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# Getting Started

This manual covers the fundamental steps that most users will take when creating graphical user interfaces with Qt Designer. We will introduce the main features of the tool by creating a simple dialog that we can use in an example program.

## Launching Designer

The way that you launch Qt Designer depends on your platform:

- On Windows, click the Start button, open the Programs submenu, open the Qt 4 submenu, and click Designer.
- On Unix or Linux, you may find a Qt Designer icon on the desktop background or in the desktop start menu under the Programming or Development submenus. You can launch Qt Designer from this icon. Alternatively, you can enter `designer` in a terminal window.
- On Mac OS X, double click on Qt Designer in the Finder.

## The User Interface

Qt Designer provides a multi-window user interface that can be used natively, or from within an integrated development environment (IDE). You can arrange each of the tool panels to suit your working style. The main window consists of a menu bar, a tool bar, and a toolbox that contains the widgets you can use to create your user interface.

Qt Designer's main window

The menu bar provides all the standard actions for managing forms, using the clipboard, and accessing application-specific help. The current editing mode, the tool panels, and the forms in use can also be accessed via the menu bar.

The tool bar displays common actions that are used when editing a form. These are also available via the main menu.

The toolbox provides common widgets and layouts that are used to design components. These are grouped into categories that reflect their uses or features.

Most features of Qt Designer are accessible via the menu bar, the tool bar, or the toolbox. Some features are also available through context menus that can opened over the form windows. On most platforms, the right mouse button is used to open context menus.

Qt Designer's toolbox

The toolbox provides a selection of standard Qt widgets, layouts, and other objects that can be used to create user interfaces on forms. Each of the categories in the toolbox contains widgets that have similar uses, or that provide related features.

You can display all of the available objects in a category by clicking on the "+" handle next to the category label. When in Form Editing Mode, you can add objects to a form by dragging the appropriate items from the toolbox onto the form, and dropping them in the required locations.

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