About Slate

Slate is a window management application similar to Divvy and SizeUp (except better and free!). Originally written to replace them due to some limitations in how each work, it attempts to overcome them by simply being extremely configurable. As a result, it may be a bit daunting to get configured, but once it is done, the benefit is huge.

Slate currently works on Mac OS X 10.6 and above

Summary of Features

Highly customizable
Bind keystrokes to:
- move and/or resize windows
- directionally focus windows
- activate preset layouts
- create, delete, and activate snapshots of the current state of windows
Set default layouts for different monitor configurations which will activate when that configuration is detected.
Window Hints: an intuitive way to change window focus
[Beta] A better, more customizable, application switcher.

Credits

Big thanks to philc for the Window Hints idea (and initial implementation) as well as plenty of other suggestions and improvement ideas.

Using Slate

Installing Slate

NEW Installation Instructions

Note: You must turn on the Accessibility API by checking System Preferences > Universal Access > Enable access for assistive devices

Direct Download

Terminal

Just run this in your terminal:

cd /Applications && curl http://www.ninjamonkeysoftware.com/slate/versions/slate-latest.tar.gz | tar -xz

Configuring Slate

Slate is configured using a ".slate" file in the current user's home directory. Configuration is loaded upon running Slate. You can also re-load the config using the "Load Config" menu option on the status menu (use this at your own risk. It is better to simply restart Slate).

Note: If no ".slate" file exists in the current user's home directory, the default config file will be used.

Configuration is split into the following directives:

config (for global configurations)
alias (to create alias variables)
layout (to configure layouts)
default (to default certain screen configurations to layouts)
bind (for key bindings)
source (to load configs from another file)

Note: # is the comment character. Anything after a # will be ignored.

###Expressions###

Some directives allow parameters that can be expressions. The following strings will be replaced with the appropriate values when using expressions:

screenOriginX = target screen's top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
screenOriginY = target screen's top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
screenSizeX = target screen's width
screenSizeY = target screen's height
windowTopLeftX = window's current top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
windowTopLeftY = window's current top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs)
windowSizeX = window's width
windowSizeY = window's height
newWindowSizeX = window's new width (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be
                 used in configs)
newWindowSizeY = window's new height (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be
                 used in configs)
windowHintsWidth = the value of the windowHintsWidth config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and
                   windowHintsTopLeftY)
windowHintsHeight = the value of the windowHintsHeight config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and
                    windowHintsTopLeftY)

In addition to the variables above, expressions can be used with the following functions and operators:

+          e.g. 1+1 = 2
-          e.g. 1-1 = 0
*          e.g. 2*2 = 4
/          e.g. 4/2 = 2
**         e.g. 3**2 = 9
sum        e.g. sum({1,2,3}) = 6
count      e.g. count({4,5,6}) = 3
min        e.g. min({1,3,5}) = 1
max        e.g. max({1,3,5}) = 5
average    e.g. average({1,2,3,4}) = 2.5
median     e.g. median({1,2,3,10,15}) = 3
stddev     e.g. stddev({1,2,3,4,5}) = 1.4142135623730951
sqrt       e.g. sqrt(9) = 3.0
log        e.g. log(100) = 2.0
ln         e.g. ln(8) = 2.0794415416798357
exp        e.g. exp(2) = 7.3890560989306504 (this is "e**parameter")
floor      e.g. floor(1.9) = 1.0
ceiling    e.g. ceiling(1.1) = 2.0
abs        e.g. abs(-1) = 1
trunc      e.g. trunc(1.1123123123) = 1.0
random     e.g. random() = 0.20607629744336009 (random float between 0 and 1)
randomn    e.g. randomn(10) = 4 (random integer between 0 and parameter-1)

Note: When using expressions spaces are not allowed!

