8 ms·

Give https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ a try if you want a window manager that can place your windows around the screen nicely.

chrenn 5y ago
Also check out https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/ https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/ for a gesture-based window manager by swiping on titlebars. It also features snake-selector keyboard shortcuts, so there's really nothing to memorize. Disclaimer: I made this.
kitten_mittens_ 5y ago
I've been using https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12 with my ultra wide I got for work. I like that it lets me do things in thirds.
- camkego 5y ago
  As a Linux to Mac adopter I also use Magnet. No relationship to company.
- movedx 5y ago
  So does Rectangle. I'm using it right now on a 49" U/W, with this Firefox window on the right-hand third, VSCode in the center third, and Discord in the top-left 6th, and Dune (2021) playing in IINA in the bottom-left 6th :-) All tied to global keyboard shortcuts too. Free, open source, and does exactly what you've asked for.
  - k1rcher 5y ago
    This sounds really nice… I’m now quite keen on looking into ultrawides.
dtctech 5y ago
I recently started using MacOS. Rectangle is one the most useful apps I’ve come across… and free. I like that you can add padding to the windows. With keybind customization it’s a nice replacement for a tiling window manager.
panda88888 5y ago
I use rectangle with a 5k2k 40” ultra wide monitor and it’s awesome. Very flexible and customizable, and I highly recommended it. Did I mention it’s free and open source? :)
- rconti 5y ago
  Which monitor? I'd been waiting for the LG (forever) and finally ordered the Lenovo, although my shipping updates keep changing. I'll have to try rectangle once it's here.
  - cyberpunk 5y ago
    Hows the macOS support on these? I’m due a monitor upgrade and an ultra wide is where I’m leaning..
    - rconti 5y ago
      I'll find out when it arrives!
    - movedx 5y ago
      I can give you some insight here. I've been using a Samsung C49RG9x (49" ultra-wide) on Windows 10 for about four months. It was absolutely the right move to shift from 2 or 3 1080p monitors to a single 49" ultra-wide unit. Now I've switched back to using my 2020 13" MBP, and thus macOS, as my work horse. Long story short I had to use a previously bought "CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus" (a dock, basically) to get the monitor to work correctly. This is because macOS cannot correctly render to the monitor over HDMI. I don't know why this is (because I don't really know much about displays or display protocols - I don't care to neither) but I tried a few cables and adapters and it gave me an odd resolution (3840x1080 I think) and a pink tint over the whole display. The CalDigit "dock" solved this as it exposes a Display Port (1.2) option to the Mac. The moment I plugged in the dock and then plugged the monitor into it via Display Port it worked flawlessly. That being said I still had to go into the display settings in macOS and change the resolution from "Default for display" to "Scaled". It's at that point you can choose the correct "5120x1440" native resolution for the monitor. I believe I'm getting a 120Hz refresh rate too. I've been extremely happy combining the ultra-wide with macOS and using Rectangle (which replaces FancyZones on Windows 10 for me) to "tile" windows all over the place. I hope this was helpful.
boojing 5y ago
Another alternative is yobai (+ skhd) https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai I switched to it after having some issues with rectangle sending some of my windows into the abyss (way outside of the screen) which forced me to kill the app and restart it to get it back. But if Rectangle works for you that's good too, it's probably easier to configure.
- kache_ 5y ago
  yabai is the only alternative if you are used to i3wm or bspwm
  - tra3 5y ago
    Did you disable kernel security to inject the window server extensions? I don’t understand the repercussions so I’m a little reluctant to.
    - jackofalltrades 5y ago
      Same, and this really makes it a deal breaker for me in my company's MacBook pro.
    - kache_ 5y ago
      You don't have to do that, it works without. Those are for addons I believe.
aaronbrethorst 5y ago
I use SizeUp for this: https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ridv 5y ago
Rectangle (and spectacle before it) is one of those absolutely essential tools for me when working on my mac. I didn't realize how essential it was to my workflow until it was accidentally disabled a few days ago and I struggled hard to use my laptop. Happily donated to the author of an app so essential for my day to day productivity to show my gratitude for making it and making it open source. If the author happens to read this: thank you!
- hatmatrix 5y ago
  Spectacle was my jam. Simple and free.
  - colecut 5y ago
    I thought rectangle was the next evolution of spectacle
    - nemosaltat 5y ago
      The Parallels Developer edition comes with a pretty great window snapping feature. Parallels was the only solution to run Windows on my M1 Mac. In addition to doing a great job at VMs, it comes with a bunch of handy utilities.
      - dhosek 5y ago
        I got Parallels in a bundle deal and was really aggravated by the fact that it kept popping up notifications to install additional utilities. Way uncool.
        mirekrusin 5y ago
        Yes, so agressive, stopped using it because of it.
    - awill 5y ago
      it is. Spectacle is no longer supported.
heresathinf99 5y ago
I use amethyst. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/
nerdponx 5y ago
Other window management options include Amethyst and Hammerspoon.
- thebetrayer 5y ago
