2. The workspace

Panes

A song in Stab is shown in panes. Each pane is one view of the same song: the tab lanes in one, the score in another, the mixer under them. An edit in one shows in all of them at once, and they share one playhead, one selection and one undo history.

Panes and splits

Available on every platform.

What a pane can show

A pane shows one view at a time. To change it, select the icon or the title at the left of the pane’s barselect the title at the left of the pane’s bar: the view picker opens, with the views this song can show in four groups by what you do. The groups and their order are the same on every platform and in every language, so a view is always in the same place. The view the pane shows has a ✓ on a brass tile, and a small dot marks a view that another pane already shows. Pick one to show it there.

• Write: the Editor (the tab lanes, where you write), the Score, the Chart (the chords as a chord chart), the Inspector (whatever is selected, as rows to set), and Image when the song has a document.
• Sound & Mix: the Mixer, Sound (each track’s sound), the Arranger (the song’s clips, track by track), the Transport, and Audio & MIDI.
• Play & Practise: the Stage (what players read across a room), the Instrument, the Playlist, and Video when there’s a picture to show.
• The Song: the Assistant, Changes, Cloud and Share.

Two views open from where they belong rather than from the picker: Score Setup, from a Score’s ⚙ (Score Setup…), beside the score; and the Session pane, from the session chip. A pane that shows one of them says so above the picker’s views.

Not every view is on every platform: each one’s page says where it is.

Splitting and closing

The focused pane

One pane has the focus: its bar is tinted, and keys and menu commands act on it. Click or tap in a pane, or on its bar, to focus it. Next Pane (⌃⇥)Next Pane (Ctrl+Tab)Next Pane (Ctrl+Alt+], Ctrl+Alt+. (⌥⌘], ⌥⌘. on a Mac)) and Previous Pane (⌃⇧⇥)Previous Pane (Ctrl+Shift+Tab)Previous Pane (Ctrl+Alt+[, Ctrl+Alt+, (⌥⌘[, ⌥⌘, on a Mac)) move the focus from pane to pane.

A song remembers its panes: they’re saved in the song, and come back as you left them when you open it, on any platform that can show them. To keep an arrangement of panes for other songs, save it as a workspace.

Zooming and scrolling

Available on every platform.

Each pane has its own zoom and scroll position, so the Score can show a whole page while the Editor is zoomed in on a bar. Panes that share a link colour share their time too.

• Zoom In (⌘=)Zoom In (Ctrl+=, Ctrl+Num+)Zoom In (Ctrl+=, Ctrl+Num+ (⌘=, ⌘Num+ on a Mac)) and Zoom Out (⌘-)Zoom Out (Ctrl+-, Ctrl+Num−)Zoom Out (Ctrl+-, Ctrl+Num− (⌘-, ⌘Num− on a Mac)) zoom the focused pane. In the Editor and the Arranger they zoom time; in the Score they make the notation larger or smaller.
• Hold ⌘Ctrl and scroll to zoom where the pointer is, or pinch on a trackpad.
• Scroll to move up and down; hold Shift to scroll across with a mouse wheel.

While a song plays, scrolling a pane away from the playhead pauses its following; see Playing.