Do any window managers allow me to snap windows to the sides of the display?

Question

Can you recommend a Window Manager for the Mac? I would like to have a keyboard shortcut that would snap a windows to the left or right half of my screen.

Answer 1

SizeUp is exactly what you need:

SizeUp allows you to quickly position a window to fill exactly half the screen (splitscreen), a quarter of the screen (quadrant), full screen, or centered via the menu bar or configurable system-wide shortcuts (hotkeys). Similar to "tiled windows" functionality available on other operating systems.

Answer 2

Divvy

Divvy is a little menubar app that allows you to automatically resize any active window. Divviy virtually divides your screen into a 6x6 grid. When invoked, Divvy brings up a little HUD in the middle of the screen with this 6x6 grid. Depending on what part of your screen you want to resize your active window, just drag and select those squares on the HUD and the window does the rest. It’s that simple.

Answer 3

After testing SizeUp and Breeze, I've decided that Breeze fits my needs the best. Both allow you to position windows on the left, right, or Fullscreen. The feature that sold it for me was setting a default size & position for an application and assigning it a shortcut key.

Answer 4

ShiftIt (original version at link discontinued) does this, and is free and open source.

Edit: The project is now on GitHub, however the last release was in November 2010.

Answer 5

Moom

I've heard some people talk this one up too:

Do you spend a lot of time moving and zooming windows, so you can better see and work with all the content on your Mac? Instead of doing that work yourself, let Moom handle the task for you.

Answer 6

If you have a magic mouse or magic trackpad, BetterTouchTool is better as you can set specific gestures to manage the windows. Like a four finger left swipe can be to resize the window to the left 50% of the screen.

Answer 7

Moom is great. You can snap windows to: full screen, half screen, quarter screen. You can also resize with a grid. It supports custom keyboard shortcuts, too.

Answer 8

I personally use SizeUp and Divvy on a daily basis. If I had known about ShiftIt earlier, I probably wouldn't have paid for SizeUp. Another one to check out that hasn't been mentioned yet is BetterTouchTool, which has a lot of other features, but hidden in the advanced options is a nice feature they call "Window Snapping" which snaps the window to the left or right of the screen when you drag it to the side. Doesn't have keyboard shortcut functionality included, but it is a nice supplement to SizeUp and Divvy.

Answer 9

I found here from an off topic question on Stack Overflow:

There were two Open Source mangers mentioned there that did not show up on this list:

• Spectacle -> http://spectacleapp.com/
• Slate -> https://github.com/jigish/slate (setup requires work on the command line)

Another from the App Store

• Slicer -> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slicer/id487999732?mt=12

Answer 10

You can also try Slate which is free and open source.

You might also want to read this article about it.

Answer 11

Here is an Applescript that will tile all of the open windows in the frontmost application. Add to ~/Library/Scripts and call from the Applescript menu in the menu bar. Add salt to taste (and free).

--tile windows of frontmost applications in a grid
--this script is useful for
--multiple window chatting
--working side by side of several windows of the same app

--make need to make it as a stay open application later
--for now assume that it is opened and closed per invokation

property horizontalSpacing : 10 -- sets the horizontal spacing between windows
property verticalSpacing : 10 -- sets the vertical spacing between windows
property maxRows : 2
property maxCols : 2

on run {}
    local a
    set userscreen to my getUserScreen()

