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+# Task panes
+
+`craft_ui::panes` draws task panes around an app's own document: Navigation, Styles, Comments,
+Format Shape and the like. Each pane is an egui side or bottom panel, or a floating frame. The
+document stays the app's `CentralPanel`.
+
+## Panes or docking
+
+| Use | When |
+|---|---|
+| `panes` | Office-style apps (WordCraft, DeckCraft, GridCraft). A few panes at the sides of a document the app draws itself; the app's commands own which panes are open. |
+| `docking` | Creative apps whose whole window is panels: tab groups, splits, stacked groups, workspaces, a protected canvas panel. See [ui-docking.md](ui-docking.md). |
+| plain egui panels | Fixed view parts: slide thumbnails, notes, formula bar, sheet tabs, status bar. |
+| `egui::Window` | Free tool windows that never dock (Read Aloud, Power Query). |
+
+`panes` needs no docking types; it uses only the docking chrome (`FloatingFrame`, `TitleBar`,
+`live_move`).
+
+## API
+
+```rust
+use craft_ui::panes::{Edge, PaneContent, PaneHost, PaneRequest, PaneState, Place, SidePolicy};
+
+impl PaneContent<Pane> for MyPanes<'_> {
+    fn title(&self, pane: &Pane) -> String { tr(pane.title()) }
+    fn body(&mut self, ui: &mut egui::Ui, pane: &Pane) { /* the pane's contents */ }
+    fn default_state(&self, pane: &Pane) -> PaneState { PaneState::docked(Edge::End, 250.0) }
+    // Optional: size_range (200..=520), movable, closable, menu (app items in the ▾ menu).
+}
+
+// Every frame, after the top and bottom bars and before the CentralPanel:
+let out = PaneHost::new("task-panes")
+    .rtl(ui_is_rtl)
+    .policy(SidePolicy::Columns)
+    .show(ui, &open_panes, |pane| prefs.pane_state(pane), &mut MyPanes { app });
+for request in out.requests {
+    match request {
+        PaneRequest::Close(pane) => app.run(pane.close_command()),
+        PaneRequest::Place(pane, place) => prefs.set_place(pane, place),
+        PaneRequest::Resize(pane, size) => prefs.set_size(pane, size),
+        PaneRequest::FloatRect(pane, rect) => prefs.set_float_rect(pane, rect),
+        PaneRequest::Focus(_) => {}
+    }
+}
+egui::CentralPanel::default().show(ui, |ui| document(ui));
+```
+
+| Piece | Behaviour |
+|---|---|
+| `Edge::{Start, End, Bottom}` | Logical edges. `Start` is left, or right with `.rtl(true)`. |
+| `SidePolicy::Columns` | Every docked pane shows; panes on one edge sit side by side in `open` order, the first outermost. |
+| `SidePolicy::OneSlot` | One closable pane per edge: the last one in `open`. Non-closable context panes (PivotTable Fields) show beside the slot. |
+| `.max_fraction(f)` | One docked pane takes at most `f` of the host's width (height for bottom panes). |
+| Chrome | Title, ▾ menu (app items, Move to Start, Move to End, Move to Bottom for bottom panes, Float, Close), ×, a resize edge with pointer and arrow keys. |
+| Drag out | A docked pane's title dragged more than `DOCK_SNAP` (32 pt) out of the pane floats it under the pointer when dropped; dropped within 32 pt of the host's left or right edge it docks there. |
+| Floating | `FloatingFrame` with its resize handles; the title bar moves it. Escape or window focus loss during a move puts it back. A drop within 32 pt of the left or right edge docks it. Rects are clamped to the host area. |
+| Focus | `out.focused` is the pane holding keyboard focus or last clicked; a click or focus in the document clears it. F6 and Shift+F6 cycle through the shown panes and then report `out.to_document`: give focus to the document. `.f6(false)` leaves F6 to the app, which calls `panes::focus_next(ctx, id, reverse)` instead. |
+
+State:
+
+- The host never stores which panes are open and never writes files.
+- `states` returns the app's saved `PaneState` (place, size, float rect; serde with the `serde`
+  feature). Return `None` to let the host keep the state in egui memory for the session, as
+  egui panels keep widths today.
+- Apply `Resize` and `FloatRect` as they come: they arrive every frame of a gesture, and an
+  Escape sends the start rect back.
+- `panes::float_rect` brings a saved rect back inside the window, whatever the file says.
+
+## Adoption
+
+### WordCraft (`Columns`)
+
+- Add a `Pane` enum for the nine panes and implement `PaneContent` by calling the existing
+  bodies; drop their `header()` calls, since the host draws the title and ×.
+- Build `open` each frame from the `ViewState` flags, in today's order: SmartArt Text Pane (only
+  while SmartArt is selected), Navigation and Clipboard at `Start`; Styles, Style Inspector,
+  Accessibility, Alt Text, Restrict Editing and Comments at `End`. Default widths as today.
+- `Close(p)` runs the pane's existing command (`view.navigationPane {value: false}`, …). Command
+  ids and `nav_pane` in `ui.json` stay as they are.
+- Styles takes #2584's behaviour through the host: map `StylesPaneDock::{Left, Right, Floating}`
+  to `Place` (`Left` is `Docked(Start)` in left-to-right interfaces), run `view.stylesPaneDock`
+  on `Place`, keep the float rect in UI prefs. #2584's own drag, snap and `float_rect` code goes.
+- Other panes return `None` from `states`; their widths stay session-only, as now.
+- Pane title bars are focusable. Check that Tab in the canvas still stays in the document, so
+  panes stay off its keyboard focus. Use `.f6(false)` if F6 is bound elsewhere.
+
+### DeckCraft (`OneSlot`)
+
+- `open` is `ui.pane` (one entry) at `End`; `states` returns `PaneState::docked(Edge::End,
+  pane_width)`; `Resize` writes `pane_width`; `Close` clears `ui.pane` as the × does today.
+  `size_range` is 240..=520. The `ui.json` fields stay.
+- Format, Animation and Selection return `movable = true`; the rest `false`. Saving their place
+  needs new optional `ui.json` fields (`#[serde(default)]`).
+- Thumbnails, outline, notes and the #835 canvas shell stay plain panels.
+- F6 from the host closes the ui-parity F6 gap.
+
+### GridCraft (`OneSlot`, `.max_fraction(0.5)`)
+
+- `open` is the task slot pane (`grid.pane`, or "comments" while `session.comments_pane`) plus
+  PivotTable Fields while the active cell is in a pivot. PivotTable Fields returns
+  `closable = false` and `movable = false`, so it stays beside the slot.
+- `Close("comments")` runs `review.showComments {on: false}`; agents still drive it through the
+  engine.
+- No pane prefs today: return `None` from `states`.
+- Code Editor (#1193) and Queries & Connections (#1203) become slot panes. The formula bar,
+  sheet tabs and status bar stay plain panels.