more parts to choose from.

1. Open a project with no file open and click Customize at the top right.
2. Tick or untick each part, and use the arrows to move it up or down. Some parts have settings underneath, such as how many rows Recent shows.
3. Changes apply as you make them, so you can watch the page rearrange. Click Done or press Esc. Reset to default puts everything back.

Parts with nothing to show step aside until they do.

When the project opens

At the top of Customize, choose what you see each time you come into the project:

• Reopen the files I had open: pick up where you left off, side by side if you had two open.
• Show the dashboard: start on the dashboard every time.
• Show my files: the file drawer opens full page once the project has loaded.

Refreshing the page always keeps your open files.

One layout for every project

Turn on Use for all projects at the bottom of Customize and the arrangement you're looking at becomes the dashboard for every project. Turn it off again and each project keeps its own.

Opening and closing files

• Click a file on the dashboard, in the drawer, or find it with Cmd+O.
• New files open as soon as you create them.
• Close a file with the × at the right of its header, or Cmd+Shift+Delete.
• Opening a long manuscript can take a moment. If it takes more than about half a second, a small Opening… pill appears at the bottom.

Two files side by side

Studio shows up to two files at once: a chapter next to your outline, notes beside a draft, the wiki next to the scene that needs it.

1. Open a file.
2. Open a second one. It appears beside the first.
3. With two files open, opening a third asks which side it replaces: click a side, or press 1 / 2 (or ← / →).

• Resize: drag the divider between the files. Studio remembers the widths.
• Move between them: Cmd+Shift+1 and Cmd+Shift+2. A thin outline flashes around the file you land in.
• Swap sides: the ⇆ button in the right file's header, or Cmd+Shift+S.
• Close one: its ×, or Cmd+Shift+Delete in the one you're in.

When a narrow pane gets crowded, Studio tucks things away to make room: headers shorten and comments fold into a button.

Focus mode

Focus mode hides everything but your words: the header, the drawer handle, the Scratch Pad button and the word count.

• Turn it on from the gear menu (Focus Mode), the palette, or Cmd+Shift+F. (In the palette, the nickname fm finds it instantly.)
• Move the pointer to an edge of the window and the controls on that side come back while you need them.
• Press Esc, or the small exit button that appears at the top right, to leave.

Focus mode works on the web and desktop. To fill the whole screen as well, choose Fullscreen in the gear menu.