  I highly recommend Hammerspoon for launching/focusing applications. Example from my config. hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "alt", "ctrl", "shift"}, "F", function() hs.application.launchOrFocus("iTerm") end) I also use Karabiner-Elements to change capslock to cmd, alt, ctrl, shift.
maximilianroos 5y ago
Amethyst is excellent, especially for multiple displays. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/
k1rcher 5y ago
Daily drove mac for 5-7 years after a childhood of tinkering with Linux installs (no professional development) and falling in love with an AwesomeWM setup with custom keybinds. After getting into professional dev during / after high school I ended up using Divvy for an OSX window manager. It wasn’t fantastic, but I could set up custom keybinds and it was “reminiscent” of those tiling WMs I found so much love for as a pre-adolescent. I recently (2ish years ago) switched from mac to a Debian then eventually Pop OS setup for my daily driver development environment. While not as robust as a custom arch setup with a tiling WM like awesome, Mutter is quite good and everything PopOS offers out of the box has been fantastic. Perhaps one of these days I will find the time to dive back into arch and configure a _truly_ efficient and customized workstation / dev env :-) It’s interesting to see all of these alternative, perhaps even _better_ / more robust / more FOSS friendly mac WMs being listed here. I’m keen on giving them a try whenever I end up back on a mac workstation, but I cannot deny that my Divvy lifetime license has served me incredibly well for years, with support through many big OS upgrades.
chrisweekly 5y ago
I've been v happy with Divvy for many years. It's not auto-tiling, but it's perfect for for my purposes. Quick cmd-shift-arrow puts a window in [top 1/2, bottom 1/2, left 1/2, right 1/2] or cmd-shift-enter [for fullscreen] (across 2 monitors)... it's exactly right for me to avoid ever reaching for the mouse to position windows.
travisgriggs 5y ago
All thumbs up for Rectangle. Taken me a while to memorize the various key maps, but they're pretty intuitive actually once you get the pattern. Memorizing those is key to really making the tool rock. I do a thirds a lot.
inDigiNeous 5y ago
Can you change workspaces without any animation (delay) with rectangle ? Or is just for tiling windows within a workspace ? I've been using TotalSpaces 2 (https://blog.binaryage.com/totalfinder-totalspaces-future/ https://blog.binaryage.com/totalfinder-totalspaces-future/) to change workspaces in macOS without the annoying animation which you cannot disable. Too bad TotalSpaces 2 does not work with Monterey or M1 macs, so I am really looking for another solution that can enable this. I used to run skhd + yabai, but something about that did not click as good as with TotalSpaces 2. Anybody know a solution for Monterey & M1 that you can use to switch between workspaces with the keyboard, without any delay ?
- wlonkly 5y ago
  There is a beta-ish build (https://discuss.binaryage.com/t/can-we-help-test-total-spaces-3-if-we-have-apple-silicon/8199 https://discuss.binaryage.com/t/can-we-help-test-total-space...) which works on Big Sur and M1, at least, (I haven't upgraded to Monterey yet.)
  - inDigiNeous 5y ago
    Thanks for sharing. Does not look like it's anywhere near production quality, but maybe it works just for transitioning between workspaces. Seems there would be demand for such software based on the comments. For me at least TotalSpaces 2 has really changed how I use macOS, hopefully they will get it working on M1 & Monterey.
    - wlonkly 5y ago
      I'm using it daily, and while it does crash occasionally (but recovers fine after restart), all the features in TotalSpaces 2 seem to be there (including instant transitions and the overview). As a plus, it doesn't require SIP to be disabled anymore. I have a feeling the problem of making it work was a bigger one than they expected, version 3 has been in the pipeline for a LONG time.
D13Fd 5y ago
Rectangle and its paid cousin, Hookshot (https://hookshot.app https://hookshot.app) are great. I use Hookshot. They are the best window managers I've used on MacOS, because the resize features work flawlessly every single time. Other ones I've tried (e.g. bettertouchtool) have occasional issues with that. They'd be perfect if they supported full customization of drop zones. They have some limited customization, including via the command line, but it's nothing compared to some of the other apps that are out there.
- rxhanson 5y ago
  Hookshot does allow customization of the positions of the window throw (and long throw). You can create a custom shortcuts in the wrench and ruler tab, and then select the custom shortcut from the configure button for the window throw, at the end of the list. I realize this can feel a little hidden in the UI, so I'm planning on making it a little more straightforward in a future release. The custom shortcuts in Hookshot are beyond what I've seen in most apps, especially since you can customize what happens in repeated executions of the custom shortcuts. Let me know what other apps out there have the customization that you are referring to.
  - D13Fd 5y ago
    Sorry just saw this. I actually already use keyboard shortcuts for some custom window positions. But I still usually just use the default snap zones because it's hard to remember the shortcuts. BetterTouchTool goes a step further, and lets you customize the drop zones. I.e., if you drop a window on the top left, it snaps to your custom top-left position: https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/104_snap_areas.html https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/104_snap_areas.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgOseyyJ5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgOseyyJ5U Hookshot's performance is great but AFAIK doesn't let you snap windows to custom areas without keyboard shortcuts.

