Slate is a window management application similar to Divvy and SizeUp (except better and free!). Originally written to replace them due to some limitations in how each work, it attemps to overcome them by simply being extremely configurable. As a result, it may be a bit daunting to get configured, but once it is done, the benefit is huge.
Slate currently works on Mac OS X 10.6 and above
- Highly customizable
- Bind keystrokes to:
- move and/or resize windows
- directionally focus windows
- activate preset layouts
- create, delete, and activate snapshots of the current state of windows
- Set default layouts for different monitor configurations which will activate when that configuration is detected.
- Window Hints: an intuitive way to change window focus
- [Beta] A better, more customizable, application switcher.
Big thanks to philc for the Window Hints idea (and initial implementation) as well as plenty of other suggestions and improvement ideas.
NEW Installation Instructions
You can now download the latest Slate.app
packaged as a .tar.gz
here, extract it and stick Slate.app
in your /Applications
folder. Or just run this in your terminal:
cd /Applications && wget http://www.ninjamonkeysoftware.com/slate/versions/slate-latest.tar.gz && tar -xzf slate-latest.tar.gz && rm slate-latest.tar.gz
Note: You must turn on the Accessibility API by checking System Preferences > Universal Access > Enable access for assistive devices
Slate is configured using a ".slate" file in the current user's home directory. Configuration is loaded upon running Slate. You can also re-load the config using the "Load Config" menu option on the status menu (use this at your own risk. It is better to simply restart Slate).
Note: If no ".slate" file exists in the current user's home directory, the default config file will be used.
Configuration is split into the following directives:
config
(for global configurations)alias
(to create alias variables)layout
(to configure layouts)default
(to default certain screen configurations to layouts)bind
(for key bindings)source
(to load configs from another file)
###Expressions###
Some directives allow parameters that can be expressions. The following strings will be replaced with the appropriate values when using expressions:
screenOriginX = target screen's top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
screenOriginY = target screen's top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
screenSizeX = target screen's width
screenSizeY = target screen's height
windowTopLeftX = window's current top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
windowTopLeftY = window's current top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
windowSizeX = window's width
windowSizeY = window's height
newWindowSizeX = window's new width (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be
used in configs)
newWindowSizeY = window's new height (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be
used in configs)
windowHintsWidth = the value of the windowHintsWidth config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and
windowHintsTopLeftY)
windowHintsHeight = the value of the windowHintsHeight config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and
windowHintsTopLeftY)
In addition to the variables above, expressions can be used with the following functions and operators:
+ e.g. 1+1 = 2
- e.g. 1-1 = 0
* e.g. 2*2 = 4
/ e.g. 4/2 = 2
** e.g. 3**2 = 9
sum e.g. sum({1,2,3}) = 6
count e.g. count({4,5,6}) = 3
min e.g. min({1,3,5}) = 1
max e.g. max({1,3,5}) = 5
average e.g. average({1,2,3,4}) = 2.5
median e.g. median({1,2,3,10,15}) = 3
mode e.g. mode({1,3,4,3,5}) = 3
stddev e.g. stddev({1,2,3,4,5}) = 1.4142135623730951
sqrt e.g. sqrt(9) = 3.0
log e.g. log(100) = 2.0
ln e.g. ln(8) = 2.0794415416798357
exp e.g. exp(2) = 7.3890560989306504 (this is "e**parameter")
floor e.g. floor(1.9) = 1.0
ceiling e.g. ceiling(1.1) = 2.0
abs e.g. abs(-1) = 1
trunc e.g. trunc(1.1123123123) = 1.0
random e.g. random() = 0.20607629744336009 (random float between 0 and 1)
randomn e.g. randomn(10) = 4 (random integer between 0 and parameter-1)
Note: When using expressions spaces are not allowed!
