5 ms·

Any chance this could add launching windows to specific positions/sizes and/or, more importantly, to specific spaces? It still feels nuts to me that we have al

Any chance this could add launching windows to specific positions/sizes and/or, more importantly, to specific spaces? It still feels nuts to me that we have all this stuff and yet when entering/exiting 'work mode' I have to either leave everything running indefinitely or reposition all my work apps every time I launch them.

samstave 2y ago
We might be looking for this: https://github.com/FancyWM/fancywm https://github.com/FancyWM/fancywm
msephton 2y ago
I would recommend using another tool to script those sorts of changes to the workspace, and then adding that to the Stapler Document. There is an app called Stay that remembers positions of Windows based on the app, title, etc. I used it for a while, but not recently. https://cordlessdog.com/stay/ https://cordlessdog.com/stay/
replete 2y ago
You're not alone with this desire, and I still haven't found a good solution. I want to bookmark all apps and windows when working on something and recall them all later when I resume work. How is this not yet a thing when do much real work involves using so many different applications?. There is an app, Workspaces, I think, but it's not useful enough to bother using. Probably should be a macos feature one day
- prmoustache 2y ago
  KDE Activities
  - msephton 2y ago
    There's probably something more comprehensive and recent, but I couldn't find it: What is an activity in KDE and what can I do with it? https://askubuntu.com/a/705835 https://askubuntu.com/a/705835
BurningFrog 2y ago
I use Keyboard Maestro to do this for my needs. May not work for every case.
- msephton 2y ago
  Can you say a bit more about how you've set this up in Keyboard Maestro? Thanks
  - BurningFrog 2y ago
    Sure! I have a bunch on windows in an app, that tend to move to a different monitor after the machine goes to sleep. Each window has a different title, which is something KM can act on, so I've made an action that moves each individual window to a specific place. I've tied this action to Alt-P (for "place"), so I can manually correct when they've drifted. So it's not a generic "put all windows where I left them" solution, but it's a hell of a lot better than manually doing the same thing several times a day.
    - msephton 2y ago
      Nice! I do something similar with my laptop using Hammerspoon: when it detects my external keyboard is connected over USB it does some setup for my desk/mobile environment (repositions dock, quits some apps, launches some apps, etc). I manage my windows in quarters and thirds using keyboard, so they don't really move about.
eddyg 2y ago
Moom⁽¹⁾ offers the ability to save and restore window layouts, including triggering saved layouts on addition or removal of displays. ⁽¹⁾https://manytricks.com/moom/ https://manytricks.com/moom/
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  $10 is incredibly reasonable for this product, thank you for sharing.
  - eddyg 2y ago
    You’re welcome. I’ve been a Moom user for a long time, and the craziest thing to me is when they had to change⁽²⁾ from using a miniature rectangular grid for positioning and resizing a window to a slanted hexagonal grid because of a patent⁽³⁾. ⁽²⁾https://manytricks.com/blog/?p=4618 https://manytricks.com/blog/?p=4618 ⁽³⁾https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090300541A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090300541A1/en
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- msephton 2y ago
  I wonder if they experimented with adding app/document launches into the mix? Seems like the missing piece.
chongli 2y ago
I leave everything running. I have a dozen spaces filled with assortments of windows for different tasks. It’s a real pain because some apps (such as the browser) have windows open on all of the spaces and macOS really doesn’t like it when you have the same application in multiple different spaces. Clicking a link in an email is such a roll of the dice (as to which space I’ll end up in and which browser window will receive the new tab) that I don’t bother clicking and test copy paste the link where I want it to open. It’s especially bad when I need to restart the browser because then all the windows get collected into one space again. Also annoying that relaunching the browser reopens all those windows in the first place. I like the idea of this app for launching a collection of apps together but the application is the wrong level of granularity. I don’t want all of my browser windows at once. I want just one of them along with the windows of other applications that match that task. I bet there’s some combination of tools I could cobble together and customize to achieve this but I don’t want to work that hard at it. I really should be able to just open up a new space, open up and arrange all the windows I want to work with on tasks for that space, and then press save and give it a name. Then I should be able to close that space and reopen it by name any time I like, with all of the windows exactly as I left them, regardless of whether or not any of those applications are open on other spaces.
- the_other 2y ago
  Agreed. It’s weird because the basic app+window UX in macOS (in which an app can be running with no windows open) implies the task based behavior that Stapler is trying to support.
  - msephton 2y ago
    I'm not sure the current app/window paradigm does suggest that, see my sibling reply.
    - the_other 2y ago
      Fair. It sounds like earlier tech went further than the macOS UX. It’s a shame we don’t have better task support. macOS has been slowly shidting further towards app-centric workfkows. I suppose this is in line with app stores, web apps and mobile OSs being the more common computer interfaces now. It’s disappointing, in my opinion.
latexr 2y ago
> more importantly, to specific spaces? Apple does not provide APIs for that. A handful of apps control spaces, and all of them by automating GUI actions.
mrbombastic 2y ago
I also have wanted this for a long time, is there a limitation on macOS that prevents this? It doesn’t sound that hard but maybe if apis aren’t there it is.
- msephton 2y ago
  First, make sure that: System Preferences > General > Desktop & Dock > Windows > Close windows when quitting an application = OFF Then leave the windows of an app open as you quit it. When you next launch the app its windows will restore to their previous size and position. If you close the windows first, then the app will restore to having no windows open.
  - JadeNB 2y ago
    In Sonoma, the same preference is there, but it's one level less nested: System Settings > Desktop & Dock etc.

