Recipe 2.4 Tiling Editors

2.4.1 Problem

Although you can switch editors by clicking their tabs in the editor area, sometimes it's more desirable to have two editors open at once, e.g., when you're comparing two files visually.

2.4.2 Solution

You can drag editors and can tile the editor area with them.

2.4.3 Discussion

When you drag an editor and position it near an edge of the editor area, you'll see an arrow, as shown in Figure 2-5, which indicates that dropping the editor will dock it on that edge.

Figure 2-5. Dragging an editor

The new, tiled editor presentation is shown in Figure 2-6.

Figure 2-6. Tiling editors

To restore an editor to its original position, just drag it back to where it was.

You can open an item in an editor by dragging the item from a view such as the Package Explorer and dropping it on the editor area.