i’ve been thinking of what the most efficient way to use your monitor or screen space is? do you usually just use windows that cover the whole screen? or how do you divide your windows and apps on the screen? do you leave for example firefox window cover the whole screen? and just alt + tab to other programs or apps?
Tiling windows manager, a good hotkey config, and multiple virtual desktops.
So I’m looking at the tiling manager on Wikipedia, but it’s application is still kinda going over my head. What’s the difference between resizing and dragging windows vs using the manager?
The manager does it automatically for you. For instance, if you only have 1 window open, it will cover the entire screen, but if you open another, both windows are placed in halves and so on. It’s kinda like dragging a window to a corner to snap it, but automated
The other aspect is that virtual desktops aka ‘workspaces’ become more important, and you tend to compartmentalize your work into related chunks. Almost all tiling managers work with 10 virtual desktops, which often feels like not enough, bizarrely.
I usually have apps take up the full screen when working - up to three displays (but sometimes even that’s not enough.
Windows 11 has basic window management functionality with Snap Layouts, but with the FancyZones power toy, you can customise the available layouts.
I have 3 27" 4k monitors that I use for my work, as a programmer. I used the Power Toys utility to create snap zones to contain my usual apps. I like to have my main code window take up the entire center monitor plus half of each of the “wing” monitors, then I can use tabs to view 5 or 6 code files at once. The remaining space on the far right is for work IM, and the far left is used for Firefox and discord.
Currently I just use a shortcut window manager that allows me to sort windows semi automatically. But definitely looking to go a similar route @[email protected]
I usually prefer fullscreen, so much so that I switched to a tiling window manager (sway) that does this by default. I run two monitors, so I will generally have two programs maximized and can tab as necessary.
I use an iPhone and iPad for all my personal computing stuff, so this is just my work setup. 4k 32” that has most things:
- left 1/4ish is MS Teams
- middle 1/3ish is Arc (had been Chrome)
- top right 1/4ish is iMessage
- bottom right 1/4ish is MS To-Do
MB Pro is open to the right of the 32”, always had Outlook.
My main actual non-web applications are Excel and Word, and those float around wherever is important for the moment, usually multiple, side by side.
I use an application called Moom to arrange the standard stuff into pre-defined regions.
When I lived in a house with a big monitor I used a kind of tiled layout. Now that I’m offgrid with a tiny laptop screen I run fullscreen and have multiple virtual desktops. I multiplex terminals with screen or tmux, depending on the use case.
I use gridmove when working on Windows. A little fussy to set up new templates, but allows complete control over window placement. Like others, I use a different set up depending on what I’m working on. My large main monitor is often split with my IDE taking up 2/3 of the screen and my documentation on the other 1/3.
When working on a laptop with a smaller screen, I often use virtual desktops and split my windows among them. I find it faster to switch between apps that way, knowing exactly where they are in relation to my current screen, compared to alt tabbing through a bunch of windows.
Using workspaces is great (at least in linux), otherwise lookin into other window managers could be beneficial. I use i3-gaps on my small laptop, and gnome on desktop and I frequently swap and split up everything I do into workspaces.
I find that what is needed depends on the task. Mostly, it’s about whether you need to switch views on information frequently. If you’re working in a maximally focused way you already have the right info, so you don’t have to make the view more diverse.
Two monitors can be really helpful if you’re in a situation where you need one view to always stay the same(e.g. reading one document while editing another) and the editing app is some fussy internal thing that always wants to be on the first window when started, but I also haven’t had that setup in quite a few years. Tiling can get you 80% of that if the screen is sufficiently large and the software cooperates.
When in Windows I stick to using the Win + arrow keys shortcuts to tile; in Linux I’ve used a few different WMs over the years but lately have been using Ubuntu defaults and basically working with it like Windows.
There is a lot of utility from not relying on screens and using a small gridded or ruled notebook with a spiral binding as the second screen. Mark it up with color multipens and sticky notes, and take it around in your jacket pocket or a belt bag.
Tiling window manager.
This guy gets it.
I recently upgraded to an ultrawide monitor and have been making ample use of Windows’s virtual desktops and FancyZones. I have a thumb button on my mouse set to bring up the Win+Tab menu and jump between setups for work, gaming, projects, etc.
I never really used virtual desktops previously (usually on a laptop where it didn’t make a huge difference) but the combination with FancyZones has really been a game changer. I’m sure some linux folks are laughing at this being considered a novelty, but it’s a very seamless setup.
I never really used virtual desktops previously (usually on a laptop where it didn’t make a huge difference)
Interesting. I’ve always found myself using virtual desktops significantly more on smaller screens, because they allow me to have multiple apps fullscreened at the same time and switch between them with touchpad gestures.
I am on Linux and use a tiling window manager (i3wm in my case). Have a look at such managers, they are great at optimizing how you use screen real estate.
will do thanks!
