Problem

We have a wide range of notebook settings that allow the users to change the layout and behavior of a notebook, but not many users know about them. This issue explores how to improve the discoverability of these settings and other notebook related items (Getting Started, etc.).

• notebook.breadcrumbs.showCodeCells
• notebook.cellFocusIndicator
• notebook.cellToolbarLocation
• notebook.cellToolbarVisibility
• notebook.compactView
• notebook.consolidatedOutputButton
• notebook.consolidatedRunButton
• notebook.diff.enablePreview
• notebook.diff.ignoreMetadata
• notebook.diff.ignoreOutputs
• notebook.displayOrder
• notebook.dragAndDropEnabled
• notebook.editorOptionsCustomizations
• notebook.experimental.useMarkdownRenderer
• notebook.globalToolbar
• notebook.insertToolbarLocation
• notebook.lineNumbers
• notebook.navigation.allowNavigateToSurroundingCells
• notebook.outline.showCodeCells
• notebook.showCellStatusBar
• notebook.showFoldingControls
• notebook.undoRedoPerCell

Proposals

Show a gear in the global toolbar

One option was to show a ⚙️ in the global toolbar where it would be more visible. Currently these options live in a ... in the toolbar but they're not as easily discoverable. This would help make the association clearer as we use the gear for customization in other areas (activity bar, command palette, settings, etc.)

Show a gear in the editor toolbar

Alternatively we could place the gear in the editor toolbar. This option was preferred by the team after internal discussions regarding the toolbars. The point being that the left side of the toolbar relates to notebook actions (run, clear, restart, etc.) and the right side was for kernel management.