Stacks and floating apps

A zone doesn’t have to hold a single app. Several apps can share a zone as a stack, and some apps can float over the zones instead of taking one.

Stacks

To make a stack, add more than one app to the same zone: under Zones, click Add app on the zone’s row again. For example, Firefox and Slack stacked on the right, next to your editor on the left.

The apps in a stack share the zone’s frame, with the same spacing on all four sides, and the border when borders are on.
The window that has the focus is in front. To bring another app of the stack forward, click its icon in the Layout bar, or use ⌘Tab with the window switcher turned on.
Stacked windows overlap on purpose, so they never trigger the overlap warning.
Launch layout opens the apps in the order you added them, and places one window of each app in the zone.

In the preview, a stack shows up to three overlapping app icons, and the zone’s label adds “Stack”. In the zone’s row, each app has its own chip; click the × on a chip to remove that app from the zone.

You can’t reorder the apps of a stack yet, and there’s no shortcut to cycle through a stack. See Known limitations.

Floating apps

A floating app isn’t tied to a zone. Launch layout opens it over the zones, with all of its windows. Simulator is a typical floating app, over an editor and a browser.

To add one, click Add app next to Floating apps, below the zones.

Set where it opens

Each floating app has a card in the preview.

A card with a dashed outline has no position set yet. Over zones, it reads “Own position”: the app keeps its own size and position. In a Free workspace, it reads “Stacked” and covers the preview: the app opens at full size inside the margin, like the Stacked layout’s zone, even if another workspace gives its window a smaller place. Stacked cards sit under the placed ones.
Drag the card to set where the app opens. Drag the handle in its bottom-right corner to set its size. Both move in steps of 1% of the screen, and each side stays at least 10%.

Once a card is placed, Launch layout and Restore layout put the app’s windows there. After that, the windows are free: you can move them anywhere.

The list under Floating apps shows each app’s size, such as 30% × 45%, “Own position” or “Stacked”. Its buttons:

↺ forgets the position and size you set, and the proportions Layout learned for the app. It keeps its own geometry again, or stacks at full size in a Free workspace.
ⓧ removes the app from the floating apps.

Apps that keep their own proportions

If an app refuses the size you set, the card takes the size the app actually accepted, so the preview shows what really happens. An app that keeps its own proportions, like Simulator, also locks its card’s ratio: a padlock appears on the card and in the list, and resizing the card then scales both sides together. ↺ removes the lock along with the position.

What floating apps don’t do

Their windows never join the workspace’s New windows zone. See New windows.
They don’t stay on top. macOS keeps the focused window in front, and Layout can’t pin a window above the others. Click the floating app, or its icon in the Layout bar, to bring it forward.

If the workspace keeps floating windows inside the margin, a floating app’s position is kept inside the margin too.

For an app you want over whichever workspace you’re in, rather than launched with one layout, see Wildcard apps.