    --display dialog (getFrntApp() as string)
    try
        set applist to getFrntApp()
        if length of applist = 0 then
            return
        end if
        set a to item 1 of getFrntApp()
    on error the error_message number the error_number
        display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
    end try

    try
        tileScriptable(a, userscreen)
    on error the error_message number the error_number
        --display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        try
            tileUnscriptable(a, userscreen)
        on error the error_message number the error_number
            display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        end try
    end try

end run

on tileScriptable(a, screen)
    local i, c
    set i to 1
    tell application named a
        set theWindows to every window of application a whose visible is true and floating is false and ¬
            modal is false -- and miniaturized is false
        set c to count theWindows
        if c = 0 then
            return
        end if
        set tiles to calTileBounds(c, screen, 1)
        repeat with theWindow in theWindows
            my tileScriptableWindow(a, theWindow, item i of tiles)
            set i to i + 1
        end repeat
    end tell
end tileScriptable

on tileUnscriptable(a, screeninfo)
    -- unscriptable app
    local i, c
    set i to 1
    tell application "System Events"
        set theWindows to (every window of application process a)
        --set theWindows to my filterUnscriptableInvisible(theWindows)

        set c to count theWindows

        if c = 0 then
            return
        end if

        --display dialog screeninfo as string giving up after 5
        set tiles to my calTileBounds(c, screeninfo, 1)
        repeat with theWindow in theWindows
            --display dialog (class of visible of theWindow)
            my tileUnScriptableWindow(a, theWindow, item i of tiles)
            set i to i + 1
        end repeat

    end tell
end tileUnscriptable

on filterUnscriptableInvisible(ws)
    -- filter out from ws windows that are docked    
    set newws to {}
    set docklist to getNamesDocked()
    --display dialog (docklist as string)
    repeat with theWindow in ws
        if name of theWindow is not in docklist then
            set end of newws to theWindow
        end if
    end repeat

    --display dialog (count newws)
    return newws
end filterUnscriptableInvisible

on getNamesDocked()
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Dock"'s list 1
        set l to name of UI elements whose subrole is "AXMinimizedWindowDockItem"
    end tell

    return l
end getNamesDocked

on tileScriptableWindow(a, w, bound)
    tell application a
        set bounds of w to bound
    end tell
end tileScriptableWindow

on tileUnScriptableWindow(a, w, bound)
    tell application "System Events"
        --display dialog (count position of w)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " "

        set position of w to {(item 1 of bound), (item 2 of bound)}

        -- why the -5?
        set size of w to {(item 3 of bound) - (item 1 of bound) - 5, ¬
            (item 4 of bound) - (item 2 of bound) - 5}
        --display dialog (count properties of w)
    end tell
end tileUnScriptableWindow

on calTileBounds(nWindows, screen, direction)
    -- return a list of lists of window bounds
    -- a simple tile algo that tiles along direction (current only 1=horizontal)

    local nrows, nColumns, irow, icolumn, nSpacingWidth, nSpacingHeight, nWindowWidth, nWindowHeight
    set {x0, y0, availScreenWidth, availScreenHeight} to screen
    set ret to {}

    set nrows to (nWindows div maxCols)
    if (nWindows mod maxCols) ≠ 0 then
        set nrows to nrows + 1
    end if

    if nrows < maxRows then
        set nSpacingHeight to (nrows - 1) * verticalSpacing
        set nWindowHeight to (availScreenHeight - nSpacingHeight) / nrows
    else
        set nSpacingHeight to (maxRows - 1) * verticalSpacing
        set nWindowHeight to (availScreenHeight - nSpacingHeight) / maxRows
    end if

    repeat with irow from 0 to nrows - 1
        if nrows ≤ maxRows and irow = nrows - 1 then
            set nColumns to nWindows - irow * maxCols
        else
            set nColumns to maxCols
        end if
        set nSpacingWidth to (nColumns - 1) * horizontalSpacing
        set nWindowWidth to (availScreenWidth - nSpacingWidth) / nColumns
        set nTop to y0 + (irow mod maxRows) * (verticalSpacing + nWindowHeight)
        --display dialog "Top: " & nTop buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        repeat with icolumn from 0 to nColumns - 1
            set nLeft to x0 + (icolumn) * (horizontalSpacing + nWindowWidth)
            set itile to {¬
                nLeft, ¬
                nTop, ¬
                nLeft + nWindowWidth, ¬
                nTop + nWindowHeight}
            set end of ret to itile
            --display dialog item 3 of itile as string
            --set itile to {x0 + (icolumn - 1) * wgrid, y0, wgrid, hgrid}
            --set item 3 of itile to ((item 1 of itile) + (item 3 of itile))
            --set item 4 of itile to ((item 2 of itile) + (item 4 of itile))
        end repeat
    end repeat