The config
directive follows the following format:
config name value
List of allowed configs:
Name | Type | Behavior |
---|---|---|
defaultToCurrentScreen |
Boolean | Default: false . true causes all bindings to default to the current screen if the screen they reference does not exist. false causes only bindings that do not specify a screen to default to the current screen while bindings that reference screens that do not exist simply do nothing. |
nudgePercentOf |
String | Default: windowSize . Will use this value for the nudge percent calculation. Possible values are windowSize and screenSize . |
resizePercentOf |
String | Default: windowSize . Will use this value for the resize percent calculation. Possible values are windowSize and screenSize . |
repeatOnHoldOps |
String | Default: resize,nudge . Comma separated list of operations that should repeat when the hotkey is held. |
secondsBeforeRepeat |
Number | Default: 0.4 . The number of seconds before repeating starts (for ops in repeatOnHoldOps ) |
secondsBetweenRepeat |
Number | Default: 0.1 . The number of seconds between repeats (for ops in repeatOnHoldOps ) |
checkDefaultsOnLoad |
Boolean | Default: false . true causes the default directives to be checked/triggered after any configuration load |
focusCheckWidth |
Integer | Default: 100 . The width (in pixels) of the rectangle used to check directions in the focus directive. Only used for right, left, up, above, down, and below directions. The larger this is, the futher away focus will check for adjacent windows. Consequently, the larger this is, the more irritatingly stupid focus can be. |
focusCheckWidthMax |
Integer | Default: 100 . If set to anything above focusCheckWidth, the focus option will keep expanding the rectangle used to check directions by focusCheckWidth if it does not find a window until it either finds a window or the width of the rectangle is greater than focusCheckWidthMax |
focusPreferSameApp |
Boolean | Default: true . When this is true , the focus operation will always choose a window in the same app to focus if it exists in the check width regardless of intersection size. When this is false , focus will treat all application windows the same and choose the largest intersection size |
orderScreensLeftToRight |
Boolean | Default: true . When this is true , monitors will be ordered from left to right by X coordinate (if two X coordiates are the same, then the lowest Y coordinate will be first). When this is false , screens will be ordered according to the internal Mac OS X ordering which changes depending on which screen was plugged in first. If this is false , you can force ordering of screens by prefixing the screen ID with ordered: |
windowHintsBackgroundColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 50;53;58;0.9 . The background color for Window Hints as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
windowHintsWidth |
Expression | Default: 100 . The width of the Window Hints ovelay in pixels. Please see the "Expressions" section above more information on expressions. |
windowHintsHeight |
Expression | Default: 100 . The height of the Window Hints overlay in pixels. Please see the "Expressions" section above more information on expressions. |
windowHintsFontColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 255;255;255;1.0 . The font color for Window Hints as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
windowHintsFontName |
String | Default: Helvetica . The name of the Window Hints font |
windowHintsFontSize |
Integer | Default: 40 . The size of the Window Hints font |
windowHintsDuration |
Number | Default: 3 . The number of seconds that Window Hints will display for |
windowHintsRoundedCornerSize |
Integer | Default: 5 . The size of the rounded corners of the Window Hints. Set this to 0 if you do not want rounded corners |
windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows |
Boolean | Default: true . If this is set to true , window hints will not show for windows that are hidden. Hints will show for all windows if this is false . A window is hidden if the window under the point at the center of where the hint overlay would show is not the window in question. |
windowHintsTopLeftX |
Semicolon Separated Array of Expressions | Default: (windowSizeX/2)-(windowHintsWidth/2);0 . The X offset for window hints from the window's top left point (right is positive, left is negative). If windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows is set to true , the hint operation will try each expression in this array (using the Y coordinate from the same index in windowHintsTopLeftY ) sequetially to see if it represents a point that is visible. The hint operation will display a hint at the first visible point. Note that the number of elements in this array must equal the number of elements in windowHintsTopLeftY or all hint bindings will fail validation. |
windowHintsTopLeftY |
Semicolon Separated Array of Expressions | Default: (windowSizeY/2)-(windowHintsHeight/2);0 . The Y offset for window hints from the window's top left point (down is positive, up is negative). If windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows is set to true , the hint operation will try each expression in this array (using the X coordinate from the same index in windowHintsTopLeftX ) sequetially to see if it represents a point that is visible. The hint operation will display a hint at the first visible point. Note that the number of elements in this array must equal the number of elements in windowHintsTopLeftX or all hint bindings will fail validation. |
