Navigating and customizing the Flash Builder workbench

When you open a file that is associated with a particular perspective, Flash Builder automatically opens that perspective. The stand-alone configuration of Flash Builder contains three perspectives:

• Flash Development

• Flash Debugging

• Flash Profiling

The Flash Profiling perspective is available with Flash Builder Premium.

 Select Window > Perspective or choose Other to access all other Eclipse perspectives. (In the plug-in configuration of Flash Builder, select Window > Open Perspective.)

You can also click the Open Perspective button in the upper-right corner of the workbench window, then select a perspective from the pop-up menu.

To see a complete list of perspectives, select Other from the Open Perspective pop-up menu.

When the perspective opens, its title changes to display the name of the perspective you selected. An icon appears next to the title, allowing you to quickly switch back and forth between perspectives in the same window. By default, perspectives open in the same window.

The default perspective is indicated by the word default in parentheses following the perspective name.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Perspectives.

2. Under Available Perspectives, select the perspective to define as the default, and click Make Default.

3. Click OK.

You can specify to open perspectives in a new window.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Perspectives.

2. Under Open a New Perspective, select In A New Window.

   To switch back to the default, select In The Same Window.

3. Click OK.

To modify a perspective’s layout, you change the editors and views that are visible in a given perspective. For example, you could have the Bookmarks view visible in one perspective, and hidden in another perspective.

You can also configure several other aspects of a perspective, including the File > New submenu, the Window > Perspective > Other submenu, the Window > Other Views submenu, and action sets (buttons and menu options) that appear in the toolbar and in the main menu items. (Menu names differ slightly in the plug-in configuration of Flash Builder.)

You can delete perspectives that were previously defined. You cannot delete a perspective you did not create.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Perspectives.

2. Under Available Perspectives, select the perspective you want to delete.

3. Click Delete, then click OK.

You can restore a perspective to its original layout after you made changes to it.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Perspectives.

2. Under Available perspectives, select the perspective to reset.

3. Click Reset, then click OK.

Perspectives contain predefined combinations of views and editors. You can also open views that the current perspective might not contain.

 Select Window and choose a Flash Builder view or select Window > Other Views to choose other Eclipse workbench views. (In the plug-in configuration of Flash Builder, select Window > Show View.)

After you add a view to the current perspective, you can save that view as part of the perspective. For more information, see Customizing a perspective.

You can also create fast views to provide quick access to views that you use often. For more information, see Creating and working with fast views.

You can move views to different locations in the workbench, docking or undocking them as needed.

1. Drag the view by its title bar to the desired location.

   As you move the view around the workbench, the pointer changes to a drop cursor. The drop cursor indicates where you’ll dock the view when you release the mouse button.

   You can drag a group of stacked views by dragging from the empty space to the right of the view tabs.

   You can also move a view by using the view’s context menu. Open the context menu from the view’s tab, select Move > View, move the view to the desired location, and click the mouse button again.

2. (Optional) Save your changes by selecting Window > Perspectives > Save Perspective As (Window > Save Perspective As in the plug-in configuration of Flash Builder).

In addition to docking views at different locations in the workbench, you can rearrange the order of views in a tabbed group of views.

 Click the tab of the view to move, drag the view to the desired location, and release the mouse button. A stack symbol appears as you drag the view across other view tabs.

There are several ways to switch to a different view:

• Click the tab of a different view.

• Select a view from the flash builder Window menu.

• Use a keyboard shortcut

  Use Control+F7 on Windows, Command+F7 on Macintosh. Press F7 to select a view.

  For a list of all keyboard shortcuts, go to Help > Key Assist

Fast views are hidden views that you can quickly open and close. They work like other views, but do not take up space in the workbench while you work.

Whenever you click the fast view icon in the shortcut bar, the view opens. Whenever you click anywhere outside the fast view (or click Minimize in the fast view toolbar), the view becomes hidden again.

You can filter the tasks or problems that are displayed in the Tasks or Problems views. For example, you might want to see only problems that the workbench has logged, or tasks that you logged as reminders to yourself. You can filter items according to which resource or group of resources they are associated with, by text string in the Description field, by problem severity, by task priority, or by task status.

1. In Tasks or Problems view taskbar, click Filter.

2. Complete the Filters dialog box and click OK.

For more information about views, see Flash Builder Workbench Basics.

If your workspace contains many projects, you can create a working set to group selected projects together. You can then view separate working sets in the Package Explorer and Task views and also search working sets rather than searching everything in the workspace.

When you open a file, you launch an editor so that you can edit the file.

 Do one of the following:

• From the context menu for the file in one of the navigation views, select Open.

• Double-click the file in one of the navigation views.

• Double-click the bookmark associated with the file in the Bookmarks view.

• Double-click an error warning or task record associated with the file in the Problems view.

This opens the file with the default editor for that particular type of file. To open the file in a different editor, select Open With from the context menu for the file. Select the editor to use.

You can associate editors with various file types in the workbench.

