With October 2021 version of R Studio (2021.09.1 Preview) a great and - in my personal opinion - long awaited features is now available - multi windows or multi panes for viewing the R code.

Two code/source windows (panes) side by side

On R studio home page, make sure to download the version 2021.09 Preview (as of writing of this blogpost, this is still in preview) and install this version on your client machine (supported windows machine, MacOS and Linux).

Once installation is completed, head to global options (Tools->Global options) and select Pane Layout. You will have a new set of buttons available (Add Column; Remove Column). With Add column an additional pane will be added to layout.

Adding code panes

You can add multiple code (or source) panes - as you prefer. Apply the changes and you will have multiple code panes (windows) available.

Each source pane can have multiple files open and best use of this feature is, when R Studio is opened on bigger screen and you can now start coding faster, without switching between code tabs and loosing track of code.

Console, environment, history, files, plots panes will remain the same and (at this point) can not be multiplied. I personally haven't found any problems or annoyances that the console or plot panes were not multiplied. But if someone finds this useful, feel free to propose this to R studio community site.

Stay healthy and happy Rrrr-ing! 🙂


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