windowHintsOrder |
none , persist , leftToRight , or rightToLeft |
Default: leftToRight . Specifies the ordering of windows for Window Hints. If none , hints will be seemingly randomly ordered. If persist , hints will be randomly ordered but will remain the same throughout the life of the window (Currently does not work if windows have the same title). If leftToRight , hints will be ordered from the left of the screen to the right of the screen. If rightToLeft , hints will be ordered from the right of the screen to the left of the screen |
switchIconSize |
Number | Default: 100 . The size of the application icons for the switch operation |
switchIconPadding |
Number | Default: 5 . The padding around the application icons for the switch operation |
switchBackgroundColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 50;53;58;0.3 . The background color for the switch operation as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
switchSelectedBackgroundColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 50;53;58;0.9 . The selected background color for the switch operation as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
switchSelectedBorderColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 230;230;230;0.9 . The selected border color for the switch operation as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
switchSelectedBorderSize |
Number | Default: 2 . The size of the selected border of the switch operation. Set this to 0 if you do not a border |
switchRoundedCornerSize |
Number | Default: 5 . The size of the rounded corners of the switch operation. Set this to 0 if you do not want rounded corners |
switchOrientation |
horiztonal or vertical |
Default: horizontal . Which direction to grow the application switcher. |
switchSecondsBeforeRepeat |
Number | Default: 0.4 . The number of seconds before repeating starts for forward/back keypresses for the switch operation |
switchSecondsBetweenRepeat |
Number | Default: 0.05 . The number of seconds between repeating the forward/back keypresses for the switch operation. |
switchStopRepeatAtEdge |
Boolean | Default: true . If true , when holding down the switch operation forward/back keys repeats will trigger until the selected app reaches the end/beginning of the list. If false , holding down the switch operation forward/back keys will cycle through the app list without stopping |
switchOnlyFocusMainWindow |
Boolean | Default: true . If true , the switch operation will only bring the main window of the selected app forward. If false , the switch operation will work similar to the default application switcher and bring all windows of the selected app forward. |
switchShowTitles |
Boolean | Default: false . If true , the switch operation will show the title of the items in the list as well. |
switchFontColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 255;255;255;1.0 . The font color for the switch operation as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
switchFontName |
String | Default: Helvetica . The name of the switch operation title font |
switchFontSize |
Number | Default: 14 . The size of the switch operation font |
switchType |
app or window |
Default: app . [UNIMPLEMENTED - coming in 1.1] If app , the switch operation will present a list of applications ordered by last focus. If window the switch operation will present a list of windows ordered by last focus. |
switchSelectedPadding |
Number | Default: 10 . The size of the padding betweeen the edge of the switch window and the edge of the selected app selected background |
keyboardLayout |
dvorak or qwerty |
Default: qwerty . The keyboard layout you are using. |
snapshotTitleMatch |
levenshtein or sequential |
Default: levenshtein . The algorithm to use when determining if titles match or not for the snapshot operation. If levenshtein , the titles with the lowest levenshtein distance will be matched, if sequential, the titles with the maximum common prefix length will be matched. Note that this will change the algorithm for all apps. If you would like to change the algorithm for only one app use snapshotTitleMatch:'APP_NAME' for example to change the algorithm for only iTerm, use the following directive: config snapshotTitleMatch:'iTerm' sequential . |
gridBackgroundColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 75;77;81;1.0 . The background color for the grid operation as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
gridRoundedCornerSize |
Number | Default: 5 . The size of the rounded corners of the grid operation's background. Set this to 0 if you do not want rounded corners |
gridCellBackgroundColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 75;77;81;1.0 . The background color for the grid operation's cells as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
gridCellSelectedColor |
Semicolon Separated Array of Floats | Default: 75;77;81;1.0 . The selected color for the grid operation's cells as an array in the form Red;Green;Blue;Alpha where Red , Green , and Blue are numbers between 0.0 and 255.0 and Alpha is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 |
gridCellRoundedCornerSize |
Number | Default: 5 . The size of the rounded corners of the grid operation's cells. Set this to 0 if you do not want rounded corners |
Example:
config defaultToCurrentScreen true
The alias
directive follows the following format:
alias name value
When you set an alias, you can refer to it in any directive (sequentially after that alias directive) by referencing like ${name}
.
