22 Workspaces Capture

Chapter 22 — 🧰 Workspaces & Screenshot Annotation

🎯 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.

---

Workspaces

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.

Built-in workspaces

Workspace	What it is
Default	Your own layout. No overlay. Always there; can't be deleted.
Simple	Everyday drawing: a 2-column toolbox of 10 tools, File / Edit / View / Help menus, no advanced bar or power panels.
Annotate	Screenshot markup: a 1-column annotation toolbox docked left, a trimmed edit bar, the palette strip, single-key annotation tools, Rect in red, zoomed to fit. Capture Screen lands here.

Switching

How
View → Workspace ▸	Every workspace, with a check on the active one, plus Switcher, Configure, Open Folder and Reload
Ctrl+Shift+W	The workspace switcher: the command palette filtered to Workspace:. Type a few letters (ann) and press Enter.
Command palette (Ctrl+P / ?)	Type Workspace:
[WS: name] badge	At the right end of the status bar; click it to open the switcher
DRAW --workspace annotate shot.png	Start in a workspace for this run only (not remembered)
DRAW --workspaces	List the workspaces (the remembered one is starred) and exit

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).

Arranging and saving a layout

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:

Panel	Dragging changes
Toolbox	Button columns (1 to 8)
Edit bar, advanced bar	Icon columns (1 to 4)
Layers	Width in pixels (60 to 400)

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.

Moving, stacking, tabbing and floating panels

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.

Do this	And
Drag a handle	A blue preview shows where the panel will land, with a label: new column, stack here, add as a tab or float here
…drop on a screen edge, or between two columns	It gets a column of its own there
…drop on the top or bottom third of a panel	It stacks above or below that panel in the same column
…drop on the middle of a panel	It becomes a tab next to it
…drop anywhere else	It floats in its own window
Drag the line between two stacked panels	Moves height between them (the pointer turns into ↕)
Click a tab	Shows that panel
Drag a tab strip past its tabs	Moves the whole group (every tab)
Click the chevron, or double-click a title	Collapses the slot to its title strip; its height goes to the others
Click a collapsed title	Opens it again (click one of its tabs to open on that tab)
Double-click a floating panel's title	Docks it back where it was
Drag a floating panel's right or bottom edge, or its corner	Resizes it; a bar adds icon columns as it gets wider
Right-click a handle	Move to Left Edge / Move to Right Edge, Collapse to Title / Expand, Float / Dock Back, Reset Arrangement

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 ▸:

Item	Does
Save Current Layout As…	Asks for a name and saves a new workspace exactly as you see it: which panels show, dock sides, columns and widths. When you're in a workspace, its toolbox buttons, menus and keys come along. DRAW switches to it.
Update Workspace From Layout	Saves the current layout into the active workspace (a user copy for a built-in)

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

The configurator

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.

Workspace files

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

Section	Names
[CHROME] panels	MENUBAR TOOLBOX LAYER_PANEL EDIT_BAR ADVANCED_BAR STATUS_BAR PALETTE_STRIP PREVIEW COLOR_MIXER CHARMAP COLOR_SPACE_3D ADV_COLOR_PICKER PEN_PANEL BROWSER ORGANIZER DRAWER
[CHROME] docks	TOOLBOX_DOCK LAYER_PANEL_DOCK EDIT_BAR_DOCK ADVANCED_BAR_DOCK CHARMAP_DOCK
[DOCK] / [FLOAT] panels	toolbox organizer drawer layers editbar advbar charmap preview colormixer advcolorpicker colorspace3d pen browser
Toolbox buttons	move hand zoom crop marquee marquee-free marquee-poly marquee-ellipse wand picker text eraser dot brush spray fill line polygon polygon-filled save bezier rect rect-filled export-sel smart-shapes ellipse ellipse-filled open
Menu roots	FILE EDIT VIEW SELECT TOOLS BRUSH LAYER PALETTE IMAGE EFFECTS AI HELP AUDIO
Edit bar	undo redo cut copy copy-merged paste paste-in-place cut-to-layer copy-to-layer clear fill-fg fill-bg stroke flip-h flip-v scale-down scale-up rotate-cw rotate-ccw smart-guides smart-guides-snap edge-mode flip-canvas-h flip-canvas-v
Advanced bar	preview edit-bar char-map char-grid char-grid-snap tile-mode grid-cell-fill grid-brush-size fill-adjust brush-edges angle-snap grayscale ref-on ref-load ref-clear ref-adjust align-left align-center align-right align-top align-middle align-bottom distribute-h distribute-v
Organizer	color-mixer canvas-ops brush-size pattern-mode palette-ops transform-ops gradient-mode symmetry grid grid-snap color-mode
[KEYS] / [START] TOOL	Any toolbox name above, plus arrow highlight redact callout callout-reset quick-save done copy-image capture, or a numeric action id

[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.

---

Screenshot capture

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.

Annotate tools (keys work in the Annotate workspace)

Key	Tool
R / Shift+R	Rectangle / filled rectangle
O	Ellipse
L	Line
A	Arrow: a line with an arrowhead that stays on for every line until you pick another tool. S / E while dragging change the caps.
T	Text
H	Highlighter: a yellow brush on a "Highlight" layer set to Multiply (created the first time)
X	Redact: drag a box; it is pixelated as soon as you let go. One undo step per box.
N / Shift+N	Numbered callout: each click places a filled circle with the next number, in the FG color. Shift+N restarts at 1.
C	Crop (to the selection, or interactive)
V	Move
Ctrl+C	Copy the selection, or the whole picture, to the clipboard
Ctrl+S	Quick save a PNG to the screenshots folder, no dialog. The first save is named DRAW-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png; later saves overwrite it.
Ctrl+Enter	Done: quick save + copy to the clipboard + go back to the document and workspace you had before the capture. When DRAW was started by DRAW --capture, Done closes DRAW instead (Shottr-style)

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

Capture settings (Settings → General → Screen Capture)

Setting	Key	Default
Capture With	CAPTURE_BACKEND	AUTO: Windows built-in; macOS screencapture; KDE spectacle; GNOME gnome-screenshot; sway/Hyprland grim; X11 maim / scrot / import
Capture Command	CAPTURE_COMMAND	For Custom Command; {file} is the PNG DRAW reads back, e.g. flameshot full -p {file}
Capture Delay	CAPTURE_DELAY	250 ms after hiding DRAW
Hide DRAW While Capturing	CAPTURE_HIDE_DRAW	on
Capture Workspace	CAPTURE_WORKSPACE	annotate (empty = stay)
—	CAPTURE_SAVE_DIR	Quick-save folder (empty = Pictures/DRAW Screenshots)

💡 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).

A global capture shortcut

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.

---

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
A workspace hid the menu bar and I'm stuck	Ctrl+Shift+W → Default, or F11 to show everything
My panels came back wrong after leaving a workspace	Leaving restores the state from when you entered; toggles made inside it are dropped by design
Capture says "no screen capture tool found"	Install the tool for your desktop (see the table above) or set a Custom Command
The capture includes DRAW's window	Raise the Capture Delay (the window may need longer to fade on your desktop)
A workspace key does nothing	It only works in that workspace, not while typing, and not while a mouse button is held
How do I leave Annotate after a capture?	Ctrl+Enter (Done). Or Ctrl+Shift+W → Default to keep the screenshot open. Esc belongs to the tools.

---

➡️ Back to: Chapter 1 — Introduction