The `config` Directive

The config directive follows the following format:

config name value

List of allowed configs:

Name	Type	Behavior
`defaultToCurrentScreen`	Boolean	Default: `false`. `true` causes all bindings to default to the current screen if the screen the reference does not exist. `false` causes only bindings that do not specify a screen to default to the current screen while bindings that reference screens that do not exist simply do nothing.
`nudgePercentOf`	String	Default: `windowSize`. Will use this value for the nudge percent calculation. Possible values are `windowSize` and `screenSize`.
`resizePercentOf`	String	Default: `windowSize`. Will use this value for the resize percent calculation. Possible values are `windowSize` and `screenSize`.
`repeatOnHoldOps`	String	Default: `resize,nudge`. Comma separated list of operations that should repeat when the hotkey is held.
`secondsBeforeRepeat`	Number	Default: `0.4`. The number of seconds before repeating starts (for ops in `repeatOnHoldOps`)
`secondsBetweenRepeat`	Number	Default: `0.1`. The number of seconds between repeats (for ops in `repeatOnHoldOps`)
`checkDefaultsOnLoad`	Boolean	Default: `false`. `true` causes the default directives to be checked/triggered after any configuration load
`focusCheckWidth`	Integer	Default: `100`. The width (in pixels) of the rectangle used to check directions in the focus directive. Only used for right, left, up, above, down, and below directions. The larger this is, the futher away focus will check for adjacent windows. Consequently, the larger this is, the more irritatingly stupid focus can be.
`focusCheckWidthMax`	Integer	Default: `100`. If set to anything above focusCheckWidth, the focus option will keep expanding the rectangle used to check directions by focusCheckWidth if it does not find a window until it either finds a window or the width of the rectangle is greater than `focusCheckWidthMax`
`focusPreferSameApp`	Boolean	Default: `true`. When this is `true`, the focus operation will always choose a window in the same app to focus if it exists in the check width regardless of intersection size. When this is `false`, focus will treat all application windows the same and choose the largest intersection size
`orderScreensLeftToRight`	Boolean	Default: `true`. When this is `true`, monitors will be ordered from left to right by X coordinate (if two X coordiates are the same, then the lowest Y coordinate will be first). When this is `false`, screens will be ordered according to the internal Mac OS X ordering which changes depending on which screen was plugged in first. If this is `false`, you can force ordering of screens by prefixing the screen ID with `ordered:`
`windowHintsBackgroundColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `50;53;58;0.9`. The background color for Window Hints as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`windowHintsWidth`	Expression	Default: `100`. The width of the Window Hints ovelay in pixels. Please see the "Expressions" section above more information on expressions.
`windowHintsHeight`	Expression	Default: `100`. The height of the Window Hints overlay in pixels. Please see the "Expressions" section above more information on expressions.
`windowHintsFontColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `255;255;255;1.0`. The font color for Window Hints as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`windowHintsFontName`	String	Default: `Helvetica`. The name of the Window Hints font
`windowHintsFontSize`	Integer	Default: `40`. The size of the Window Hints font
`windowHintsDuration`	Number	Default: `3`. The number of seconds that Window Hints will display for
`windowHintsRoundedCornerSize`	Integer	Default: `5`. The size of the rounded corners of the Window Hints. Set this to `0` if you do not want rounded corners
`windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows`	Boolean	Default: `true`. If this is set to `true`, window hints will not show for windows that are hidden. Hints will show for all windows if this is `false`. A window is hidden if the window under the point at the center of where the hint overlay would show is not the window in question.
`windowHintsTopLeftX`	Semicolon Separated Array of Expressions	Default: `(windowSizeX/2)-(windowHintsWidth/2);0`. The X offset for window hints from the window's top left point (right is positive, left is negative). If `windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows` is set to `true`, the `hint` operation will try each expression in this array (using the Y coordinate from the same index in `windowHintsTopLeftY`) sequetially to see if it represents a point that is visible. The `hint` operation will display a hint at the first visible point. Note that the number of elements in this array must equal the number of elements in `windowHintsTopLeftY` or all `hint` bindings will fail validation.
`windowHintsTopLeftY`	Semicolon Separated Array of Expressions	Default: `(windowSizeY/2)-(windowHintsHeight/2);0`. The Y offset for window hints from the window's top left point (down is positive, up is negative). If `windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows` is set to `true`, the `hint` operation will try each expression in this array (using the X coordinate from the same index in `windowHintsTopLeftX`) sequetially to see if it represents a point that is visible. The `hint` operation will display a hint at the first visible point. Note that the number of elements in this array must equal the number of elements in `windowHintsTopLeftX` or all `hint` bindings will fail validation.
`windowHintsOrder`	`none`, `persist`, `leftToRight`, or `rightToLeft`	Default: `leftToRight`. Specifies the ordering of windows for Window Hints. If `none`, hints will be seemingly randomly ordered. If `persist`, hints will be randomly ordered but will remain the same throughout the life of the window (Currently does not work if windows have the same title). If `leftToRight`, hints will be ordered from the left of the screen to the right of the screen. If `rightToLeft`, hints will be ordered from the right of the screen to the left of the screen
`windowHintsShowIcons`	Boolean	Default: `false`. If true, the application's icon will be shown as a background for the letter instead of the rectangle. This is useful if `windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows` is false so that you can know which application a hint for a hidden window belongs to.
`windowHintsSpread`	Boolean	Default: `false`. If true, hints in the same place will be spread out vertically. This is useful if `windowHintsIgnoreHiddenWindows` is false so that multiple windows with the same center will have distinct hints.