Example:
alias bot-right-2nd-mon move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1
Will allow you to use ${bot-right-2nd-mon}
as a reference to move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1
in any directive following the alias (including other alias directives)
The layout
directive follows the following format:
layout name 'app name':OPTIONS operations
Where:
name = the name you want to use to reference the layout
'app name' = single-quoted name of the application to add to the layout.
OPTIONS = a comma separated list of options for this application
operations = a pipe separated list of operations (move, resize, push, nudge, throw, or corner)
Possible Options:
Name | Function |
---|---|
IGNORE_FAIL |
This will let slate move to the next operation if the current operation fails to resize/move on the current window |
REPEAT |
This will repeat the list of operations if the number of windows is larger than the number of operations |
MAIN_FIRST |
This will cause the main window to always use the first operation |
MAIN_LAST |
This will cause the main window to always use the last operation (mutally exclusive with MAIN_FIRST ) |
SORT_TITLE |
This will cause the window operations to be triggered on the windows in sorted order by the window title (can be used with MAIN_FIRST or MAIN_LAST ) |
TITLE_ORDER=order |
This will cause the operations to be triggered on the windows starting with order which is a semi-colon separated list of window titles |
You can have multiple layout directives that point to the same name in order to link any number of applications to the same layout.
Example:
layout myLayout 'iTerm' push up bar-resize:screenSizeY/2 | push down bar-resize:screenSizeY/2
layout myLayout 'Google Chrome' push left bar-resize:screenSizeX/2 | push right bar-resize:screenSizeX/2
Will create a layout called myLayout
with two operations for iTerm and two operations for Google Chrome. When activated, the first window of iTerm will be moved using the first operation in the first list and the second window of iTerm will be moved using the second operation in the first list. In addition, the first window of Google Chrome will be moved using the first operation in the second list and the second window of Google Chrome will be moved using the second operation in the second list. More information on how to actually use these layouts can be found under the layout
operation in the bind
directive section
The default
directive follows the following format (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):
default layout-or-snapshot-name screen-configuration
Where:
layout-or-snapshot-name = the name of the layout or snapshot you want to default to
screen-configuration = either "count:NUMBER_OF_SCREENS" or
"resolutions:SEMICOLON_SEPARATED_LIST_OF_RESOLUTIONS"
This directive will cause any screen configuration change (add monitor, remove monitor, screen resolution change) to trigger a search for a default layout or snapshot. If the screen configuration matches one of the defaults set, the layout or snapshot matching layout-or-snapshot-name
will be triggered. For example:
default myLayout count:2
Will trigger myLayout
anytime the screen configuration changes to have 2 monitors. Also:
default myLayout2 resolutions:1440x900;1024x768;1680x1050
Will trigger myLayout2
anytime the screen configuration changes to have exactly 3 monitors with resolutions 1440x900
, 1024x768
, and 1680x1050
.
The bind
directive follows the following format (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):
bind key:modifiers operation parameter+
key is a reference to a key on the keyboard. See Allowed Keys for a complete list. For example: the s
key would simply be s
while the 1
key on the number pad would be pad1
.
modifiers is a comma or semicolon separated list of standard modifier keys. Allowed modifiers are:
- Control:
ctrl
- Option/Alt:
alt
- Command:
cmd
- Shift:
shift
Note: If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!
Note: Bindings that are used by Mac OS X spaces, expose, and mission control will override Slate bindings. Be sure to turn these bindings off if you want to use them in Slate.
Operations define what to actually do to the focused window.
