Chapter 5 of 13

Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut is global: it works whatever app is in front. The defaults use Control-Option (⌃⌥), a pair that almost no app or macOS feature uses.

Default shortcuts

Workspaces have no default shortcut. Each one gets its own recorder in Settings › Workspaces (chapter 8).

The menu bar menu shows the shortcuts next to the matching items.

What "focused window" means

The focused window is the active window of the app in front, the one that gets your typing. A snap shortcut moves that window into a zone of the layout on the display the window is currently on. The display is the one that shows the largest part of the window.

Zone numbers follow the layout of that display. In a three-column layout, ⌃⌥4 does nothing.

Only zones 1 to 9 have shortcuts. For layouts with more zones, use the Snap Focused Window submenu in the menu, or the Shortcuts app (chapter 9).

Next and previous zone

Lattika first works out which zone the window is in: the zone whose rectangle matches the window, or else the zone under the window's centre. Then it moves the window to the next zone by number, wrapping from the last zone back to the first. A window that is in no zone goes to zone 1 with ⌃⌥→ and to the last zone with ⌃⌥←.

Next and previous display

Displays are ordered from left to right as they are arranged in System Settings. The window keeps its zone number: a window in zone 2 goes to zone 2 of the next display. If that display's layout has no zone 2, the window goes to zone 1. If the layout has no zones at all, the window keeps its size and moves to the top-left corner of that display.

With one display the shortcut does nothing.

Next and previous layout

These act on the display under the mouse pointer, not on the focused window. The layouts cycle in the order of the editor's list. The zones flash so you can see the result.

Changing shortcuts

Open Settings › Shortcuts. Click the field next to an action and press the new key combination. Press Escape to leave the field unchanged, or click the small × to clear it so the action has no shortcut.

A combination that macOS reserves is refused with a message. A combination that another app uses is accepted, but which app gets it depends on which one registered it first, so pick another if it misbehaves.

Reset All to Defaults in the toolbar restores the table above.

If it does not work

• A shortcut does nothing. Check the Accessibility permission (chapter 1) and whether the trial has ended (chapter 11). Then check that another app does not use the same combination; try the shortcut with a different app in front.
• A snap shortcut moves the wrong window. It moves the focused window of the frontmost app. Click the window you mean first.
• A snap shortcut does nothing for one app. The app is in Excluded Apps, or its window is not a standard window (a palette or a dialog), or the app refuses the size (chapter 12).
• The backtick shortcut does not work on my keyboard. On some keyboard layouts the backtick key is elsewhere or missing. Record a different shortcut for Open layout editor.