Columns and Widths

In tiling mode, every window lives in a column on the horizontal strip. This page covers how to resize those columns with width presets, move and focus columns from the keyboard, and split a shared column out into its own.

These controls only apply in tiling mode. For an overview of floating vs. tiling and the strip itself, see Window Modes. For tabs, splits, and the drag-to-merge drop zones, see Arranging Windows.

Column width presets

A tiled column can be sized to one of four widths from the window's title-bar right-click menu (an MCP agent can set it too, with arrange_window). The current width is marked with a check.

Menu label	Width
⅓	One third of the strip
½	Half of the strip
⅔	Two thirds of the strip
max	The full width of the strip

To set a preset, right-click the window's title bar and pick a width under the Column width heading.

Widths are measured on the strip minus the thin gutters between columns, and presets that add up to the whole strip (two ½, three ⅓, ⅓ + ⅔) fill it exactly, to the pixel, so moving focus between them never scrolls the strip.

Fine-tune by dragging

For a width between the presets, drag a column's side gutter — the seam between two columns — left or right. This resizes the column to a custom width; the neighbour gives up or takes the same width, so the rest of the strip stays put. Neither of the two can shrink below 12% of the strip (or half of what they share, if that is less), and neither can grow past the full strip width, so next to a max column the drag can only make that column narrower. The gutter follows the mouse; it does not respond to touch, so on a touch screen use the presets. Picking a preset afterwards drops the custom width. (The check keeps showing the last preset you picked.)

Move & focus columns

You can shuffle columns and jump focus between them without touching the mouse. These are the defaults — all keys are rebindable in Control Panel → Input → Keybindings.

Action	Default binding
Focus column left	Ctrl+Alt+ArrowLeft
Focus column right	Ctrl+Alt+ArrowRight
Move column left	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+ArrowLeft
Move column right	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+ArrowRight

• Focus jumps your selection to the window in the neighboring column without moving or rearranging anything.
• Move picks up the focused column and swaps it with its neighbor, so you can reorder the strip.

The title-bar menu has Move column left / Move column right too, and Stack into left column / Stack into right column to merge a window into a neighbour as a row.

Eject a window into its own column

When a window shares its column with others (as rows, tabs or a split), the window context menu can pull one out:

Menu item	What it does
Move to own column	Ejects a window that shares a column into its own column. Available only when the window is sharing.
Move to new column	Spawns a fresh column immediately to its right and drops the window there — the click equivalent of dragging a window to a column edge. Does nothing if the window is already alone in its column.

Move to new column is the menu shortcut for the same result you get by dragging a window onto a column's far left or right edge (the new column drop zone). See the drop-zone cheat sheet in Arranging Windows for the drag gestures.

Related

• Window Modes — switching to tiling mode and scrolling the strip
• Arranging Windows — tabs, splits, stacking rows, and drop zones
• Keyboard Shortcuts — rebind the focus/move-column keys
• MCP-and-AI-Agents — with Allow MCP to arrange the desktop on, an MCP agent can focus, move, size, tile, float, tab and split windows on the browser that holds the lease (get_desktop / arrange_window).