PyWO - Python Window Organizer - Easily Move/Resize Windows Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Xmonad / Bluetile are awesome but the use their own window decorations. You can use the Compiz Grid plugin or even an AWN applet for organizing your windows, but there's one tool that stands out: PyWO - Python Window Organizer.

PyWO is inspired by Quicktile and Compiz Grid, Put and Maximuze plugins and it allows you to easily organize windows on the desktop using keyboard shortcuts. It works with Compiz, Metacity, KDE, XFCE, E16, OpenBox and FVWM.

PyWO can organize your windows in multiple ways: you can move a window in any director without resizing it and snap it to other windows' edges, you can move and resize the window in the same time (according to the grid you set) and even shrink and expand the windows. PyWO is also very customizable - it doesn't have a GUI for this and everything is done through a configuration text file, but it's very easy and well documented on its wiki page.

What I instantly liked about PyWO is that you can both resize the windows you move and only move a window without resizing it. So if for instance you have a wide screen monitor and want your web browser to use 2/3 of the screen width, you can move and fit any window(s) in the remaining 1/3 area of the screen.

To understand better what PyWO Python Window Organizer can do, here is a video I've recorded:


(Video available in HTML5 if you've enabled it on YouTube)

Some more PyWO Python Window Organizer animated .gif examples can be found HERE but the best way to understand what PyWO can do and how great it is, is to try it out for yourself.

How to Run PyWO Python Window Oragnizer

To be able to run PyWO, you need Python 2.5 and python-xlib. Install python-xlib in Ubuntu using the following command:

sudo apt-get install python-xlib

Then, to run PyWO, download the latest version, extract it and run it via a terminal like so:

./pywo.py

Using PyWO

By default, PyWO uses the Ctrl / Shift / Alt keys combined with the numeric keypad (1-9 keys) to place windows. Think of the keypad as if it was your monitor divided into 9 sections: Ctrl, Alt or Shift combined with the "7" key will for instance move / resize the window to the top left corner of the screen, "3" is for the bottom left corner and so on. It makes sense, right?

Here are the default PyWO keyboard shortcuts:

Alt-Ctrl-Shift-Q - exit PyWO
Alt-Ctrl-Shift-R - reload configuration file
Alt-Ctrl-Shift-I - print debug information about window manager and current window

Alt-KP_Divide - switch windows (change position of the window)
Alt-Shift-KP_Divide - cycle windows (change contents of the window)

Alt-KP_1-9 - move window in a direction (KP_1-9 - numpad keys)
Shift-KP_1-9 - expand window in a direction (5 works as maximumize compiz plugin)
Alt-Shift-KP_1-9 - shrink window
Alt-Ctrl-KP_1-9 - put window to predefined position
Ctrl_KP_1-9 - put and resize (grid), and cycle widths
Ctrl-Shift_KP_1-9 - put and resize (grid), and cycle heights


You can change these by editing the PyWO configuration file. More about that @ PyWO wiki.


See also: Gnome: Maximize A Window Vertically Or Horizontally Using A Single Click

AWN Window Manager (Tile) - New Avant Window Navigator Applet

AWN Window Manager (also known as Tile Windows) is a new Avant Window Navigator applet which can be used to tile (side-by-side, staked or grid) or maximize all windows (as well as the usual minimize/maximize/close/show desktop actions) and comes with a preferences dialog where you can set the default left / middle click behavior.

Because I find it to be an extremely useful AWN applet, I've used Hadret's debianization of the DockBarX AWN applet for AWN Window Manager and uploaded it to the WebUpd8 PPA so you can easily install it in Ubuntu (9.10, 10.04 and 10.10). Before installing, please note that while in theory the applet should work with Avant Window Navigator 0.4, I've only tested it with Avant Window Manager 0.4.1+ from the AWN PPA (installation instructions HERE).

To install AWN Window Manager in Ubuntu, use the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install awn-applet-wm

If you don't want to add the PPA, you can manually download the deb: awn-applet-wm_0.5-1~webupd8~maverick2_all.deb (8.2 KiB) (don't worry about "maverick" in the version name, it will work on any Ubuntu version where AWN 0.4 or 0.4.1 is installed).

Once installed, go to the Avant Window Manager Preferences and on the "Applets" tab, scroll down to the "Window Manager" applet and activate it.

