yEd supports dockable windows, a convenient feature to easily organize and arrange
the various tool windows that provide additional information about the graph
and its selected elements within the drawing canvas.
The tool windows include:
| Tool Window Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Overview | Presents a scaled view to the entire graph. |
| Structure View | Presents the graph structure as a tree view. |
| Properties View | Present the properties of the currently selected graph element(s). |
| Palette | Contains both predefined and also customized nodes and edges. |
| Context Views |
Predefined views that particularly display structural aspects of specific parts of a diagram. |
Additionally, the option dialogs of both layout algorithms and tools can also
be used as tool windows.
The section
“Toggling the Presentation State of Option Dialogs”
explains the conversion of an option dialog into a tool window and vice-versa.
Tool Window Functionality
Tool windows support a number of convenient features to organize yEd’s working
space and streamline the user experience.
Arrangement of tool windows can be vastly customized by
moving and docking them to other places inside
the application’s frame.
Also, all tool windows can optionally be set to
auto-hiding state where they take up only minimal
space and show up only on demand.
Additionally, the Overview window can also be converted into a so-called floatable
window that can be placed independent of the application’s frame.
Resetting the arrangement of tool windows to their factory positions can be
achieved using yEd’s Windows menu.
Also, closed tool windows can be displayed via the items within this menu or
their respective shortcut keys.
Moving and Docking Tool Windows
A tool window can be moved to another place within the application’s frame via
a mouse drag gesture starting at its title bar.
By default, the borders of either another tool window, the drawing canvas, or
the application’s frame itself present facilities for horizontal or vertical
arrangement of the moved tool window.
A rectangle that represents the moved tool window’s outline serves as an indication
whenever a valid arrangement is possible.
An indicated arrangement can be achieved by finishing the mouse drag gesture,
i.e., by releasing the mouse button.
The tool window then automatically docks to the respective borders.
Instead of docking to any of the borders, tool windows can also be arranged
in a tabbed fashion by finishing the mouse drag gesture on the title bar of
a tool window.
Tool Window Auto-hiding
Tool windows support the notion of auto-hiding where their representation is
minimized to a small mouse-sensitive area at either side of the application’s
frame.
Whenever the mouse is over the area, the tool window smoothly slides in from
the side and becomes visible again.
Toggling the Presentation State of Option Dialogs
Option dialogs for layout algorithms or tools can optionally be presented stand-alone
or as a tool window.
To toggle between the two presentation states, each stand-alone option dialog
features a ‘Dock’ button that converts it into a tool window.
Vice-versa, each option dialog that is presented as a tool window can be converted
to its stand-alone form by clicking the rightmost button in the upper-right
corner:
