Toolbars and Palettes

Toolbars and Palettes

This page explains ChemDraft’s floating tool palettes, toolbar customization, and the command system behind every button.

On the desktop app, each visible palette is its own native floating utility window owned by the document window. It does not take focus from the drawing and, on Windows, it does not appear as a taskbar window. You can move a palette anywhere, including another monitor. The browser build renders the same palette in-window, but the desktop behavior is the reference for macOS and Windows.

Main Toolbar and tool flyouts

The default Main Toolbar contains the common selection, bond, chain, ring, text, charge, arrow, style, and layout controls. A button can have a primary action and a flyout. Click uses the primary action once; long-press opens the flyout. A disabled primary does not prevent an enabled flyout from opening, but an item with no enabled action is disabled.

Hover a button for its name and, when available, its shortcut. Shortcuts are not printed as permanent icon badges. The toolbar is a control surface, not a second source of chemistry: every action dispatches a registered command. For the developer model, see Commands and Registry.

Use View > Toolbars to show or hide available toolsets. The menu is attached to the document window on Windows; macOS uses the app-wide menu. This difference prevents utility windows from receiving a menu they cannot safely host.

Customize Main Toolbar

Choose View > Customize Main Toolbar… to edit the live Main Toolbar. In its in-place mode, you can drag existing items to reorder them, drag them off to remove them, and add commands, spacers, or dividers from the gallery tray. The palette temporarily becomes focusable so the gallery search can receive typing; it returns to its normal non-focusable behavior when customization ends.

The Main Toolbar is one freely ordered item list. Its default visual sections are movable divider items, not fixed boundaries. A customization stores your layout intent rather than editing the built-in manifest, so application and plugin contributions remain stable. Restore returns the toolbar to its baseline layout.

Customize Toolbars

View > Customize Toolbars… opens the broader editor. It can control toolset visibility, order, titles, hidden items, user-created toolsets, and cloned built-in or plugin toolsets. The editor keeps edits as a draft until Apply. A built-in or plugin toolbar is not rewritten; for structural changes beyond Main Toolbar additions, clone it into a user toolbar.

Palette geometry and toolbar layout are saved separately. Geometry remembers where utility windows were placed. Layout remembers visibility, order, renames, hidden items, and user toolsets. If a layout file cannot be parsed, ChemDraft preserves it rather than overwriting it with defaults.

Platform details

Both desktop platforms use floating palettes owned by the document window and built with focused(false) in their normal state. They should not steal typing focus or show as a taskbar entry on Windows. Placement is scaled for the destination monitor, and minimized frames are not saved. If a palette seems missing after changing displays, use View > Toolbars to reveal it, then move it back onto an active screen.

Plugins can contribute their own toolsets, but the same command and permission rules apply. A plugin toolbar cannot bypass the host’s command registry or obtain capabilities merely by adding a button.

Next

• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Plugins Overview
• Commands and Registry