## enabling it
In PhpStorm settings, go to Settings > Appearance & Behaviour > New UI and enable it. You may need to update to the latest version on PhpStorm first.

![Enable new ui](/media/bits/phpstorm-ui-2023-enable.png)

## new era
And now it looks like we are in a year after 2020 ...

Cute slim bars, with nice icons. Looks like clean design, compared to the default layout PhpStorm comes with. Aliasing and smooth borders gives this easy feeling of focus and no distraction. See it for yourself as no comments can paint the experience there.

![First impression](/media/bits/phpstorm-ui-2023-impression.png)

## bugs / issues
The only issue I see is with scrolling lagging from time to time. Enabling or disabling smooth scroll did not change a thing and I simply accepted it till the stable release comes out. 

## customize for no-distraction mode
I prefer to work in a no-distraction kind of work, where:
- making things clean
  - there are no file tabs, just fuzzy search
  - other bars are hidden by default, showing them with a shortcut "double click cmd"
  - when project window is hidden, all I see is a file editor
  - removing top-bar requires you to clean all the items from the bar
- browsing files with fuzzy search shortcuts only
  - open file
  - open class
  - recent files (game changer)
- browsing files manually
  - hiding the project window (quick open with a shortcut)
  - enabling "always select open file"
  - enabling "open files with single click"
- running commands shortcuts
  - starting a bash script, that runs dockers
  - tests
  - Laravel artisan commands
- other tools hidden in sidebars, not used as often
  - database connection / access
  - todo list
  - terminal (run mostly thru shortcut or commands)

## conclusion

![Editing a file](/media/bits/phpstorm-ui-2023-file-editing.png)
![With project window files list](/media/bits/phpstorm-ui-2023-with-project.png)

Looked nice at start, but I ended in the same clean way as with prev ui, so changing UI makes almost no difference to me.
