Tiling Shell Update Adds New Keyboard Shortcuts + More – OMG! Ubuntu

Tiling Shell, the Windows 11-esque window snapping extension I spotlighted last week received an update at the weekend, adding enhancements I feel are worthy of mention.

This includes a request to support snapping windows in the active tiling layout using the keyboard only.

Because though the slide-in drop-over Snap Assistant widget makes Tiling Shell mightily intuitive for pointer-led users (such as myself), there are times when moving/re-ordering tiled windows without taking your hands of the keyboard is preferred.

And this is now possible in the Tiling Shell v9.x update.

Like other tiling window managers/extensions, you can move an active window into any half/quarter/thirds tile in the active tiling layout by pressing super key keyboard arrow keys (and yup; you can mash arrow keys to move it around until it’s in place).

You can also snap windows to any tile/zone in the active layout by holding ctrl and dragging the window. Previous update made the modifier key configurable (ctrl, alt, or super), and this update adds a 4th option: (none), i.e., disable the hot key.

Being able to create own custom tiling layouts is a major USP of Tiling Shell. And you’re able to save and switch between this as and when you need, no need to manually snap and resize windows to re-create a layout each time you need it.

To help save even more effort, Tiling Shell now lets you export/import custom layouts, and importing appends layout to pre-exiting ones rather than replacing them.

Bugs have been addressed too, including an edge-case issue where the layout editor could lose focus; an issue with Snap Assistant sometimes appearing below grabbed windows; and auto-resize now works even when the inner gap size is set to 0.

My original article on Tiling Shell will be updated to mention these additions. But given those who’ve already read it won’t think to re-read it for updates on the regular, I figured a short, standalone post to cover these welcome changes was merited.

Already have Tiling Shell installe? You likely already have this update, but you do need to log out and back in again for GNOME Shell extension updates to apply (so if you haven’t done it in the last few days, you may want to).

Don’t already have Tiling Shell installed? Install it from the GNOME Extensions website or use the awesome Extensions Manager desktop app (in the Ubuntu repos; an all-in-one hub to browse, search, install, manage, and configure GNOME Shell extensions).