Screens
Some operations allow you to specify a screen. Here are the list of possible values for screen:
- Integer representing the screen ID (indexed at 0). Screens are ordered from left to right (by X coordinate of the origin which is the top-left point). If
orderScreensLeftToRight
is set to false, the screen ID is the Mac OS internal ID (indexed at 0). IforderScreensLeftToRight
is set to false but you still want to reference screens in the default ordered mode, prefix the screen ID withordered:
. - Screen resolution in the format
WIDTHxHEIGHT
(e.g.1440x900
) - Screen direction relative to the current screen (
left|right|up|above|down|below
) next
orprevious
(represents thecurrentID+1
orcurrentID-1
screen)
Allowed operations are:
-
Move/Resize the window any which way:
move topLeftX;topLeftY sizeX;sizeY screen
topLeftX = top left x coordinate of the window's desired position (can be an expression) topLeftY = top left y coordinate of the window's desired position (can be an expression) sizeX = width of the window's desired position (can be an expression) sizeY = height of the window's desired position (can be an expression) screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position. If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on. See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.
Example:
bind pad1:ctrl move 0;0 100;100 1
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-numpad1 to moving the window to the screen at index
1
with top-left coordinate0,0
and size100,100
Note: Remember to offset with
screenOriginX
in yourtopLeftX
andscreenOriginY
in yourtopLeftY
when using thescreen
option (or when using multiple screens in general) or your move operation will offset from the default origin(0,0)
which is the origin of screen0
. -
Resize the window (keeping top-left the same):
resize x y anchor
x = amount to resize width either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100) y = amount to resize height either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100) anchor = (optional) which corner to anchor on top-left|top-right|bottom-left|bottom-right (default is top-left)
Example:
bind right:ctrl resize +10% +0
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-rightarrow to increase the width the current window by
10%
.Note: ctrl-rightarrow is used by default in Mac OS X by spaces. Be sure to turn these bindings off if you want to use them in Slate.
-
Push the window to the edge of the screen:
push direction style
direction = top|up|bottom|down|left|right style = (optional) none|center|bar|bar-resize:expression (default is none) screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position. If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on. See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.
Example:
bind up:alt,ctrl push up
Will bind the keystroke alt-ctrl-uparrow to push the window so that it is aligned with the top of the screen
-
Nudge the window in any direction:
nudge x y
x = amount to nudge x either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100) y = amount to nudge y either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100)
Example:
bind left:ctrl,shift nudge -100 +0
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-shift-leftarrow to nudge the window
100
pixels to the left -
Throw the window to any screen's origin:
throw screen style
screen = the screen you want to throw the window to (0 indexed) style = (optional) resize|resize:x-expression;y-expression (default will not resize)
Example:
bind pad1:alt,ctrl throw 1 resize
Will bind the keystroke alt-ctrl-numpad1 to throw the window to the 2nd screen and resize it to fit that screen
-
Move/Resize the window into a corner:
corner direction style
direction = top-left|top-right|bottom-left|bottom-right style = (optional) resize:x-expression;y-expression (default will not resize) screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position. If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on. See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.
Example:
bind 1:ctrl corner top-left resize:screenSizeX/2;screenSizeY/2
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to move the window to the top-left corner and resize it to 1/4 of the screen
-
Chain multiple operations to one binding:
chain opAndParams1 | opAndParams2 ...
opAndParamsX = any of the above operation strings
Example:
bind 1:ctrl chain push up | push right | push down | push left
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to push up on the first press, then push right on the second press, then push down on the third press, the push left on the fourth press and rotate back to pushing up on the fifth press (etc).
-
Activate a layout:
layout name
name = the name of the layout to activate (set using the layout directive)
Example:
bind 1:ctrl layout myLayout
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-l to activate the layout called
myLayout
-
Focus a window from any application in a direction:
focus direction
direction = right|left|up|above|down|below|behind
Example:
bind 1:ctrl focus above
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to focus the window Slate finds to be above the currently focused window. (minimized and hidden windows are ignored and a couple global configuration options set using the
config
directive exist to tweak this). -
Create a snapshot of your current window locations:
snapshot name options
name = the name of the snapshot to create (used in delete-snapshot and activate-snapshot) options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options: save-to-disk -> saves the snapshot to disk so Slate will load it when it starts up next stack -> treats this snapshot as stack so you can use this binding multiple times to push snapshots on the stack
Example:
bind 1:ctrl snapshot theName save-to-disk;stack
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to create a snapshot called
theName
, save that snapshot to disk, and treat it as a stack so you can hit the keystroke multiple times to push snapshots onto the stack.Note: There is a menu option to take a snapshot of the current screen configuration.
