# Workbench

The term Workbench refers to the desktop development environment.

Each Workbench window contains one or more perspectives. Perspectives contain views and editors and control what appears in certain menus and tool bars. More than one Workbench window can exist on the desktop at any given time.

The following preferences can be changed on the General page.

Option | Description | Default
Always run in background | If this option is turned on, then the Workbench will perform certain actions in the background without disturbing the user. | Off
Build automatically | If this option is turned on, then the Workbench will perform an automatic build whenever a modified resource is saved. | On
Refresh workspace automatically | If this option is turned on then the workspace resources will be synchronized with their corresponding resources in the file system automatically. Note: This can potentially be a lengthy operation depending on the number of resources you have in your workspace. | Off
Save automatically before build | If this option is turned on, then whenever you perform a manual build (from the menu bar, select Project for available options), the Workbench will automatically save all resources that have been modified since the last build was performed. | Off
Keep next/previous part dialog open | If this option is turned on then the editor and view cycle dialogs will remain open when their activation key is let go. Normally the dialog closes as soon as the key combination is release. | Off
Workspace save interval (in minutes) | This number indicates how often the state of the workspace is automatically saved to disk. | 5
Open mode... | You can select one of the following methods for opening resources: Double click - Single clicking on a resource will select it and double clicking on it will open it in an editor. Single click (Select on hover) - Hovering the mouse cursor over the resource will select it and clicking on it once will open it in an editor. Single click (Open when using arrow keys) - Selecting a resource with the arrow keys will open it in an editor. Note: Depending on which view has focus, selecting and opening a resource may have different behavior. | Double click

Here is what the General preferences page looks like:

Workbench Window Layout