`windowHintsSpreadSearchWidth`	Number	Default: `40`. The width in pixels of the search box for hint collisions. Other hints within this box will be spread down.
`windowHintsSpreadSearchHeight`	Number	Default: `40`. The height in pixels of the search box for hint collisions. Other hints within this box will be spread down.
`windowHintsSpreadPadding`	Number	Default: `20`. The pading between hint boxes which have been spread downwards.
`switchIconSize`	Number	Default: `100`. The size of the application icons for the `switch` operation
`switchIconPadding`	Number	Default: `5`. The padding around the application icons for the `switch` operation
`switchBackgroundColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `50;53;58;0.3`. The background color for the `switch` operation as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`switchSelectedBackgroundColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `50;53;58;0.9`. The selected background color for the `switch` operation as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`switchSelectedBorderColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `230;230;230;0.9`. The selected border color for the `switch` operation as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`switchSelectedBorderSize`	Number	Default: `2`. The size of the selected border of the `switch` operation. Set this to `0` if you do not a border
`switchRoundedCornerSize`	Number	Default: `5`. The size of the rounded corners of the `switch` operation. Set this to `0` if you do not want rounded corners
`switchOrientation`	`horiztonal` or `vertical`	Default: `horizontal`. Which direction to grow the application switcher.
`switchSecondsBeforeRepeat`	Number	Default: `0.4`. The number of seconds before repeating starts for forward/back keypresses for the switch operation
`switchSecondsBetweenRepeat`	Number	Default: `0.05`. The number of seconds between repeating the forward/back keypresses for the switch operation.
`switchStopRepeatAtEdge`	Boolean	Default: `true`. If `true`, when holding down the switch operation forward/back keys repeats will trigger until the selected app reaches the end/beginning of the list. If `false`, holding down the switch operation forward/back keys will cycle through the app list without stopping
`switchOnlyFocusMainWindow`	Boolean	Default: `true`. If `true`, the switch operation will only bring the main window of the selected app forward. If `false`, the switch operation will work similar to the default application switcher and bring all windows of the selected app forward.
`switchShowTitles`	Boolean	Default: `false`. If `true`, the switch operation will show the title of the items in the list as well.
`switchFontColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `255;255;255;1.0`. The font color for the `switch` operation as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`switchFontName`	String	Default: `Helvetica`. The name of the `switch` operation title font
`switchFontSize`	Number	Default: `14`. The size of the `switch` operation font
`switchType`	`app` or `window`	Default: `app`. [UNIMPLEMENTED - coming in 1.1] If `app`, the `switch` operation will present a list of applications ordered by last focus. If `window` the `switch` operation will present a list of windows ordered by last focus.
`switchSelectedPadding`	Number	Default: `10`. The size of the padding betweeen the edge of the switch window and the edge of the selected app selected background
`keyboardLayout`	`dvorak`, `colemak` or `qwerty`	Default: `qwerty`. The keyboard layout you are using.
`snapshotTitleMatch`	`levenshtein` or `sequential`	Default: `levenshtein`. The algorithm to use when determining if titles match or not for the snapshot operation. If `levenshtein`, the titles with the lowest levenshtein distance will be matched, if sequential, the titles with the maximum common prefix length will be matched. Note that this will change the algorithm for all apps. If you would like to change the algorithm for only one app use `snapshotTitleMatch:'APP_NAME'` for example to change the algorithm for only iTerm, use the following directive: `config snapshotTitleMatch:'iTerm' sequential`.
`snapshotMaxStackSize`	Integer	Default: `0`. The size of the stack to keep when creating snapshots using the `stack` option. If <= 0, the size of the stack will be unlimited.
`gridBackgroundColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `75;77;81;1.0`. The background color for the `grid` operation as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`gridRoundedCornerSize`	Number	Default: `5`. The size of the rounded corners of the `grid` operation's background. Set this to `0` if you do not want rounded corners
`gridCellBackgroundColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `75;77;81;1.0`. The background color for the `grid` operation's cells as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`gridCellSelectedColor`	Semicolon Separated Array of Floats	Default: `75;77;81;1.0`. The selected color for the `grid` operation's cells as an array in the form `Red;Green;Blue;Alpha` where `Red`, `Green`, and `Blue` are numbers between `0.0` and `255.0` and `Alpha` is a number between `0.0` and `1.0`
`gridCellRoundedCornerSize`	Number	Default: `5`. The size of the rounded corners of the `grid` operation's cells. Set this to `0` if you do not want rounded corners
`layoutFocusOnActivate`	Boolean	Default: `false`. If true, activating a layout will focus all windows touched by the layout. The order in which they will be focused is the order in which the Applications occur in the slate file. Thus, the last Application configured in the slate file will be the foremost application after the layout is triggered. If set to false, activating a layout will not focus any of the windows touched. Thus the foremost application after the layout is triggered will be the foremost application before the layout was triggered.
`undoMaxStackSize`	Integer	Default: `10`. The size of the stack to keep when creating undo snapshots. If <= 0, the size of the stack will be unlimited. This is effectively the number of times you can use the `undo` binding to undo Slate operations.
`undoOps`	String	Default: `activate-snapshot,chain,grid,layout,move,resize,sequence,shell`. The list of undoable operations. Any operation in this list will take a snapshot before activation to allow undoing it. This may decrease performance. Snapshots will only be taken if an undo operation exists in your config.

