Optimal Layout
Optimal Layout takes the hassle out of organizing your application windows and helps you get the most out of your screen space, making you more productive.
Want to see more detailed screencasts? Visit the screencasts page.
Instantly Fill Your Screen
Optimal Layout can instantly arrange a group of windows to fill your screen.
Select the windows in Optimal Layout's window switcher (left) and choose from one of the tile layouts (right).
Each layout supports more windows than displayed here and Optimal Layout will dynamically distribute the available space between all the windows.
Sticky Resizing is a great complement to tiling: layout your windows then resize the largest window to make the most of your screen space.
Example Layouts
Great Spaces Support
Optimal Layout fully supports Spaces: you can easily see which Space a windows is in and with a keyboard command move groups of windows between Spaces.With Simple Keyboard Commands
- Move a window and it will snap into alignment with each other and the screen edges.
- It's smooth and fast; the further you move a window, the quicker it moves.
- Or jump windows straight to the screen edges, instantly filling half or quarter of the screen.
There are also commands to instantly:
- Maximize a window.
- Center a window.
- Jump a window to a secondary display.
Or with the mouse
This mini desktop image displays the location of the window on the screen, when the mouse moves over it it transforms into a grid onto which you can draw the window into a new position.
Read on to learn about Optimal Layout's innovative resizing...
Remove the frustration of overlapping windows
When you resize a window with Optimal Layout's Sticky Resizing the neighbouring windows correspondingly adjust in size.
Windows also wont resize off the edge of the screen, instead they resize back into the centre, saving you from moving it to keep the content on screen.
Use this after tiling a group of windows to simply adjust the layout and ensure all the important information is visible to you.
Alternatively resizing can overlap in the usual way, it's your choice and just a simple keyboard command to switch between the two methods.
Lots of screen space means even Al Gore could benefit from Optimal Layout
Simple, Intuitive Window Switching
Mac OS X's built in Command-Tab application switcher is fast but frustrating for not listing individual windows;
Expose looks great but gets unwieldy with a large number of windows;
Optimal Layout's window switcher combines the speed of command-tab and visual quality of Expose.
You get an easy to read list of all your open application windows and a preview of each one. The mini-desktop at the end of the window list shows you the location of the window on the desktop so you know where to start focussing your attention.
Only Want The Switcher?
Get WindowFlow
If you don't need Optimal Layout's powerful window moving, resizing & tiling features then you may prefer WindowFlow.
WindowFlow is just the window switcher from Optimal Layout, and it's only $7.