Snap a window with a gesture or mouse button

Dragging windows around by hand is fine once. Doing it all day gets old. With GestureCraft you can fire a window snap from a trackpad gesture, a keyboard shortcut, or a mouse button: a five-finger swipe left sends the front window to the left half of the screen, and a click of a side button sends it to your other display. (Full disclosure: I make GestureCraft. Window managers like Rectangle and Magnet snap windows too, and they go much further. GestureCraft is for people who want snaps on their gestures and buttons, next to everything else those gestures and buttons can do.)

One thing to be clear about up front: GestureCraft triggers a snap. It is not a window manager. It moves and resizes the window in front to one of twelve fixed spots. It does not tile all your windows automatically, save layouts, or let you draw your own zones. If you want those, a dedicated window manager is the right tool.

Step by step

1. Open Add Rule

   In GestureCraft, click Add Rule. Each rule reads like a sentence: When I do something, run an action, in an app.

2. Pick the trigger

   Under When I, choose Trackpad Gesture, Keyboard Shortcut, or Mouse Button. For a gesture, pick the finger count and the kind - Tap, Double-Tap, Swipe, Hold, or Hold then Swipe - plus a direction for swipes. For a mouse button, press the button you want and choose Click or Hold.

3. Choose a window snap

   Under run, open Or a command, go into the Window group, and pick where the window should go. Typing snap in Search actions lists them too.

4. Scope it to one app or everywhere

   Under in, leave the rule on All Apps, or choose Specific App so the snap only fires while that app is in front.

5. Save and use it

   Save the rule. Click into the window you want to move, then do your gesture, shortcut, or button press. The front window snaps into place on the display it is on.

The twelve snaps

Every snap acts on the window in front, on the display it mostly sits on.

• Left Half, Right Half, Top Half, Bottom Half - the classic side-by-side and stacked splits.
• Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right Quarter - four windows on one screen.
• Maximize - fills the screen without going into full screen, and stays clear of the menu bar and Dock.
• Center - keeps the window's size and centers it, shrinking it only if it is bigger than the screen.
• Move to Next Display - sends the window to your next screen in the same relative spot, shrinking it only if it would not fit. With one screen it stays put.
• Restore Previous Frame - puts the window you snapped last back where it was before that snap.

Ideas worth mapping

Pick gestures and keys you are not already using for something else.

• Five-finger swipe left → Left Half, and five-finger swipe right → Right Half, for instant side-by-side.
• Four-finger tap → Maximize, and four-finger double-tap → Restore Previous Frame to undo it.
• Mouse side button hold → Move to Next Display. Give the same button a Click rule too, so a quick press still does something.
• A keyboard shortcut → Center, for the window you just dragged somewhere awkward.

Good to know

• GestureCraft always moves the window in front. If the wrong window moves, click into the one you want first.
• A few windows refuse to move or resize, such as full-screen windows and some fixed-size dialogs. Those stay where they are.
• With more than one display, each snap stays on the screen the window is mostly on, so a window does not jump to your main display.
• GestureCraft is event-driven, so it sits at near-zero idle CPU. It only does work the instant you gesture or press, and never runs a background polling loop while it waits.

Want your gestures and buttons to do more than move windows? See the best Mac trackpad gesture app guide, the full roundup of Mac gesture and input apps, or the guides on mapping mouse buttons to actions, launching an app from a gesture, and running an Apple Shortcut from a gesture.