🎯 Goal: Make DRAW fit the job in front of you. A workspace switches the whole UI to a preset (fewer panels, a smaller toolbox, other keys), and Capture Screen turns DRAW into a screenshot annotator.

A workspace is a named layout preset. It decides:

• which panels show and where they dock;
• which toolbox buttons exist, in what order, and how many per row;
• which menus and menu items appear;
• which edit bar, advanced bar and organizer buttons show;
• single-key shortcuts that only work while it is active;
• a few starting options.

A workspace is an overlay on your own setup. Switching to one notes how everything is now, and leaving it puts every panel, dock and option back exactly as it was. Nothing a workspace changes is written to DRAW.cfg. DRAW only remembers which workspace you were in, so it reopens there.

There is always a way back. Whatever a workspace hides:

• Ctrl+Shift+W and the command palette still work.
• F11 shows everything the workspace hid, and a second F11 hides it again. Outside a workspace, F11 toggles all UI as before.
• Hidden commands keep their keys. Hiding means "not shown", not "disabled".

Things you toggle while in a workspace (opening the Color Mixer, say) last for that session. To make them part of the workspace, save the layout (below).

Panels dock on the left and right edges of the window. The menu bar always stays on top, and the status bar and color strip always stay at the bottom.

Drag a docked panel's inner edge (the edge facing the canvas) to resize it. The pointer turns into a ↔ arrow over the edge. The panel snaps as you drag:

When you let go, the new size is saved:

• In a workspace: into that workspace. A built-in gets your own copy, which RESET in the configurator removes.
• In Default: into DRAW.cfg (TOOLBOX_COLUMNS, EDIT_BAR_COLUMNS, ADV_BAR_COLUMNS, LAYER_PANEL_WIDTH).

Everything in the toolbox column follows its width:

• Toolbox buttons: more columns are added when the buttons don't fit the window height. A 1-column toolbox of 28 tools in a short window becomes 2 columns.
• Organizer: its four widget stacks fit into 1 to 4 columns.
• Drawer: as many bin columns as fit. In a narrow toolbox, the mini palette moves under the bins, and Shift+wheel over the bins scrolls them.
• Empty space: when a workspace hides the organizer and drawer, the column under the buttons is drawn as panel, not as a black gap.

Every panel can be arranged by hand, the way Photoshop, GIMP or Krita allow: the toolbox, organizer, drawer, layers, edit bar, advanced bar and character map, and the Preview, Color Mixer, Advanced Color Picker, 3D Color Space, Pen Pressure and Browser windows.

The handle is what you grab:

• a panel with a title strip (a tab, a collapsed slot, a docked window): the strip;
• the layers panel: its header;
• a floating edit bar or advanced bar: the slim grip strip on top (they are too narrow for a title);
• the toolbox, organizer, drawer and bars, which have no title: hover the panel's top edge and a thin grip appears.

The Browser can also dock along the top or bottom of the canvas area (the one exception to left/right docking): drag its title bar to the top or bottom of the canvas and a full-width band appears. Drag the band's inner edge to make it taller or shorter; the canvas re-centres in the room left. Its right-click menu has Dock Along the Top / Dock Along the Bottom.

The floating windows (Preview, Color Mixer, Advanced Color Picker, 3D Color Space, Pen Pressure, Browser) keep their own title bar. Drag the title bar onto a dock target to dock one; docked, its title bar is the handle, and dropping it anywhere off the docks floats it again at its old size.

Small windows: when a column is too short, its lowest panels collapse to their titles; when the window is too narrow, the outermost columns hide (the toolbox's column last) so the canvas keeps some room. Nothing is changed in your arrangement; widen the window and they come back.

Reset Arrangement (right-click any handle) returns to the classic layout, where each panel's side follows View → Layout and Ctrl+Shift+Click.

Arrangements save like widths: into the active workspace (a built-in gets your copy), or into DRAW.cfg in Default (DOCK_* keys). In a workspace file they are the [DOCK] and [FLOAT] sections (see Workspace files).

Save what's on screen from View → Workspace ▸:

Use the configurator only for what you can't arrange by hand: which toolbox buttons and menus exist, the keys, and the starting options.

View → Workspace → Configure Workspaces… (also in the command palette).

• Left: every workspace. The active one is checked; * marks your own files.

• Tabs:

  Tab	Edits
  Panels	Keep / Show / Hide for each of the 16 panels and bars, Keep / Left / Right dock edges, and the layers width (0 = keep yours). Keep means "leave it however you have it".
  Toolbox	Columns (0 = keep yours, from TOOLBOX_COLUMNS), the button order (typed), and a checkbox per toolbox button
  Menus	A checkbox per menu on the bar, and hidden menu items (action ids or labels)
  Bars	Columns and button checkboxes for the edit bar and advanced bar, and organizer widget checkboxes
  Keys	The workspace's single-key overlay (key = tool), plus an add row
  Options	Name, description, [START] tool / color / zoom, and DRAW.cfg overrides for this workspace
  Dock	The [DOCK] / [FLOAT] arrangement line by line; Use current takes it from the screen, Default removes it

• Buttons:

  Button	Does
  NEW	Start a blank workspace
  DUPLICATE	Copy the selected one
  RENAME	Change its display name (the file keeps its id)
  DELETE	Remove one of yours
  RESET	Drop your copy of a built-in
  SAVE	Write the file
  USE	Save and switch to it
  CLOSE	Leave; unsaved edits are discarded

Editing a built-in and saving makes your own copy in your workspaces folder. It wins over the built-in until you RESET it. Default is not editable, since it means "no overlay": DUPLICATE it to start one of your own.