Example:

config defaultToCurrentScreen true

The `alias` Directive

The alias directive follows the following format:

alias name value

When you set an alias, you can refer to it in any directive (sequentially after that alias directive) by referencing like ${name}.

Example:

alias bot-right-2nd-mon move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1

Will allow you to use ${bot-right-2nd-mon} as a reference to move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1 in any directive following the alias (including other alias directives)

The `layout` Directive

The layout directive follows the following format:

layout name 'app name':OPTIONS operations

Where:

name = the name you want to use to reference the layout
'app name' = single-quoted name of the application to add to the layout **or** BEFORE or AFTER
OPTIONS = a comma separated list of options for this application (cannot be used with BEFORE or AFTER)
operations = a pipe separated list of operations (move, resize, push, nudge, throw, or corner)

Possible Options:

Name	Function
`IGNORE_FAIL`	This will let slate move to the next operation if the current operation fails to resize/move on the current window
`REPEAT`	This will repeat the list of operations if the number of windows is larger than the number of operations
`REPEAT_LAST`	This will repeat the last operation in the list if the number of windows is larger than the number of operations
`MAIN_FIRST`	This will cause the main window to always use the first operation
`MAIN_LAST`	This will cause the main window to always use the last operation (mutally exclusive with `MAIN_FIRST`)
`SORT_TITLE`	This will cause the window operations to be triggered on the windows in sorted order by the window title (can be used with `MAIN_FIRST` or `MAIN_LAST`)
`TITLE_ORDER=order`	This will cause the operations to be triggered on the windows starting with order which is a semi-colon separated list of window titles
`TITLE_ORDER_REGEX=order`	This will cause the operations to be triggered on the windows starting with the order which is a semi-colon separated list of window title regexes to match. Note that once a match is seen, the next regex will be used to match. This means if you have two windows that match the same regex, only the first one seen will be matched. The second will not.