samstave 2y ago

We might be looking for this: https://github.com/FancyWM/fancywm https://github.com/FancyWM/fancywm

msephton 2y ago

I would recommend using another tool to script those sorts of changes to the workspace, and then adding that to the Stapler Document. There is an app called Stay that remembers positions of Windows based on the app, title, etc. I used it for a while, but not recently. https://cordlessdog.com/stay/ https://cordlessdog.com/stay/

replete 2y ago

You're not alone with this desire, and I still haven't found a good solution. I want to bookmark all apps and windows when working on something and recall them all later when I resume work. How is this not yet a thing when do much real work involves using so many different applications?. There is an app, Workspaces, I think, but it's not useful enough to bother using. Probably should be a macos feature one day

prmoustache 2y ago
KDE Activities
- msephton 2y ago
  There's probably something more comprehensive and recent, but I couldn't find it: What is an activity in KDE and what can I do with it? https://askubuntu.com/a/705835 https://askubuntu.com/a/705835

BurningFrog 2y ago

I use Keyboard Maestro to do this for my needs. May not work for every case.

msephton 2y ago
Can you say a bit more about how you've set this up in Keyboard Maestro? Thanks
- BurningFrog 2y ago
  Sure! I have a bunch on windows in an app, that tend to move to a different monitor after the machine goes to sleep. Each window has a different title, which is something KM can act on, so I've made an action that moves each individual window to a specific place. I've tied this action to Alt-P (for "place"), so I can manually correct when they've drifted. So it's not a generic "put all windows where I left them" solution, but it's a hell of a lot better than manually doing the same thing several times a day.
  - msephton 2y ago
    Nice! I do something similar with my laptop using Hammerspoon: when it detects my external keyboard is connected over USB it does some setup for my desk/mobile environment (repositions dock, quits some apps, launches some apps, etc). I manage my windows in quarters and thirds using keyboard, so they don't really move about.

eddyg 2y ago

Moom⁽¹⁾ offers the ability to save and restore window layouts, including triggering saved layouts on addition or removal of displays. ⁽¹⁾https://manytricks.com/moom/ https://manytricks.com/moom/

toomuchtodo 2y ago
$10 is incredibly reasonable for this product, thank you for sharing.
- eddyg 2y ago
  You’re welcome. I’ve been a Moom user for a long time, and the craziest thing to me is when they had to change⁽²⁾ from using a miniature rectangular grid for positioning and resizing a window to a slanted hexagonal grid because of a patent⁽³⁾. ⁽²⁾https://manytricks.com/blog/?p=4618 https://manytricks.com/blog/?p=4618 ⁽³⁾https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090300541A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090300541A1/en
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
msephton 2y ago
I wonder if they experimented with adding app/document launches into the mix? Seems like the missing piece.

chongli 2y ago

I leave everything running. I have a dozen spaces filled with assortments of windows for different tasks. It’s a real pain because some apps (such as the browser) have windows open on all of the spaces and macOS really doesn’t like it when you have the same application in multiple different spaces. Clicking a link in an email is such a roll of the dice (as to which space I’ll end up in and which browser window will receive the new tab) that I don’t bother clicking and test copy paste the link where I want it to open. It’s especially bad when I need to restart the browser because then all the windows get collected into one space again. Also annoying that relaunching the browser reopens all those windows in the first place. I like the idea of this app for launching a collection of apps together but the application is the wrong level of granularity. I don’t want all of my browser windows at once. I want just one of them along with the windows of other applications that match that task. I bet there’s some combination of tools I could cobble together and customize to achieve this but I don’t want to work that hard at it. I really should be able to just open up a new space, open up and arrange all the windows I want to work with on tasks for that space, and then press save and give it a name. Then I should be able to close that space and reopen it by name any time I like, with all of the windows exactly as I left them, regardless of whether or not any of those applications are open on other spaces.

the_other 2y ago
Agreed. It’s weird because the basic app+window UX in macOS (in which an app can be running with no windows open) implies the task based behavior that Stapler is trying to support.
- msephton 2y ago
  I'm not sure the current app/window paradigm does suggest that, see my sibling reply.
  - the_other 2y ago
    Fair. It sounds like earlier tech went further than the macOS UX. It’s a shame we don’t have better task support. macOS has been slowly shidting further towards app-centric workfkows. I suppose this is in line with app stores, web apps and mobile OSs being the more common computer interfaces now. It’s disappointing, in my opinion.

latexr 2y ago

> more importantly, to specific spaces? Apple does not provide APIs for that. A handful of apps control spaces, and all of them by automating GUI actions.

mrbombastic 2y ago

I also have wanted this for a long time, is there a limitation on macOS that prevents this? It doesn’t sound that hard but maybe if apis aren’t there it is.

msephton 2y ago
First, make sure that: System Preferences > General > Desktop & Dock > Windows > Close windows when quitting an application = OFF Then leave the windows of an app open as you quit it. When you next launch the app its windows will restore to their previous size and position. If you close the windows first, then the app will restore to having no windows open.
- JadeNB 2y ago
  In Sonoma, the same preference is there, but it's one level less nested: System Settings > Desktop & Dock etc.