Find your way around

The writing workspace keeps the document in the center, navigation on the left (Files, Outline and Search, then Bibliography, Figures and Snippets), the side panel on its right and the agent in a column of its own at the far right. The paper's phase sits under its title. The main toolbar offers Write, Research, Review, and Publish menus, plus search, Workspace settings, Help, Share, and Recompile. The next row controls document views, the side panel's tabs, and Agent.

LaTeX and Visual edit the same active source file. Switching views preserves tabs and source undo history. PDF shows the result of the last compilation; Visual is an approximation of the template rather than TeX's final layout.

When the paper has a preprint or other editions, the switcher next to the paper's phase (Paper ▾) chooses which edition the PDF and the LaTeX show, compares two editions side by side and colours their differences. See switching the view.

To find the cursor's place in the PDF, press ⌘⇧J or choose Show in PDF; the PDF opens beside the text if it is not on screen. Double-click the PDF to go back to the source. See moving between the source and the PDF.

Select Split to open its layout menu. Choose each pane separately: source beside Visual, Visual beside PDF, Response beside source, and so on; the view already in the other pane is greyed out, and Swap the panes reverses them. Choose Side by side or Stacked, then drag the divider to resize.

While two views are shown, the view buttons work on one pane at a time. A view that is not on screen takes the place of the pane showing the same kind of view (LaTeX, Visual and Response replace one another; PDF replaces the pane you are not working in), and the other pane stays as it is. A view already on screen, marked with a dot, is shown alone; Split brings the pair back.

When one pane is the PDF, two small arrows sit on the divider: → shows the cursor position in the PDF, ← shows the part of the PDF on screen in the source. Divider controls support the keyboard: focus a divider and use arrow keys; Home restores equal pane sizes where offered. Narrow windows may temporarily stack panes or fold the sidebar so the document stays readable. These adaptations do not overwrite your saved orientation or widths.

Use Focus when you want the document to occupy more of the window. Restore panels when you need Files, comments or the agent. Saved arrangements in Workspace memory let you switch between writing, reviewing and reading without rebuilding your layout each time.

The side panel's tabs follow the paper's phase, at most three at a time (Comments, Changes, References, Checklist, Reviews or Plan); ⋯ lists the others. Click the active tab to close the panel. Agent (⌘ShiftA) opens the agent in its own column. When the window is too narrow for the document, the side panel and the agent, the one you are not using folds into a strip of icons; click an icon to bring it back.

Each workspace reopens the way you left it: its open tabs, views, pane sizes, right-hand panel and your place in the PDF. The build log is the exception and always starts closed.

With more than one screen, give a view a window of its own: the PDF on the external display, say, with the LaTeX source and the agent on the laptop. Click the pop-out button (a small window with an arrow) at the right of the PDF toolbar, of the editor's tab bar, of the Response view's toolbar, or of the tabs above Agent, Comments, Review and References. The Windows menu (the overlapping windows beside the Workspace gear) and ⌘K offer the same, for example Open the PDF in its own window. The new window shows only that view of the same paper: edits, builds, comments and collaborators reach it just as they reach the main window.

You can also drag a tab out of the window: drag LaTeX, Visual, PDF or Response above the editor, or Agent, Comments, Review or References, and release it outside the window to open that view where you let go; if the browser does not notice the pointer leaving, release it on the Drop here to open in its own window band that appears at the bottom. Escape cancels the drag. ⌥⌘O (Open this view in its own window) does the same from the keyboard for the view you are working in: the editor or PDF you last clicked, a focused tab, or else the open tool. In a view's own window, ⌥⌘O returns it, as does dragging the view's name in its header onto the main window.

While a view is out, the main window shows what is left. With the PDF out, a split falls back to the source or Visual editor; with the Response out, Draft with agent goes to the main window's agent and the sidebar's Outline scrolls the Response window; a tool in its own window leaves a card with Show it and Bring it back. Your chosen view is not changed and returns with the window. Jumps still cross windows: double-click the PDF, or use Show in source at the top of its window, to reach the source wherever the editor is; Show in PDF (⌘⇧J) scrolls the PDF in its own window; a file, comment or tracked change opened from a separate Agent, Comments or Review window opens in the window with the editor.

To bring a view back, click Return to main window at the top of its window, Bring it back in the main window, or just close the window. Put everything back in one window in the Windows menu brings them all back.

