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Aesthetics & Layouts

The Views & Layouts and Aesthetics settings allow users to adjust the visual appearance of the app, including dark and light-themed UI modes, accent colors, and UI scaling.

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Accessing Settings

To open the Views & Layouts and Aesthetics settings, click the Settings gear in the bottom-left of the default view when opening the Pieces Desktop App.

Then, navigate to either of the two sections:

1. Views & Layouts: Manage the layout of the Pieces Desktop app to customize it according to your preferences.

2. Aesthetics: Change the brightness, colors, and zoom level for the Pieces App to make sure you're comfortable while using it.

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Changing Theme

Pieces allows users to toggle between dark mode and light mode, giving you full control over the appearance of the Pieces Desktop App.

Dark & Light Mode

In the Aesthetics settings section, you can click the Toggle Mode button to switch between a light theme and a dark UI theme.

You can also use the keyboard shortcuts ⌘+shift+t (macOS) or ctrl+shift+t for (Windows/Linux).

Changing the Accent Color

Users can customize the UI with one of 35 preset accent colors.

Click the Accent Color dropdown in the Aesthetics settings section, select one of the available preset colors, and the accent color will apply to interactive elements like buttons and highlights, but not to the entire UI.

Font & UI Size

Use the Font Size setting to adjust the size of all text.

To zoom in, use ⌘+,+ (macOS) or ctrl+,+ (Windows/Linux)—to zoom out, use ⌘+,- (macOS) or ctrl+,- (Windows/Linux).

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Adjusting Layout

There are several default layout behaviors to adjust within the Views & Layouts page.

Default Layout

In this section, you can select the Default Layout option to determine which interface appears when Pieces Desktop first launches.

For example, setting it to Pieces Copilot allows you to start with the default generative AI interface, whereas Pieces Drive sets the default interface to the saved materials view on application launch.

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Default List View Sort

In this section, the Default List View Sort option lets you arrange materials in List View based on Recent, Suggested, or Alphabetical, and Language criteria.

This default sorting ensures you see new or popular items first (or in whichever order best suits your workflow), without needing to manually re-sort each time.

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Default Gallery View Sort

The Views & Layout settings also include Default Gallery View Sort, allowing you to specify how items appear in Gallery View (e.g., sorted by Most Recent or Alphabetical).

If you frequently rely on visual cues, this setting ensures you’ll quickly spot the snippets or media you need, saving time on manual sorting.

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Default Search Mode

You can pick Default Search Mode to define which search method Pieces uses by default.

For instance, selecting Neural Code Search (NCS) lets you enter natural language queries—perfect for quickly finding code snippets or references without remembering exact filenames or tags.

This is opposed to Full Text Search (FTS) or Search with Snippet which are more specific, hyper-focused querying workflows.

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Confirmation Settings

Confirmation prompts can protect you from unintended deletions or other irreversible changes.

Here, enabling or adjusting Confirmation Settings determines whether Pieces requests an extra step (such as “Are you sure?”) before making significant modifications.

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Metrics Summary Settings

Each setting in the Metrics Summary settings view addresses a distinct scenario or user action within Pieces Drive.

Under the Gallery View. for instance, Smart Layout automatically displays the context summary for smaller snippets, while All shows summaries whenever you navigate or hover over snippet icons.

The Navigating option triggers summaries only when you scroll or switch between snippets in the Gallery View, and Hovering keeps them hidden until you hover over the context icon.

By mixing and matching these options, you can highlight crucial snippet details precisely when you need them.

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