Customizing Your Workspace

WATCHOUT 7's interface is built around independent, freely positioned windows that you arrange to suit your workflow. Whether you are programming on a single laptop screen, spread across multiple monitors during a production build, or monitoring a live show from a simplified view, the workspace adapts to your needs. This article covers everything related to arranging, saving, and recalling window layouts.

Moving Windows

Drag any window by its title bar to reposition it within the application. Windows can be placed anywhere and can overlap freely.

Double-click the title bar to automatically fit the window into the best available space on screen.

Resizing Windows

Drag any edge or corner of a window to resize it. All eight resize directions are supported (top, bottom, left, right, and all four corners). Each window enforces a minimum size to ensure its controls remain usable.

Closing and Reopening Windows

Close a window by clicking the close button (X) in its title bar, or press Ctrl+F4 to close the active window.

Reopen any closed window from the Window menu:

Window Snapping

When you move or resize a window near another window or the edge of the application canvas, the window automatically snaps into alignment with a small gap between them. This makes it easy to tile windows into a clean, non-overlapping arrangement without pixel-perfect dragging.

• Hold Ctrl while dragging to temporarily disable snapping
• Hold Alt while dragging to resize the window to fit the available space between adjacent windows

Window Docking

Docking locks a window to an edge of the application, where it stretches to fill that edge and stays anchored when the application is resized.

To dock a window:

1. Hold Ctrl and double-click the window's title bar
2. The window docks to the nearest edge (left, right, top, or bottom)

To undock, Ctrl+double-click the title bar again. The window returns to its previous floating state.

Docked windows do not overlap other docked content. They divide the available space along their edge.

Window Focus

The currently active window is indicated by a brighter border and a stronger drop shadow. Only the focused window receives keyboard input. Click any window to bring it to the front and transfer focus to it.

Layout Presets

WATCHOUT 7 provides nine numbered layout preset slots. Presets remember the complete window arrangement: which windows are open, their positions, sizes, and docking states.

Saving a Preset

Press Ctrl+Alt+1 through Ctrl+Alt+9 to save the current window arrangement to preset 1 through 9. You can also save presets from Window > Layout > Save Preset 1-9.

Loading a Preset

Press Alt+1 through Alt+9 to instantly recall a saved layout. You can also load from Window > Layout > Load Preset 1-9.

Reset Layout

Press Alt+0 or use Window > Layout > Reset to return all windows to their default positions and sizes.

Layout Files

For sharing layouts between projects or team members, you can export and import layouts as files:

• Window > Layout > Export — saves the current window arrangement to a .layout.json file
• Window > Layout > Import — loads a window arrangement from a .layout.json file

Layout files are portable and can be shared across different installations of WATCHOUT 7.

Window Navigation Shortcuts

Navigate between windows without using the mouse:

Direct Window Activation

Jump directly to a specific window type:

Multiple Timeline Windows

WATCHOUT supports having multiple Timeline windows open simultaneously, each displaying a different timeline. This is useful when you need to work across several timelines — for example, editing a content timeline while monitoring a control timeline. Each Timeline window operates independently with its own zoom, scroll position, and selection.

Open additional Timeline windows by double-clicking timelines in the Timelines window. Each opens in its own window instance.

Default Layout

When you first launch WATCHOUT 7 or reset the layout with Alt+0, the application arranges windows in a default configuration:

• Stage — top-left
• Properties — top-center
• Assets — top-right
• Timelines — below Assets
• Timeline — bottom, spanning beneath Stage and Properties
• Devices — bottom-right

This default provides a balanced starting point for most workflows, with the visual canvas, editing tools, and media library all visible simultaneously.

Theme

WATCHOUT 7 uses a dark theme by default, designed to reduce eye strain in the low-light environments typical of production work. The interface uses dark backgrounds with light text and accent colors for interactive elements.

Complete Keyboard Reference