Chapter 8 of 13

Workspaces

A workspace is a snapshot of where every window is. Save one when your desk is set up the way you like it, and restore it later with one shortcut: after a reboot, after coming back from a meeting, or when you plug your monitors in.

Saving a workspace

Choose Workspaces › Save Current Windows… in the menu, or click Save Current Windows… in Settings › Workspaces, and give it a name. The Shortcuts action Save Workspace does the same from an automation (chapter 9).

Lattika records every standard window that is not minimized and not from an excluded app: its app, its title, the display it is on, and either the zone or zones it fills exactly or, if it is not in a zone, its exact position and size. It also records which displays are attached.

A workspace is a snapshot, not a live view. Moving windows afterwards does not change it. To update it, select it in Settings › Workspaces and click Update with Current Windows.

Restoring a workspace

Any of these restores a workspace:

Workspaces › name in the menu.
Its shortcut. Record one in Settings › Workspaces; the field is next to the name.
Restore Now in Settings › Workspaces.
The Restore Workspace action in the Shortcuts app.
The URL lattika://workspace?name=Docked from a script (chapter 9).

Lattika matches the saved entries to the open windows: first windows with the same app and the same title, then any remaining window of the same app. Each window is used once. A matched window goes back to its zone, in the display's current layout, or to its saved position if it was not in a zone. The display must be attached at the same usable size; entries for a display that is not there are skipped.

Windows that are open now but were not in the workspace are left alone.

Options

Each workspace has two switches in Settings › Workspaces.

Launch apps that are not running. When no window matched an entry, Lattika launches the app, in the background, and places its first windows as they appear, for up to 15 seconds. Off by default.
Restore automatically when these displays are connected. When the set of attached displays changes and it is exactly the set this workspace was saved with, the workspace restores by itself. If several workspaces are flagged for the same displays, the most recently saved one wins. Automatic restores never launch apps, so plugging in a monitor does not open anything. Off by default.

The detail pane also lists every window in the workspace with its zone, and the displays it was saved with. A display that is not attached is named as such.

Workspaces sync through iCloud when sync is on (chapter 10). Their shortcuts stay on this Mac.

If it does not work

Some windows are not restored. They did not exist when the workspace was saved, they are minimized, their app is excluded, or they are on a display that is not attached at the same size. Open Settings › Workspaces and check the list of windows.
A window goes to the wrong window of the same app. Titles decide. If two windows of an app have the same title, or no title, Lattika takes them in the order they come.
Launching apps does not place their windows. The app took longer than 15 seconds to open a window, or it opened a different window first. Restore the workspace again once the app is running.
Nothing happens when I plug my displays in. The switch is off, or the set of displays differs from the one saved. Save the workspace again with the displays attached, with the switch on. Window memory also restores after a display change; it runs first.
The shortcut does nothing. Shortcuts work only while Lattika has the Accessibility permission and a license or trial (chapters 1 and 11).