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Arranging your workspace

Microsoft Expression Design provides all of the features you need within four context-sensitive panels: Toolbox, Properties, Layers, and the Action Bar . 

You can open and close panels by choosing them from the Window menu or by pressing a function key. You can also hide all the panels on your screen by pressing the TAB key. When you press TAB again, the panels reappear.

The Properties panel and the Layers panel normally appear docked inside a pane on the right side of the application window. You can move one or both of these out of this vertical pane by clicking once on the panel's Float button . When a panel is in Float mode, you can place it anywhere on your screen (or even on a second monitor, if you have one). You can also resize it freely by dragging the Resize area in the lower-right corner of the panel. Click the Dock button  to place it back in the panel (also called "pinning it").

The Layers panel is docked by default.

After you click the Float/Dock button, you can move it anywhere on your screen.

The vertical pane in which the Layers and Properties panels usually reside is resizable by dragging its left edge. (When you position the mouse over that edge, you will see a double-headed arrow indicating that you can resize it.) While there is a minimum width, you can make the pane wider if you want.