When the VCE is fully initialised, you will be presented with the JupyterLab browser based integrated development environment. JupyterLab allows you to manage files, run Jupyter notebooks, and access a terminal from within the same environment window, as depicted in {numref}jupyterlab_home.
:name: jupyterlab_home
:width: 5.772370953630796in
The JupyterLab user interface
A screenshot of the JupyterLab interactive development environment (IDE) syle user interface, showing a file browser sidebar, document and application launcher, opened document and terminal editors and a menu toolbar.
JupyterLab provides an integrated development environment (IDE) that provides access to a file browser and a range of editors, including a fully featured Jupyter notebook editor.
The JupyterLab environment distributed as part of the VCE includes several pre-installed JupyterLab extensions that enhance the usability of the environment to support your studies (({numref}g-accessibility_jupyterlab-nbv7.md#jupyter-notebook-accessibility {ref}g-accessibility_jupyterlab-nbv7.md#jupyter-notebook-accessibility)).
The JupyterLab extensions that have been preinstalled into the {{MCODE}} VCE may differ from extensions used in other module VCEs.
Some modules may distribute a "JupyterLab configuration pack" as a separately installable Python package. Such packages can be used to extend your own JupyterLab environment outside of the VCE in a way that matches the customisation of the environment within the VCE.
For example, the JupyterLab environment in the TM351 VCE is extended using the Python package [`ou-tm351-jl-extensions`](https://pypi.org/project/ou-tm351-jl-extensions/) [[documentation](https://innovationoutside.github.io/ou-tm351-jl-extensions/overview.html)].
Buttons for creating new notebooks and, as well as creating a new terminal, are available from the Launcher.
If you get an error when trying to create a new notebook saying there is `No root file handle` found, click in the file browser, or click on a directory in the file browser, to set a path, and try again.
If the Launcher button still does not work, right click in the file browser and create a new notebook from the *New Notebook* menu option.
Buttons for launching applications used in your module should have been added to the Launcher, {numref}jl_launcher_buttons.
:name: jl_launcher_buttons
:width: 5.772370953630796in
The JupyterLab application and new document launcher. *Options may vary by module.*
Screenshot showing three launcher buttons: Python3 (ipykernel) notebook, nbsearch and OpenRefine.