-
Delete a snapshot:
delete-snapshot name options
name = the name of the snapshot to delete options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options: all -> if the snapshot is a stack (if it isn't, this option is useless), this will delete all snapshots in the stack (if this option is not specified, the default is to only delete the top snapshot of the stack).
Example:
bind 1:ctrl delete-snapshot theName all
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to delete the snapshot called
theName
if it exists. This will delete all instances of theName meaning if you have pushed multiple snapshots on the stack, it will completely clear them all. -
Activate a snapshot:
activate-snapshot name options
name = the name of the snapshot to delete options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options: delete -> this will delete the snapshot after activating it (if the snapshot is a stack, it will pop the top snapshot off and keep the rest)
Example:
bind 1:ctrl activate-snapshot theName delete
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to activate the snapshot called
theName
if it exists. This will also delete the snapshot (or pop it off the stack if the snapshot is a stack).Note: There is a menu option to activate the snapshot that you may have created using the menu option.
-
Show Window Hints (similar to Link Hints in Vimium except for Windows):
hint characters
characters = (optional) a simple string of characters to be used for the hints. each hint consists of one character. if there are more windows than characters then some windows will not get hints. this string can contain any of the single character Allowed Keys. Letters may be upper case or lower case, but both will be bound to the lowercase letter for the hint. Using upper or lower case only changes how they are displayed. The default string of characters is "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
Example:
bind 1:ctrl hint QWERTYUIOP
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to show Window Hints using the letters
Q
,W
,E
,R
,T
,Y
,U
,I
,O
, andP
. This will show an overlay in the top-left corner of every window on screen containing one of those letters. While the overlays are showing, if one of those letters is pressed, the corresponding window will be focused. If there are more than 10 windows, some windows will not get hints. Pressing ESC will dismiss the hints.Note: There are tons of config options to tweak this.
-
Show a Grid to one-off resize and move windows:
grid options
options is a whitespace separated list of: padding:<integer> = the padding between cells screenRef:width,height = width and height are integers specifying the width and height of the grid (number of cells, not absolute size). screenRef is either the screenID or screen resolution (widthxheight)
Example:
bind 1:ctrl grid padding:5 1680x1050:16,9 1050x1680:9,16
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to show Grids on each screen. The default width and height are 12. This will set the padding between the cells to be 5. Also, this will change the width and height of the grid on the monitor with the resolution 1680x1050 to 16 and 9 respectively. For the monitor with the resolution 1050x1680, it will set the width to 9 and height to 16. If you have multiple monitors, the Grid that is on the same screen as your mouse pointer will be focused. If you want to use a grid on a different monitor you must click it first and then click+drag.
Note: There are a bunch of config options to tweak how this looks.
-
[Beta] A Better Application Switcher:
switch
If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!
Example:
bind tab:cmd switch
Will disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher and bind the keystroke cmd-tab to a better application switcher.
Note: There are tons of config options to tweak this.
The source directive follows the following format (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):
source filename optional:if_exists
Where filename
is the name of a file containing any of the directives above (including source). If no absolute path is specified, the user's home directory will be prepended to filename
. If the user specifies the option if_exists
as the second argument, Slate will not complain if it cannot find the file.
For Example:
source ~/.slate.test if_exists
Will append all of the configurations from the file ~/.slate.test
to the current configuration if the file ~/.slate.test
exists.
Note: You may use any aliases, layouts, etc that you specify before the source directive in the file you source. Any aliases, layouts, etc specified after cannot be used. Additionally, any aliases, layouts, etc that you specify in the file you source can be used after the source directive.
You can check out my own config here.
Please send all questions, bug reports, suggestions, or general commentary to Jigish Patel or create an issue on github.
Note: If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!
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