moorings

How to

Short guides.

Each guide is a few steps and the questions people ask about it. Everything here starts from the sailboat in the menu bar. The README has the full reference.

Set up your ultrawide

A display at least 2.2 times as wide as it is tall counts as an ultrawide. It gets four slots, a top and a bottom on each side, and the open middle between them is the channel.

Steps

  1. Click the app you want on an edge so it is in front.
  2. Open the Moorings menu and choose Anchor app, then pick Left top, Left bottom, Right top or Right bottom. Its window moves to that edge and stays there.
  3. Repeat for up to three more apps. An app alone on its side takes the full height.
  4. Open Widths to pick a preset from the Presets folder, save your own, or choose Adjust strips… to drag the strip edges on screen. Arrow keys step 1 percent, Shift steps 5, Return keeps the change and Escape puts it back. These keys reach the editor whichever app is in front, and go back to your apps when it closes.
  5. Open Heights to move the line between a side's top and bottom rows, or choose Adjust strips… there too.

Questions

An app will not shrink to its strip.

Some apps have a minimum width. Moorings keeps it and grows the strip to fit, and Widths names the app and turns off the presets that would squeeze it.

I dragged an anchored window away and it stayed put.

Dragging lets the app go. A banner says to click its green button or press Restore. The Re-moor entry in the menu and Re-moor now also bring it back.

How do I see an anchored app bigger for a moment?

Click its green button. It lifts over the channel at full height, and a second click lowers it.

I opened a second window of an anchored app. Where did it go?

Into the same slot, in front of the first. The app's row in Anchored apps says how many windows the slot holds. A half or a third on one of them places it inside the slot, and Restore gives it the whole slot back. Control-Option-Command-Down brings the next window in the slot forward, and Control-Option-Command-Up goes back. To keep the extra windows in the channel instead, turn off A slot holds all of an app's windows in Settings, Behavior.

How do I stop anchoring an app?

Bring it to the front and choose Unanchor app from the menu, or pick Empty for its slot in Anchored apps. Its window stays where it is.

Set your shortcuts

A full set of shortcuts works from the first launch, such as Control-Option-Left for the left half. The Window folder in the menu lists every action with its shortcut.

Steps

  1. Open the menu and choose Settings, then the Shortcuts tab.
  2. Find the action and click the button beside it, which shows its shortcut or Record.
  3. Press the keys you want. A shortcut needs at least one of Control, Option, Command or Shift.
  4. Clear turns that action's shortcut off, and Reset puts back the one from the keymap.

Questions

Can I start from a different set of shortcuts?

Window > Keymap, or the Keymap picker in Settings > Layout, switches to another preset, or to None for a blank slate. Switching drops the shortcuts you recorded, so pick the keymap first.

A shortcut clashes with one in another app.

Bring that app to the front and choose Window > Ignore shortcuts in app. The shortcuts switch off while it is in front, so its own keys work.

Can a mouse button or a title bar button run an action?

Yes. Settings > Layout binds the middle, back, forward and sixth mouse buttons, and clicks on the red, yellow and green buttons, plain or with a modifier.

Change what a drag snaps to

Drag a window to an edge or a corner and a footprint shows where it will land. Edges give halves, corners give quarters, the top edge maximizes and the bottom edge gives thirds.

Steps

  1. Open Settings, then the Snapping tab.
  2. Under Landscape displays or Portrait displays, pick the action for each edge and corner, or turn on Never for an area that should not snap.
  3. Under Hold these keys to snap, tick keys if you only want a drag to snap while they are held.
  4. Under Custom areas, click Add area to make any part of a display, as shares from 0 to 1, snap to an action.
  5. Turn on the Snap panel to get a row of targets above the pointer when you pause mid-drag.

Questions

Why does the ultrawide ignore my edge map?

On the ultrawide the strips stand in for the screen edges, so they keep their own zones. The keys to hold still apply there.

How do I anchor an app by dragging?

Hold Option while you drop its window on a strip of the ultrawide.

Can I turn drag snapping off?

Window > Snap windows by dragging switches it off and on.

Throw a window with a held key

Throwing picks a place by pointing. It is off until you choose a key.

Steps

  1. Open Settings, then Behavior, and under Throw with a held key pick Right Option, Right Command, Right Control or Fn.
  2. Put the pointer over a window, hold the key and move the pointer a little toward a side or a corner. A footprint shows the half or quarter.
  3. Move further for thirds, sixths, maximize or center, then let go.
  4. Press an arrow key while holding instead to switch to a grid of cells. Shift-arrows grow the pick, Return applies it and Escape cancels. This needs Right Option, Right Command or Fn. Under Right Control the arrows go to Mission Control.

Questions

Does the window have to be in front?

No. The window under the pointer when you pressed the key is the one that moves.

Can I move windows by hovering without clicking?

Yes. In the same tab, Move and resize by hovering takes keys to move the window under the pointer, and keys to resize it from its nearest corner.

Save a workspace

A workspace remembers the slots, widths, heights and where every free window sits on every display.

Steps

  1. Arrange your windows the way you like them.
  2. Open Workspaces and choose Save workspace, then give it a name.
  3. To bring it back, open Workspaces, the workspace's name, then Recall.
  4. Choose Recall with these displays to have it come back whenever the displays attached now are plugged in.

Questions

Can a recall open apps that are closed?

Yes. Turn on Open missing apps for that workspace in Settings > Workspaces. The apps open and their windows are placed once they show.

Can one app always open in the same place?

Add an app rule in Settings > Workspaces. The app's first window goes to the action you pick whenever it appears.

Can I switch shortcuts and layouts together?

Yes. A profile saves your shortcuts, snapping and behavior with a group of workspaces. Choose Profiles > Save current as profile, then switch from the menu or a shortcut.

Fine-tune behavior and move your settings

The Behavior tab sets what a second press does, gaps at the screen edges, the pointer, the title bar and display order. A file export carries all of it to another Mac.

Steps

  1. Open Settings, then Behavior. For example, set A shortcut pressed again to Move to the next display and a second Control-Option-Right sends a right half on to the next display, where it becomes that display's left half.
  2. To copy everything, open the General tab and click Export settings. Moorings writes one JSON file.
  3. On the other Mac, click Import settings in the same tab and pick the file.

Questions

Can I edit the file by hand?

Yes. The behavior choices sit under settings.behavior, for example "subsequentExecution": "traverse-displays". Import the edited file to apply it. The README lists every key.

Why did my workspaces come back untied?

An imported file may come from another desk, so imported workspaces are not tied to displays. Tie them again from the Workspaces folder.

How do I start over?

Restore defaults, under the tabs in Settings, puts every choice back except anchored apps, strip sizes, saved width presets, ignored apps, custom sizes, workspaces, chains, app rules and profiles.

How do I get a new version?

Moorings looks for a new release every few hours, and when you open the menu an hour after the last look. A waiting release shows at the top of the menu. To check right away, choose Check for updates now, and a banner says whether a new version is out. Check for updates automatically turns the regular look off and on. With Install updates automatically on, Moorings downloads the release, verifies its Apple signature and notarization, and restarts into it once your Mac has sat idle for 30 seconds. If the new version fails to start, the old one comes back. Homebrew users can also run brew upgrade --cask moorings.