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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

Lists — Files, Commits, Issues, and so on — live in the side panel on the left, opened from the activity bar. Panes hold what you open from those lists.

Each pane is assigned a tab category to determine which newly created content tabs open there. The pane categories are Work, Chats, and Terminals. Work holds whatever you are working on: files, commits, issues, pull requests, diffs, and settings. Panes can contain more than one category depending on the layout. The activity bar explains where lists live, while this guide covers how the tabs opened from those lists are arranged.

Pane headers and pane-editing controls are hidden by default. The layout presets and draggable dividers provide the simpler everyday interface. To create or remove individual panes, enable View > Layout Controls > Advanced Pane Controls. You can also change this option in Settings > Layout.

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

Split panes

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, you can drag any content tab toward the edge of a pane to split the pane. The following are areas where you can drag a content tab.

  • Split Up: Split and add the content tab above the pane.
  • Split Down: Splits and adds the content tab below the pane.
  • Split Left: Splits and adds the content tab to the left of the pane.
  • Split Right: Splits and adds the content tab to the right of the pane.
  • Move Here: Moves the content tab to the selected pane.

Click View > Split Pane Right or View > Split Pane Down to create an empty pane. These commands are hidden until Advanced Pane Controls is enabled.

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

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.

  • Single Pane (Alt+1): everything in a single pane.
  • Side by Side (Alt+2): Work on the left, Chats and Terminals sharing the pane on the right.
  • Stacked Right (Alt+3): Work on the left, Chats above Terminals on the right.
  • Three Columns (Alt+4): Work, Chats, and Terminals in separate columns.

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

Assign tab categories

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, click a pane’s title to choose the categories assigned to that pane. The checkmarks control where future tabs open. Changing an assignment does not move tabs that are already open.

Maximize panes

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.

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, double-click the pane header to maximize it. Double-click again to restore it.

Minimize panes

Minimize a pane to focus on other panes. When a pane is minimized, the pane retains its state.

With Advanced Pane Controls enabled, click the Minimize icon in the pane header. The minimized pane shows a tab count badge. To restore the pane to normal, double-click the header.