Best way to use Alfred to open a set of applications with a specific window configuration?

[sr_navarre]

I know how to create a workflow to open applications A, B and C, but how do I make it so that their windows are arranged a specific way every time I run the workflow?

Thanks for any help.

[Vero]

I know how to create a workflow to open applications A, B and C, but how do I make it so that their windows are arranged a specific way every time I run the workflow?

Thanks for any help.

 

 

You can easily create a workflow to open a few applications from a hotkey or keyword:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/triggers/hotkey/creating-a-hotkey-workflow/

 

With regards to arranging the windows in a specific way, this should be possible using AppleScript. You might want to take a look at this Layouts window management workflow as a starting point:

http://projects.jga.me/layouts/

 

Cheers,

Vero

[sr_navarre]

Hi Vero,

 

Thanks for a great app, and for responding to my question. I downloaded Layouts and tried looking through the script, but I can't decipher it. I know basically nothing about coding, etc. How can I use the Layouts script to do what I'm after?

[dfay]

You can also do this with Moom which lets you save named snapshots.  You'd then run an Applescript at the end of the workflow which would look like this:

tell application "Moom"
	arrange windows according to snapshot named "yournamehere"
end tell

IMHO Moom is the best OS X window manager out there.  One further trick you can do is if you're using a laptop and a desktop, you can set up snapshots on each, customized per machine.  Alfred will just run the script, and Moom will use the local version of the snapshot so your windows will be optimized for whichever machine you're working on at the time.

Edited March 14, 2016 by dfay