Arranging Windows and Panels
The same working content can occupy a tab or a separate window, and the same panel can float or join a dock. These arrangements affect how you reach your work and how much space remains visible. They do not require different font files.
Begin by choosing the window behavior that suits your working space, then arrange the panels you need.
Interface Modes
An interface mode governs where new views open. In Preferences > General > Windows/tabs, Workspace layout offers three choices:
| Choice | Arrangement |
|---|---|
| Tabs | Font and Glyph views share a principal application window as tabs |
| Both | Separate Font windows can contain their associated Glyph views as tabs |
| Windows | Views open as independent windows |
Choose Tabs when you want most switching to happen inside one frame. Both can keep each font's work together while allowing different fonts to occupy separate frames. Windows gives individual views their own frames, useful when you want to place them independently.
To change the mode, choose the layout in Preferences and apply the change. Where tab dragging is enabled by Can drag tabs to create windows, dragging a tab out can detach it into a separate window. Docking allows the reverse arrangement.
Views and their names
The Window menu adapts some view-command labels to the arrangement. The New Font, New Glyph, New Metrics, and New Kerning view commands use Tab or Window according to the arrangement. The content's role remains the same even when the surrounding frame changes.
Switching tabs and switching independent windows are separate navigation actions. Use the tab headings to switch inside a frame and the Window menu or the operating system's window controls to reach a different frame. A shortcut assigned to one operation should not be assumed to perform the other.
When you close a Glyph view, FontLab normally returns to its associated Font view. To close the font itself and its associated views, use Font > Close Font.
Fonts without individual Font windows
A second setting controls whether every open font needs a Font window. Preferences > Font Window > Font window offers At least one Font window and Use Font map and Fonts panels.
The latter supports a workflow in which the Fonts panel chooses the font and the Font Map panel presents its glyphs. It is useful when many open fonts would otherwise produce many separate views. This is independent of whether views use tabs or windows.
Docking
Docking attaches an interface surface to another part of the arrangement. For windows, the result can be several views sharing one frame as tabs. For panels, it can be a stack at a screen edge, a group of tabbed panels, or a panel attached to a window.
Windows as tabs
The commands under Window > Docking provide ways to merge views. Merge To Font Windows brings Glyph views into their corresponding Font windows; Merge All Windows collects views into one frame; Merge Window handles the current window. Availability depends on the interface mode.
In Windows mode, independent windows are not dockable by default. To permit a particular window to join another as a tab, enable Window > Docking > Window is Dockable for that window. This separates an ordinary move across the screen from an intentional change to the tab arrangement.
Panel docking targets
Panels can remain floating over the work, so a control stays reachable while you change the active window. Docking gives the panel a place in a more structured layout.
The targets fall into three useful categories:
- A screen edge, which anchors a panel or a stack outside the content windows.
- Another panel, which allows adjacent stacks or a tabbed group.
- A window, which lets panels share the window's frame where the layout supports it.
These describe docking destinations, not a promise of a separate control state for each destination. The permission control can disable docking or permit different targets; use the docking guide to check which destination is available in the current arrangement.
Use the docking-permission control in the upper-right corner of a floating panel’s title bar to change its permitted targets. It can also keep the panel floating by disabling docking. Window docking also depends on the application's layout. Do not assume that a target is available merely because a panel can be dragged near it.
To dock a panel:
- Drag it by its title bar toward the intended edge or panel group.
- Watch for the docking guide. The dragged panel becomes translucent so the destination remains visible.
- Release when the guide indicates the intended position.
Dragging one panel over another can combine them into a tabbed group. Use the group's tabs to reach its members. To remove a member from the group, drag its tab out. Moving a panel, joining a group, and closing it are different operations; none needs to remove the information the panel represents.
Scrollable docks
A panel stack can contain more content than fits vertically. In that case, the dock scrolls instead of requiring every panel to remain fully visible at once. Its edge scrollbar and overflow controls let you reach panels farther along the stack.
Wheel or trackpad input can also scroll, but the surface under the pointer matters. A panel with its own scrollable list can receive that input before the surrounding dock does. Move to the dock's scrolling area when the intention is to move the stack rather than the list inside one panel.
Collapse panels whose full contents you do not need, and expand them when the task changes. Resizing a panel changes the room available for its contents; it does not change the values shown there.
To preserve and manage a useful arrangement, see Customizing the Workspace.
Toolbar Layout
Dock the Toolbar at a top or bottom edge for a horizontal layout. Double-click an empty area of that strip to switch between regular and compact modes. Compact mode groups related tools into popup selectors and gathers the view toggles into View options. When docked with sufficient width, it also accommodates controls from the active Font or Glyph window; those controls return to their windows when the layout no longer has room.
Use the Toolbar's far-left grab area to drag it; that area remains clear of the first control. A vertical Toolbar has a separate one-/two-column choice, toggled by double-clicking its header away from the close control. For the compact groups and active-window controls, see Glyph Window Anatomy.
Interface Focus
Focus identifies the control or working area that receives keyboard input. One target receives that input at a time. The surrounding panel or window provides its context, but a text field inside it can be the actual focused control.
For example, an arrow key can move through glyph cells when the grid has focus. The same key can move a cursor or change a value when a field has focus. A shortcut that works in one context may have a different effect, or be unavailable, in another.
Click the area you intend to use before issuing a context-sensitive keyboard command. If typing goes into an unexpected field, check focus before repeating the command. The current font, the selected glyphs, and keyboard focus answer different questions: which font, which objects, and which interface target will receive the input.
Use Tab and Shift+Tab to move among controls that accept keyboard focus. Their order follows the displayed arrangement and is rebuilt when controls move to or return from the Toolbar; hidden or disabled controls are skipped. The operating system's keyboard-navigation settings can affect which buttons accept Tab focus.
FontLab can show a thin focus highlight. Preferences > General > Appearance > Highlight of focus controls how widely it is drawn. Minimal feedback emphasizes small controls; broader settings also identify lists and working canvases. This setting changes the visible feedback, not the destination of keyboard input.
Focus also explains why the same panel command can reveal or hide a panel. Invoking an open but inactive panel brings it forward and focuses it. Invoking the focused panel again hides it. Returning focus to a working window lets its keyboard operations take effect without requiring you to close all other panels.