chrenn 5y ago

Also check out https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/ https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/ for a gesture-based window manager by swiping on titlebars. It also features snake-selector keyboard shortcuts, so there's really nothing to memorize. Disclaimer: I made this.

kitten_mittens_ 5y ago

I've been using https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12 with my ultra wide I got for work. I like that it lets me do things in thirds.

camkego 5y ago
As a Linux to Mac adopter I also use Magnet. No relationship to company.
movedx 5y ago
So does Rectangle. I'm using it right now on a 49" U/W, with this Firefox window on the right-hand third, VSCode in the center third, and Discord in the top-left 6th, and Dune (2021) playing in IINA in the bottom-left 6th :-) All tied to global keyboard shortcuts too. Free, open source, and does exactly what you've asked for.
- k1rcher 5y ago
  This sounds really nice… I’m now quite keen on looking into ultrawides.

dtctech 5y ago

I recently started using MacOS. Rectangle is one the most useful apps I’ve come across… and free. I like that you can add padding to the windows. With keybind customization it’s a nice replacement for a tiling window manager.

panda88888 5y ago

I use rectangle with a 5k2k 40” ultra wide monitor and it’s awesome. Very flexible and customizable, and I highly recommended it. Did I mention it’s free and open source? :)

rconti 5y ago
Which monitor? I'd been waiting for the LG (forever) and finally ordered the Lenovo, although my shipping updates keep changing. I'll have to try rectangle once it's here.
- cyberpunk 5y ago
  Hows the macOS support on these? I’m due a monitor upgrade and an ultra wide is where I’m leaning..
  - rconti 5y ago
    I'll find out when it arrives!
  - movedx 5y ago
    I can give you some insight here. I've been using a Samsung C49RG9x (49" ultra-wide) on Windows 10 for about four months. It was absolutely the right move to shift from 2 or 3 1080p monitors to a single 49" ultra-wide unit. Now I've switched back to using my 2020 13" MBP, and thus macOS, as my work horse. Long story short I had to use a previously bought "CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus" (a dock, basically) to get the monitor to work correctly. This is because macOS cannot correctly render to the monitor over HDMI. I don't know why this is (because I don't really know much about displays or display protocols - I don't care to neither) but I tried a few cables and adapters and it gave me an odd resolution (3840x1080 I think) and a pink tint over the whole display. The CalDigit "dock" solved this as it exposes a Display Port (1.2) option to the Mac. The moment I plugged in the dock and then plugged the monitor into it via Display Port it worked flawlessly. That being said I still had to go into the display settings in macOS and change the resolution from "Default for display" to "Scaled". It's at that point you can choose the correct "5120x1440" native resolution for the monitor. I believe I'm getting a 120Hz refresh rate too. I've been extremely happy combining the ultra-wide with macOS and using Rectangle (which replaces FancyZones on Windows 10 for me) to "tile" windows all over the place. I hope this was helpful.

boojing 5y ago

Another alternative is yobai (+ skhd) https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai I switched to it after having some issues with rectangle sending some of my windows into the abyss (way outside of the screen) which forced me to kill the app and restart it to get it back. But if Rectangle works for you that's good too, it's probably easier to configure.

