Layout Modes

DocuShark adapts its workspace to what you're doing. Whether you're heads-down writing, sketching a diagram, or working both at once, a layout mode arranges the document panel, canvas, and properties to suit the task — so you're not fighting the UI to get the room you need.

The Four Layouts

Layout	Best for	At a glance
Relaxed	Writing	Writing-first. Canvas one tap away.
Designer	Diagramming	Diagram-first. Document one tap away.
Technician	Doing both	Balanced split. Panels fly out on demand.
Power	Dense work	Everything visible. Tightest density.

• Relaxed puts your document front and center as a comfortable reading column, with the canvas a tap away when you need it. It's the default.
• Designer flips that: the canvas dominates, and the document panel tucks away until you call it.
• Technician is a balanced split of prose and canvas, with the properties panel flying out only when you need it.
• Power keeps everything on screen at once, at the tightest density — for when you want every control in reach.

Switching Layouts

Change layout any time — there are three ways:

• The layout selector chip in the toolbar (with a preview of each option)
• The keyboard: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + 1–4
• The command palette (Cmd/Ctrl + K) → "Switch to … layout"

The layout chip opens the View menu: the four layouts as preview tiles, with the active one marked, and below them a tile per panel to show or hide it. That panel row is the quickest way to bring back a panel you've hidden — the Navigator in particular starts hidden in every layout. The menu narrows and scrolls to fit small windows, so it stays usable at any size.

Your layout is an app-level setting — a single active mode for the whole editor, not a per-document one. Customizations you make to one layout (say, moving the properties panel) stay scoped to that layout and don't disturb the others.

Beyond the panels each layout shows by default, the opt-in Navigator panel (every page in the document, with subpage structure and reordering — see Multi-Page Documents) can be enabled per layout under Settings → Appearance → Layout, or with Toggle Navigator panel in the command palette.

Focus in Relaxed

Because Relaxed is writing-first, it adds a Write · Split · Diagram focus control so you can shift emphasis without leaving the layout:

• Write — just the document, distraction-free
• Split — document and canvas side by side (collapses to a single pane when the window is narrow)
• Diagram — canvas primary, prose tucked away

Switch focus from the control in the toolbar or with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + \.

Reading Width

Wherever the document is the main region — Write and Split both — the writing column stops at a comfortable measure rather than stretching the full width of the window, and sits centered with a margin either side.

Choose how far it grows from Settings → Layout → Reading width:

• Normal — a comfortable measure for reading. Best on laptop screens.
• Wide — longer lines with less empty space. Best on large or ultrawide displays.

The margins shrink automatically as the space narrows, so a document sharing the window with the canvas still gets breathing room without wasting it.

Custom Window Chrome

If you prefer a more app-like window, you can opt into DocuShark's own title bar instead of the operating system's, from Settings → Layout. It's optional and off by default; turning it on takes effect after a reload.