Breeze: another fresh take on window management
We've covered a surprising number of innovative Mac utilities for easily positioning windows, from MercuryMover to SizeUp and, most recently, Divvy. Well, a new one, Breeze, is taking yet another look at the task of window management.
Breeze is similar to the others in that it runs in your menubar and handles resizing and positioning windows via keyboard shortcuts. Unlike some of the others, it does away with the confines of presets and grids, and instead lets you memorize any window position and assign a shortcut to it. What makes Breeze stand out, though, is per-application settings: you can assign a single hotkey to perform different window movements depending on which application you're in at the time. That's pretty cool.
Breeze is resolution independent, allowing you to perform equivalent positioning no matter what display you're using at the time. The latest version also handles "drawers" (the sidebars that dock to some windows), adjusting as necessary to fit. It has a simple interface, too. It's a cinch to add new window states and shortcuts, and easy to see existing states from its menubar icon. Breeze also has a "Rescue Window" feature that will bring stray windows to the center of your screen. That's not a daily need of mine, but I can think of several frustrating incidents when I would have loved to have the option.
Breeze has a couple of shortcomings, the biggest one being an inability to edit existing shortcuts. I have little doubt that the developer is working hard on expanding new features as I write, though, so this is one to keep an eye on. Try it out for free, and if you like it, pick up a license for $8.00US.
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We've covered a surprising number of innovative Mac utilities for easily positioning windows, from MercuryMover to SizeUp and, most...
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I've been using Breeze a couple weeks now, and while I agree that the lack of tiling severly limits window management, it does what I need in terms of window resizing.
Shortcuts are editable by holding "option" when clicking on a previously created preset, allowing you to rename, change the keyboard shortcut, or delete it.
Wow, I somehow missed the option-edit feature. I'll update the post as soon as I have a second. Thanks!
July 26 2010 at 11:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI completely missed the option till I checked with Breeze support - it doesn't seem to be a discoverable feature!
July 26 2010 at 12:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFor me Breeze is the bees knees, I like my windows exactly where I like em, and they dont conform to obvious rules like 'half left', etc.
No more do I have to groan after my girlfriend is done using my computer and leaves the windows in a mess! =)
Better Touch Tool. Makes my trackpad more useful, but also adds Aero Snap style window management.
July 25 2010 at 6:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBreeze has what's missing in window tilers on OSX, that is managing window sets based on a previously saved setup. But it can't do any worthwhile window tiling itself, because you've got to actually place the windows yourself before saving it as a preset (unless you use the right/left preset that is), and it lacks any tools to actually help you do the pixel perfect window placing, window sizing in all directions, etc.
A combination of SizeUp+Mercurymover+Breeze (or Divvy+mercurymover+Breeze) combined in one app would be the ultimate window tiler if you ask me.
About window tilers on OSX, such as shiftit, divvy etc; they all lack one (IMHO) killer feature of SizeUp - window and screen margins. This is *the* feature that really keeps me from using them. The increased overview you get from separating windows a few pixels apart is amazing, and cramming windows so close together without adding a little bit of spacing also looks kind of wired because the window shadows that is mandatory in OSX (unless i'm mistaken).
I think you're spot on. I'm currently using SizeUp in combination with Divvy and it's doing the trick. If somebody combined the unique features of SizeUp, Divvy, Breeze, etc., without going into feature overload, I think we'd have an extremely useful utility.
July 24 2010 at 11:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI like Cinch. Works just like Aero Snap on Win7. It doesn't do the 4 windows like some of the other apps mentioned do... but why do you need 4 small windows?
July 24 2010 at 7:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhile I like breeze for single window needs, if you want to have any sort of window "sets" and have it lay them all out correctly, breeze does not suffice. I can make applescripts easily to make windows a certain size/position...so why pay money and have it keep using memory all the time?
If breeze introduces customizable sets of windows it might become really great though.
Another awesome window manager is ShiftIt, and the best part is that it's FREE and OPEN SOURCE. You can do split (horizontal and vertical), fullscreen, center, and in quarters.
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