This Squish IDE User's Guide explains all aspects and features of the Squish 4 IDE in detail. To learn how to use Squish it is best to start with one of the tutorials, and then at least skim read the User Guide (Chapter 15) and Tools Reference Manual (Chapter 16). This document is designed purely to provide details of the Squish IDE for those already familiar with Squish.

As noted in the tutorials, the Squish IDE works just like the Eclipse IDE. If you aren't used to Eclipse it is crucial to understand one key concept: Views and Perspectives. In Eclipse (and therefore in the Squish IDE), a View is essentially a child window (perhaps a dock window, or a tab in an existing window). And a Perspective is a collection of Views arranged together. Both are accessible through the Window menu.

The Squish IDE is supplied with three Perspectives—Squish Test Management (which is the Perspective that the Squish IDE starts with), Squish Test Debugging, and Squish Spy. You can change these Perspectives to include additional Views (or to get rid of any Views that you don't want), and you can create your own Perspectives with exactly the Views you want. So if your windows change dramatically it just means that the Perspective changed; you can always use the Window menu to change back to the Perspective you want. Other than this, the Squish IDE works in a very similar way to the Classic IDE, although it has a lot more features, and is easier to use once you've got used to it.

Keep in mind that the Squish IDE is being continually developed: this means that some menus, menu items, and toolbar buttons may move or have different icons from those shown here, and also that more menu items and toolbar buttons may be added before this document is updated to cover them. For the same reason some of the screenshots may not match those you see in your version of the Squish IDE.