Interface Tour — Every Region of the Rho Desktop App

Open Rho for the first time and you'll see a VS Code-style layout: a column of icons on the left, a side bar, tabs and your document in the middle. This page walks through each region — what it's called, what lives there, and how to summon or dismiss it. Two keys unlock almost everything: Ctrl+P to find files, Ctrl+Shift+P to find commands.

The map

┌──┬─────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬──────────┐
│ρ │             │  Tab bar                      │          │
│──│             ├───────────────────────────────┤          │
│A │  Side Bar   │                               │Secondary │
│c │  (Explorer/ │     Document / canvas area    │Side Bar  │
│t │   Psi/…)    │                               │(right)   │
│……│             ├───────────────────────────────┤          │
│⌘ │             │  Panel (bottom)               │          │
│⚙ │             ├───────────────────────────┬───┤          │
└──┴─────────────┴───────────────────────────┴st.┴──────────┘

The side bar, right bar, and bottom panel edges can all be dragged to resize, and the sizes are remembered.

The Activity Bar: that icon column on the left

Top to bottom, each icon is a view; clicking one switches what the Side Bar shows. Click the active icon again to collapse the Side Bar:

At the bottom sit three one-shot buttons (they don't switch views): Command Palette 🔍, New Canvas, and Settings ⚙.

The ρ icon in the top-left corner (where the Activity Bar meets the Side Bar header) opens the About dialog — version, document stats, and the "set as default .md viewer" button all live there.

Tabs

Chrome-style multi-tab, three kinds: document (rendered Markdown), canvas (freeform board), and new tab.

• Ctrl+T new tab, Ctrl+W close, Ctrl+Tab cycle, Ctrl+1…9 jump to tab N (9 = last)
• Middle-click a tab to close it; scroll on the tab bar to slide it sideways
• A tab with unsaved changes shows a dirty dot and asks before closing
• Right-click a tab: Close / Close Others / Close Tabs to the Right / Open to the Side (a read-only split view for comparing) / Copy Path / Reveal in File Manager

The new tab page (what Ctrl+T opens) is a launcher: New Canvas / New Markdown / Open File shortcuts, canvas templates (mind map, flowchart…), a grid of recent files, and a strip of the latest documents from rho.md at the bottom (can be turned off in Settings).

The document area and its toolbar

With a document open, the toolbar at the top of the tab stays minimal: a find button plus the Read / Edit toggle (document tabs only); in edit mode it gains Undo / Redo / Save. Everything about editing is on Editing vs Reading.

Two controls that hide until you need them:

• Font size − / +: move the mouse toward the document's top-right corner and a floating control fades in (shortcuts: Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-).
• Status Bar: a transparent overlay in the bottom-right showing the word count (token count and reading time are optional, in Settings); in edit mode it adds the Raw slider for source view.

The Secondary Side Bar and the bottom Panel

Both stay tucked away until summoned:

• Right bar (Ctrl+Shift+B) — everything about the current document: Properties (tags / category), Connections (what links here, what I link to), and the Local Graph (a small map of the document's neighborhood). They follow along as you switch documents.
• Bottom Panel (Ctrl+J) — home for wide content: Psi's Similarity Map, a scatter overview of your whole library, lives here.

The Command Palette: everything by keyboard

One panel, two entrances — Rho's universal search box:

Tip: the > prefix is the mode switch — type a > in Quick Open and you're in command mode; delete it and you're back to files. With the panel open, pressing the other shortcut switches modes in place.

Where Settings lives

Three doors to the same window: the gear at the bottom of the Activity Bar, Ctrl+,, or search settings in the Command Palette. What's inside is covered in Settings.

Quick reference