04 — Getting started
Interface and navigation
Three panes, central documents and keyboard priority. Understand where each key acts.
On this page
The workbench
Explorer on the left, document in the center and Git on the right. Ctrl+B and Ctrl+Alt+B toggle side panes. Ctrl+Shift+←/→ moves focus; Tab cycles Explorer → Editor → Git. F10 opens the root in the system file manager.
The center can show source, Markdown preview, image, manual, log or diff. These are document types, not additional focus destinations. There is no embedded terminal for running commands inside OEC.
Adapting to width
With defaults, both side panes require 40 + 44 + 60 = 144 columns. Shrinking with both visible hides Git. Showing one side can hide the other. Widening does not automatically reveal Git again.
What captures the keyboard first
- Pending-change, deletion, Git-discard and external-conflict confirmations take priority and block the background.
- Next come settings, exclusions, palette, new file, rename and project search; the file filter is also processed before global commands.
- Then: global commands, local find, editor PageUp/PageDown, Vim profile, Tab and active-pane navigation. This is why the same Enter or Esc can do different things.
Mouse and status
The tree and file-search results are clickable; tabs can be activated or closed with the mouse. Local/project search and palette rows do not have the same click activation. Use Enter there.
The footer prioritizes running activity, unread error notices and status messages. F12 opens the log. Spinners do not block all interaction or provide generic cancellation.
Chapter sources
Links pinned to the reviewed commit; they do not follow main.