When the Screen Painter is invoked by any of the commands WINDOW DEFINE, MENU DEFINE, FORM DEFINE, or DISPLAY DEFINE, or through the Zim Development Center, it initially enters layout mode (or "paint mode"), and a window is presented consisting of several different components as described below:
| Component | Description |
| Menu Bar | The menu bar provides facilities for creating, arranging, and editing the attributes of the form, form field, menu, or menu item objects. |
| Tool Bar | The tool bar provides facilities for quick editing operations and structure chart zooming. |
| Object Gallery | The object gallery displays a scrollable list of icons that represent the different classes of form, form field, menu, and menu item objects that can be created within the paint window. |
| Presentation Area | The presentation area is the screen area that contains the paint window. |
| Structure Chart | The structure chart displays the ownership relationships among the objects that have been created in the paint window. The structure chart also displays the relative "Z-Order" of each object. The Z-Order of an object is its relative order in the third ("Z") spatial dimension, and thus controls which objects overlay one another. The Z-Order also controls the "tab sequencing" between objects. |
| Status Bar | The status bar displays information about the currently selected object and also enables any text associated with the object to be edited. |
| Message Bar | The message bar shows the status of the current operation and the current position of the cursor. |
| Paint Window | The paint window is an inactive window contained within the presentation area, in which the form, form field, menu, and menu item objects are created. The painter creates a default paint window if no window has previously been associated with the display, form, or menu object being defined. The paint window can be resized and have its attributes modified. It can also be saved and associated with the display, form, or menu object being defined. |