kache_ 5y ago
yabai is the only alternative if you are used to i3wm or bspwm
- tra3 5y ago
  Did you disable kernel security to inject the window server extensions? I don’t understand the repercussions so I’m a little reluctant to.
  - jackofalltrades 5y ago
    Same, and this really makes it a deal breaker for me in my company's MacBook pro.
  - kache_ 5y ago
    You don't have to do that, it works without. Those are for addons I believe.

aaronbrethorst 5y ago

I use SizeUp for this: https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ridv 5y ago

Rectangle (and spectacle before it) is one of those absolutely essential tools for me when working on my mac. I didn't realize how essential it was to my workflow until it was accidentally disabled a few days ago and I struggled hard to use my laptop. Happily donated to the author of an app so essential for my day to day productivity to show my gratitude for making it and making it open source. If the author happens to read this: thank you!

hatmatrix 5y ago
Spectacle was my jam. Simple and free.
- colecut 5y ago
  I thought rectangle was the next evolution of spectacle
  - nemosaltat 5y ago
    The Parallels Developer edition comes with a pretty great window snapping feature. Parallels was the only solution to run Windows on my M1 Mac. In addition to doing a great job at VMs, it comes with a bunch of handy utilities.
    - dhosek 5y ago
      I got Parallels in a bundle deal and was really aggravated by the fact that it kept popping up notifications to install additional utilities. Way uncool.
      - mirekrusin 5y ago
        Yes, so agressive, stopped using it because of it.
  - awill 5y ago
    it is. Spectacle is no longer supported.

heresathinf99 5y ago

I use amethyst. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

nerdponx 5y ago

Other window management options include Amethyst and Hammerspoon.

thebetrayer 5y ago
I highly recommend Hammerspoon for launching/focusing applications. Example from my config. hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "alt", "ctrl", "shift"}, "F", function() hs.application.launchOrFocus("iTerm") end) I also use Karabiner-Elements to change capslock to cmd, alt, ctrl, shift.

maximilianroos 5y ago

Amethyst is excellent, especially for multiple displays. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

k1rcher 5y ago

Daily drove mac for 5-7 years after a childhood of tinkering with Linux installs (no professional development) and falling in love with an AwesomeWM setup with custom keybinds. After getting into professional dev during / after high school I ended up using Divvy for an OSX window manager. It wasn’t fantastic, but I could set up custom keybinds and it was “reminiscent” of those tiling WMs I found so much love for as a pre-adolescent. I recently (2ish years ago) switched from mac to a Debian then eventually Pop OS setup for my daily driver development environment. While not as robust as a custom arch setup with a tiling WM like awesome, Mutter is quite good and everything PopOS offers out of the box has been fantastic. Perhaps one of these days I will find the time to dive back into arch and configure a _truly_ efficient and customized workstation / dev env :-) It’s interesting to see all of these alternative, perhaps even _better_ / more robust / more FOSS friendly mac WMs being listed here. I’m keen on giving them a try whenever I end up back on a mac workstation, but I cannot deny that my Divvy lifetime license has served me incredibly well for years, with support through many big OS upgrades.

