Pane
Updated: 12/26/2023 by Computer Hope
A section of a window that provides the user with additional information or quick access to features commonly used in a program. The preview pane is a good example of a pane.
Another example is the panes shown in Explorer, as pictured below. The left pane displays the folders and drives and the right pane displays the contents of the selected folder or drive.
What is an active pane?
In a window with multiple panes, the active pane is the pane that's active and is being used. For example, with our example of an Explorer window, the active pane is the left pane, because the "Primary Drive (C:)" is highlighted in blue. If we were to use the scroll wheel on our mouse to scroll up and down, only the active pane would be scrolled.