> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.minimalmacropad.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Several Layers for One App in MinimalPad Studio for Mac

> Give an app profile more than one layer in MinimalPad Studio for Mac, such as one for rating and one for editing in Lightroom, and move between them with a key or the dial.

An [app profile](/mac/profiles) can have more than one layer. Lightroom can keep one layer for rating photos and another for editing them, each with its own keys, dial and colour. A key on the pad moves between them, and the switch is instant, also over Bluetooth.

**To start,** select the app's profile in the sidebar and click **Add layer**, next to the app's name above the pad. It needs Studio for Mac 0.6.0 and firmware 0.9.0 or newer: see [What you need](#what-you-need).

An app can have up to 8 layers, and each one takes one of the pad's 16 layer slots.

## Add a layer

<Steps>
  <Step title="Select the app's profile">
    Click it in the sidebar. An app with one layer shows its name above the pad, with **Add layer** after the pencil.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the layer">
    Click **Add layer**. Studio adds **Layer 2** and opens its name for you to type. Once an app has several layers, click the **+** after the last tab instead.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name it">
    Type a name, such as **Editing**, and press Return. The app's first layer is now **Layer 1**: rename it too, such as **Rating**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The layers now show as tabs above the pad, in place of the app's name. Each tab has a colour square and a name. Click a tab to see that layer's keys and change them: see [Change a key](/mac/change-a-key). Clicking a tab doesn't move the pad.

A new layer starts with every key on **Inherit**, which means it does what **Default** does, not what the app's other layers do. Change only the keys that should differ.

Studio needs the pad connected to add, rename or delete a layer.

## Rename, reorder and delete

Right-click a tab:

| Choice | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Rename** | Opens the name for typing. A double-click on the tab does the same. Return keeps the name and Escape cancels. The pad stores short names only, so the field stops you when it's full. |
| **Move Left**, **Move Right** | Moves the tab. The order of the tabs is the order **Next layer** goes through, and the first tab is the layer the app opens on the first time. |
| **Delete Layer…** | Removes the layer from the pad, with its keys, dial and lights. Studio first says how many keys on the app's other layers switch to it. Those go back to **Inherit**. |

Delete the layer you're looking at and you stay on the app's profile. Delete down to one layer and the tabs give way to the app's name again. To remove the app's profile altogether, use **Delete profile…**.

## Move between layers

Studio puts the pad on the app's layer when the app comes to the front. Keys on the pad then move between that app's layers.

### With a key

<Steps>
  <Step title="Select a key">
    Click it on one of the app's layers.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose Layer">
    It's one of the tiles under **What should this key do?**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose how it moves">
    Pick **Next layer**, **Go to** or **Hold for**. For **Go to** and **Hold for**, then pick the layer under **Which layer**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

| Choice | What the key does |
| - | - |
| **Next layer** | Moves to the app's next layer, in the order of its tabs. After the last it goes back to the first. |
| **Go to** | Moves to one layer and stays there until a key moves you on. |
| **Hold for** | Shows one layer while you hold the key. Let go, and the pad is back on the layer you were on. |

**Next layer** is on Default too. There it moves whichever app is in front to its next layer, and does nothing in an app with one layer.

<Tip>
  Put the key on each layer you want it on. A key left on **Inherit** does what Default does, not what the app's first layer does. With **Go to**, give the other layer a key that comes back, or use **Next layer**, which comes round to the first layer by itself.
</Tip>

<Note>
  These keys act only while Studio is running and has the pad on the app. Without Studio, or in an app without a profile, they do nothing. A layer you switched on yourself with a key, such as a numbers layer, stays on while you move between the app's layers.
</Note>

### With the dial press

The first time an app gets its second layer, a line appears above the pad: **Switch Lightroom's layers with the dial press?** It offers to put **Next layer** on the dial press of each of the app's layers, so one press steps to the next layer.

* **Use dial press** does it wherever the dial press is still on **Inherit**. Where you've set one yourself, Studio asks first. **Keep** leaves yours, **Replace** changes it.
* **Not now** leaves everything as it is. Studio doesn't ask again for that app.

You can put **Next layer** on the dial press yourself later: the dial press is a key like any other. See [The dial](/mac/change-a-key#the-dial).

### Hold for Default

Choose **Hold for**, then **Default**, on a key of an app's layer. While you hold the key, the pad shows Default's keys, including any the layer has replaced. Let go and it's back on the layer you were on.

Before firmware 0.9.0 this did nothing, because Default is always on underneath. A key set that way before still does nothing. Its **Layer** tile says so and has a **Fix** button that makes it the real hold.

## Give each layer a colour

Each layer has its own **Colour** in the bar above the pad, next to **Dial**. A layer you add starts lit in the colour of its tab's square, so you can tell the layers apart by the lights. The pad changes colour as it changes layer.

Choose another colour with **Colour**, as in [Key and layer lights](/mac/key-and-layer-lights). **Restore last colour** gives back the colour that layer had, not the app's. A layer can also have key lights of its own.

## Which layer the pad is on

* **The tabs say so.** A tab reads **Active** while the pad is on that layer.
* **The menu bar names it,** such as **Lightroom · Editing**. See [Reading the menu bar](/mac/profiles#reading-the-menu-bar).
* **Coming back returns you.** An app opens on its first layer until you move to another. After that, bring the app back and the pad returns to the layer you used last, also after you quit and reopen Studio. A layer you only held with **Hold for** doesn't count.

## In Studio for browser

The pad stores each of an app's layers under the app's name and the layer's, such as **Lightroom Rating**, shortened if it's long. That's the name Studio for browser shows. Rename or delete one there, and Studio for Mac marks the profile **Needs repair**: see [Layers](/mac/layers#profiles-that-need-repair).

## What you need

<Note>
  Several layers for one app need MinimalPad firmware **0.9.0**, which Studio for Mac 0.6.0 carries. On older firmware, **Add layer** says so and offers the update, and an app that already has several layers opens on the one you used last, with no keys to move between them. [Studio installs 0.9.0](/mac/updates) for you. Your keys, layers, profiles, dial and lights stay as they are, and you don't need to pair the pad again.
</Note>


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