How to Split and Join Blender Editor Areas

Blender’s highly customizable user interface allows you to tailor your workspace by splitting and joining editor areas. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to divide your screen into multiple functional views or merge existing windows to declutter your workspace, helping you optimize your 3D modeling and animation workflow.

How to Split an Editor Area

Splitting an area allows you to create a new viewport or editor window alongside your current one.

  1. Locate the Corner: Move your mouse cursor to any of the four corners of the editor area you want to split. The cursor will change from a standard arrow into a crosshair (+).
  2. Drag to Split: Left-click and drag the crosshair inward toward the center of the active editor. Dragging horizontally will split the window vertically, while dragging vertically will split it horizontally.
  3. Alternative Method (Right-Click): Hover your mouse over the border line between two existing editors until the cursor changes to double arrows. Right-click the border, select Vertical Split or Horizontal Split from the menu, position the preview line where you want the split to occur, and left-click to confirm.

How to Join Two Editor Areas

Joining areas allows you to merge two adjacent windows into a single, larger window.

Note: You can only join two areas if they share a border of equal length.

  1. Locate the Corner: Move your mouse cursor to the corner of the editor area you want to close until the cursor becomes a crosshair (+).
  2. Drag to Join: Left-click and drag the crosshair outward into the neighboring editor area that you want to replace.
  3. Confirm the Merge: A large dark arrow will appear overlaying the neighboring area, pointing in the direction of the merge. Release the mouse button to close the targeted window and expand the remaining one into the empty space.
  4. Alternative Method (Right-Click): Hover over the border between the two areas you wish to merge, right-click, and select Join Areas. Move your mouse into the area you want to close (an arrow will indicate which window will be overwritten) and left-click to confirm.