how to manipulate Leo's windows

[andyjim]

I haven't managed to find how.  I want my default to be outline tree on the left, body on the right, no log window, no render window.  But I want to know the ropes so I can modify that as desired.  I'm sure it's in the docs somewhere but I haven't put my finger on it.  Thanks.

[Thomas Passin]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 10:38:39 PM UTC-5, andyjim wrote:

I haven't managed to find how.  I want my default to be outline tree on the left, body on the right, no log window, no render window.  But I want to know the ropes so I can modify that as desired.  I'm sure it's in the docs somewhere but I haven't put my finger on it.  Thanks.

I wrestled with this, too, and no, it's not really in the docs.

Here's what I did.  I happen to want outline left, body right, and the tabs pane (the one with the log tab) on the left below the outline.  You should really not get rid of it, because you will want to use the search and Nav tabs at a minimum, and of you start to use the tags or backlinks plugins, they will create new tabs in that pane, too.

First, add a node with this headline to the @settings tree in MyLeoSettings.leo -

@string central-dock-widget = body

The next step is to drag the panes by their title bars where you want them.  But this is tricky and a little non-intuitive.  There are certain areas you can drag to.  When a pane is over one of them, the space underneath will turn a translucent blue color (I *think* it's blue - my color vision isn't always the best).  Then you release the mouse button.

One of these docking  areas is on the right.  The body pane should already be in it, if you put that @setting node in and restarted Leo.  There is another docking area on the left, and you drag the outline pane over there.  The tabs pane may end up tabbed in the same pane as the outline, or with the body pane.  Either way, drag it way down to the bottom under the outline pane on the left.  A new docking area should open up.  Drop the tabs pane there. 

This docking area sometimes is very small, and if so it's easy to miss.  Look closely for a bluish line or tiny rectangle to show up - that will be the place.

After the tabs pane is in place, you can drag its separator bar up or down to adjust its height.

You may find that the next time you open Leo, the height of the tabs pane has changed.  Who know why this happens?  I have noticed that after you have saved the file several times, the height of the tabs pane tends to settle down somewhat.  But I still often have to readjust it after a restart.

If you start Leo with the --global-docks option, then all the outlines will open with the same pane arrangement ( I *think*).

When I was working my way through this, I got the panes into some arrangement that was unusable and I couldn't recover from.  The remedy is to delete Leo's "db" directory (thanks to @ekr for this).  This will let you start again.  On Windows, directory this is usually at

%userprofile%\.leo

Yes, you can type that directly into the address bar of Windows Explorer, or into a command window.  On Linux, it's usually at

~/.leo

[andyjim]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 11:32:24 PM UTC-5, Thomas Passin wrote:

The next step is to drag the panes by their title bars where you want them...One of these docking  areas is on the right.  The body pane should already be in it, if you put that @setting node in and restarted Leo.  There is another docking area on the left, and you drag the outline pane over there.  The tabs pane may end up tabbed in the same pane as the outline, or with the body pane.  Either way, drag it way down to the bottom under the outline pane on the left.  A new docking area should open up.  Drop the tabs pane there. 

Thanks.  Ok, got that far, but the body pane still matches height with the outline pane. I want it to vertically fill the space to the right of the outline and tabs panes.

After the tabs pane is in place, you can drag its separator bar up or down to adjust its height.

 Yep, but the entire horizontal line dividing the 'north panes' from the 'south panes' moves. There's no rendering pane but its blank space persists and moves up and down along with vertical adjustment of any pane.  I want the body pane to fill the entire east half.  Hope I'm clear.

Another peculiar behavior: When I adjust the width of the tabs pane, the body pane jumps down to the blank space to the right of the tabs pane. But when I then click in that body pane it snaps back up to its northeast position next to the outline pane.  I informally re-title this post, 'pane pains'

[andyjim]

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 11:32:24 PM UTC-5, Thomas Passin wrote:

When I was working my way through this, I got the panes into some arrangement that was unusable and I couldn't recover from.  The remedy is to delete Leo's "db" directory (thanks to @ekr for this).  This will let you start again. 

Looks like I need to delete db, as I've experimented myself into a jam.  But she don't wanna delete. Says it's a directory and won't touch it.  I looked up how to delete a directory but it won't let me do it.  Hmm.  sudo?  Nope, still won't delete a directory.  MacOS. 

Tried both "rm db" and "rmdir db"; also with "db/"   Response is "directory is not empty"

Tried "rmdir -r db" to delete subdirectories recursively.  Response is "usage: rmdir [-p] directory ..."  Don't understand that one.

Hmm, it worked just now. Same command as before, but I did it in a different instance of the terminal.  ??? Anyway it worked.

[Thomas Passin]

On Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 9:33:49 AM UTC-5, andyjim wrote:

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 11:32:24 PM UTC-5, Thomas Passin wrote:

When I was working my way through this, I got the panes into some arrangement that was unusable and I couldn't recover from.  The remedy is to delete Leo's "db" directory (thanks to @ekr for this).  This will let you start again. 

Looks like I need to delete db, as I've experimented myself into a jam.  But she don't wanna delete. Says it's a directory and won't touch it.  I looked up how to delete a directory but it won't let me do it.  Hmm.  sudo?  Nope, still won't delete a directory.  MacOS.

 I'm not sure how it works on MacOS, but on Linux you would probably need to run rm with "-r":

rm -r mydir # "-r" recursively deletes everything below mydir

[Edward K. Ream]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2020 at 10:32 PM Thomas Passin <tbp1...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 10:38:39 PM UTC-5, andyjim wrote:

I haven't managed to find how.  I want my default to be outline tree on the left, body on the right, no log window, no render window.  But I want to know the ropes so I can modify that as desired.  I'm sure it's in the docs somewhere but I haven't put my finger on it.  Thanks.

I wrestled with this, too, and no, it's not really in the docs.

Here's what I did.  [Big Snip]

Many thanks for this. I've copied this to LeoDocs.leo. It will appear in the FAQ section, and possibly elsewhere.

Edward