In this video we are going to cover about editor and area. If we look at our default UI layout, we actually have something like this. Each of these colored box is called area. And in each of these areas, we can define the editors. So essentially, we always need an editor to fills up an area. Okay, let's discuss about the editor first.

And then later the area. There are many editors in render each is used for a specific task. Now, each editor must always have an element called header. It is a horizontal strip with buttons and or menus. By default, most headers are located at the top like this outliner editor in here, for example. So this whole area is an editor called the Outliner.

And this bar at the top of it is the outline. Notice header the properties editor, which is this area also has the header placed on top. Now sometimes the header looks transparent, like this large 3d viewport editor we see at the center. This whole area is the editor and this row of buttons is its header. This editor down here is called the timeline, and it has the header on top also. Now if you don't like the header to be placed on top, we can switch its location to the bottom.

We can do that by right clicking on the header bar and then choose flip to bottom. Now the header is placed at the bottom. to place it back to the top. We can right click again on the header bar and then choose flip to top. If you mistakenly right click and then click this show header option in here, the header will be hidden. To bring it back, you need to click this small carrot button in here It is very small and subtle, but you should be able to see it in your own monitor.

Okay, for the 3d viewport header, because it is transparent, you need to right click on any of the buttons in there, choose header sub menu, then you can access the header functions such as flipping it to bottom, or flipping it back to top. Now, you might be wondering, why are we talking about header so much, because in the header, there is a special pulldown list where we can switch the editor to another type of editor that we want to show on that current area. For example, we want to change this 3d viewport editor into a UV Editor. We can do that by clicking on this left mouse button. And notice that Blender provides so many different editors. Click on this UV Editor in here for example.

Now as we can see the center area previously occupied by the 3d viewport editor is now occupied by dou u vi editor. If we click again in here, and then to outliner, for example, we have something similar with this area. To change this back to the 3d viewport editor, just click again in the header pulldown list and then choose 3d viewport. Now our 3d viewport is back just like before. So as you can see, in our default UI layout, we have all of these editors. And on each of these editors, we have headers that we can use for different things.

But most importantly, we use them to switch the editor into different types of editor that we want to use. Let's talk about resizing the areas. Each of these areas are resizable. To resize them, simply hover our mouse over a border which exists between areas until you See the arrow cursor and then just click drag the mouse to resize it. We can do this both on the vertical borders and also on the horizontal borders. Okay.

Besides switching the editor and resizing it, we can create our own custom layout by splitting and joining areas. to split an area. First, we need to move our mouse cursor on the corner of our editor. When we see our mouse cursor change into a plus symbol, there is where we know that we are at the editors corner. If we drag it down like this, we will get a new area by splitting the previous area horizontally. We can then change this editor to image editor for example, or to any editor that you like.

If we drag the corner to the left instead. The area now split vertically, okay? Now you need to be very careful in where you place your mouse cursor. If you just slightly move it to the right crossing the border and then break down like this, you split the Outliner instead, not the 3d viewport. Okay, so just watch where your mouse cursor is positioned. Next, let's discuss how we can join areas.

To join areas, there are two rules you need to remember. First is an area can only be a rectangular shape. And second to join, you need to drag outside, not inside. Let's see what the first rule means. If we have something like this, we can join these two areas together, because the resulting area will be a rectangle right? But we cannot join this area in this area directly.

Why? Well, if you think about it, if this one and this one joint together, the resulting area will be an L shaped area. And that is just impossible to do in blender. If you want to join this whole areas back to just one area just like before, then what you should do is doing these two areas together first and then later during the resulting area with the area below it, okay. The second rule of joining area is drag outside, not inside. Let me split up the area again.

So we have something to work with and change the right area to UV Editor for example. Okay, now we want to join these two areas. To make it easier. Just imagine that these are two different countries, country a and country B. If you want to join these two countries, you need to determine which country should conquer which country. If for example, country a invade country B, then country B will not exist.

Anymore, all of this region will be country a right. To do that we need to send armies of country a to country B. So we need to drag the corner of the left editor, which is this one, not this one, and then drag it to the right, all right outside, not this way because this way is dragging inside, which will create another split. So hold this corner and drag outside to the right like this, you will see a dark overlay with bright arrow. before releasing the mouse you can actually drag these to the left or right if you need to change your mind. Essentially, the area that has the dark overlay will be gone.

If we release the mouse at the right area, we can see now this whole area become one area using the previous left area as the editor at this stage, if we want to join these areas With this area, we can do that now, because it will produce a rectangular area. Simply drag this corner to this area and then release. Okay. I teach Blender for quite some time now in the university and also on offline workshops. And very often my students have problem when splitting and joining areas. Mostly these problems happen due to mistakenly taking the wrong corner to drag and also sometime to a wrong direction.

So they end up with so many needless areas in their UI layout. If you experienced this problems, don't worry, because there is another easier method of doing splitting and joining areas, and that will be by using the right mouse button. Now you might be wondering, why not we just learn this easier method and forget the direct corner method then well, easy is not Always faster. Dragging editors corner is still my favorite method as it is much faster to perform, but using the right click method proves to be less prone to error. This is important, especially for those who are very new to blender. Let's see how we can do this right click method, and later you can decide yourself which method you want to use.

For example, we want to split this 3d viewport editor. The first question is, which way do you want this area to split vertically or horizontally. If you want to split it vertically, then you need to move your mouse on the horizontal border of this editor until we see the arrow cursor, then right click and then choose split area. Notice we get this preview line of where the split will happen. We can move these right or left We can also read the article area of the border if you want to by moving the preview line to the area, if you want to confirm, simply left click and we have our split area. If you want to split horizontally, it is mostly the same process, but you should right click on a vertical border instead.

Then just like before to split area, we will see a preview line again but now it is horizontal. We can move these to the other side if you want to. And then just left click to confirm. Okay. Now to join areas. For example, we want to join this one with this one.

Simply right click on the border that separates them and then choose join area. Now as we can see, we have this dark join overlay just like before, hover your mouse to the area you want to remove and then left click to confirm we now have a larger area hear from joining the previous two areas