Microsoft PowerToys/FancyZones alternative?

[David_B]

I’m quite happy with my Manjaro setup, but there is one thing I miss from Windows: Microsoft PowerToys. More exactly its FanzyZones module.

It very simply lets you define two or more ‘zones’ on the screen, by drag and drop, inside of which any window will snap, using standard Windows keyboard shortcuts to move windows.

Here, some of its default 3 colums views:

But you can customize it however you… fancy, with more or less vertical and horizontal splits.

My custom view when writing (it’s my job) is not fancy at all but I like it a lot: 2 columns, the largest one for my word processor, the shortest one for notes/outline:

With Manjaro-Xfce, I know one can snap two windows side by side on each half of the screen but, using PowerToys under Windows, I really appreciate the fact that the two windows are not the same width: I like to give a little bit more room to what I’m writing than to my notes or outline.

Do you know anything I could use (idealy, compatible with Xfce which I really appreciate a lot too) that would let me do something similar under Manjaro, without having to manually adjust each window’s width? Even if not gui-based, of course: I would need to set the widths only once, and then I’ll happily forget about it

Thx,

edit: typos

[pobrn]

Maybe you could try a tiling window manager?

[David_B]

I tried, but had a hard time to get aroudn it: I liked it a lot, in fact, but there was too much to re-learn and I was so slow I gave up. But you may be right.

Maybe I should try to free some time to really learn using one (and the hardest part, imo: configuring one). If I only we could purchase free time as easily as a new laptop or phone

[Nicomo]

Perhaps there’s a video somewhere showing how to do what you want? Have you tried searching youtube on learning about or setting up a tiling window manager? Would be nice if the Manjaro team had a selection of video materials for users to reference and even chat on embedded in these forums.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tiling+window+manager+manjaro

[datiswous]

Could this help?
https://www.giuspen.com/x-tile/

It’s in the Aur:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/x-tile/

[David_B]

@datiswous: thx for the link, it looks promising I’ll check this out

@Nicomo: I’ll check your video, thx

[merlock]

@Nicomo

Would be nice if the Manjaro team

So, in addition to keeping the distribution maintained, you want the team to search the web for you as well?

You could contribute to the effort.

[skeezmoe]

What about using a tiling window manager its a lot better than Fancy Zone imo and I used to use that

[skeezmoe]

If you are using KDE there are also KWin scripts you can install from the KDE store.

[David_B]

Quick update:

Thank you to everybody that suggested something.

@datiswous’s X-tile is quite neat. And if it’s not exactly what I was looking for I can easily see myself using it: thx

Following your advice, I’ll also try to find time to to leanr tiling WM, learn to use and configure it (that’s what I dread the most: the hours I’ll need to learn how to make it work like I want ;)). Instructive & encouraging video @Nicomo, thx!

@skeezmoe I don’t use KDE,sorry. But thank your for the suggestion