Introduction
When you log into Glide, you'll arrive at your Dashboard.
On the left side you'll see your apps, templates, usage data, billing, and team management. You'll also see any teams you belong to, and can create new teams if needed.
Click on New app to create a new app, or click on an existing app to edit it.
Glide's user interface is separated into four areas:
The Data Editor
The Layout Editor
The Workflow Editor
App Settings
You can move between these areas using the top navigation bar, which remains consistent on all screens.
Data Editor
The Data Editor has four distinct areas.
The tables area on the left shows each of your individual tables. If you've synced data from a data source or a file, you'll see all of your imported data tables here. You can add more tables directly in the data editor, or hit the (+) symbol to sync more data from another source.
The sources area on the bottom left is where you see your Data Sources. You can click here to sync or visit your data source.
The main area is the actual data grid itself. Here you can scroll, add to, and edit the data you see.
The Data Editor has its own top bar, which shows the View as user dropdown, the name of the current table, the find column search box, and the share feedback button.
Learn more about the Data Editor.
Layout Editor
The Layout Editor can be broken into five core areas and is where you do the bulk of your design work.
Tabs
Screen
Data
Device preview
Configuration panel
Screens
The navigation area in the left sidebar is where you manage the tabs in your app. You can add, delete, duplicate, rearrange, and drag them into the app menu. Below navigation is the screen section from where you manage the Components that are visible on that screen. Click on a component to edit it and click the plus (+) icon to add a new component. You can also re-order and delete components here.
When you see a dropdown arrow in Glide, you can often collapse that area to make the interface cleaner or to give yourself more room.
Data Tab
The Layout area has its own mini Data Editor known as the Data Tab, on the bottom of the sidebar. Instead of showing you all your app's data, the Data Tab shows you just the data for the current screen (if no component is selected) or the currently selected component. You can also use the undo and redo icons located here.
The Data Tab is a great tool to have open as you navigate your app and want to
Understand the current screen's data
Quickly edit that data or add new columns
Device preview
The device preview area lets you interact with your app, both as a user and as an app developer, in multiple ways:
The device itself
The mobile preview and desktop preview icons on the top right let you change the device width and OS
The View as user dropdown
Configuration panel
The area on the right of the Layout Editor is the configuration panel, and it changes depending on what you're currently editing, which you can see from the breadcrumb menu at the top.
In the image below, see how the breadcrumb menu (top right) changes to show you what you're currently editing.
Moving between tabs and components changes the breadcrumb menu
What you see in the configuration panel (below the breadcrumb menu) changes, depending on what you're editing, to either:
General and Options
General, Options, and Actions
Select Mode
Select Mode allows you to select components directly by clicking on them in the Layout Editor. To enable Select Mode, click the small icon in the bottom left of the Layout view. To disable Select Mode, click the small icon again.
Select Mode can also be temporarily enabled if you press the meta key on your computer (command on a Mac, control on a PC). While holding the key, your cursor will be in select mode.
Builder Notes
Internal builder notes can be added in the Layout Editor on any component. To add a builder note, select which component you want to edit and scroll to the bottom of the component configuration menu on the right.
Workflow Editor
Some components display data, some receive data, and others can trigger actions and connect with third-party services like Slack, Microsoft Outlook, Zapier, and more.
You can trigger a single action directly from the configuration panel for a component. The Workflow Editor lets you create more complex, multi-step workflows and manage all of the actions within your app.
To learn more about actions in Glide, check out our guide here.