Divvy

Continuing on from my post about Optimal Layout I also tried out Divvy (version 1.2.3) for more efficient window management on Mac OS X. My work setup is a MacBook Pro with an external display and Spaces enabled. An important goal is to achieve keyboard only window control.

Divvy is a very simple app. It essentially enables you to divide the screen up into a virtual grid and snap the current window to a region within that grid. The other major feature is the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to particular regions, enabling you to position and size the current window to one of your predefined regions with ease. There is also an option to use the keyboard shortcuts to move the current window to another display, which I find quite useful.

To tile all the windows on the screen in a particular layout requires shifting the focus to each window to position and size it. If your Divvy shortcuts correspond to where you want the windows than this whole process can be done fairly quickly, without touching the mouse/trackpad. Having said that, I would love to define a layout on the Divvy grid and with a keyboard shortcut arrange all windows on the current screen into that layout.

I have Windows XP running in a Parallels VM in Coherence mode and Divvy does not seem to work with the Windows windows. Some applications (such as Activity Monitor) also have restrictions on window size that Divvy can't change.

Over the days I was trialling Divvy on my work MacBook Pro, I found myself missing it on the Mac at home. For USD$14 and a license that supports use on multiple Mac's, it is good value.

Optimal Layout

Inspired by xmonad on linux, I tried out Optimal Layout (version 1.1.2) for more efficient window management on Mac OS X. My work setup is a MacBook Pro with an external display and Spaces enabled. An important goal is to achieve keyboard only window control.

In Optimal Layout, tiling windows in an arrangement requires

1. explicitly selecting the windows in the Optimal Layout UI


2. selecting a layout from a list


3. selecting the target display

My most common use case is to arrange windows in the current space on the display with the focus, i.e. my current context. There are too many steps for this to feel efficient.

The available window layouts are predefined, including the window sizing. After arranging windows, sizing adjustments can be made using the sticky resizing feature, but this requires using the mouse. Furthermore, should you open one more window, you have to go through the whole process again.

I am disapointed with Optimal Layout and am trying out Divvy, which I will post about next.