chrisweekly 5y ago

I've been v happy with Divvy for many years. It's not auto-tiling, but it's perfect for for my purposes. Quick cmd-shift-arrow puts a window in [top 1/2, bottom 1/2, left 1/2, right 1/2] or cmd-shift-enter [for fullscreen] (across 2 monitors)... it's exactly right for me to avoid ever reaching for the mouse to position windows.

travisgriggs 5y ago

All thumbs up for Rectangle. Taken me a while to memorize the various key maps, but they're pretty intuitive actually once you get the pattern. Memorizing those is key to really making the tool rock. I do a thirds a lot.

inDigiNeous 5y ago

Can you change workspaces without any animation (delay) with rectangle ? Or is just for tiling windows within a workspace ? I've been using TotalSpaces 2 (https://blog.binaryage.com/totalfinder-totalspaces-future/ https://blog.binaryage.com/totalfinder-totalspaces-future/) to change workspaces in macOS without the annoying animation which you cannot disable. Too bad TotalSpaces 2 does not work with Monterey or M1 macs, so I am really looking for another solution that can enable this. I used to run skhd + yabai, but something about that did not click as good as with TotalSpaces 2. Anybody know a solution for Monterey & M1 that you can use to switch between workspaces with the keyboard, without any delay ?

wlonkly 5y ago
There is a beta-ish build (https://discuss.binaryage.com/t/can-we-help-test-total-spaces-3-if-we-have-apple-silicon/8199 https://discuss.binaryage.com/t/can-we-help-test-total-space...) which works on Big Sur and M1, at least, (I haven't upgraded to Monterey yet.)
- inDigiNeous 5y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Does not look like it's anywhere near production quality, but maybe it works just for transitioning between workspaces. Seems there would be demand for such software based on the comments. For me at least TotalSpaces 2 has really changed how I use macOS, hopefully they will get it working on M1 & Monterey.
  - wlonkly 5y ago
    I'm using it daily, and while it does crash occasionally (but recovers fine after restart), all the features in TotalSpaces 2 seem to be there (including instant transitions and the overview). As a plus, it doesn't require SIP to be disabled anymore. I have a feeling the problem of making it work was a bigger one than they expected, version 3 has been in the pipeline for a LONG time.

D13Fd 5y ago

Rectangle and its paid cousin, Hookshot (https://hookshot.app https://hookshot.app) are great. I use Hookshot. They are the best window managers I've used on MacOS, because the resize features work flawlessly every single time. Other ones I've tried (e.g. bettertouchtool) have occasional issues with that. They'd be perfect if they supported full customization of drop zones. They have some limited customization, including via the command line, but it's nothing compared to some of the other apps that are out there.

rxhanson 5y ago
Hookshot does allow customization of the positions of the window throw (and long throw). You can create a custom shortcuts in the wrench and ruler tab, and then select the custom shortcut from the configure button for the window throw, at the end of the list. I realize this can feel a little hidden in the UI, so I'm planning on making it a little more straightforward in a future release. The custom shortcuts in Hookshot are beyond what I've seen in most apps, especially since you can customize what happens in repeated executions of the custom shortcuts. Let me know what other apps out there have the customization that you are referring to.
- D13Fd 5y ago
  Sorry just saw this. I actually already use keyboard shortcuts for some custom window positions. But I still usually just use the default snap zones because it's hard to remember the shortcuts. BetterTouchTool goes a step further, and lets you customize the drop zones. I.e., if you drop a window on the top left, it snaps to your custom top-left position: https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/104_snap_areas.html https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/104_snap_areas.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgOseyyJ5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgOseyyJ5U Hookshot's performance is great but AFAIK doesn't let you snap windows to custom areas without keyboard shortcuts.