You can have multiple layout directives that point to the same name in order to link any number of applications to the same layout.

Example:

layout myLayout 'iTerm' push up bar-resize:screenSizeY/2 | push down bar-resize:screenSizeY/2
layout myLayout 'Google Chrome' push left bar-resize:screenSizeX/2 | push right bar-resize:screenSizeX/2
layout myLayout BEFORE shell path:~/ '/opt/local/bin/mvim before'
layout myLayout AFTER shell path:~/ '/opt/local/bin/mvim after'

Will create a layout called myLayout with two operations for iTerm and two operations for Google Chrome. When activated, the first window of iTerm will be moved using the first operation in the first list and the second window of iTerm will be moved using the second operation in the first list. In addition, the first window of Google Chrome will be moved using the first operation in the second list and the second window of Google Chrome will be moved using the second operation in the second list. Finally, the operation shell path:~/ '/opt/local/bin/mvim before' will be run before any Applications are moved and the operation shell path:~/ '/opt/local/bin/mvim after' will be run after any Applications are moved. BEFORE and AFTER may also be used if the layout doesn't have any applications tied to it. Also, you may specify multiple BEFORE or AFTER lines (they will be run in the order that they appear). More information on how to actually use these layouts can be found under the layout operation in the bind directive section.

The `default` Directive

The default directive follows the following format (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):

default layout-or-snapshot-name screen-configuration

Where:

layout-or-snapshot-name = the name of the layout or snapshot you want to default to
screen-configuration = either "count:NUMBER_OF_SCREENS" or
                              "resolutions:SEMICOLON_SEPARATED_LIST_OF_RESOLUTIONS"

This directive will cause any screen configuration change (add monitor, remove monitor, screen resolution change) to trigger a search for a default layout or snapshot. If the screen configuration matches one of the defaults set, the layout or snapshot matching layout-or-snapshot-name will be triggered. For example:

default myLayout count:2

Will trigger myLayout anytime the screen configuration changes to have 2 monitors. Also:

default myLayout2 resolutions:1440x900;1024x768;1680x1050

Will trigger myLayout2 anytime the screen configuration changes to have exactly 3 monitors with resolutions 1440x900, 1024x768, and 1680x1050.

The `bind` Directive

The bind directive follows one of the following formats (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):

bind key:modifiers operation parameter+
bind key:modal-key operation parameter+

Key

key is a reference to a key on the keyboard. See Allowed Keys for a complete list. For example: the s key would simply be s while the 1 key on the number pad would be pad1.

Modifiers

modifiers is a comma or semicolon separated list of standard modifier keys. Allowed modifiers are:

Control: ctrl
Option/Alt: alt
Command: cmd
Shift: shift
Function: fn (currently does not work with arrow keys)

Note: If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!

Note: Bindings that are used by Mac OS X spaces, expose, and mission control will override Slate bindings. Be sure to turn these bindings off if you want to use them in Slate.

Modal Key

modal-key is any one of the Allowed Keys. If using a modal-key, pressing that key will cause the Slate menu bar icon to change indicating modal mode is activated. then clicking key will activate the binding. Modal mode will remain active until key has been pressed or modal-key is pressed again. You may specify multiple bindings with the same modal-key as long as key is different. Also, modal-key can accompany a comma or semicolon separated list of modifier keys listed above. This will cause that entire keystroke to be considered the modal activation binding. For example: bind 1:f4,ctrl,alt will result in the modal keystroke being ctrl+alt+f4. After pressing that keystroke, modal mode will be activated and pressing 1 after that will activate the binding.

Operation

Operations define what to actually do to the focused window.

Screens

Some operations allow you to specify a screen. Here are the list of possible values for screen:

Integer representing the screen ID (indexed at 0). Screens are ordered from left to right (by X coordinate of the origin which is the top-left point). If orderScreensLeftToRight is set to false, the screen ID is the Mac OS internal ID (indexed at 0). If orderScreensLeftToRight is set to false but you still want to reference screens in the default ordered mode, prefix the screen ID with ordered:.
Screen resolution in the format WIDTHxHEIGHT (e.g. 1440x900)
Screen direction relative to the current screen (left|right|up|above|down|below)
next or previous (represents the currentID+1 or currentID-1 screen)

Allowed operations are:

Move/Resize the window any which way: move topLeftX;topLeftY sizeX;sizeY screen

  topLeftX = top left x coordinate of the window's desired position (can be an expression)
  topLeftY = top left y coordinate of the window's desired position (can be an expression)
  sizeX = width of the window's desired position (can be an expression)
  sizeY = height of the window's desired position (can be an expression)
  screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position.
           If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on.
           See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.

