You can customize the workbench to suit your individual development needs. For example, you can customize how items appear in the main toolbar, create keyboard shortcuts, or alter the fonts and colors of the user interface.

Rearranging the main toolbar

Flex Builder lets you rearrange sections of the main toolbar. Sections of the main toolbar are divided by a space.

1. Ensure that the toolbar is unlocked by right-clicking (Control-clicking on Macintosh) the toolbar and deselecting Lock the Toolbars.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the thick vertical line that is on the left side of the toolbar section you want to rearrange.
3. Click and hold the left mouse button (mouse button on Macintosh) to grab the toolbar section.
4. Move the section left, right, up, or down, and release the mouse button to place the section in the new location.

To prevent accidental changes, lock the toolbar again by right-clicking (Control-clicking on Macintosh) the toolbar and selecting Lock the Toolbars.

Changing keyboard shortcuts

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Keys.
2. In the View screen of the Keys dialog box, select the command you want to change.
3. In the Binding field, type the new keyboard shortcut you want to bind to the command.
4. In the When pop-up menu, select when you want the keyboard shortcut to be active.
5. Click Apply or OK.

Changing fonts and colors

By default, the workbench uses the fonts and colors that your computer's operating system provides. However, you can customize fonts and colors in a number of ways. The workbench lets you configure the following fonts:

Banner font Appears in the title area of many wizards. For example, the New Flex Project wizard uses the Banner font for the top title.

Dialog font Appears in widgets and dialog boxes.

Header font Appears as a section heading.

Text font Appears in text editors.

CVS Console font Appears in the CVS console.

Ignored Resource font Displays resources that CVS ignores.

Outgoing Change font Displays outgoing changes in CVS.

Console font (Defaults to text font) Appears in the Debug console.

Detail Pane Text font Defaults to text font) Appears in the detail panes of Debug views.

Memory View Table font (Defaults to text font) Appears in the table of the Memory view.

Java Editor Text font (Defaults to text font) Appears in Java editors.

Properties File Editor Text font (Defaults to text font) Appears in Properties File editors.

Compare Text font (Defaults to text font) Appears in textual compare or merge tools.

Java Compare Text font (Defaults to text font) Appears in Java compare or merge tools.

Java Properties File Compare Text font (Defaults to properties file editor text font) Appears in Java properties file compare or merge tools.

Part Title font (Defaults to properties file editor text font) Appears in view and editor titles.

View Message font (Defaults to properties file editor text font) Displays messages in the view title bar (if present).

Plug-ins that use other fonts might also provide preferences that allow for customizing. For example, the Java Development Tools plug-in provides a preference for controlling the font that the Java editor uses (In the Preferences dialog, select > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts > Java > Java Editor Text Font).

The operating system always displays some text in the system font (for example, the font displayed in the Flex Navigator view tree). To change the font for these areas, you must use the configuration tools that the operating system provides (for example, the Display Properties control panel in Windows).

Changing fonts and colors

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts.
2. Expand the Basic, CVS, Debug, Text Compare, or View and Editor Folders categories to locate and select the font and colors to change.

1. Set the font and color preferences as desired.

Changing colors

The workbench uses colors to distinguish different elements, such as error text and hyperlink text. The workbench uses the same colors that the operating system uses. To change these colors, you can also use the configuration tools that the system provides (for example, the Display Properties control panel in Windows).

Change colors

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts.
2. Expand the Basic, CVS, Debug, Text Compare, or View and Editor Folders categories to locate and select the color to change.
3. Click the color bar to the right to open the color picker.
4. Select a new color.

Controlling single- and double-click behavior

You can control how the workbench responds to single and double clicks.

1. Open the Preferences dialog and select General.
2. In the Open Mode section, make your selections and click OK.