Windows → Save current layout… names the arrangement on screen: which views have their own windows, where each window sits and on which screen, and how the main window is set out (views, split, tool panel and sidebar). Choose a saved layout in the Windows menu, or type its name after ⌘K, to switch to it; rename or delete layouts in the same menu. Switching saves your typing first, then opens, moves and closes windows. Positions are kept as a share of each screen, so a layout survives a change of resolution, and a window whose screen is missing moves to one that is there.

VersoFold also remembers the arrangement you last used with each set of connected screens. Layouts belong to this computer rather than to a paper, so they follow you from one workspace to the next. Plug in the external display and the PDF goes back to it; unplug it and everything returns to the laptop the way you last had it there. Turn this off with Remember the layout for each set of screens in the Windows menu.

In a browser, VersoFold asks to see all your screens (the browser calls it window management) only when you save or switch to a layout that spans several; without it, new windows open on the current screen. Browsers open windows only after a click, so a remembered layout offers Open windows when you return. If the browser still blocks them, allow pop-ups for the site from the icon at the end of the address bar and try again. In the desktop app, windows open and move without asking.

The left rail contains Files, Outline and Search. When the sidebar is narrow, its tabs keep only their icons, with the open tab's name beside its icon; point at a tab to see its name. The outline shows numbered headings and nesting; collapse branches or jump to a source line. Bibliography and Figures provide project resources.

Four short menus organize the workspace by the kind of work you are doing:

The Workspace gear menu contains the file finder, External agents, saved arrangements and the agent's notes about the paper (Workspace memory), appearance, and Settings. External agents also has its own page under Settings → AI & agent. The Windows menu beside the gear opens views in their own windows and switches between saved layouts; see Windows and layouts above. Help contains contextual guides, Explore workflows, the workspace tour, Report a bug and Request a feature. Shared workspaces show only the tools available to the current reader.

Each menu item includes a short explanation. Click outside a menu or press Escape to close it. On narrow windows, the four menu names remain visible in their own row; menus scroll if the window is too short. Recently used tools and tools containing project data can appear as sidebar shortcuts. Removing a shortcut hides the shortcut, not the saved data. More tools and the command palette still reach it.

Click the Search tools and actions magnifying glass, or press ⌘K, and type a tool, file, view or action. Select an item and press Return. ⌘P is the direct file finder. Documentation is also a command-palette entry.

Open Comments to inspect threads and reference cards; the list shows the open file's threads, and says when others are open in other files (this file switches to all files). Source/PDF selections can create anchored comments. References can be narrowed to the visible PDF page where supported, and a cited reference's card offers Check the sources for the sentence that cites it. Agent opens conversations and research tools. Those tools have their own state and permissions; opening a panel does not run a model.

The right-hand panel stays on the tool you chose. It changes only when you ask for something another tool shows: writing or opening a comment, a PDF comment pin, a citation clicked in the PDF, a source check pinned as a comment, or a task handed to the agent. Check the sources itself opens a small card beside the sentence and leaves the panel alone. Clicking inside commented or cited text in the source just places the cursor.

The toolbar's Help menu opens the handbook and, in the writing workspace, the introductory tour. The tour starts by itself only the first time VersoFold opens a paper; replay it any time from Help → Take the workspace tour or ⌘K. Source, Visual and PDF views open their own relevant guide. The reading desk, PDF reader, Figure Studio, table editor and web edition also expose documentation from their Help menus.

Watch connection, save and build status while working. A changed source is not proof of a successful build. A current PDF is not proof that every scientific claim or reference is correct. Word/page counters combine source estimates with measurements from the last compiled PDF.

The deadline chip shows the nearest active due date; click it to open the tracker dock, which stays out of the way until you ask for it. Tool badges provide compact reminders; open the tool for the full record and its evidence.

Documentation search covers guide titles, keywords, headings and body text, including code examples. Type a feature or a specific symptom such as “missing package”, “formula”, “frozen”, or “mean seeds”. Every query word must match somewhere in a guide's metadata or the section; fewer words can find more results.

Choose a topic filter to narrow the results. Select a result to jump directly to its section. The contents rail navigates within a guide. Copy link copies a local-server guide link; Markdown downloads a chapter, and the navigation rail offers the complete handbook.

Related: keyboard shortcuts, source editing, reading.