{"id":216,"date":"2008-06-09T05:48:52","date_gmt":"2008-06-09T10:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/desktop\/2008\/06\/09\/tools-on-the-side\/"},"modified":"2008-06-09T05:48:52","modified_gmt":"2008-06-09T10:48:52","slug":"tools-on-the-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/2008\/06\/09\/tools-on-the-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools on the Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a year ago Ken Orr discussed the docked \u201cmaximize\u201d feature that was introduced in R2007a (Focusing on your work<\/a>). He explained how you can use this feature to temporarily expand a particular tool (sub-window) to fill the entire MATLAB window. Also introduced in R2007a was a docked \u201cminimize\u201d feature. Docked minimize and maximize have similar intent, allowing you to optimize your use of screen real-estate.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a scenario where I find docked minimize useful. I\u2019m tweaking an M-File that generates a figure. I want to see the M-File and figure side-by-side so I dock both and arrange my MATLAB desktop as shown:<\/p>\n

Cluttered MATLAB<\/a><\/p>\n

This facilitates my workflow reasonably well but it\u2019s a bit cluttered and I\u2019d really like my Editor to be wide enough to display the longer lines of M-Code. I could close the Current Directory, Workspace and Command History tools to recoup some real-estate. However, while they may not be central to the task at hand I do find occasional use for these. Instead of closing these tools I can minimize them by clicking on the small left-pointing arrows on their title bars.<\/p>\n

Minimize Button<\/p>\n

As I minimize each tool it is hidden and a corresponding button appears along the left border of the MATLAB window. I\u2019ll refer to the row of buttons along the border as a \u201csidebar\u201d. The documentation doesn\u2019t use this term but doing so here is consistent with the title of \u201cDesktop Bar Tender\u201d to which I laid claim in my last post. With the Current Directory, Workspace and Command History all minimized to the left sidebar, my MATLAB desktop looks like this:<\/p>\n

Improved Layout<\/a><\/p>\n

When I want to access one of the minimized tools I either hover over its button to reveal it without giving it focus or click its button to both reveal it and give it focus. For example if I click the Command History button, the Command History appears overlapping the left portion of the Editor like this:<\/p>\n

History Revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

After I\u2019ve gotten what I want from the Command History I hide it by clicking its button again or clicking on some other tool such as the Editor. If I find myself using the Command History so frequently that I want to return it to my layout I can either double click its sidebar button or click the \u201crestore\u201d icon on its title bar.<\/p>\n

Restore Button<\/p>\n

If you’ve found this feature useful in your work or if you’ve identified shortcomings that make it less useful than it could be, I\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a year ago Ken Orr discussed the docked \u201cmaximize\u201d feature that was introduced in R2007a (Focusing on your work). He explained how you can use this feature to temporarily expand a particular… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}