Center panel with centered editor

[chrmarti]

Issue Type: Feature Request

• maximize window
• change to centered mode
• hide sidebar
• show panel
• the editor now is easy to read, but it is awkward that I have to move my eyes to the left when I want to type in the terminal.

It would be great if at least the terminal would center itself in alignment with the editor.

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.21.0-insider (d7dca14, 2018-03-02T06:08:36.701Z)
OS version: Darwin x64 16.7.0

[isidorn]

This is a fair feature request, let's keep it open and see if it generates some traction among users.
Would you expect all panels to be centered or just the terminal? I would expect all

[chrmarti]

I agree, all would make sense, the terminal might be the most important.

[Tyriar]

This sort of goes against splitting that was just added; do you center if the user has 3 splits? Or if the user is running commands that generate very long output, like printing file links?. Messing with the terminal layout is asking for trouble imo as modifying dimensions of the terminal can change the content.

[chrmarti]

The editor can split too, but centered layout is still useful. Maybe it should be the panel area that centers as @isidorn suggests.

[Tyriar]

I don't use zen mode or this centered layout so I'm just guessing, but I would think that users would have the panel hidden when these are active if they want to avoid clutter. Forcing the terminal to size down will mess up the wrapping and cut off output on Windows (and mac/linux until we get #23688) and when the terminal is narrow it's significantly harder to use imo.

[octref]

I agree Panel should not be centered.

[forrestthewoods]

I don't understand this request. I think I might want the opposite?

What I want is a perfectly centered file view and a right aligned terminal. Right now I have the super annoying issue of working primarily with my desired centered file view. But when I open the terminal it shifts my file view off center AND it shrinks the size! This is frustrating because there is enough margin space to perfectly fit the terminal without moving my file view a pixel. Which is what I want.

Things are even worse when I open the side bar for debugging. What's even more annoying is that for my file view to be readable with terminal+debug open then I have to widen it. Then when I want to close debug and close terminal it's ultra wide and I have to shrink the file view. When the entire time I didn't want to change it all!

This is on a 27" 2560x1440 monitor. I have plenty of real estate. And unfortunately VS Code doesn't let me make the most of it. :(

My request is, I think, different from @chrmarti's in specifics. But I think it's the same in that both of us want more control over zen mode layout to get exactly what we want.

Zen, single file view, centered

Zen plus terminal

Zen plus terminal plus sidebar

[vishwa-raj]

Exactly what @forrestthewoods says

[forrestthewoods]

More control over Zen Mode layout seems like something that should at least be kept open? Even if it's not addressed in the near term?

[SidWorks]

I was doing a course by @pragdave, I loved the way he explained!
It took me sometime to realise that it was much easy to go with the flow as the terminal was in the centre as switching between code and terminal--caused less cognitive load.

But it seems that he was using emacs,

I wanted something like this in VSCODE, So I came up with something like this

It is not perfect, but it does the job!

1. I have kept the terminal at bottom,
2. shifted debug console to right and output to the left
3. Maximized the terminal for full screen by pressing on this button

You can align the terminal left and right padding with the editor terminal. Press Ctrl + ` to switch to terminal.

This way the workflow is smooth, places less cognitive load and works for me.
Give it a try @chrmarti @forrestthewoods @vishwa-raj

There is CustomizeUI
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=iocave.customize-ui
It allows you to do much more customization when it comes to view in VSCODE. You can explore that also!