If you make an area a Properties editor, Blender defaults to using the same vertical orientation for the editor that's used in the Default screen layout. However, in an area that's wider than it is tall, this can look stretched and weird. You can manually switch between a horizontal and vertical Properties editor by right-clicking a blank spot in the editor and choosing between a horizontal and vertical orientation.

       Before creating a new screen that you want to keep around for future use, first return to your default setup by selecting File⇒New or pressing Ctrl+N. When you use the Save Startup File feature, Blender saves your current settings, layout, and even 3D scenes to a special .blend file called startup.blend that gets loaded each time it starts. So any models you have in the 3D View and any changes you make to other layouts are saved, too. Fortunately, if you've made a mistake, you can always return to the default setup by choosing File⇒Load Factory Settings and recreate your custom layouts from there.

       This behavior of saving a special startup.blend file is fine for setting up custom screen layouts, but it can be pretty inconvenient if you're just making changes in User Preferences (such as custom hotkeys or themes). For those kinds of changes, it's better to use the Save User Settings button at the bottom of User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U). Using this button ensures that your new settings in User Preferences are loaded each time you start Blender, without overwriting your default scene or screen layouts.

      Understanding datablocks: Fundamental elements in a Blender file

      In Figure 2-2, look at the widget that's used to manage screens. The interface gives you access to something called a datablock. A simple and obvious definition of a datablock is that it's literally a block of data. However, a datablock has more to it. Datablocks are used throughout both Blender's interface and its internal structure, so understanding how they work and how you can take advantage of them goes a long way to understanding Blender itself. Nearly every critical element in Blender is stored in a type of datablock, from screens and scenes to objects and animations.

      Not only is a datablock a handy way to store information, but it also allows Blender to treat this information like a database. In particular, you can link datablocks and let them share information. As an example, say that you've created an excellent wood material, and you want to have two objects – a table and a chair – look like they're both made of the same wood. Well, rather than recreate that exact same material for each object, you can simply link both object datablocks to the same material datablock. Your computer uses less memory, and, more importantly, you have less work to do. And because datablocks are used throughout Blender, this same concept works in all kinds of situations: sharing textures between materials, sharing particle systems between objects, and even sharing worlds between scenes. It's an incredibly powerful feature of Blender and I refer to datablocks a lot throughout this book.

       When adjusting screen layouts, the menus and buttons in the header can be obscured or hidden if the area is too narrow. This scenario happens particularly often for people who work on computers with small monitors. In this case, you can do three things:

      ✔ Right-click in the header area and enable Header⇒Collapse Menus.

      The menus are collapsed into a single button with an icon consisting of 3 lines. This frees up a little bit of space, but on smaller monitors, it may not be enough.

      ✔ Hover your mouse cursor over the header region and scroll your mouse wheel.

      If any parts of the header are obscured, you can scroll them in and out of view.

      ✔ For a somewhat more direct method, Blender has another trick up its sleeve: Middle-click the header and drag your mouse left and right. The contents of the header move left and right so that you can bring those obscured buttons into view.

       If you choose File⇒User Preferences, and you don't see a new window with the User Preferences editor, your Blender window may be in a full-screen state and your operating system's window manager may not be allowing the window with User Preferences to sit atop that full-screen window. To get around this issue, toggle off the full-screen view by choosing Window⇒Toggle Fullscreen from the Info editor's header region or by pressing Alt+F11.

       When you get the User Preferences to be the way you like, you can save them as your personal defaults by clicking the Save User Settings button at the bottom of the User Preferences editor.

      ✔ Display: The options in this column toggle the display of various informational elements in the 3D View, such as tooltips, object information, and the small mini axis in the bottom left corner.

      ✔ View Manipulation: The options in this column give you control over how you interact with the environment in the 3D View.

      ● Auto Depth and Zoom To Mouse Position: If you tend to create large environment scenes, having these two options enabled is often useful so that you can quickly navigate your way through your scene without becoming stuck.

      ● Smooth View: Smooth View is probably one of the coolest convenience options added to Blender in recent history and as such, it deserves explicit mention here. By default, Smooth View is set to a value of 200. If you go to your 3D View and choose View⇒Camera (Numpad 0), the 3D View smoothly animates the change from the default perspective view to the Camera's perspective. Pretty slick, huh? The values in Smooth View are in milliseconds, with a maximum value of 1,000, or 1 second (although that's a bit slow for most tastes). The default value of 200 works nicely, but play with it on your own and see what works best for you.

      ✔ Manipulator: The 3D manipulator is the large colored axis at the center of the cube in Blender's default scene. Its main purpose is to move, rotate, or scale your selection in the 3D View. Chapter 3 goes into more detail on how to use the manipulator. The settings here control whether or not the manipulator is enabled by default, as well as its size when visible.

      ● Menus: Some users prefer to have menus immediately pop open when they run their mouse cursor over them. The options under this heading facilitate that preference. It's disabled by default, but you can