Moom and Other Window Management Apps

A short while ago I wrote about a window management app called Divvy. The problem with it was that it was rather difficult to get windows into useable shapes other than the full or half screen options. A bunch for people suggested a similar app to me called Moom wondering if I would find it more useful. I did. Here's the deal...

Moom is a far more powerful version of Divvy. And it's cheaper too. It allows for the basic full and half screen options like Divvy as well as a grid, also like Divvy, to shape windows into anything you desire. And that grid shares the same problems as Divvy's does — it's rather hard to get, say, a nice square window that isn't in the center of the screen.

And that is where the similarities between Moom and Divvy end. Moom allows for all these great custom options allowing you to create environments for, say, writing, reading, etc. You arrange all your windows the way you like, and then take a "snapshot" with Moom. The next time you want your windows back in that exact arrangement, just select that option from the Moom menubar icon. It's actually pretty cool. You can also center any window via the keyboard, which is something that I like to do sometimes as well.

The trouble here is that you can activate Moom one of two ways: either by hovering over the green plus button of any window, or by using a keyboard shortcut. The fact that Moom finally gives the green plus button a consistent purpose is really nice, but the trouble is that you can't do everything from both the green plus button menu nor the keyboard shortcut menu. In other words, you cannot custom-resize a window using the grid form the keyboard menu, but you cannot center window via the green plus button menu. There are certain things you can only do from one menu and not the other. And it's quite annoying to have to remember which one is for which.

The fact of the matter is that I'm not sold on the whole idea of these window management apps. They all seem like they are more trouble than they are worth. This is especially true for larger screens, but I even found that to be the case on my 13" MacBook. The two things that I found Moom the most useful for — centering windows and environments — the beloved Keyboard Maestro can do just as well.

A Keyboard Maestro Time-Out

Speaking of using Keyboard Maestro for those two things:

• For creating environments, see here.

• For centering windows — something you may like to do when it's the only thing open and you just want to pop it into the center — Keyboard Maestro has a built-in ability to do this, but unlike Moom if you keep your Dock on the bottom of your screen it will not take that into account. In other words, when centering windows Keyboard Maestro ignores your Dock and will cause the bottoms of larger windows to be positioned behind the Dock when centered. There is a solution for this though, which is to use the "Move To" option in Keyboard Maestro and set it to look like the following:

  

  (Note: 20 is the height of the menubar and the 90 is the height of your Dock plus the menubar.)

Conclusion

After trying both Divvy and Moom, it seems to me that for just general resizing of windows you're better off just doing it with your mouse.

Now, neither of these apps are bad. They are both very well made and do what they claim to do very well. And if they're your kind of thing, go for it. I recommend Moom over Divvy. And if you're not sure about these apps, Moom's got a free trial so it's more than worth a shot. It may well be for you.

It's just not for me.