Understanding the workbench use and its features of ADT kit

The Workbench

When the Workbench is launched, the first thing you see is a dialog that allows you to select where the workspace should be located. The workspace is the directory where your work will be stored. For now, just click OK to pick the default location.

After the workspace location is chosen, a single Workbench window is displayed. A Workbench window offers one or more perspectives. A perspective contains editors and views, such as the Project Explorer. Multiple Workbench windows can be opened simultaneously. Initially, in the first Workbench window that is opened, the Java perspective is displayed, with only the Welcome view visible. Click the arrow labeled Workbench in the Welcome view to cause the other views in the perspective to become visible. Note you can get the Welcome view back at any time by selecting Help > Welcome.

A shortcut bar appears in the top right corner of the window. This allows you to open new perspectives and switch between ones already open. The name of the active perspective is shown in the title of the window and its item in the shortcut bar is highlighted.

You should be seeing the Java perspective. We will switch to the simpler Resource perspective to simplify this tutorial. Select Window > Open Perspective > Other... > Resource. The Project Explorer, Outline, and Tasks views should now be visible.

Editors

Depending on the type of file that is being edited, the appropriate editor is displayed in the editor area. For example, if a .TXT file is being edited, a text editor is displayed in the editor area. The figure below shows an editor open on the file file1.txt. The name of the file appears in the tab of the editor. An asterisk (*) appearing at the left side of the tab indicates that the editor has unsaved changes. If an attempt is made to close the editor or exit the Workbench with unsaved changes, a prompt to save the editor's changes will appear.

When an editor is active, the Workbench menu bar and toolbar contain operations applicable to the editor. When a view becomes active, the editor operations are disabled. However, certain operations may be appropriate in the context of a view and will remain enabled.

The editors can be stacked in the editor area and individual editors can be activated by clicking the tab for the editor. Editors can also be tiled side-by-side in the editor area so their content can be viewed simultaneously. In the figure below, editors for JanesFile.txt and JanesFile2.txt have been placed above the editor for JanesText.txt. Instructions will be given later in this tutorial explaining how to rearrange views and editors.

If a resource does not have an associated editor, the Workbench will attempt to launch an external editor registered with the platform. These external editors are not tightly integrated with the Workbench and are not embedded in the Workbench's editor area.

Editors can be cycled through using the back and forward arrow buttons in the toolbar. These move through the last mouse selection points and permit moving through several points in a file before moving to another one. Additionally, editors can be cycled by using the Ctrl+F6 accelerator (Command+F6 on the Macintosh). Ctrl+F6 pops up a list of currently open editors. By default, the list will have selected the editor used before the current one, allowing you to easily go back to the previous editor.

On Windows, if the associated editor is an external editor, the Workbench may attempt to launch the editor in-place as an OLE document editor. For example, editing a DOC file will cause Microsoft Word to be opened in-place within the Workbench if Microsoft Word is installed on the machine. If Microsoft Word has not been installed, Word Pad will open instead.

Views

The primary use of Views is to provide navigation of the information in the Workbench. For example:

• The Bookmarks view displays all bookmarks in the Workbench along with the names of the files with which the bookmarks are associated.
• The Project Explorer view displays the Workbench projects, their folders and files.

A view might appear by itself or stacked with other views in a tabbed notebook.  

To activate a view that is part of a tabbed notebook simply click its tab.

Views have two menus. The first, which is accessed by right clicking on the view's tab, allows the view to be manipulated in much the same manner as the menu associated with the Workbench window.

 The second menu, called the "view pull-down menu", is accessed by clicking the down arrow . The view pull-down menu typically contains operations that apply to the entire contents of the view, but not to a specific item shown in the view. Operations for sorting and filtering are commonly found in the view pull-down. 

A view can be displayed by selecting it from the Window > Show View menu. A perspective determines which views may be required and displays these on the Show View sub-menu. Additional views are available by choosing Other... at the bottom of the Show View sub-menu. This is just one of the many features that provide for the creation of a custom work environment.

Through the normal course of using the Workbench you will open, move, resize, and close views. If you'd like to restore the perspective back to its original state, you can select the Window > Reset Perspective menu operation.