InkRider's editing area is divided into a main notebook workspace and one or two configurable activity panels. The panels contain purpose-built tools for managing execution, sessions, files, and document anchors. Understanding how to arrange them saves time during longer document workflows.

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The Main Workspace

The top strip of the add-in shows a tab bar, with one tab per open notebook, script, or QMD file. Clicking a tab switches the editor. The current file's cells, code, and outputs are displayed in the central workspace area.

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Activity Panels

Activity panels are collapsible side areas that host the add-in's built-in tools. InkRider supports up to two panels simultaneously.

Panel Positions

Each panel can be positioned independently:

Position	Effect
Left	Panel appears to the left of the notebook editor
Right	Panel appears to the right of the notebook editor
Bottom	Panel appears below the notebook editor

Change the position using the position selector in the panel's header bar. Positions are persisted across sessions.

Layout Mode

Each panel also has a layout mode that controls how it relates to the notebook editor:

• Integrated (default): the panel occupies a fixed column or row, pushing the notebook editor to the remaining space.
• Overlay: the panel floats above the editor without displacing it, giving the notebook full width. Useful when you need to reference a tool briefly without committing horizontal space.

Opening and Closing Panels

Click the panel toggle button in the add-in header to show or hide the primary panel. A second toggle opens the secondary panel when you need two tool areas visible at the same time.

Panels can also be maximized, which expands them to fill most of the add-in viewport. Use the maximize icon in the panel header, then click again to restore the original size.

Switching Panels

The Switch Panels action swaps the contents and positions of panel 1 and panel 2. This is useful when you want to promote a secondary tool to the primary position without manually reconfiguring each panel.

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Panel Tabs and Tools

Each panel contains several tab groups. Click a tab to change which tool is visible in that panel.

Tools Tab

The Tools tab gives access to:

• Execution Tool: build and run a batch queue of notebooks in sequence, with optional auto-insertion of outputs as each notebook completes. See Execution Tool for details.
• Session Manager: view all active kernel sessions, inspect their status, restart individual sessions, or shut them down. Useful when working across multiple runtimes or debugging a stuck kernel.
• VFS Explorer: a file browser for the virtual filesystem. Create folders, rename files, upload assets, and navigate the /drive/doc/ and /drive/cloud/ paths. See Virtual Filesystem for details.
• Cloud Storage: browse and manage files from a connected OneDrive account. Requires the Professional plan. See OneDrive Integration for details.

Document Tab

The Document tab gives access to:

• Anchors Viewer: a structured list of every anchor registered in the current Word document. For each anchor it shows the source notebook and cell, the current state (up to date, drifted, or missing), the last execution timestamp, and a navigation button to jump directly to the anchor in Word.
• DOCX Explorer: inspect the raw OOXML structure of the Word document. Useful for diagnosing anchor placement, content control issues, or understanding what the document contains beyond what Word's UI exposes. This is a Professional plan feature.

Logs Tab

The Logs tab shows a real-time stream of diagnostic messages from the add-in runtime. Messages are filterable by level (debug, info, warn, error) and by component. Use this when tracking down unexpected execution behaviour, anchor insertion failures, or session errors, because the logs are much more detailed than the toast notifications shown in the main UI.

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Focus Mode

Focus mode isolates a single cell in a fullscreen view, hiding all other cells, the tab bar, and both panels. It is designed for writing longer markdown sections or debugging complex code where the surrounding cell grid is a distraction.

To enter focus mode: click the Focus icon in the cell toolbar (or use the keyboard shortcut if one is configured). To exit, press Escape or click the exit button.

Focus mode does not stop execution, and cells outside the focused view can still run in the background.

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High-Visibility Anchor Mode

By default, Word's content controls (which InkRider uses for anchors) display with a subtle border. High-visibility anchor mode makes them visually prominent, with a stronger border and label, so you can clearly see which regions of the document are managed by InkRider.

Toggle it from the Anchors menu in the InkRider header. The mode applies immediately to all anchors in the document and persists until toggled back.

Use high-visibility mode when:

• setting up a new document and confirming anchor placement
• reviewing a document that a colleague anchored, to understand where outputs will appear
• debugging drift or insertion issues

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Anchor Tracking

Anchor tracking is the background process that periodically checks whether the content controls in the document still match InkRider's registry. When tracking is enabled and a mismatch is found, the affected cells show a drift warning badge.

You can pause anchor tracking from the Anchors menu if the periodic checks are interfering with a read-only or performance-sensitive workflow.

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Persisted Layout

InkRider saves your panel positions, visible tabs, and layout mode when you close the add-in. The next time you open it in the same document, the workspace restores to the same state.