Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas | Hacker News Reader

Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas

rectangleapp.com

41 pointshubertwo29 comments

Rectangle and Alt-Tab [0] significantly reduce my need to use the touchpad or reach for the mouse.

Normal MacOS windows handling seems enraging and cumbersome.

[0] https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos

Enraging is the right word for it - these two applications are the only thing keeping me from wanting to smash the Mac I have to use.

What does alt-tab-macos add to the default alt tab experience? Does it show all open windows?

It allows you to alt-tab through all open Windows not just Applications

Just in case, did you know cmd+tilde will cycle through unminimized windows of the currently active application?

I originally hated Mac alt+tab behavior, but after learning to combine cmd+tab and cmd+tilde, I actually hate going back.

I still dislike a lot of mac UX, and use divvy for keyboard driven window placement, but that one thing became a huge highlight for me.

Yeah I'm aware but I find it awkward and hard to use when I routinely have a browser and two editors open I have to remember to mentally switch keys to shift between the two sets

It's just not for me

Thank you that's a really useful shortcut to know. I just switched "back" to mac. My last mac being a PowerBook G4.

While I generally like the UI/UX I didn't know about this shortcut and I have been missing it. I started using multiple desktops which works better for me on macOS than on Windows because of the way Alt + Tab works on macOS. But switching between Windows was a bit annoying in clamshell mode without the touchpad. This will be gone once I get used to the shortcut.

Still no way to switch to a window that is minimized. I forget all the time that I have windows minimized, and lose them, then find them days later when I right-click on the dock icon for the app. Every other OS lets you task switch through minimized windows. Feels like Apple hasn't touched the dock in about 20 years.

I love how you explained the app in one sentence, which somehow is missing from both the readme.md over at GitHub and from the website . Thanks, I'll check it out.

My macOS task/window management strategy:

- Start with windows sized full height, they stack horizontally this way instead of diagonally.

- Never resize anything unless something got messed up re-attaching a display, which is exceedingly rare. (If I’m doing web stuff I use dev tools to test responsive, the browser window stays the same width.)

- Command + tab/command + ~ do great most of the time.

- Command + ? -> type window title when I have lots of open windows in one app.

- Generally avoid moving windows unless I really need to, the above strategies work well for everything except the occasional side by side workflow.

This took a little while to hone, but it definitely doesn't feel cumbersome to me, much less enraging.

I do generally use Moom[1] when I need to resize windows, mainly because I already have a license and I’m anal about consistent sizing.

I’m sure this wouldn’t work for everybody, but I also know a lot of folks don’t know about command + ~ or using the help menu search, so it felt worth sharing.

1: https://manytricks.com/moom/

Thanks for this suggestion. I've been using Contexts for this, but it looks like Alt-Tab may be even better.

I'm a long-time user of Spectacle [1], but it's no longer maintained. Glad to see what looks to be a good alternative.

[1]: https://www.spectacleapp.com/

Same! It still works just fine for me. Not sure why you’d need to switch unless apple kills whatever APIs it’s using

Apple will kill the APIs.

If you haven't switched, Rectangle comes with a Spectacle compatibility mode so all the keyboard shortcuts and behaviors transfer. When I swapped out work machines a couple years ago I cut over and it was painless, fwiw.

Rectangle dev here, I wrote a post about this a while back [1].

TL;DR The APIs are the same between the two, but there is the potential of a security risk with Spectacle. Something I didn't mention in that post is that Rectangle technically should outperform Spectacle, although it might not be noticeable, as Spectacle loads a JavaScript engine to perform window size/pos calculations while everything in Rectangle is in Swift.

[1]: https://medium.com/ryan-hanson/why-switch-from-spectacle-to-...

Has anyone used both Magnet and Rectangle? Been on Magnet for ages, wondering if there's any compelling reason to switch.

Rectangle dev here. Rectangle will get you some more window actions, as you can see in the GitHub readme [1]. There are also some hidden configurations beyond what's in the UI [2].

There's also a feature called todo mode that kind of lets you pin a window on the side of the screen. This feature was created by Patrick Collison of Stripe and Nat Friedman.

And there's the fact that it's open source.

The real differences come in the paid, closed source version: Rectangle Pro [3]. Here's a comparison of some of my similar apps: https://rectangleapp.com/comparison

Rectangle is not on the Mac App Store, though, if that's important to you.

[1]: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

[2]: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle/blob/master/TerminalCo...

[3]: https://rectangleapp.com/pro

I've been using Rectangle for a while now, as the Mac equivalent for what I use on Windows, i.e. Divvy. Thanks for your hard work! I didn't even realize there was a pro version. Will look towards purchasing it.

thanks!

This is wonderful. The window management on macOS has been driving me nuts at work after decades of using Windows.

I use BetterSnapTool and highly recommend it. Just set up some hotkeys and macros and you can do it all. I like to set up my hotkeys to be able to maximize for the whole screen, go to either vertical side, go to either horizontal side, or all 4 corners of my screen.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=...

Long time user of Rectangle here. It is definitely one of my top 3 utility apps on the Mac. I have the num pad keys set up to move windows to various edges and corners of the screen, which is fantastic on an ultra wide monitor.

Somehow never realized that there was a version I could pay for – Purchasing now. Thank you for saving me so much window management frustration in the past years!

I still do not understand why you have to pay for so many products on Mac Os that are just builtin in most other operating systems (DEs).

There is a free version of the app, BUT if you dont want to use the default shortcuts with the default sizes you must pay 9.99€.

C'mon Apple

Rectangle dev here. You do not need to pay anything to get full functionality, including configuring the app any way you want. It's FOSS, after all.

The Pro version of the app just has a lot of additional features. Here's a comparison chart: https://rectangleapp.com/comparison

Use and love Rectangle. Shout out also to their other app, Charmstone - I tried this recently after it was mentioned on here and was surprised at how quickly it became essential.

I’ve been using Moom for many years, CTRL+ALT and numpad to move windows around with resize is perfect on an ultra-wide screen <3

> Upgrade to Rectangle Pro

> Quicker window snapping

I'm not sure I could handle the non-pro version.

Rectangle is a day 1 install for me on any new mac

Does it have anything over moom?

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