Workspaces are plain .workspace text files, INI style:

• Built-ins: ASSETS/WORKSPACES/.
• Yours: the folder DRAW --dir-workspaces prints, also reachable from View → Workspace → Open Workspaces Folder. A file of yours with a built-in's name replaces it.
• After editing by hand, use Reload Workspaces.

[WORKSPACE]
NAME=Annotate
DESCRIPTION=Mark up screenshots
BASED_ON=default          ; inherit another workspace, override only what you list

[CHROME]                  ; SHOW | HIDE | KEEP
MENUBAR=SHOW
TOOLBOX=SHOW
TOOLBOX_DOCK=LEFT         ; *_DOCK = LEFT | RIGHT
LAYER_PANEL=HIDE
PALETTE_STRIP=SHOW        ; independent of STATUS_BAR
LAYER_PANEL_WIDTH=180     ; px, 60-400

[TOOLBOX]
COLUMNS=2                 ; 1-8; more are added when the buttons don't fit the height
BUTTONS=move,marquee,rect,ellipse,line,text,picker,crop   ; - = empty cell
ICON.crop=my-crop.png     ; theme TOOLBOX folder, a path, or your workspaces folder

[MENUS]
ROOTS=FILE,EDIT,VIEW,IMAGE,HELP
HIDE_ITEMS=209,NEW WINDOW ; action ids or labels

[EDIT_BAR]
BUTTONS=undo,redo,copy,paste
COLUMNS=2                 ; icon columns, 1-4

[ADVANCED_BAR]
BUTTONS=preview,grayscale
COLUMNS=1

[ORGANIZER]
WIDGETS=color-mixer,brush-size,grid

[KEYS]                    ; only while this workspace is active
r=rect
R=rect-filled             ; upper case = Shift
ctrl+s=quick-save
ctrl+enter=done

[OPTIONS]                 ; any DRAW.cfg key, this workspace only
ANGLE_SNAP_DEGREES=45

[START]                   ; applied each time you switch to it
TOOL=rect
FG=#FF2040
ZOOM=FIT                  ; or a percent, 100 = 1:1

[DOCK]                    ; the arrangement, one line per column, outermost first
LEFT.1=AUTO; toolbox | organizer | drawer
RIGHT.1=WIDTH:180; layers@2 | *preview+colormixer | !browser
                          ; AUTO or WIDTH:px; | stacks, + tabs, * active tab,
                          ; @n height share, ! collapsed to its title

[FLOAT]                   ; floating panels: x,y,w,h in window pixels
pen=640,120,220,300

You rarely type [DOCK] yourself: arrange the panels by hand and use Update Workspace From Layout. A workspace without [DOCK] uses the classic layout, with each side from the *_DOCK keys.

Names you can use

[KEYS] takes one key (a, R = Shift+R, 1), ctrl+key, alt+key, enter, space or tab. Workspace keys win over DRAW's own while the workspace is active. They never fire while you type text, in a dialog or menu, or in the middle of a stroke. Menus and the command palette show the workspace's keys, so Ellipse Tool reads O in Annotate.

File → Capture Screen… (Ctrl+Shift+P, also in the command palette), or DRAW --capture from a desktop shortcut.

1. DRAW hides its window, waits a moment, grabs the whole screen and comes back.

2. The region picker shows the frozen screen:

   Do	To
   Drag	Draw a box
   Drag inside the box	Move it
   Drag a handle	Resize it
   Arrows	Nudge 1 px (Shift = 10)
   Enter / double-click	Use the box (no box = whole screen)
   Space	Whole screen
   Esc / right-click	Cancel

   A loupe and the pixel coordinates follow the pointer, and the box shows its size.

3. The region becomes a new document in the Annotate workspace. A region over 4096 px asks whether to scale it down or crop it.

The document you were working on is not lost. If it has a name or unsaved changes, it is set aside in DRAW's cache (no "discard changes?" question), and Done (Ctrl+Enter) brings it back.

These tools are also under Tools → Annotate and in the command palette (Annotate:), so they work in any workspace.

💡 QB64-PE's own screen grab only works on Windows, which is why Linux and macOS use a capture tool. If none is installed, DRAW names the tools to install in the status bar. Wayland works through XWayland (verified on KDE Plasma 6).

DRAW --capture hands the capture to a running DRAW (no second window) or starts DRAW if it is not running. Started that way, DRAW is one-shot:

• No splash screen; it goes straight to the grab.
• Ctrl+Enter saves, copies and closes DRAW.
• Esc in the region picker closes DRAW too.

So a shortcut gives you capture → mark up → Ctrl+Enter, and you're back where you were. Bind it to a key:

• KDE Plasma: System Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Add New → Command or Script. Command: /path/to/DRAW.run --capture. Then press the shortcut you want, for example Meta+Shift+S.
• GNOME: Settings → Keyboard → View and Customize Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts → +. Command: /path/to/DRAW.run --capture.
• Windows: create a shortcut to DRAW.exe, add --capture to Target, and set Shortcut key in its Properties.
• macOS: Shortcuts app → new shortcut → Run Shell Script /path/to/DRAW --capture. Assign a keyboard shortcut in its details.

➡️ Back to: Chapter 1 — Introduction