New Desktop for MATLAB (Beta)

Try new Beta features including dark theme, updated layout, expanded search capabilities, and more.

Overview

The next evolution of the MATLAB desktop is in Beta development. Try out a preview of MATLAB dark theme, the desktop layout sidebar and search capabilities, figure toolstrip, and more!

Please report feedback and issues directly to the development teams by using the feedback button in the MATLAB toolstrip.

What's new in R2024b

• Live Editor: New Plain text (.m) file format for live scripts
• Graphics Performance: Figure creation time is over 80% faster for most use cases, offering a more responsive experience than in previous beta versions.
• Figure Windows: Manage the display of multiple figure windows. When you create multiple figure windows to display data, the figure windows appear in a single tabbed figure window, with one tab per figure. You can use the tabbed figure window to more easily organize your figure windows.
• Figure Windows: Explore data more easily with larger default figure size.
• App Designer: Dark theme support. Create new apps in App Designer with support for both light and dark themes. Figure and other components in these newly created apps will automatically adopt colors that align with the Graphics theme. Generated code will no longer have unexpected color values when users add components to the canvas. Open existing apps in App Designer with the correct theme, and the components will be rendered with accurate colors. Users can also run the app with the correct theme. Switch themes while working in App Designer, with all components dynamically updating to reflect the appropriate default settings for the new theme.
• uiwaitbar update time is significantly faster than in previous beta versions, offering improved responsiveness with showing progress in apps.

What's new in R2024a

• Workspace Browser loads MAT file with 50k+ variables 10x more quickly
• Significant speed-up for the Current Folder Browser when previewing large MAT-files
• An issue with variables not appearing in the Workspace Browser has been fixed
• EXPORTAPP is now supported
• The Figure Icon property is now supported
• Use a setting to control the default value for the Figure Toolstrip "Show Code" option:

    s = settings; s.plottools.figuretoolstrip.showcode.PersonalValue = false; % Disables the Show Code option

• Keyboard Shortcuts Preference Panel is available to customize shortcuts in the editor
• Search for and replace text in filenames and file content
• Find and replace across multiple files

What's new in R2023b update 3

• Apps Dark Theme - Dark theme support by configuring a new Theme property on UI figure.
• Graphics Dark Theme - Dark theme support introduced for your plots and charts.
• Individual figures can be configured using the new figure Theme property:

        fig.Theme = "light"; %or
        fig.Theme = "dark";

• Configurable Graphics Theme - Use a setting to choose a specific theme (light or dark) for figures, independent from the desktop theme:

        s = settings;
        s.matlab.appearance.figure.GraphicsTheme.TemporaryValue= 'light'; % Can be set to auto (default), light, or dark

• Preserved Desktop Layout - MATLAB window location size and undocked Editor state are now restored on startup.
• Performance Improvements
• Scatter Plots - Improved responsiveness for scatter plot interactions using (".") point markers for plots with 1 million or more points.
• Zooming in Plots - Graphics zooming using a multi-touch trackpad or mouse results in a smoother experience.
• Panning Graphics Objects - Panning a plot containing ConstantLine or ConstantRegion objects is smoother and no longer shows blank areas when panning outside of the original axes limits.

What's new in R2023a / R2022b

• Desktop Dark Theme - Change the colors of the desktop by selecting a dark theme.
• Updated Desktop Layout - Quickly access tools and change your layout using the sidebar.
• Expanded Search Capabilities - Easily find actions, settings, and resources using the new universal search box.
• Figure Toolstrip - Use the new figure toolstrip to modify annotations, text, and line styles easily, and view generated code.
• Keyboard and Screen Reader Accessibility - Use a screen reader to interact with the Command Window, Editor and desktop tools.
• Enhanced MATLAB Projects Workflows - Collaborate using an improved user interface, manage multiple repositories using the Branch Manager, and investigate project hierarchies using the new Dependency Analyzer view.

Known Issues

• Performance is a major area of focus, and we're working hard on enhancing it. This includes desktop and UI interaction, graphics, workspace browser, variable editor, and more.
• App designer dark theme: opening apps that have been opened in a previous Beta may result in colors not being updated.
• App designer dark theme: undo/redo support for manually edited Color properties on Components is not working yet.
• Simulink does not support dark theme yet.
• Printing and some plotting functions are not fully supported in the dark theme.
• The "Group by" function in Files temporarily groups by file extension.
• Icons for non-MATLAB artifacts in Files are temporarily unavailable.
• Command History, Keyboard shortcuts, Favorites and Quick Access Toolbar Controls are not transferred to the New Desktop yet.
• Currently, apps that use the javacomponent function are not supported. We're working on this.