While at Open World, I noticed Oracle ACE Director Heli‘s desktop was setup very nicely for working with the Data Modeler. I asked if I could share it with you all, and she graciously agreed.

So how do you get the panels to dock where you want them to in SQL Developer?
By the way, we can thank the Netbeans team for giving us this cool desktop management tech.
The trick is all in the wrist – float the panel in the area you want it to go, when it starts to ‘draw’ in the right space, then drop/release the panel/editor/document.
Here’s an example:

One more thing…
Heli is going to be publishing a book on Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler. Look for it in 2015!
4 Comments
Try resetting the desktop/windows,…
How do you do that?
on the Window menu item in SQLDev, select ‘Reset Windows to Factory Settings’
How do you get it to “stick”? I like mine pretty much the same but when I exit SDDM and come back I have to keep re-arranging the panels to what I like.
Mine ‘sticks’ out of the box – the only thing that comes to mind is that the directory you have your settings files in don’t have write access – but then you’d see your other preferences not sticking.
Try resetting the desktop/windows, restarting the tool, and then customizing it.