Redcast Window layouts
Save an arrangement of apps across your displays, then restore every window with one shortcut.
A window layout is a saved arrangement of apps, with each window's size, position and display. When you run a layout, Redcast opens any apps that aren't running and moves every window into place.
Layouts are part of Window Management. They use its switch, its Accessibility permission and its gap setting, and need nothing else.
Making a layout
In Settings → Window Management → Window Layouts:
- New Layout starts from scratch.
- Create Layout from Current Windows saves the windows you have open right now.
Both are also available as launcher commands: Create Window Layout and Create Layout from Current Windows.
Creating a layout from your current windows doesn't save it right away. It opens the editor so you can review it, remove windows you don't want, and name it. When you create it from the launcher, the window you were working in is marked Bring to front.
The editor
The left side shows a preview of each display with its windows. Use the tabs above it to switch displays. The right side edits the selected window.
| Field | What it sets |
|---|---|
| App | Which app the window belongs to |
| Argument | Optional. A file, folder, web address or quicklink to open |
| Bring to front | Puts this window in front when the layout finishes. Only one per layout |
| Size | Width and height, as a fraction of the display |
| Position | Where it sits, on a 3 × 3 grid |
| Offset | An adjustment in points from that position |
| Use preferred gap | Insets the window by the gap set in Window Management, like the tiling commands |
The preview updates as you type. Press ⌘return to Save, because plain return is used by the field you're typing in.
A layout remembers the displays it was made for and keeps showing their tabs when they're disconnected, so you can edit a desk layout on your laptop.
Running a layout
Run a layout from the launcher, with its own global shortcut, or with the ▶ button in Settings.
- Windows that are already open all move into place at once.
- Apps that aren't running are opened, and each window is placed as soon as it appears. Redcast waits up to 10 seconds for each app.
- The window marked Bring to front, if any, is focused once everything else is done. If you switched to another app while Redcast was waiting, your choice is kept.
A few rules keep the results predictable:
- Open windows are matched to the nearest position in the layout, so windows that are already arranged stay where they are and nothing switches displays.
- An entry with an argument always opens a new window, because that's the only reliable way to get a second window from most apps.
- Windows for a missing display are skipped. If a monitor is disconnected, its windows are left alone instead of piling up on your laptop screen.
- Sizes are fractions of the screen, so a layout still fits after you change the resolution.
Restore Window doesn't undo a layout. It returns a window to where it was before the last window command, not before the layout ran.
Managing layouts
Each layout in Settings has a shortcut recorder, a launcher checkbox, and buttons to run, edit, duplicate and delete it. Show layouts in launcher (on by default) removes all layouts and the two layout commands from search at once, without affecting the other window commands.
Layouts and their shortcuts are included in backups. On another Mac, entries for displays that Mac doesn't have are skipped, the same as any missing display.