By customizing the location and appearance of tools on your screen, you are able to personalize your trading experience. You can then optimize how your trading tools work and how you interact with them, allowing you to adapt to unique trading situations. While Active Trader Pro.com has a single layout, Active Trader Pro desktop currently features pre-defined layouts that were designed to meet the differing needs of individual traders. Included in this group are the Collier and Kirkman high-resolution layouts, created by and named for valuable members of the Fidelity Active Trader Services Team.
There are two basic layout components: a Workspace and a Sidebar.
The Workspace is the main component area of the Active Trader Pro Platforms. You can add any tool to the Workspace, including multiple versions of certain tools.
It’s easy to organize how information is arranged and presented in your Workspace. Move tools by clicking on and holding the tool's title bar and then drag the tool to the desired location. You can also resize certain tools by clicking and holding the bottom right corner of the tool. As your Workspace grows, you can scroll both horizontally and vertically to add more tools.
Sidebars dock to the sides of your Workspace, collapsing and expanding to hide or show tools as they are needed. Use the arrows at the top of the Sidebar to expand or collapse it. By default, the Sidebar set to the right-hand side of the Workspace is turned on. Use the Settings menu to choose to display a Right Sidebar, a Left Sidebar, or Dual Sidebars. You can also choose to display no Sidebar at all.
Most tools can be added to a Sidebar simply by dragging them into the Sidebar until they automatically snap into position. Once a tool is placed in the Sidebar, it will maintain a fixed width. However, you can still resize the height of most tools that are docked in a Sidebar.
Create a Layout for Active Trader Pro desktop - To create a layout, select Layouts > New Layout from the main navigation menu. After you enter the name for your custom layout, you will see a blank canvas and can begin opening the desired tools.
Saving Layouts - you can manually save your layout at any time. Select Layouts from the main navigation menu, mouse over to the layout currently in use, then select Save. From General Settings, you can choose to use the Auto Save feature, which will cause any changes you make to your layout to be automatically saved during a session. Or you can choose the Prompt to Save feature, in which you will be asked if you want to save changes when logging out or switching between layouts on the desktop.
Other key Active Trader Pro desktop layout actions such as Save As, Rename, Delete, Make Default, can be applied to the layout you are currently working on by going to the Layouts menu from the main navigation. To return to the last saved version of a layout, select the "Restore Last Saved" action.
Use the following features to easily manage all of the tools within your layout:
Floating Tools — If you are using Active Trader Pro desktop, you can "float" a tool outside of the larger application container. To do this, right-click on the tool and select Float Window, or from the main navigation, hold the Control key when selecting the tool to launch it in the floated state. You can then drag the tool outside of the Workspace. This is helpful if you want to do something like move your Watch Lists to a second monitor. To move the tool back into the Workspace, right-click on the tool and select Dock Window.
Finding Tools — To quickly see a list of all the tools currently open, use the Tools in Use menu in the bottom right corner of the Workspace. Choose any open tool from the menu, and the tool will come into focus.
Maximizing and Restoring Tools — You can maximize or restore certain tools that are located in the main Workspace area. Look for the Maximize/Restore button in the upper right corner of the tool. Click the Maximize button and the tool will expand to cover the entire Workspace area. A maximized tool will not cover an open Sidebar or the market ticker area. Once a tool is maximized, you can restore it to its original size and position by clicking the Restore icon.
Minimizing Tools — Any tool in your workspace can be minimized. Use the Minimize button in the upper right corner of the tool to collapse it. Use the Tools in Use menu in the bottom right corner of the Workspace to find and restore a tool.
Removing Tools — To remove a tool from your layout, select the Close [x] icon in the upper right corner of the tool or from the Tools in Use menu.
You can link tools together, allowing data in one tool to automatically update data in another. For example, when you link a Quote and Chart tool, updating a stock symbol in one tool will update both tools simultaneously.
You may link as many tools in your layout as you wish, including Charts, Quotes, News, Set Alert, Standard Trade ticket, Directed Trade ticket, Multi-Leg Option ticket, Option Chain, and Option Analytics. To enable linking for a particular tool, simply click the chain link icon to the left of the symbol entry box. The link icon will appear solid, or "connected," when the tool is linked. To unlink the tool, click the chain link icon again; the link icon will appear broken to show that the tools are now unlinked.
You may also send symbols from the ticker, Positions, Watch Lists, or Filters to your linked tools by simply double-clicking on the symbol or row.
