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Zide Zide Zide

Panes and layout

You can use multiple panes to keep reference material visible while you work. For example, you can have an Issue view open next to a File tab or a Zide Assist chat session beside your branches view.

Panes

Panes contain the content tabs for your project. Content tabs are organized into one of three categories.

  • Work: Content that you are working on.
  • Chat: Conversations with Zide Assist or a CLI Agent.
  • Terminal: Terminals for text commands.

Each pane is assigned a tab category to determine which newly created content tabs open there. Panes can contain more than one category depending on the layout.

Zide automatically preserves your tab layout and split-pane configuration across sessions.

Layout presets

You can use layout presets to organize your panes and tabs. To apply a layout to Zide, click View and select one of four pre-designed layouts.

The default layout is Single Pane. You can change the default layout in Settings.

Advanced Pane Controls

To further edit the layout of Zide, click View > Advanced Pane Controls. You can also right-click the empty area of a pane tab bar, to the right of the last tab, and click Enable Advanced Pane Controls.

This setting applies to all open projects. Turning it on or off preserves each project’s content tabs and their current work, including when Settings is open.

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, right-click the empty area of a pane tab bar or a pane header to open the pane menu. The menu contains Reopen Closed Tab, Split Right, Split Down, Collapse Pane, and Disable Advanced Pane Controls. Collapse Pane moves the pane’s tabs to the adjacent pane. It is not available when the project has only one pane.

Split panes

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, you can drag any content tab toward the edge of a pane to split the pane. You can drag the content tab to split up, down, left, and right to create a new pane.

Click View > Split Pane Right or View > Split Pane Down to create an empty pane.

To reset your workspace, select one of the layout presets.

Assign tab categories

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, click a pane header to select the tab categories assigned to that pane. Selected tab categories determine which pane new content tabs open in. Changing the tab categories of a pane does not move content tabs to the pane.

Maximize panes

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, you can maximize a pane to fill the entire content area and focus only on that pane. When a pane is maximized, all other panes are hidden but retain their state.

Double-click the pane header to maximize the pane. Double-click the pane header again to restore the pane to its original size.

Minimize panes

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, you can minimize a pane to focus on other panes. When a pane is minimized, the pane retains its state.

Click the Minimize icon in the pane header to minimize the pane. The minimized pane shows a tab count badge. To restore the pane to normal, double-click the header.

Detached window

The detached window is a second window for content tabs. Use it to keep a terminal, a file, or a Zide Assist chat visible on another monitor. There is one detached window for all projects. It shows the tabs of the project that is selected in the main window.

To open it, click View > Detached Window > Open. If the window is already open, this brings it forward. The window stays open until you close it, also when it has no tabs.

Move tabs to the detached window

Do one of these:

  • Drag a content tab from the main window, and drop it on a tab bar or a pane in the detached window.
  • Right-click a content tab and click Move to Detached Window. If the window is closed, Zide opens it.

A tab keeps its work when it moves. A terminal keeps its shell and its output. A file keeps its unsaved changes and its undo history. A Zide Assist tab keeps its conversation, draft text, and attachments in both directions. A list keeps its filters and scroll position, but you must select its items again.

In the detached window, you can drag tabs to rearrange them or to split a pane, as in the main window. Zide does not save how the detached window’s panes are split.

Some tabs cannot move. For these tabs, Move to Detached Window is unavailable, and its tooltip tells why:

  • Web Browser, dashboard, interactive rebase, cherry-pick sequence, Script Runner, and command tabs.
  • A Zide Assist tab while Zide Assist is working or is waiting for your answer. Wait for the reply, stop it, or answer it, then move the tab.
  • Tabs in Standalone Files.

Return tabs to the main window

Do one of these:

  • Drag the tab from the detached window to a tab bar or a pane in the main window.
  • Right-click the tab in the detached window and click Return to Main Window.

A Zide Assist tab that is working or is waiting for your answer cannot return. Wait for the reply, stop it, or answer it first.

To close the detached window, click View > Detached Window > Close, or click the close button of the window. All tabs of all projects go back to the main window. If a Zide Assist tab cannot return, the window stays open and tells you why.

Change the project

When you select another project in the main window, the detached window shows that project’s tabs. If the project has no tabs in it, the window shows No project tabs are in this window.

When you open Settings, Open Project, or Standalone Files in the main window, the detached window keeps the tabs of the last project, but you cannot use them until you select that project again. You can still move and resize the window.

The detached window comes forward when you bring the main window forward.

Links to other surfaces open in the main window. For example, Session List in the Zide Assist More menu opens the Session List activity for that session’s project, and Settings links open Settings in the main window. The main window comes forward when either destination opens.

Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on macOS) on a commit link in File History opens a background Commit tab in the main window and keeps focus in the detached window. Open in New Tab from the link’s context menu selects the new tab and brings the main window forward.

UI Scale is shared by the main and detached windows, including their Web Browser tabs. Change it with the footer controls, in Settings, or with the scale shortcuts in either window. All open windows update immediately, and newly opened windows use the current scale.

Restart and quit

When you quit Zide, the tabs in the detached window are saved with their project. If the window was open when you quit, it opens again at startup with its tabs. As in the main window, a terminal starts a fresh shell.

When you close a project, its tabs in the detached window go back to the main window first, and the usual checks for unsaved changes and running work apply. If you click Cancel, the tabs stay in the main window. If a Zide Assist tab cannot return, the project stays open and Zide tells you why.

When you quit, tabs with unsaved changes or running work go back to the main window, and Zide asks you what to do, as for any tab. If you click Cancel, these tabs go back to the detached window. If a Zide Assist tab cannot return, Zide asks before it stops the work.

Reset the size and position

Zide remembers the size and position of the detached window. If the window opens where you cannot reach its title bar, for example after you disconnect a monitor, Zide moves it to the main window’s monitor.

To move the open window back to its default size, in the center of the main window’s monitor, click View > Detached Window > Reset Size and Position. The command is unavailable while the window is closed.