Example:

  bind pad1:ctrl move 0;0 100;100 1

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-numpad1 to moving the window to the screen at index 1 with top-left coordinate 0,0 and size 100,100

Note: Remember to offset with screenOriginX in your topLeftX and screenOriginY in your topLeftY when using the screen option (or when using multiple screens in general) or your move operation will offset from the default origin (0,0) which is the origin of screen 0.

Resize the window (keeping top-left the same): resize x y anchor

  x = amount to resize width either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100)
  y = amount to resize height either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100)
  anchor = (optional) which corner to anchor on top-left|top-right|bottom-left|bottom-right (default is top-left)

Example:

  bind right:ctrl resize +10% +0

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-rightarrow to increase the width the current window by 10%.

Note: ctrl-rightarrow is used by default in Mac OS X by spaces. Be sure to turn these bindings off if you want to use them in Slate.

Push the window to the edge of the screen: push direction style

  direction = top|up|bottom|down|left|right
  style = (optional) none|center|bar|bar-resize:expression (default is none)
  screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position.
           If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on.
           See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.

Example:

  bind up:alt,ctrl push up

Will bind the keystroke alt-ctrl-uparrow to push the window so that it is aligned with the top of the screen

Nudge the window in any direction: nudge x y

  x = amount to nudge x either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100)
  y = amount to nudge y either as a percent or a hard value (+10% or -100)

Example:

  bind left:ctrl,shift nudge -100 +0

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-shift-leftarrow to nudge the window 100 pixels to the left

Throw the window to any screen's origin: throw screen style

  screen = the screen you want to throw the window to (0 indexed)
  style = (optional) resize|resize:x-expression;y-expression (default will not resize)

Example:

  bind pad1:alt,ctrl throw 1 resize

Will bind the keystroke alt-ctrl-numpad1 to throw the window to the 2nd screen and resize it to fit that screen

Move/Resize the window into a corner: corner direction style

  direction = top-left|top-right|bottom-left|bottom-right
  style = (optional) resize:x-expression;y-expression (default will not resize)
  screen = (optional) the reference to the screen of the window's desired position.
           If this is not specified, it will default to the screen the window is currently on.
           See the table at the beginning of the Operation section for more information.

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl corner top-left resize:screenSizeX/2;screenSizeY/2

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to move the window to the top-left corner and resize it to 1/4 of the screen

Execute a shell command: shell options 'command'

  command = (required) the command to run. note that it is a quoted string.
  options = (optional) a space separated list of:
             wait  - block slate until the shell command exits. Useful when using shell commands in a
                     sequence binding
             path: - the inital working directory to use when starting the command. For example
                     path:~/code would set the inital working directory to ~/code

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl wait path:~/code '/opt/local/bin/mvim'

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to run the command /opt/local/bin/mvim with the current working directory of ~/code. Slate will also block until the command is done. Note that you may not use the tilda home directory shortcut within the command itself, it is only allowed within the path.

Hide one or more applications: hide applications

  applications = a comma separated list of application names. Individual application names must be
                 surrounded by quotes. You can also specify `current`, `all`, or `all-but:` for the
                 Application name (no quotes). `current` will apply to the currently focused
                 application, `all` will apply to all open applications and `all-but:'APP_NAME'` will
                 apply to all open applications except `APP_NAME`. Note that when trying to hide `all`
                 it will not work as intended because OS X will not allow every visible app to be
                 hidden. Hiding `all` will hide all apps but OS X will auto-show one of the apps that
                 were hidden.

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl hide 'iTerm','Google Chrome'

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to hide iTerm and Google Chrome.

