So I am not sure what it is really called but I know it as the N panel where you click the N key and the panel opens on the right side. There are tabs there that when you click one another flyout shows that tools properties panel. I have this stuck open and want to close it back to the N panel but no clue how to do that? What is unintuitive is for some reason there is this box of dots at the top right that if I grab them I can tear off the panel but when I release it snaps back, so unclear what the purpose of being able to tear off a panel if I have no control over said panel when I release the mouse? So how do I close the flyout panel or prevent it from being persistent?
For an example of what I mean, if I click N it shows the panel with tabs of tools. Say I click the View or Tools tab, another flyout appears to the left for its parameters. Logic tells me if I click the same tab again that panel will collapse but no, nothing happens and now the only thing I can do is click N to collapse the whole panel, but when I reopen it the last flyout I had used (View, Tools, Items, etc…) is also still open and I want that to be closed.
That is a fixed sidebar. In 3DView, its background is transparent like header.
But it is same kind of sidebar as in any other editor.
So, panels can not quit this side bar.
The dots grip is here to allow you to reorder panels into a tab that contains several panels.
Pressing N close and open the sidebar.
To cycle through tabs, place mouse pointer over a panel and do Ctrl Tab.
Ctrl Click on title of a panel opens this one and closes all other panels. That is the solo mode.
Thanks for the info zeauro, I dont think you are understanding what I want to close. I am referring to the flyout that comes out when you click one of the tabs. I am not asking for them to be quite, just go back in as they are when you first open the N panel flyout. Referring to what I am wanting to hide you are incorrect saying they cant be quit, because in the default view in Blender they are not showing until i click on them. Only after I click on one and it flies out does it then remain persistent and refuse to hide again. Thanks though on what the dots are for, sure would be nice if they functioned like say Maya and I could drag them around and put them on different monitors. They way they are setup is so limited and could be a lot more usesable if we had control on how they was used.
In my May23rd version of Blender 2.80, the N panel has an Items tab.
If you Ctrl click on the tab menu header, you have an option to pin/ unpin selected panel menus to the Items menu.
In my custom workplaces, they all have different pinned N panel tab menu showed under the Items tab. In a freshly opened new scene file, the Items tab in all workplaces are collapsed by default. This makes the workplaces very tidy and efficient.
No idea why your N panel menus cannot be collapsed back into tabs with just headers. Maybe you accidentally pinned them?
I have the same version as you, I tried the Ctrl click on the tab menu header and everywhere else I could and it does nothing. I did see if I shift click on the header of the tool panel that pops out I get some pin icon but it does not appear to do anything. It does not pin that menu or seemingly do anything at all but appear there and when I click it it disappears. Regardless what I do I cannot collapse the panel back into the tab. I can click and drag on the left side and slide it back in so I just have the tabs but then if I want to use any of the tools in the tab I have to click and drag it back out otherwise clicking any tab does nothing.