I've discovered a small but annoying bug in AWN Window Manager but which can easily be fixed. If you're using a size different then "48" for your Avant Window Navigator icons, AWN Window Manager will still have a size of 48. This bug has been fixed in the latest version - already available in the PPA.

If you're not using Ubuntu, you can grab the AWN Window Manager Applet source code from Launchpad.

Bluetile 0.5.2 (Tiling Window Manager) Released, Finally Supports Configuration [Ubuntu PPA]

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on Xmonad which is very easy to use out of the box as opposed to Xmonad and others who need a lot of configuration.

Even though you had almost everything you'd need with Bluetile, there was still something missing for those who like to tweak: configuration. But a new version of Bluetile was released which finally allows you to configure Bluetile:

We've uploaded the latest Bluetile 0.5.2 version to the WebUpd8 PPA so you can install it using the following commands (Ubuntu Lucid only - it fails to build on Karmic or Maverick):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bluetile

If you're using Debian, you'll find some slightly older Bluetile debian packages HERE (but that version already supports customization).

Once you install Bluetile, press Alt + F2 and enter "bluetile" to run it.

More info on Bluetile | Credits for the image in the beginning of the post: Dons00

Linux w/ Compiz: Tile, Position And Resize Your Windows To Fit An Imaginary Grid

Not many people are aware of a great Compiz plugin called "Grid" which can be used to tile, position and resize your windows to fit an imaginary grid. You can basically use it to get something (somewhat) similar to Xmonad (remember Bluetile?), but still use Compiz.

Using the Grid Compiz plugin, all you have to do is press Ctrl + Alt + Keypad numbers to place the selected windows.

Grid Compiz plugin examples:
Ctrl + Alt + KP 4 -> puts the window to the left
Ctrl + Alt + KP 6 -> puts the window to the right
Ctrl + Alt + KP 9 -> puts the window to the top right
...
And so on.

Basically the numeric keypad is the imaginary grid and pressing the numbers, the windows are placed on the corresponding position on the grid:

You can activate the Grid plugin by going to CompizConfig Settings Manager, under "Window Management" enable the "Grid" plugin.

How To Install Bluetile In Ubuntu (Tiling Window Manager For X Based On Xmonad)

Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on xmonad. Bluetile automatically arranges the windows to tile the screen, maximizing screen use. I really like Bluetile because you don't have to login to a different session: all you have to do is normally login into your Gnome session and start Bluetile.


Bluetiles features:

• Hybrid approach: Stacking window layout & tiling layouts available
• Maximizing & minimizing windows in all layouts
• All features accessible from mouse, as well as keyboard
• Good multihead support
• Designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment

Bluetiles is not very easy to install but that's basically because there is no how-to (or a decent one anyway) for this so I decided to provide a post with full installation instructions - for Ubuntu (I've only tested it in Ubuntu Karmic).

Before we get started, take a look at these screenshots I've just took with Bluetiles:

And a video provided by the Bluetile website:

Screencast - Bluetile from Jan Vornberger on Vimeo.

1. Firstly, let's install everything we need and is available in the repositories.

Open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall libghc6-network-dev libghc6-parsec-dev libghc6-mtl-dev libghc6-zlib-dev libghc6-glade-dev libghc6-gtk-dev ghc

2. Download and install Gtk2Hs

Download Gtk2Hs from HERE. Or, you can use this command instead for downloading the file:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gtk2hs/gtk2hs-0.10.1.tar.gz

Then extract the archive and open a terminal, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run the following commands:

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=yes --pkgname=gtk2hs --pkgversion "0:10.1-12ubuntu3" --default

The last command from above will create a .deb file and install it, so you can easily remove / upgrade Gtk2Hs later on.

3. Download and install Haskell Cabal-Install in Ubuntu

You can download it from HERE or just run this command:

wget http://haskell.org/cabal/release/cabal-install-0.6.2/cabal-install-0.6.2.tar.gz

Then extract it, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run these commands:

./bootstrap.sh

sudo ln -s $HOME/.cabal/bin/cabal /usr/local/bin/cabal

4. Installing Bluetile

Run the following commands in a terminal:

cabal update
cabal install bluetile

Now you may want to close any Avant Window Navigator, Docky or Cairo Dock instances you may have running and finally run Bluetile:

~/.cabal/bin/bluetile

5. Using Bluetile.

Take a look at the keyboard shortcuts available HERE.


Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Credits for the image in the beginning of the post: Dons00