01.3 · Core Concepts

Dock Pill vs Main Window

Tex has two top-level UI modes. Only one is visible at a time. The mode is tracked by the MainWindowViewModel.IsDocked runtime flag.

  IsDocked = false          IsDocked = true
  ┌───────────────────┐      
  │  MainWindow       │         ┌────────────────┐
  │  (full toolbar +  │   ⇄     │  DockPill      │  148 x 60
  │   annotation)     │         └────────────────┘
  └───────────────────┘         bottom-center

Side-by-Side

Aspect	`MainWindow`	`DockPillWindow`
Size	800 x 56 collapsed; up to 900 x 700 with a loaded capture	148 x 60, fixed, rounded "pill"
Position	User-movable; last position remembered	Bottom-center of the primary monitor by default; drag the icon handle to reposition
Buttons exposed	Full toolbar (Region / Fullscreen / OCR / Color / QR / Scan / Extract / Recording / History / Settings / Dock / Min / Exit) and the annotation canvas	Region capture button, Expand (undock) button, drag handle
Annotation canvas	Yes — inline on the same window	No — use hotkeys to capture, UI returns to MainWindow for editing
Hotkeys	All global and in-window hotkeys	Global hotkeys still active; in-window hotkeys are not applicable
Hides to tray	Yes (minimize button or close when `UI.MinimizeToTray = true`)	Yes — hidden alongside MainWindow when `StartMinimized = true`
Purpose	Full session work — capture, annotate, export	Always-visible quick-capture surface for power users

Switching Between Them

From MainWindow to pill:

Click the Dock button in the top-right of the MainWindow toolbar.
MainWindow hides; the DockPillWindow appears at bottom-center.

From pill back to MainWindow:

Click the Expand button on the pill.
The pill hides; MainWindow reappears at its last position.

Either action runs MainWindowViewModel.DockToBottomCommand or UndockCommand respectively.

Default Mode on Launch

The startup mode is separate from the runtime mode:

Setting	Effect
`UI.DockToBottom = false` (default)	Launch into full `MainWindow`
`UI.DockToBottom = true`	Launch straight into the dock pill
`UI.StartMinimized = true`	Launch hidden; whichever mode is configured stays offscreen until the tray icon or a hotkey wakes it

Tip

Setting — UI.DockToBottom only controls the initial mode. Clicking Dock or Expand at runtime changes the IsDocked flag for the current session; the startup setting is unchanged unless you edit it in Settings.

See section 09 for the full behaviour of the dock pill and system tray.