    return ret
end calTileBounds



on getFrntApp()
    tell application "System Events" to set frntProc to ¬
        name of every process whose frontmost is true and visible ≠ false
    return frntProc
end getFrntApp

on getUserScreen()
    -- size of the menubar
    tell application "System Events"
        set {menuBarWidth, menuBarHeight} to size of UI element 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
        --display dialog "Menubar width: " & menubarWidth & ", height: " & menubarHeight
        set dockApp to (application process "Dock")
        set {dockWidth, dockHeight} to size of UI element 1 of dockApp
        --display dialog "Dock width: " & dockWidth & ", height: " & dockHeight
        set dockPos to position of UI element 1 of dockApp
        --display dialog "Dock x: " & (item 1 of dockPos) & ", y: " & (item 2 of dockPos)
    end tell

    -- size of the full screen
    (*
   {word 3 of (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver | grep -w Width") as number, ¬
       word 3 of (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver | grep -w Height") as number}
   *)
    tell application "Finder"
        set screenSize to bounds of window of desktop
        set screenWidth to item 3 of screenSize
        set screenHeight to item 4 of screenSize
    end tell
    --display dialog "Screen width: " & screenWidth & ", height: " & screenHeight

    -- by default, set the available screen size to the full screen size
    set availableWidth to screenWidth
    set availableHeight to screenHeight - menuBarHeight
    set availableX to 0
    set availableY to menuBarHeight

    --determine the userscreen origin and size

    -- case 0: hidden dock
    -- if (item 1 of dockPos < 0 or item 1 of dockPos ≥ screenHeight) then
    -- no need to change anything
    -- end if

    -- case 1: bottom dock
    if ((item 2 of dockPos) + dockHeight = screenHeight) then
        set availableHeight to availableHeight - dockHeight
    end if

    -- case 2: left dock
    if (item 1 of dockPos = 0) then
        set availableWidth to availableWidth - dockWidth
        set availableX to dockWidth
    end if

    -- case 3: right dock
    if ((item 1 of dockPos) + dockWidth = screenWidth) then
        set availableWidth to availableWidth - dockWidth
    end if

    return {availableX, availableY, availableWidth, availableHeight}
end getUserScreen

Source: MacScripter via Google

Answer 12

From what I've seen and heard, Cinch is a great application for bringing the window management of Windows 7 to Mac OS X.

Answer 13

First of all, if free is important to you, get ShiftIt.

If convenience from a mouse is important to you, get Cinch. It's in the Mac App Store.

Finally if you have a Macbook or a Magic Trackpad, get JiTouch. It will allow you to assign a gesture to many, many things; one of which is full screen, half-left, half-right. Seriously check it out if you like gestures even a little. It's like having a mouse with 100+ buttons. JiTouch

Answer 14

MercuryMover

You might also look at MercuryMover, which gives you a range of window moving tools under a series of keyboard mappings. I used to use this a lot when struggling with a small laptop screen, and you can get it to flip a window to the edge of a screen etc. It most closely maps the 'move' system menu functionality that you get in normal Windows 'windows'.

Answer 15

I'm using Magnet, is available on the AppStore

http://magnet.crowdcafe.com

Answer 16

As far as I understand you question, you want to stick the window to the edge of the screen, so that the side of the window is directly on the edge of the screen. This is now possible on macOS Sierra (10.12) natively.

All you need to do is to move the window you want to position (by clicking and dragging the top of the window) to the side that you want it to stick to. You need to do this slowly, or else it won't work. After you drag the window over to the edge, it will stick a while and that's when you should stop.