Moving windows
When you move or resize a window yourself, Layout leaves it where you put it. This page covers what happens then, how to put a window back in a zone, and the other actions available on each window.
Drag or resize a window
Section titled “Drag or resize a window”While you drag or resize a window of the active workspace, a blurred veil follows its frame, with the app’s icon and name in the middle. The veil disappears when you release the mouse button.
The window keeps the position and size you chose, and becomes floating, even if you drop it over a zone. Layout doesn’t snap it to a zone or swap it with another window. The veil is drawn with the macOS material and the app’s icon, not a capture of the window, so it needs no Screen Recording permission.
To put a floating window back in a zone, assign it explicitly (see below), or undo the move.
Undo a move or resize
Section titled “Undo a move or resize”Press ⌃⌥Z to undo the last move or resize you made in the active workspace. Layout restores the window’s size, position, and zone. The command palette has the same action: Undo window move or resize.
- Each workspace keeps its own history of the last 30 moves and resizes.
- The history lives in memory only. It’s cleared when you pause or quit Layout.
- It doesn’t touch ⌘Z in your apps.
- Minimized or hidden windows must be back on screen before you can undo their placement.
Window actions in the editor
Section titled “Window actions in the editor”The editor lists the windows of the selected workspace under Windows in this workspace, each with its zone, or “Floating”. For each window:
- Open focuses the window, and switches to its workspace if needed.
- The … button (Window actions) offers:
- Float window: takes the window out of its zone. It stays where it is.
- Assign to followed by a zone’s name: moves the window into that zone, only for the active workspace. The window joins the zone’s stack; no window is pushed out. Not available for a wildcard app, which always floats.
- Wildcard app: takes the window’s app out of every layout. See Wildcard apps.
- Move to: moves the window to another workspace, and only that one. It leaves every other workspace it belonged to. If the target workspace isn’t active, the window moves out of sight right away.
- Bring back on screen: switches to the workspace if needed, un-minimizes the window, and brings it back into view at its position in that workspace.
Above the list, Refresh scans the windows again. Restore layout puts the active workspace’s windows back in place; for another workspace, the button reads Switch here instead.
Keyboard shortcuts for the last window
Section titled “Keyboard shortcuts for the last window”These act on the window you used most recently in the active workspace:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌃⌥F | Float the last window: take it out of its zone. |
| ⌃⌥R | Bring the last window back on screen. |
The Layout bar offers the same two actions for each app: right-click its icon and choose Float recent window or Bring recent window on screen.
Clicking an app in the Dock
Section titled “Clicking an app in the Dock”When you click an app in the Dock, or bring it forward any other way, Layout follows its window: it switches to the workspace that holds that window and restores the window’s position there. The window keeps its workspace; nothing is reassigned.
If macOS doesn’t say which window came forward, Layout picks a window of that app in the current workspace first, then the app’s most recent window.
A wildcard app is the exception: Layout doesn’t switch, and the window the app brought forward comes over the current workspace instead. ⌘` in a wildcard app does the same.
Cycling an app’s windows with ⌘ `
Section titled “Cycling an app’s windows with ⌘ `”⌘` still belongs to the app in front: it moves to the app’s next window, in the app’s own order, including a window another workspace has hidden. When that window lives in another workspace, Layout switches there. ⌘⇧` goes the other way. If you press it several times during a switch, the last window the app picked wins.
Layout only watches the key, at its default place. If you changed Move focus to next window in the macOS keyboard settings, Layout doesn’t follow the new shortcut.
Move windows between workspaces
Section titled “Move windows between workspaces”Besides Move to, you can drag windows between workspaces in the Layout Overview. A window you move to a workspace joins its New windows zone, if it has one. See New windows.