Panes and layout

The shape of a window

A WinMux window holds a tree. Every node is one of three things:

• a leaf, holding one pane;
• a split, dividing space into columns or rows between any number of children;
• a stack, showing one child at a time behind a strip of tabs.

Because these nest freely, a tab can contain a split, and a split can contain more tabs. That is what a single tab bar across the top of a window cannot express, and it is why each stack draws its own strip where the stack actually is.

Columns and rows, not horizontal and vertical

WinMux says columns and rows because every multiplexer disagrees about what a “horizontal split” means. Columns divide the width; rows divide the height.

Splitting and closing

Action	Toolbar	Key
Split into columns	Split right	Ctrl+B %
Split into rows	Split down	Ctrl+B "
Close the focused pane	Close pane	Ctrl+B x
New empty pane	New ▾	Ctrl+B e

An empty pane is a first-class state, not a gap. It shows a launcher offering your profiles, the installed-application catalogue, and the windows already open that it could adopt — so “make a pane, then decide” is a supported way to work.

Tab groups

Tab group turns the focused pane into a stack. The strip can sit on any edge; a vertical strip lists titles down the side and is wider for that reason.

• Reorder a tab by dragging it, from the strip’s ⋮ menu, or Ctrl+B < / >.
• Rename a tab by double-clicking it, right-clicking it, or Ctrl+B ,. A name you choose outranks whatever the program calls itself — which matters because cmd rewrites its console title on nearly every command.
• Move the strip from the same ⋮ menu.

Resizing and focus

Drag the gutter between panes; the handle appears when you hover it. Ctrl+B with Shift and an arrow resizes without the mouse, and Ctrl+B with a bare arrow moves focus.

The focused pane wears an accent ring drawn in the gutter rather than inside the pane. That is not a style choice: an application hosted in a pane paints over anything WinMux draws inside that pane’s rectangle, so a ring drawn inside would be invisible for exactly the panes that are hardest to tell apart.

If you click into a hosted application, WinMux notices and moves its own focus to match — so the next Close pane acts on the pane you are looking at.