Optimal Layout: Organize all your app windows

[blowndes]

Hi, I'm a long time lurker in these forums and I've developed an application called Optimal Layout which I haven't seen mentioned here yet.

Optimal Layout gives you keyboard commands to move, resize, tile and switch between application windows.
It's a really comprehensive solution for managing windows: you can easily re-organize a whole group of windows to fill the screen or tweak the position of individual window. There are lots of options for how windows move and resize, so it takes a little experimenting to make the most of the app.

There's a short screencast on the product site which gives good overview of all it can do.

I've got lots of plans for the product and look forward to any constructive feedback.

 

[JonBorichef]

Thanks for the info; I'll check it out.

Cheers

 

[Matthew9559]

Those videos definitely made me interested. Just recently I was writing a paper while looking at a few online article and I wanted just this.

Will be trying out for sure.

 

[kasakka]

Scrolling thru the apps doesn't work at all with the Apple Magic Mouse. Up or down it tends to scroll randomly and too quickly. A mouse hover effect would also be good for selecting windows. When selecting windows for arranging them, the selected window numbers also don't increment, they all show as 1 so you don't know which will go where.

If possible, you should make the jump window and sticky resizing also work when resizing with the mouse. This would be a really useful feature.

The application switcher is good, certainly better than the default cmd+tab. You should make it possible to replace cmd+tab with it. There should also be an option to hide/ignore applications that have no windows (for example I never have any Finder windows open because I use Path Finder so I have no need to select Finder). Yes, there is the option for ignoring an app altogether but for example right now I have iCal running but without a window open, eventually I'll want to look at the calendar so it would be nice if it showed up in the application switcher.

One feature that would be nice to see is display specific presets for application positions and sizes. I currently use an Applescript to do this but it works for only the main apps I use. When switching between my 1920x1200 res work display and the 2560x1600 behemoth at home window sizes and locations will be all wrong, especially when they've been reduced to 1280x800 laptop size while I've been on the move.

 

[blowndes]

This is all excellent feedback, thank you!

Scrolling thru the apps doesn't work at all with the Apple Magic Mouse.

Good call, I don't have a magic mouse so this one slipped through. I'll get hold of one and get it fixed.

When selecting windows for arranging them, the selected window numbers also don't increment

The number 1 indicates the window is going to be tiled to the first display, if you've got multiple displays then selecting a window again increments the number. Yes, this isn't as clear as it could be.

If possible, you should make the jump window and sticky resizing also work when resizing with the mouse. This would be a really useful feature.

I'm not sure if this is possible but it's a great idea.

The application switcher is good, certainly better than the default cmd+tab. You should make it possible to replace cmd+tab with it.

This is high on my list of priorities but Apple have deliberately made it very difficult to override cmd+tab.

Thanks again, lots for me to think about there.