Use the File menu to open a project, begin a new project, or save a project. Choosing New Model opens the default schema, mydb. Choosing Open Model opens a file dialog box with the default file type set to MySQL Workbench Models (mwb extension). To display a list of recently opened MWB files, choose the Open Recent menu item. The keyboard shortcut to create a new project is Control+N and the command to open an existing project is Control+O.

To close the currently active MySQL Model or EER Diagram tab, use the Close Tab menu item. You can also do this from the keyboard by pressing Control+W. To reopen the MySQL Model tab, see Section 7.5.1.3, “The View Menu”. To reopen an EER Diagram tab, double-click the EER Diagram icon in the EER Diagrams section of the MySQL Model page.

Use the Save Model or Save Model As menu items to save a model. When you save a model, its name appears in the title bar of the application. If you have made changes to a project and have not saved those changes, an asterisk appears in the title bar following the model name. When you save a model, it is saved as a MySQL Workbench file with the extension mwb.

Use the Import menu item to import a MySQL data definition (DDL) script file. For example, this might be a file created by issuing the command mysqldump --no-data. MySQL Workbench handles the script as follows:

For details about importing a DDL script, see Section 7.7.9.1, “Reverse Engineering Using a Create Script”.

Under the Import submenu, you can also import DBDesigner4 files.

There are variety of items under the Export submenu. You may generate the SQL statements necessary to create a new database or alter an existing one. For more information about these menu items, see Section 7.7.10.1, “Forward Engineering Using an SQL Script”.

Using the Export submenu, you can also export an EER diagram as a PNG, SVG, PDF, or Postscript file. For an example of a PNG file, see Figure 7.50, “The sakila Database EER Diagram”.

The Page Setup menu item enables you to set the paper size, orientation, and margins for printing purposes.

The printing options are enabled only if the EER Diagrams tab is selected. You have the choice of printing your model directly to your printer, printing it as a PDF file, or creating a PostScript file. For more information, see Section 7.9, “Printing”.

Use the Document Properties menu item to set the following properties of your project: