5.  Misc dialogs

5.1.  Tools Dialog

Revision History
Revision $Revision: 1980 $ 2006-03-15 j.h

Figure 13.51.  The Tools dialog

The Tools dialog

The Tools dialog is used mainly to control the appearance of the Toolbox. It allows you to customize the set of tools for which icons are shown in the Toolbox, and the order in which the icons are arranged. Probably the most common use for it is to make the Color tools available directly from the Toolbox. You can also use the Tools dialog to select a tool by clicking on its symbol, but for this purpose you might as well just use the Toolbox.

The Tools dialog is a dockable dialog; see the section on Dialogs and Docking for help on manipulating it. It can be activated in several ways:

  • From the Toolbox menu: FileDialogsTools.

  • From an image menu: DialogsTools.

  • From the Tab menu in any dockable dialog: Add TabTools.

5.1.1.  Grid/List modes

In the Tab menu, you can choose between View as Grid and View as List. In Grid mode, the tools are laid out in a rectangular array. In List mode, they are lined up vertically, with each row showing the tool name, tool icon, and an “eye” icon if the tool is currently visible in the Toolbox.

5.1.2.  Using the Tools dialog

The most basic thing you can do is to select a tool by clicking on its icon: this has the same effect as clicking on an icon in the Toolbox. You can do this in either List or Grid mode: the other functions of the dialog are available only in List mode.

The most important function of the Tools dialog is to let you choose which tools to make visible in the Toolbox, by toggling the “eye” icons that appear on the left side of each row in List mode. In particular, if you use the Color tools a lot, you may benefit from toggling visibility on for them here.

You can also change the order of tools in the Toolbox, by clicking on an item in the Tools dialog, in List mode, and dragging it up or down in the list. If you screw things up, you can always press the "Reset" button at the bottom of the dialog, to restore the defaults for order and visibility.

Right-clicking inside the dialog produces the Tools menu, which gives you an alternative way of toggling visibility or restoring the defaults.