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.
Cool! Thanks for the explanation!
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.
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 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.
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]
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.
Same here. When I’m working from home (most of the time), I use a 55" gaming monitor (basically a TV without the latency, 120Hz).
Work has me stuck on Windows, so I use PowerToys with the FancyZones tool to cut up my screen into 8 pieces (if this uploaded screen snippet works). I work in software support, so left is log management, centre is web browser (case management, research, etc), right is comms (email + chat).
If I’m working somewhere away from my desk, I’ll have three virtual desktops with the same type of split.
Lol we’re posting FancyZones now? I’m only 42" so not as much content up. usually have Kodi up top, main browser in the center, comms upper left, music upper right. Didn’t think I’d get to nerd out about FancyZones today but here we are!
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.
You can also grab the “Power toys” utility from Microsoft for some more useful enhancements
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 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.
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If I’m not doing something fullscreen, I usually tile left-right on my landscape monitor and up-down on my portrait monitor. Tabs are an option, but I usually just switch between workspaces if I want to look at multiple fullscreen apps on one screen. Linux/tiling WM is my favorite environment. My screen management workflow is garbage in windows or macOS.
I have like a dozen programs for work, everything has it’s own little area designated. And some with overlap, 'cause it all just doesn’t fit still. I hate having to find the little icons and keep flipping or tabbing back and forth when I can just adjust my focus area.
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.
Depends what I’m doing. I have a number of virtual displays with tiled terminals (height depending on need) for logging/code/command scenarios, and some with tiled subwindows for various programs. Typically I want everything visible on the same monitor if one thing is likely to change while I poke another (e.g. serial console & device flashing, or debug output & program input).
Separate monitors have different tasks: the laptop’s built-in is for meetings, email and calendar; the main two are for code, web & debug, and; and El Chonko is for TV/music/seminars.
A mac user for over a decade, using build in virtual desktop mainly
Most of them are in full screen to use every pixel and use control+arrows or cmd+tab(shift) to navigate
Others are in split screen mode, same reason
I use two monitors so the main one is fullscreen whatever I’m doing at the time; game, web page,
redditlemmy, etc. The other usually has a Twitch stream going. The second monitor becomes really useful in certain situations like referencing something, copying things or comparing one thing to another.
