Using Perspectives
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Using Perspectives

New Perspectives

There are several ways to open a new perspective within this Workbench window:

  • Using the Open Perspective button Open Perspective on the shortcut bar.

  • Choosing a perspective from the Window → Open Perspective menu.

To open one by using the shortcut bar button:

  1. Click on the Open Perspective button Open Perspective.

  2. A menu appears showing the same choices as shown on the Window → Open Perspective menu. Choose Other from the menu.

    Open Perspective Menu

  3. In the Select Perspective dialog choose Debug and click OK.

    Select Perspective

    The Debug perspective is displayed.

  4. There are several other interesting things to take note of.

    • The title of the window now indicates that the Debug perspective is in use.

    • The shortcut bar contains several perspectives, the original Resource perspective, the new Debug perspective and a few others. The Debug perspective button is pressed in, indicating that it is the current perspective.

    • To display the full name of the perspective right click the perspective bar and check Show Text.

      Debug Perspective

  5. In the shortcut bar, click on the Resource perspective button. The Resource perspective is once again the current perspective. Notice that the set of views is different for each of the perspectives.

Configuring Perspectives

In addition to configuring the layout of a perspective you can also control several other key aspects of a perspective. These include:

  • The New menu.

  • The Window → Open Perspective menu.

  • The Window → Show View menu.

  • Action sets that show up on the toolbar.

Try customizing one of these items.

  1. In the shortcut bar click on the Resource perspective.

  2. Select Window → Customize Perspective....

  3. Select the Commands tab.

  4. Check Launch and click OK.

    Customizing Perspective

  5. Observe that the toolbar now includes buttons for debug/run launching.

    Customized Perspective

  6. After experimenting with the other options on the Customize Perspective dialog, choose Window → Reset Perspective to return the perspective to its original state.

Saving a User Defined Perspective

If you have modified a perspective by adding, deleting, or moving (docking) views, you can save your changes for future use.

  1. Switch to the perspective that you want to save.

  2. Click Window → Save Perspective As.

  3. Type a new name for the perspective into the Name field.

  4. Click OK.

Resetting Perspectives

To restore a perspective to its original layout:

  1. Click Window → Preferences.

  2. Expand Workbench and choose Perspectives.

  3. From the Available perspectives list, select the perspective you want to restore.

  4. Click Reset.

  5. Click OK.

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