Panels Dock Layout Fix

Panels and Dock Layout Fix

Affinity's dockable panels can be hard to rearrange under Wine, because Wine's own window manager integration interferes with dragging them. This page shows how to temporarily hand window control back to Affinity so you can rearrange panels, then save the layout as a preset.

Steps

1. Open winecfg inside your WINEPREFIX.

   wine winecfg

2. Go to the Graphics tab, and disable everything except Allow the window manager to decorate the windows.

3. Temporarily disable Allow the window manager to control the windows. You can turn this back on once you finish rearranging panels.

   

4. Click Apply, then OK.

5. Arrange the panels where you want them, then save the layout in Affinity through Window → Studio → Add Preset.

Tip

For a ready-made preset studio layout instead of building your own, see the Workspaces folders in this project's repository: Auxiliary/Settings/Designer/2.0/Workspaces, Auxiliary/Settings/Publisher/2.0/Workspaces, and Auxiliary/Settings/Photo/2.0/Workspaces.

Troubleshooting

If panels still won't move after step 3, confirm the Graphics tab change actually applied: reopen winecfg and check that Allow the window manager to control the windows is still unchecked. Some Wine versions require you to fully restart Affinity, not just the dialog, for the setting to take effect.

Known Issues

See General Known Issues for issues affecting Affinity on Linux more broadly, and related documentation on rearranging panels for further detail.