Using the Workbench with Jupyther Notebook
Menu-bar anatomy
The bar itself sits above the first toolbar row and exposes eight top-level menus: File, Edit, View, Insert, Cell, Kernel, Widgets, and Help. Each menu item triggers a browser-side JavaScript action that talks to the underlying Jupyter server and kernel as needed. If you ever forget where something lives, open Help › User Interface Tour for a guided overlay that labels every part of the screen
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
File — saving, copying, exporting
Save & Checkpoint / Revert to Checkpoint—write the notebook to disk and record a hidden backup, giving you a quick “undo” across sessions.
Rename, Make a Copy, Move—operations happen entirely server-side; no need to leave the page.
Download as… converts the .ipynb to HTML, PDF, Markdown, slides, or raw Python via nbconvert without touching a terminal.
Close & Halt shuts down the kernel and closes the tab, preventing stray background processes.
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io
Edit — cell-level undo, clipboard, and search
The Edit menu mirrors familiar desktop editors:
| Action | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Undo/Redo Delete Cells | Recover work after an accidental cut; multiple cells can now be undeleted in one step Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io |
| Cut / Copy / Paste Cells | Move snippets between positions—or even between notebooks—without touching the mouse Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io |
| Find & Replace… | Opens a dialog (or press F in Command mode) for in-place, regex-aware search across the notebook Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io |
| Merge / Split Cell | Join markdown explanations to their code or break monoliths into logical chunks |
View — what’s visible on screen
Toggle Header / Toolbar / Line Numbers for a distraction-free experience or deeper code inspection.
Cell Toolbar › sub-menu exposes per-cell helpers (Tags, Metadata, Attachments). The toolbar selector was moved here in Notebook 6.4, with a hint button added to the main toolbar for discoverability
Choosing Tags opens the lightweight tagging UI that downstream tools like nbconvert or pytest-nbval can consume.
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io and jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Insert — structuring your narrative
Two simple but essential options keep you in flow:
Insert Cell Above
Insert Cell Below
Keyboard shortcuts <kbd>A</kbd> and <kbd>B</kbd> do the same, but the menu is handy when you’re already reaching for the mouse.
Cell — execution and type control
Everything that actually runs lives here:
Run and Select Below / Insert Below / Run All / Run All Above / Run All Below let you execute cells in controlled batches
Current Outputs › offers Clear, Toggle Scroll, or Toggle Display—useful when outputs grow large.
Cell Type switches between Code, Markdown, Raw, or Heading (legacy). The same control appears as a dropdown on the toolbar.
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Kernel — the live engine
The Kernel menu communicates with the backend process that executes your code:
Interrupt sends a SIGINT, equivalent to <kbd>I I</kbd> in Command modejupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Restart wipes all in-memory state; pair it with Restart & Run All (added in Notebook 6.4) when you need a “from scratch” rerun.
Change Kernel swaps languages or virtual environments on the fly, provided extra kernels are installed.
Shutdown terminates the kernel entirely, freeing system resources.
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Widgets — interactive state management
When ipywidgets is loaded, a dedicated Widgets menu appears:
Save / Clear Notebook Widget State embeds or wipes widget JSON inside the notebook file.
Download Widget State saves that JSON externally.
Embed Widgets… generates a self-contained HTML snippet for any web page—ideal for sharing interactive visuals without a running server
Learn more here: ipywidgets.readthedocs.io.
Help — reference at your fingertips
User Interface Tour overlays labels on every button for quick orientationjupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Keyboard Shortcuts lists (and lets you edit) the modal shortcut scheme.
Direct links point to the project website, issue tracker, release notes, and kernel-specific docs so you’re never far from authoritative guidance
Learn more here: jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io.
Quick tips for power use
Almost every menu item has a keyboard equivalent; learn the modal shortcuts shown in Help › Keyboard Shortcuts to cut reliance on the mouse.
Remember that menu actions usually affect the selected cell (blue or green border). Click a different cell first if the wrong block keeps running.
If you lose track of outputs, use View › Collapse All Outputs to tidy the notebook before sharing.
With these menus mastered, you can treat Jupyter Notebook as a flexible lab bench—saving clean checkpoints, slicing and rearranging narrative cells, resetting kernels when experiments go awry, and even exporting fully interactive widget dashboards—all without ever leaving your browser tab.