Layouts and docking
Open Appearance → Layout & display to choose how conversations are shown.
| Layout | What you see |
|---|---|
| Traditional tabs (default) | One conversation, a tab strip above it and the sidebar tree on the left |
| Single pane | One conversation without the tab strip |
| Flexible workspace | Up to 16 panes that you arrange yourself, starting from a preset |
The sidebar stays in every layout and drives what the focused pane shows.
Presets
Section titled “Presets”| Preset | Starting arrangement |
|---|---|
| One pane | A single pane |
| Two side by side | Two columns |
| Two stacked | Two rows |
| 2×2 | Four panes |
| 4×4 | Sixteen panes (remove the ones you do not need) |
A preset is filled with your open conversations, the active one first. After that the arrangement is yours to change.
Working with panes
Section titled “Working with panes”- Split a pane with the
⇥(right) and⇩(below) buttons in its header, or⋯→ Split left / above. The pane it came from gives up half its space. - Close a pane with
×, or⋯→ Close pane. Its conversations stay open and neighbours take its space. The last pane cannot be closed. - Merge (
⋯→ Merge into neighbouring pane) moves a pane’s conversations into its neighbour’s tab group and closes it. Remove empty panes closes every pane that holds nothing. - Resize by dragging the divider between panes, or focus a divider and use the arrow keys (3% per press). Enter or a double-click evens the panes out. A pane never gets narrower than 240 px or shorter than 120 px. When the window is too small for that, the workspace scrolls instead.
- Tab groups. A pane can hold several conversations as tabs. Choosing a conversation in the sidebar adds it to the focused pane.
×on a tab removes it from the pane; the conversation stays open.
Drag and drop
Section titled “Drag and drop”Drag a tab or a conversation onto a pane:
- the middle adds it as a tab there;
- an edge (left, right, top or bottom, highlighted while you drag) docks it in a new pane on that side.
A conversation lives in one pane at a time.
Focus and independence
Section titled “Focus and independence”The focused pane has a glowing outline and receives typing through the single message box. Ctrl+Alt + arrow keys moves focus to the adjacent pane, and F6 cycles regions.
Every pane has its own scroll position, Jump to latest button and unread badge. A message appears only in its own conversation’s pane.
Persistence
Section titled “Persistence”The layout, the arrangement, saved workspaces and other preferences are saved in settings.json in your data folder and restored at the next start. Conversations that are not open at start-up stay in their panes and appear when they exist again. Saved layouts from older versions with a 2×2 or 4×4 grid are converted to a workspace with the same conversations in the same places.
Not available
Section titled “Not available”Undocking panes into separate windows.