docs » hs.window.tiling

WARNING: EXPERIMENTAL MODULE. DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION. This module is for testing purposes only. It can undergo breaking API changes or go away entirely at any point and without notice. (Should you encounter any issues, please feel free to report them on https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/issues or #hammerspoon on irc.freenode.net)

Tile windows

The tileWindows function in this module is primarily meant for use by hs.window.layout; however you can call it manually (e.g. for your custom layout engine).

API Overview

API Documentation

Functions

tileWindows
Signature hs.window.tiling.tileWindows(windows,rect[,desiredAspect[,processInOrder[,preserveRelativeArea[,animationDuration]]]])
Type Function
Description

Tile (or fit) windows into a rect

Parameters:

  • windows - a list of hs.window objects indicating the windows to tile or fit
  • rect - an hs.geometry rect (or constructor argument), indicating the desired onscreen region that the windows will be tiled within
  • desiredAspect - (optional) an hs.geometry size (or constructor argument) or a number, indicating the desired optimal aspect ratio (width/height) of the tiled windows; the tiling engine will decide how to subdivide the rect among windows by trying to maintain every window's aspect ratio as close as possible to this; if omitted, defaults to 1 (i.e. try to keep the windows as close to square as possible)
  • processInOrder - (optional) if true, windows will be placed left-to-right and top-to-bottom following the list order in windows; if false or omitted, the tiling engine will try to maintain the spatial distribution of windows, i.e. (roughly speaking) pick the closest window for each destination "tile"; note that in some cases this isn't possible and the windows might get "reshuffled" around in unexpected ways
  • preserveRelativeArea - (optional) if true, preserve the relative area among windows; that is, if window A is currently twice as large as window B, the same will be true after both windows have been processed and placed into the rect; if false or omitted, all windows will have the same area (= area of the rect / number of windows) after processing
  • animationDuration - (optional) the number of seconds to animate the move/resize operations of the windows; if omitted, defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

Returns:

  • None

Notes:

  • To ensure all windows are placed in a row (side by side), use a very small aspect ratio (for "tall and narrow" windows) like 0.01; similarly, to have all windows in a column, use a very large aspect ratio (for "short and wide") like 100
  • Hidden and minimized windows will be processed as well: the rect will have "gaps" where the invisible windows would lie, that will get filled as the windows get unhidden/unminimized