3.1 The window

The page list is on the left with a search box above it; the page is on the right; the footer holds Changes apply at once., Reset this page… and Close. The window opens at General unless something opened it at another page.

• The page list is grouped: Studio (Audio, MIDI, Sync), Work (General, Import & Recording, Plug-ins), Files (Locations) and Interface (Appearance, Shortcuts). Each page has its icon, and a live status at the right: Audio shows the driver it runs on with a green dot (red No device when none is open), Locations shows an amber dot when a part of the User folder is waiting to be copied in and a red one when the User folder is not found.
• Each page opens with a band that names it and, where it matters, shows its state as chips — the audio device's rate, buffer and round-trip latency; the User folder's state and the free space on its drive; the autosave interval. Below the band the settings sit in cards, one per subject: the name and one sentence on the left, the control on the right.
• On/off settings are switches. A choice of two or three is a row of segments (Sync output, Time display); a number has − and + beside it; the browser preview level is a slider that takes its value when you let go.
• Search (Ctrl+F puts the cursor there) finds a setting by its label, by a word it does not show (type smpte to find the transport clock, preferences to find General) and by a shortcut (zoom, ctrl+k). Pages with no match disappear from the list, the others show how many rows matched, the first page with one opens, and the row that matched is tinted.
• Reset this page… asks first and lists exactly what it will put back to its default. It never touches your User folder, your presets, your projects, the folders you added to the browser or to the plug-in scan, or the audio device. On pages where nothing resets — Audio, MIDI, Plug-ins, Shortcuts — the button is greyed.
• Enter in a field commits that field; it never closes the window. Esc closes it.