Show one or more applications: show applications

  applications = a comma separated list of application names. Individual application names must be
                 surrounded by quotes. You can also specify `current`, `all`, or `all-but:` for the
                 Application name (no quotes). `current` will apply to the currently focused
                 application, `all` will apply to all open applications and `all-but:'APP_NAME'` will
                 apply to all open applications except `APP_NAME`.

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl show 'iTerm','Google Chrome'

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to show (unhide) iTerm and Google Chrome.

Toggle one or more applications: toggle applications

  applications = a comma separated list of application names. Individual application names must be
                 surrounded by quotes. You can also specify `current`, `all`, or `all-but:` for the
                 Application name (no quotes). `current` will apply to the currently focused
                 application, `all` will apply to all open applications and `all-but:'APP_NAME'` will
                 apply to all open applications except `APP_NAME`. Note that when trying to toggle `all`
                 it will may not work as intended because OS X will not allow every visible app to be
                 hidden. If at any point during the toggling all apps become hidden, OS X will auto-show
                 one of the apps that were hidden.

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl toggle 'iTerm','Google Chrome'

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to toggle iTerm and Google Chrome. Toggle meaning if the individual application is currently hidden it will be shown and if it is currently shown it will be hidden.

Note: If you specify current in this toggle operation it will not toggle properly because after the current application is hidden, it is no longer the current application anymore.

Chain multiple operations to one binding: chain opAndParams1 | opAndParams2 ...
```
  opAndParamsX = any operation string (except sequence, hint and grid)
```
Example:
```
  bind 1:ctrl chain push up | push right | push down | push left
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to push up on the first press, then push right on the second press, then push down on the third press, the push left on the fourth press and rotate back to pushing up on the fifth press (etc).

Activate a sequence of operations in one binding: sequence opAndParams1 separator opAndParams 2 ...

  opAndParamsX = any of the above operation strings (except chain and grid. hint must be last if present)
  separator = | or >. | will cause the next operation to be performed on the window focused at the time of
              execution of that operation, > will cause the next operation to be performed on the window
              focused at the start of the > chain.

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl sequence focus right > push left | push right

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to first focus the window to the right, then push the previously focused window to the left, then push the newly focused window to the right. Obviously Hint will ignore > and | and just display because it doesn't care which window was focused.

Activate a layout: layout name
```
  name = the name of the layout to activate (set using the layout directive)
```
Example:
```
  bind 1:ctrl layout myLayout
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-l to activate the layout called myLayout. Note that the layout must be created before you bind it.
Focus a window in a direction or from an application: focus direction|app
```
  direction = right|left|up|above|down|below|behind
  app = an app name surrounded by quotes
```
Example:
```
  bind 1:ctrl focus above
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to focus the window Slate finds to be above the currently focused window (from any application). Minimized and hidden windows are ignored. A couple global configuration options set using the config directive exist to tweak this. Also, up and above are the same. Down and below are also the same.
```
  bind 1:ctrl focus 'iTerm'
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to focus the main window of the application iTerm. The main window is the last focused window of that application.

Create a snapshot of your current window locations: snapshot name options

  name = the name of the snapshot to create (used in delete-snapshot and activate-snapshot)
  options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options:
    save-to-disk -> saves the snapshot to disk so Slate will load it when it starts up next
    stack -> treats this snapshot as stack so you can use this binding multiple times to push snapshots on the stack

Example:

   bind 1:ctrl snapshot theName save-to-disk;stack

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to create a snapshot called theName, save that snapshot to disk, and treat it as a stack so you can hit the keystroke multiple times to push snapshots onto the stack.

Note: There is a menu option to take a snapshot of the current screen configuration.

Delete a snapshot: delete-snapshot name options

  name = the name of the snapshot to delete
  options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options:
    all -> if the snapshot is a stack (if it isn't, this option is useless), this will delete all snapshots in the
           stack (if this option is not specified, the default is to only delete the top snapshot of the stack).

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl delete-snapshot theName all

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to delete the snapshot called theName if it exists. This will delete all instances of theName meaning if you have pushed multiple snapshots on the stack, it will completely clear them all.

