Customizing the workspace

VisualAge for Java gives you a range of characteristics that you can change to customize the IDE to suit your own needs and tastes. This section shows you how to set customization options and gives you a brief overview of the items that you can customize.

Setting customization options

In VisualAge for Java, you customize the workspace by setting options in the Options dialog. Let's examine how this window works by setting the option that determines what happens when you double click on a program element.

By default, double-clicking on a program element icon opens the program element in a browser of its own. For example, when you double-click on a package icon, a package browser opens, showing all the types contained in the package. You can change this behavior so that double-clicking on a program element icon expands or collapses the program element tree beneath that icon.

To specify that double-clicking on a program element expands the tree view beneath the program element:

  1. Select Options from the Window menu. The Options dialog appears.

  2. Select the General page, if it is not already selected.
  3. Under Action on double-clicking an item in a tree view, enable the Expand radio button.
  4. Click OK.

Now, when you double-click on a program element icon, the tree view expands to show the program elements contained by the clicked-on element.

To set all of the options on a page back to their default values, select Defaults and then select OK.

The tree view on the left-hand side of the Options dialog can be expanded to show all available pages. Note:  Each parent item in the tree (for example Coding) also has a page.

The following pages are available in the Options dialog: