Toolbars

DunneNote has exactly two toolbars at the top of the window, and that number is a design constraint rather than an accident.

The two

The Core toolbar sits above the formatting ribbon and carries the operations that apply regardless of what is selected.

The Global toolbar sits beside the notebook area and is contextual: it shows the controls for whatever canvas is currently selected. Select a spreadsheet and it offers grid operations; select a sketch and it offers stroke operations.

Their arrangement mirrors the keyboard model. Because Down descends through toolbar layers, the toolbars are stacked so that descending visually and descending by keyboard are the same movement.

Controls are off-canvas by default

Controls appear in the Global toolbar, not floating on the canvas itself. This is the inverse of what many editors do, and it is deliberate: on-canvas controls cover the content, move when the content moves, and multiply as canvas kinds multiply.

Two kinds — Calendar and Video — can optionally show their controls on-canvas as well, because their controls are closely tied to a position in the content. That is a setting you switch on, not the default.

Capability gating

The toolbar does not show every control at all times. It gates by function: what can actually be done to the current selection.

• A whole group of controls that does not apply is hidden.
• An individual control that does not apply right now is disabled rather than hidden, so its position stays stable and you do not have to re-find the buttons around it every time the selection changes.

Controls are organised into named groups, each with a caption, and rows collapse semantically as the window narrows — controls fold into their group rather than being dropped or pushed off the edge.

Entering and leaving

F10 moves focus into the toolbar from the document. Left and Right move between controls, wrapping at the ends. Down descends a layer. Escape returns focus to where it came from.