Activate a snapshot: activate-snapshot name options

  name = the name of the snapshot to delete
  options = (optional) a semicolon separated list of any of the following options:
    delete -> this will delete the snapshot after activating it (if the snapshot is a stack, it will pop the top
              snapshot off and keep the rest)

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl activate-snapshot theName delete

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to activate the snapshot called theName if it exists. This will also delete the snapshot (or pop it off the stack if the snapshot is a stack).

Note: There is a menu option to activate the snapshot that you may have created using the menu option.

Show Window Hints (similar to Link Hints in Vimium except for Windows): hint characters

  characters = (optional) a simple string of characters to be used for the hints. each hint consists of one
               character. if there are more windows than characters then some windows will not get hints.
               this string can contain any of the single character Allowed Keys. Letters may be upper case or
               lower case, but both will be bound to the lowercase letter for the hint. Using upper or lower
               case only changes how they are displayed. The default string of characters is
               "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"

Example:

  bind 1:ctrl hint QWERTYUIOP

Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to show Window Hints using the letters Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, and P. This will show an overlay in the top-left corner of every window on screen containing one of those letters. While the overlays are showing, if one of those letters is pressed, the corresponding window will be focused. If there are more than 10 windows, some windows will not get hints. Pressing ESC will dismiss the hints.

Note: There are tons of config options to tweak this.

Show a Grid to one-off resize and move windows: grid options
```
  options is a whitespace separated list of:
    padding:<integer> = the padding between cells
    screenRef:width,height = width and height are integers specifying the width and height of the grid
                             (number of cells, not absolute size). screenRef is either the screenID or
                             screen resolution (widthxheight)
```
Example:
```
  bind 1:ctrl grid padding:5 1680x1050:16,9 1050x1680:9,16
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to show Grids on each screen. The default width and height are 12. This will set the padding between the cells to be 5. Also, this will change the width and height of the grid on the monitor with the resolution 1680x1050 to 16 and 9 respectively. For the monitor with the resolution 1050x1680, it will set the width to 9 and height to 16. If you have multiple monitors, the Grid that is on the same screen as your mouse pointer will be focused. If you want to use a grid on a different monitor you must click it first and then click+drag.

Note: There are a bunch of config options to tweak how this looks.
Relaunch Slate: relaunch

Example:
```
  bind 1:ctrl relaunch
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to relaunch Slate. This will also reload the .slate file from scratch.
Undo an Operation: undo

Example
```
  bind 1:ctrl undo
```
Will bind the keystroke ctrl-1 to undo the last binding that was triggered. By default you can undo up to the last 10 commands. This can be changed using the undoMaxStackSize config. Also, you can only undo movement-based operations. Focus-related operations will not undo.
[Beta] A Better Application Switcher: switch

If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!

Example:
```
  bind tab:cmd switch
```
Will disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher and bind the keystroke cmd-tab to a better application switcher.

Note: There are tons of config options to tweak this.

The `source` Directive

The source directive follows the following format (tokens may be separated by any number of spaces):

source filename optional:if_exists

Where filename is the name of a file containing any of the directives above (including source). If no absolute path is specified, the user's home directory will be prepended to filename. If the user specifies the option if_exists as the second argument, Slate will not complain if it cannot find the file.

For Example:

source ~/.slate.test if_exists

Will append all of the configurations from the file ~/.slate.test to the current configuration if the file ~/.slate.test exists.

Note: You may use any aliases, layouts, etc that you specify before the source directive in the file you source. Any aliases, layouts, etc specified after cannot be used. Additionally, any aliases, layouts, etc that you specify in the file you source can be used after the source directive.

Example Config

You can check out my own config here.

Useful Stuff

kvs has created a Sublime Text 2 preference for .slate files here.
trishume has done a really nice writeup on getting started with Slate here

Contact

Please send all questions, bug reports, suggestions, or general commentary to Jigish Patel or create an issue on github.

Allowed Keys

Note: If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 424 Commits
Slate.xcodeproj		Slate.xcodeproj
Slate		Slate
SlateTests		SlateTests
Sparkle.framework		Sparkle.framework
build		build
icons		icons
script		script
.gitignore		.gitignore
.gitmodules		.gitmodules
.rbenv-version		.rbenv-version
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
VERSION		VERSION

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