docs/html/sdk/installing/studio-layout.jd

page.title=Using the Layout Editor

@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
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<h2>See also</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/studio.html">
Getting Started with Android Studio</a></li>
<li><a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/studio-tips.html">
Android Studio Tips and Tricks</a></li>
<li><a href="{@docRoot}sdk/installing/migrate.html">
Migrating from Eclipse</a></li>
</div>
</div>

<a class="notice-developers-video"
href="https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/324603352">
<div>
    <h3>Video</h3>
    <p>What's New in Android Developer Tools</p>
</div>
</a>

<p>Android Studio offers an advanced layout editor that allows you to drag-and-drop widgets
into your layout and preview your layout while editing the XML.</p>

<p>Within the layout editor, you can switch between the <strong>Text</strong> view, where
you edit the XML file as text, and the <strong>Design</strong> view. Just click the
appropriate tab at the bottom of the window to display the desired editor.</p>

<h2>Editing in the Text View</h2>

<p>You can use the <strong>Text</strong> view to edit your layout file. This section describes
some of the features that are available in the <strong>Text</strong> view.</p>

<h3>Preview</h3>

<p>While editing in the <strong>Text</strong> view, you can preview the layout on devices
by opening the <strong>Preview</strong> pane available on the right side of the window.
Within the <strong>Preview</strong> pane, you can modify the preview by changing various
options at the top of the pane, including the preview device, layout theme, platform
version and more. To see a preview of how your app would look with a particular device
skin, click the preview icon
<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-preview-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" />
and choose the desired device, such as Nexus 4:</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-preview-chrome.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Previewing your app.</p>

<p>To preview the layout on multiple devices simultaneously, select <strong>Preview All
Screen Sizes</strong> from the device drop-down. </p>

<p>When you click in the preview image, the layout editor highlights the corresponding
section in the XML, and vice-versa.</p>

<h3>Interactive error detection and recovery</h3>

<p>As you edit the <strong>Text</strong> view of your layout XML file, Android Studio flags
typos and offers assistance.</p>

<p>For example, suppose you are adding a button, and you misspell it as &quot;Buttonn&quot;.
Android Studio helps you to correct it by displaying an error such as the following,
where you can click on &quot;Change to Button&quot; to fix the error in the XML file:</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-error.png" alt="" />

<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> Flagging errors.</p>

<p>Android Studio also prompts you to supply missing information. For example, suppose you
start adding a fragment to your layout XML file. First of all, Android Studio displays
auto-complete suggestions as you type. Once it becomes clear that you are adding a fragment,
Android Studio displays an error panel with links that you can click to supply the missing
attributes. Clicking &quot;Automatically add all missing attributes&quot; in this case
does just that&mdash;it completes the fragment definition in your layout XML file:</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-frag-ex.png" alt="" />

<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> Supplying missing information</p>

<h3>Picking a theme</h3>

<p>To pick a theme for your app, click the Theme icon
<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-theme-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" />.
</p>

<p>This displays the <strong>Select Theme</strong> dialog, where you can search for a
particular theme and/or select one from the list on the right hand side. The theme you
choose will be reflected in the previewed image.</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-theme-db.png" alt="" />

<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> Specifying a theme.</p>

<h3>Localization</h3>

<p>Android Studio provides built-in localization support. When you click the
localization icon
<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-i18n-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" />,
you can select a particular locale, add and edit translations, preview the locales your
app supports (all locales or just a single locale), and preview right-to-left layout for
languages that are RTL.</p>

<p>See <a href="{@docRoot}training/basics/supporting-devices/languages.html">Supporting
Different Languages</a> for a description of how to support different locales in your app.</p>
<p>For example, here is a preview of a &quot;Hello World&quot; app for the
<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-fr-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" />
locale:</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-fr-device.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 5.</strong> Previewing locales.</p>

<h2>Editing in the Design View</h2>

<p>You can switch to the graphical editor by clicking <strong>Design</strong> at the
bottom of the window. While editing in the <strong>Design</strong> view, you can show and
hide the widgets available to drag-and-drop by clicking <strong>Palette</strong> on the
left side of the window. Clicking <strong>Designer</strong> on the right side of the
window reveals a panel with a layout hierarchy and a list of properties for each view in
the layout.</p>

<p>When you drag a widget into the graphical layout for your app, the display changes to
help you place the widget. What you see depends on the type of layout. For example, if
you're dragging a widget into a {@link android.widget.FrameLayout}, it displays a grid to
help you place the widget, as shown in figure 6:</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-grid-layout.png" alt="" />

<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 6.</strong> Using the grid layout to place a widget.</p>

<p>Within the graphical editor, you can rearrange your app's UI by dragging widgets to
the desired location.</p>

<h3>Taking a snapshot</h3>

<p>When you run your app on a connected device, you can take a snapshot of it by clicking
the camera icon
<img src="{@docRoot}images/tools/as-camera-icon.png" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:0;height:19px" />
to the left of the logging
panel (at the bottom of the window by default). This takes a snapshot of your running app
(or whatever is currently displayed on your device) and displays it in a window. Check
<strong>Frame Screenshot</strong> to show your screenshot within the device skin of your
choice. You can also specify whether you want the image to have screen glare and/or a drop
shadow. Once you have the desired effect, you can save the image.</p>

<p>You can use the same process to create a snapshot of your app's preview. Just click the
camera icon in the preview area and follow the steps for adding a device skin.</p>