Hookshot

Cursor movement window snapping on macOS

7 followers

Cursor movement window snapping on macOS

7 followers

⦿ Snap windows by pressing a modifier key and moving your cursor ⦿ Snap windows with keyboard shortcuts or by dragging windows to the edge of the screen ⦿ Move & resize windows by holding a modifier key and moving your cursor ⦿ Snap windows not in focus

Launch tags:Mac•Productivity•Developer Tools

Launch Team

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Promoted

This reminds me a lot of the abandonware Zooom/2. The killer feature of Zooom/2 that Hookshot lacks is the "magnetic" edge detection where if you use the pointer to resize/move windows, the edges of all windows will be displayed and if you move the edge of a window within ~10 pixels of the edge of another or the edge of the display, it will snap the edges together in a satisfying way. This lets you pseudo-tile your windows, but with the flexibility of pointer-based control, rather than being locked to a small number of specific ratios of the screen. Here’s a video demo of Zooom/2’s features:

. If Hookshot added the "magnetic" edge snapping, that would be awesome!

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@philofrog Excellent idea, thanks for letting me know. I have a backlog task for making it so moving windows will behave like macOS, where they kind of snap to the screen edge and other windows. I'll add this idea to the backlog as well.

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6yr ago

@xryan glad to see someone is still working on improving macOS window-management beyond strict keyboard-centric, tiling management! (I also edited my previous comment to link the video I forgot before.)

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@philofrog thanks for sharing the video. Honestly, I was reluctant to publicly release Hookshot since there's just too many window managers already out there for macOS. I just ended up liking and using my prototype so much that I felt like I needed to share it.

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6yr ago

@philofrog Upvote for mentioning Zooom/2 as I'm still using it on my machines running Mojave. Although abandoned, it still works quite well. What makes Zooom/2 special and irreplacable for me, in addition to snapping to display edges is the Auto Raise + Only allow when modifier is held. This allows you to flip through open windows and bring them to the front very easely. In conjunction with the Move and Resize on held modifiers this gives you ninja speeds in managing windows.

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6yr ago

Thanks, like rectangle, so purchased hookshot. I figured out how to do 1/2 2/3 1/3 in settings, another question, how about Adding Gaps Between Windows like in rectangle?

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@sth2do gaps between windows actually came from Rectangle. It's the same command but replace Hookshot with Rectangle

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6yr ago

@xryan Thanks, also I tried to assign ctrl+opt+cmd+shift+[ as shortcut, and it only can set 4 keys. but I can do it in rectangle.

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@sth2do Thanks for reporting. I'll see what I can do.

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6yr ago

?makers - does this app have support for gutters/margins between the windows? One reason I have kept using SizeUp for so many years is it seems to be the only one I can find that offers that option, e.g you can specify a gutter globally for spacing around each window and ones that are maximised too.

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@andyunleash It's available via a terminal command, just not in the UI yet. defaults write com.knollsoft.Hookshot gapSize -float 10 Restart the app after executing the command in Terminal.

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6yr ago

@xryan Awesome thanks!

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

Yet another window management app for macOS! A short history on this one: I rewrote an old macOS window management favorite, Spectacle, in Swift so that I could bake window management into one of my apps, called Multitouch. I launched the rewrite of Spectacle as a separate free open source app called Rectangle. After the launch, I had an idea to use cursor gestures to control the windows, and Hookshot was born! I liked this even better than using Multitouch gestures to control windows, so I decided to polish it up and release it for others to use. It contains all of the features of Rectangle, and is just a really lightweight, quick way to get windows where I want them. I hope you enjoy it, too! Use the coupon code producthunt to get 50% off for a limited time.

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6yr ago

Omni!

@xryan really like the concept but trying to use it feels clunky and unresponsive. I can only get the action to trigger about 20% of the time- I use a track ball, dont see why that would make a difference, but jfyi. I wish there a way to configure the timing or sensitivity. Also wish diagonal and other moves like a double back* and release were options to allow for more macros with a single modifier key. *like i could imagine a double back "flick" hold modifier key, move left a little then quickly reverse and move right as you release mod key- this would double the amount of actions you could program per direction.

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@adamdexter Thanks for taking the time to write feedback, I really appreciate it. Not sure if you saw my suggestion in a previous comment for if you're having issues executing the gestures - hopefully that would help. I don't have a trackball to test with, so that could be part of the issue. I did try out the double back options, but I just didn't like them enough to want to use them. Diagonal moves are the most common request, and the reason that they are not in there is because it is extremely easy to move the cursor diagonally without thinking when you want to just move in a cardinal direction quickly. With that said, I'm currently working on an update that I think will make using Hookshot a lot better.

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@adamdexter If you get a chance, try out v1.5 (https://hookshot.app/downloads/H...). The new "Reticle" feature in that release gives some visual feedback to cursor movement and handles diagonal movement. Let me know if you try it out and have any feedback!

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

Some users have reported a little difficulty figuring out how to perform the cursor movement snapping. If you're having trouble, it's best actually not to think of it as a flick (despite how it might appear in the video). First, just try moving the cursor in a straight line across the screen slowly. While the cursor is moving in the straight line, press and release the option key (no need to hold it for a specific amount of time). Once you get used to it, I think it will get pretty easy to start doing it quickly without thinking about it. Hope this helps!

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6yr ago

Charmstone

Maker

@sth2do In the settings tab of the preferences window, check the box for "Cycle 1/2, 2/3, and 1/3 size on repeated left or right commands"

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6yr ago