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Tips and tricks

Ways to get more out of Panevisa. Default shortcuts are shown where they exist, and you can change any of them in Settings, Shortcuts. ⌃ is Control, ⌥ is Option and ⇧ is Shift.

Setting up or stuck? See Help.

Layouts and tilingPick a layout per display and size windows the way you like.
  • There are six layouts, with columns, rows, grids, a main pane with a stack, and more. Switch with one keystroke, or cycle layouts from the menu bar.
  • Each display keeps its own layout, so your laptop and your big screen can work differently. Put the main pane on the left or right of each display.
  • Drag the edge of a tiled window to resize it, and its neighbors follow. The new sizes stay with the layout.
  • Cycle Size on ⌃⌥R gives the focused window a third, half or two thirds of its row or column. Balance Sizes on ⌃⌥⇧R evens everything out again. Both work with every layout, including Grid and Main and Stack.
  • Each display can have its own gap between windows and its own outer margin, or follow the global gap.
  • Window animation in Settings, General can be Fast, Normal or Off. Off and Reduce Motion move windows straight to their new place.
  • An optional outline in your highlight color shows which tiled window has focus. Choose its width in Settings, General.
Focus and zoomJump into one window and back out without losing your view.
  • Zoom Toggle on ⌃⌥X jumps straight into the focused window. Press it again to go back to exactly the view you were on. The other windows stay on the same display behind it.
  • Show Everything is on ⌃⌥E.
  • Focus Left and Focus Right move on to the next display at the edge of a layout, and work from floating windows too.
  • Focus follows mouse is off unless you turn it on in Settings, Windows. The tiled window under the pointer gets focus after a short pause you can set. It waits while a menu or popover is open or a mouse button is down.
Tab groupsStack related windows into one tile and flip between them like tabs.
  • Drag a window onto the title bar or the tab strip of another window, or onto its middle. The preview says whether it makes a new tab group or joins one.
  • Hold Option while dragging a window to preview where everything will move before you drop it.
  • Add to Tab Group on ⌃⌥T puts the focused window in a tab group with the window you used just before it. Remove from Tab Group on ⌃⌥⇧T takes it out again.
  • Drag a tab out of the strip to give it its own space.
  • Native macOS tabs in apps like Ghostty, Terminal and Finder share one cell instead of taking a cell each.
  • Pick the tab group color, a separate split and edge color and the preview strength in Settings, Tabs.
Floating windowsKeep some windows out of the layout, on purpose or for a moment.
  • Dialogs, settings windows, small popups, hotkey windows and picture in picture float by themselves and never rearrange your layout. Turn this off in Settings, Windows, or press ⌃⌥F on a window to tile it anyway.
  • Center Window on ⌃⌥C floats the focused window in the middle of the screen.
  • Scratchpad: pick any window with Set Scratchpad Window on ⌃⌥⇧S, then bring it to the middle of the screen and tuck it away with ⌃⌥S.
  • Show in Every Workspace on ⌃⌥A keeps a window floating and its app open when you switch workspaces.
  • Pause turns tiling off when you need a window to float freely. While paused nothing moves, and only the Pause shortcut works, so you can always resume from the keyboard.
App RulesDecide where each app goes, once.
  • One ordered list of rules decides where each app goes: tile normally, take the main spot, pin left or right, float, or be ignored. Apply a rule on any display or a specific one. Higher rules win.
  • Rules can also match a window's title, either a part of it or a pattern. Make Rule for This Window in the App Rule menu, the command palette or a shortcut adds one for the window in front.
  • Float Other Windows keeps an app's main window tiled and floats every other window of that app.
  • Suggest Rules for My Apps in App Rules opens Setup with suggestions for the apps on your Mac.
  • Removed a rule by mistake? Put it back with Undo.
Overview and the command paletteFind any window or action without digging through menus.
  • Overview shows every window at a glance. Type to filter and use the keyboard to pick one. With Screen Recording on it shows live window previews, without it app icons.
  • The command palette finds any action, layout, saved arrangement or window as you type.
  • Picking a hidden tab in the command palette or Overview makes it the shown tab.
Arrangements and workspacesSave a setup and bring it back.
  • Save up to nine window arrangements per display and give them names. Bring them back with a shortcut, the menu, the command palette, a panevisa:// link or the Shortcuts app.
  • Undo and Redo Arrangement Change step through your recent arrangements.
  • Workspaces group windows by task, so you can jump between them without losing your place.
  • Arrangements come back when the same set of displays reconnects.
ShortcutsMake every action fit your hands.
  • Every action can have two shortcuts, using keyboard keys or mouse buttons, including middle and side buttons.
  • Settings, Shortcuts opens with Essentials, the eight shortcuts you will use most. Every other shortcut is grouped below.
  • The menu shows each shortcut on the right.
  • Shortcuts that another app already uses are listed in Settings, Shortcuts and in the menu.
  • Show Everything moved from ⌃⌥Space to ⌃⌥E, since macOS uses ⌃⌥Space to switch input sources.
AutomationDrive Panevisa from the Shortcuts app, links and Terminal.
  • Panevisa actions are in the Shortcuts app, so you can build them into your own automations.
  • Trigger layouts and actions from scripts, launchers or links with URL commands, for example panevisa://tab/add and panevisa://tab/remove.
  • The panevisa command runs any Panevisa action from Terminal or scripts and prints your windows, displays and workspaces as JSON. Install it from Settings, Windows. Pause applies to it as it does to shortcuts.
  • An optional config file at ~/.config/panevisa/config.json holds your shortcuts, rules and window settings as plain text for a dotfiles repository. Create it from Settings, Windows. Edits apply within a second.
Your settings on every MacKeep the same setup everywhere.
  • Sync Settings with iCloud keeps your App Rules, shortcuts, layout, window behavior and colors the same on all your Macs. Turn it on in Settings, Advanced.
  • Export all your settings to one file and import them on another Mac. Import shows what the file contains, asks first and keeps a backup of your current settings.

See what changed in each version in the changelog.