1. Select Window > Preferences.

2. Click the plus button to expand the General category.

3. Click the plus button to expand the Editors category, and then select File Associations.

4. Select a file type from the File Types list.

   To add a file type to the list, click Add, enter the new file type in the New File Type dialog box, and then click OK.

5. In the Associated Editors list, select the editor to associate with that file type.

   To add an internal or external editor to the list, click Add and complete the dialog box.

6. Click OK.

   You can override the default editor preferences from the context menu for any resource in one of the navigation views. Select Open With from the context menu.

You can edit an MXML or ActionScript file in an external editor and then use it in Flash Builder. The workbench performs any necessary build or update operations to process the changes that you made to the file outside the workbench.

The workbench lets you open multiple files in multiple editors. But unlike views, editors cannot be dragged outside the workbench to create new windows. You can, however, tile editors in the editor area, so that you can view source files side by side.

1. Open two or more files in the editor area.

2. Select one of the editor tabs.

3. Drag the editor over the left, right, upper, or lower border of the editor area.

   The pointer changes to a drop cursor, indicating where the editor will appear when you release the mouse button.

4. (Optional) Drag the borders of the editor area of each editor to resize the editors as desired.

There are several ways you can maximize a view or editor so that it fills the workbench window.

Flash Builder lets you rearrange sections of the main toolbar. Sections of the main toolbar are divided by a space.

1. Ensure that the toolbar is unlocked. From the context menu for the toolbar, deselect Lock the Toolbars.

2. Move the mouse pointer over the vertical line “handle” that is on the left side of the toolbar section you want to rearrange.

3. Click the handle and drag the section left, right, up, or down. Release the mouse button to place the section in the new location.

   To prevent accidental changes, lock the toolbar again from the toolbar context menu.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Keys.

2. In the View screen of the Keys dialog box, select the command you want to change.

3. In the Binding field, type the new keyboard shortcut you want to bind to the command.

4. In the When pop-up menu, select when you want the keyboard shortcut to be active.

5. Click Apply or OK.

For a list of all keyboard shortcuts, go to Help > Key Assist

By default, the workbench uses the fonts and colors that your computer’s operating system provides. However, you can customize fonts and colors in a number of ways. The workbench lets you configure the following fonts:

Banner font

Appears in the title area of many wizards. For example, the New Flex Project wizard uses the Banner font for the top title.

Dialog font

Appears in widgets and dialog boxes.

Header font

Appears as a section heading.

Text font

Appears in text editors.

CVS Console font

Appears in the CVS console.

Ignored Resource font

Displays resources that CVS ignores.

Outgoing Change font

Displays outgoing changes in CVS.

Console font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in the Debug console.

Detail Pane Text font

Defaults to text font) Appears in the detail panes of Debug views.

Memory View Table font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in the table of the Memory view.

Java Editor Text font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in Java editors.

Properties File Editor Text font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in Properties File editors.

Compare Text font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in textual compare or merge tools.

Java Compare Text font

(Defaults to text font) Appears in Java compare or merge tools.

Java Properties File Compare Text font

(Defaults to properties file editor text font) Appears in Java properties file compare or merge tools.

Part Title font

(Defaults to properties file editor text font) Appears in view and editor titles.

View Message font

(Defaults to properties file editor text font) Displays messages in the view title bar (if present).

Plug-ins that use other fonts might also provide preferences that allow for customizing. For example, the Java Development Tools plug-in provides a preference for controlling the font that the Java editor uses (In the Preferences dialog, select > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts > Java > Java Editor Text Font).

The operating system always displays some text in the system font (for example, the font displayed in the Package Explorer view tree). To change the font for these areas, you must use the configuration tools that the operating system provides (for example, the Display Properties control panel in Windows).

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts.

2. Expand the Basic, CVS, Debug, Text Compare, or View and Editor Folders categories to locate and select the font and colors to change.

   Note: You can also click Use System Font instead of Change to set the font to a reasonable value that the operating system chooses. For example, in Windows, selecting this option causes Flash Builder to use the font selected in the Windows Display Properties control panel.

3. Set the font and color preferences as desired.

The workbench uses colors to distinguish different elements, such as error text and hyperlink text. The workbench uses the same colors that the operating system uses. To change these colors, you can also use the configuration tools that the system provides (for example, the Display Properties control panel in Windows).

You can control how the workbench responds to single and double clicks.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General.

2. In the Open Mode section, make your selections and click OK.

Flash Builder lets you conduct complex searches for files.

 In the plug-in version of Flash Builder select Search > Search or Search > File.

In the stand-alone version of Flash Builder select Edit > Find in Files.

Note: Click Customize to define what kinds of search tabs are available in the Search dialog box.

Flash Builder includes advanced search features that are more powerful than find and replace. To help you understand how functions, variables, or other identifiers are used, Flash Builder lets you find and mark references or declarations to identifiers in ActionScript and MXML files, projects, or workspaces. For more information, see Finding references and refactoring code.

The Search view displays the results of your search.