Layouts and zones
A layout divides the screen into zones. You assign apps to each zone, and launching the layout puts a window of each app in its zone. The preview at the top of the editor shows the layout at the proportions of your display. Each zone is labeled with its share of the screen: W% for a full-height column, H% for a full-width row, or W% × H%.
Start from a template
Section titled “Start from a template”Next to Layout, above the preview, click the menu and choose a template under Start from:
| Template | Zones |
|---|---|
| Duo | Left and Right, 50/50. |
| Editor + preview | Editor on the left two-thirds, Preview on the right third. |
| Debug | Editor on the left two-thirds; Browser above Terminal on the right third. |
| Focus | One zone, named Full screen. |
| Three columns | Left, Center, and Right. |
| Stacked | One Stack zone, which new windows join. |
| Free | No zones: every window floats. |
Templates are starting points. Once you’ve applied one, you can split, remove, rename, and resize its zones. The menu shows the template’s name as long as the layout keeps the template’s structure, and Custom once you change it.
When you switch templates:
- The apps already assigned to zones carry over, one per zone, in order. Apps left over stack in the last zone. Free turns them all into floating apps.
- Floating apps stay floating. When you leave Free, its floating apps are spread over the new zones.
- Stacked sends new windows to its Stack zone and turns on Keep floating windows inside the margin. Free turns on the margin too. The other templates set New windows back to Floating and turn the margin off. See New windows.
- The zones get the template’s proportions back.
Split, remove, and rename zones
Section titled “Split, remove, and rename zones”Hover over a zone in the preview to show three buttons: Split right, Split down, and Remove zone. The same actions, plus Rename…, are in each zone’s actions menu: the … button at the end of the zone’s row, under Zones.
- Split right and Split down cut the zone in half and add an empty zone after it, named “Zone” and a number.
- A zone never gets smaller than 10% of the screen in either direction. So you can’t split a zone that is less than 20% wide with Split right, or less than 20% tall with Split down. The button is dimmed, and its tooltip says the zone is too small.
- Remove zone gives the zone’s space to the zone before it, or to the zone after it if it was the first. That zone also receives its apps and its windows. Removing the last zone makes its apps floating apps.
- Rename… changes the zone’s name, shown in the preview, the New windows menu, and the window list.
Resize zones with dividers
Section titled “Resize zones with dividers”Drag a divider in the preview to resize the two zones on either side of it. The divider moves in steps of 1%, which makes a precise split such as 80/20 easy to land on. Only those two zones change, and each one keeps at least 10% of the screen. The proportions are saved for this workspace.
Equalize, below the preview, gives every zone of each split the same share. It’s dimmed when the shares are already equal, or when equal shares would make a zone smaller than 10%. Choosing the template again from Start from also restores its proportions, and its zones.
You can drag dividers in the Layout Overview too.
Spacing
Section titled “Spacing”Spacing is the gap Layout leaves around windows. It’s the same along the screen edges and between two windows. Set it from 0 to 40 px; it’s 0 px by default, so windows touch each other and the screen edges. Below the preview in the editor, type a whole number, drag the slider, or use the arrows; Settings › Windows has the slider.
Spacing applies to every workspace. The preview updates at once. Click Apply to windows to apply the new spacing to the windows of the active workspace right away. Floating windows keep their position, unless the workspace keeps floating windows inside the margin.
Put windows back in place
Section titled “Put windows back in place”Restore layout, above the list of windows in the editor, puts the active workspace’s windows back in place. The Layout bar and the Layout menu bar icon have the same command, named Reapply positions.
- Windows assigned to a zone go back to their zone, even if they were minimized.
- Floating apps with a set position go back to it.
- Other floating windows join the New windows zone if the workspace has one, or move inside the margin if Keep floating windows inside the margin is on. Otherwise they stay where they are.
You rarely need it: while you work, Layout puts zoned windows back in their zone when an app moves or resizes them on its own. It doesn’t do that for a window you moved or resized yourself, because that window has become floating. See Moving windows.
The windows of an app hidden with ⌘H keep their place until you show the app again.
Apps that set their own size
Section titled “Apps that set their own size”Some apps impose a minimum size or refuse to be resized. Layout then keeps the zone’s top-left corner and the size the app accepts. It doesn’t center the window, and it doesn’t change your proportions to make room. A minimum size larger than the zone can spill into the next zone. Simulator, for example, can’t be resized: its window goes to the top-left corner of its zone without necessarily filling it.
When windows in different zones overlap because of this, the editor shows a warning at the top of the page. It names both apps and the widths they accepted, and explains that Layout can’t force an app below the size it accepts. To fix it, drag the divider to give that app’s zone more room.
Apps stacked in the same zone overlap on purpose, so they never trigger this warning. See Stacks and floating apps.
Saved desktops
Section titled “Saved desktops”A layout created with Save desktop as layout… has no zones to split: it keeps the exact frame of each window you saved. See Save your desktop.