🎨 Design
Rectangle for Designers: A Figma and Sketch Window Workflow That Holds
A working window layout for Mac designers: canvas on two thirds, brief on the right third, reference pinned to a corner quarter. Built …
Free · Open source · macOS
Window management for people who work with more than two windows
Independent, in-depth guides to keyboard-driven layouts on macOS — built around Rectangle, the free window manager. Halves, thirds, quarters, multi-monitor rebuilds and the settings that make them stick.
Why a layout beats a habit
Four reasons a keyboard-driven window manager changes how a working day feels.
⌨️
One keystroke, one position
Every region of the screen has a shortcut. Arranging windows stops being an activity and becomes a reflex.
🧭
Spatial memory does the work
When reference material always lives in the same corner, your eyes go there without conscious direction.
🔄
Reversible by design
The restore command returns a window to its exact previous size, which is what makes focus modes practical.
💸
Free and inspectable
The core app is open source with no trial period — which matters for software that needs Accessibility access.
Latest guides
Written for a specific kind of work rather than for a feature list.
🎯 Productivity
Deep Work on a Mac: Focus Layouts You Can Enter and Leave in One Keystroke
Focus is a layout problem before it is a discipline problem. How to build single-window deep work modes on macOS and return to your ful…
📚 Students
Rectangle for Students: Study, Note-Taking and Exam Layouts on macOS
Lecture slides, a notes app, a PDF and six browser tabs. Practical macOS window layouts for studying, writing essays and revising, usin…
⚡ Power user
Rectangle with Alfred and Raycast: Running a Mac Without the Mouse
Combine a launcher with a window manager and macOS becomes fully keyboard-driven: apps launch, windows snap and workflows fire without …
🔬 Advanced
Window Cycling, Drag Zones and the Rectangle Settings Most People Never Open
Beyond halves and quarters: cycling through sizes on repeated keypresses, snap areas, gaps, todo mode and the preferences that change h…
📈 Finance
Rectangle for Traders and Analysts: Multi-Window Layouts for Market Work
Charts, order entry, news and a model, all visible at once. Window layouts for trading and financial analysis on macOS, plus what to do…
Start here
Three questions that cover most of what people arrive looking for.
Setting it up
Install, grant Accessibility permission, and understand exactly what that permission allows before you agree to it.
Every shortcut
The full default list, plus the six commands worth learning first and ignoring the rest until they stick.
When it stops working
A diagnostic order that finds the cause in about three minutes instead of an afternoon.
Common questions
Short answers. Longer ones live in the guides.
What is Rectangle?
A free, open-source window manager for macOS that positions windows into halves, thirds, quarters and sixths using keyboard shortcuts or drag-to-edge snapping. Rectangle is maintained as an open-source project and requires no account.
Do I need it if macOS already tiles windows?
If you only ever want two windows side by side, probably not. If you want thirds, sixths, size cycling or fast multi-monitor moves, the built-in feature runs out quickly.
Is the free version enough?
Every layout described on this site works in the free build. The paid tier adds saved multi-window arrangements, which is a convenience rather than a requirement.
Why does it need Accessibility permission?
macOS does not allow one application to move another application's windows without it. It covers window geometry only — not content, and no network access is involved.
Glossary
Terms used throughout these guides.
- Window manager
- A utility that sets the size and position of application windows via shortcuts, replacing manual dragging.
- Snap area
- A screen region that triggers automatic positioning when a window is dragged into it.
- Cycling
- Repeated presses of one shortcut advancing a window through related sizes — half, third, two thirds.
- Restore
- Returning a window to the exact size and position it held before the last snap.
- Gaps
- A configurable margin inserted between snapped windows and the screen edge.
- Space
- A macOS virtual desktop. Window layouts are held per Space, so each context keeps its own arrangement.