A blank Workspace Manager can be hard to start from. Here are four setups to copy, then bend to your own apps.
Each recipe names a layout from the palette in Workspace Manager, says which app goes in each region, and what happens to everything else. The apps are examples: swap in the ones you actually use. If you haven’t built a setup before, How to Create Your First Setup shows where each button is.
Code
For writing and running code.
One display, Main + Stack:
- Large region: your editor (Xcode, VS Code, or whichever you use).
- Top of the stack: Terminal.
- Bottom of the stack: a browser for documentation and the app you’re building.
With a second display, Two Rows:
- Top: a second browser window, for the app you’re testing. Chrome, Firefox and Safari can fill more than one region.
- Bottom: Slack or your team’s chat.
Everything else: hide. Add an exception for a music app if you like it visible.
Shortcut: ⇧⌘ plus a letter. Many people pick the setup’s first letter; if an app you use already owns that combination, Flincth tells you and you can pick another.
The clipboard keeps what you copy here — commands, error messages, IDs — out of your other work.
Writing
For drafting with your research beside you.
One display, Two Columns:
- Left: your writing app (Pages, Word, Ulysses, iA Writer…).
- Right: a browser with your sources.
On an ultrawide, try three regions instead: notes on the left, the draft in a wide centre, sources on the right. Window Layouts for Two Displays or an Ultrawide shows how.
Everything else: hide, including chat. That’s half the point.
The clipboard becomes a list of the quotes and links you gathered for this piece, and nothing else.
Meeting
For calls where you also take notes.
One display, Two Columns:
- Left, the wider of the two: your video call app (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet in a browser…).
- Right: Notes, or wherever you write things down.
Drag the line between the regions so the call gets about two thirds of the screen.
Everything else: hide, so nothing private is on screen if you share it. Add an exception for your calendar if you want it in view.
Before sharing your screen, ⌃⌥⌘H (Hide All Apps) is a quick way to clear everything.
Research
For reading across several sources at once.
One display, Four Quarters:
- Top left and top right: two browser windows.
- Bottom left: Preview, for PDFs.
- Bottom right: Notes.
Everything else: hide.
Everything you copy while reading stays in Research’s clipboard list, ready when you switch to Writing and open All.
Make them yours
- Right-click a setup and choose Duplicate Workspace to start a variation without rebuilding it, for example a laptop-only version of Code.
- Keep setups few. Three or four that you actually use beat ten you have to remember.
- Name them for the work, not the apps. Client A tells you more than Safari + Notes.
What switching does
When you choose a setup, Flincth opens any of its apps that aren’t running, moves their windows into place on the desktop you’re on, and hides the rest. It never quits anything, and ↩ Not Flincth in the menu puts your desk back the way it was.