Select, move and arrange widgets

Everything on a desk is a widget you can pick up and place where it suits you. This guide covers choosing widgets, moving and resizing them, lining several up at once, pinning one to a corner of the window, and keeping a layout of your own on this device.

Everything here works the same on every plan.

Before you start

• Open a desk. These controls are only on a desk's canvas, not on Home.
• A widget's title bar buttons appear when you rest the pointer on the widget.
• Selecting several widgets works on the loose widgets on your desk. Sections, the widgets inside a section and pinned widgets are not included in a selection.

Select widgets

Select one or more by clicking

1. Hold Shift and click a widget. It gets an accent ring and the selection toolbar appears above it.
2. Keep holding Shift and click more widgets to add them.
3. Shift-click a selected widget again to take it out of the selection.

A plain click on a widget makes it the active widget, so you can type or scroll in it. It does not select it.

Draw a box around several widgets

1. Hold Shift and drag across an empty part of the desk.
2. A dashed box follows the pointer. Every widget the box touches is selected as you go.
3. Let go when the box covers the widgets you want.

If you turned off Drag the canvas to pan (in Settings, on the Advanced tab, under Canvas navigation), a plain drag on an empty part of the desk draws the box, and you do not need Shift. Holding Space while you drag always pans the desk instead. See Canvas navigation settings.

Select everything

1. Click an empty part of the desk, so you are not typing in a widget.
2. Press ⌘ A on a Mac or Ctrl A on Windows.

Every loose widget on the desk is selected.

Clear the selection

Press Esc, or click the × at the end of the selection toolbar.

Use the selection toolbar

The toolbar sits above whatever you have selected and starts with a count, such as 3 selected. Rest the pointer on a button to see its name.

Each align or distribute is one step in your undo history, so ⌘ Z on a Mac or Ctrl Z on Windows puts the whole selection back at once. If you delete widgets by mistake, undo brings them back one widget per press. See Undo and redo.

Move a widget

1. Point at the widget's title bar, the strip with its name at the top.
2. Drag it to where you want it and let go.

What happens when you let go:

• The widget stays exactly where you drop it. Any widgets it now covers slide out of its way to the nearest clear space. Sections stay put.
• Dropping it onto a section puts it in that section. See Section widget Coming soon.
• Picking up a widget brings it to the front, so it sits above anything it overlaps.

To move several widgets together, select them first, then drag the title bar of any one of them. They all move and keep their spacing, and the move is a single undo step.

Resize a widget

1. Point at any edge or corner of the widget until the pointer changes.
2. Drag to make it the size you want.

Widgets move and resize in small, even steps, so neighbours line up easily. PlexiDesk keeps a resized widget from overlapping the widgets around it.

Grow, shrink or enlarge in one click

Rest the pointer on the widget to show its title bar buttons:

• Grow widget (+) makes it half as big again, up to 1400 × 900.
• Shrink widget (−) makes it about a third smaller. Pressing + then − returns it to its original size.
• Expand (the outward arrows) opens two choices. Larger on desk grows it in place by about 30%, so you keep the rest of the desk in view. Focus mode opens it full screen. See Open widgets full screen and side by side.

Grow and shrink are not shown on widgets inside a section, because the section arranges them.

Snap drops to the grid

Snap to grid makes a widget you drop land exactly on the desk's grid, even one that was slightly off it before. It is off until you turn it on.

1. With a desk open, press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows.
2. Type snap.
3. Choose Snap to grid: off (turn on).

The same row then reads Snap to grid: on (turn off). Choose it again to turn snapping off. See The command palette.

Pin a widget to a corner of the window

A pinned widget stays in one corner of the window while you pan and zoom around the desk. It suits things you glance at all the time, such as a timer, a checklist or a reference note.

1. Rest the pointer on the widget and click its pin button (Pin to screen).
2. Under Pin to zone, choose Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right.

The widget moves to that corner and its pin turns amber. If you pin several widgets to the same corner, PlexiDesk stacks them together there.

You can also right-click the widget's title bar and choose Organise > Pin to corner, then a corner.

To move a pinned widget, pick a different corner: you cannot drag it while it is pinned. To put it back, click its pin and choose Unpin — return to canvas, or right-click the title bar and choose Organise > Pin to corner > Unpin. It returns to the spot it had on the desk.

Widgets inside a section cannot be pinned. Move one out of its section first.

Bring a widget to the front

When widgets overlap, the one you picked up last sits on top. To bring one forward without moving it:

1. Right-click the widget's title bar.
2. Choose Organise > Bring to front.

With several widgets selected, right-click the title bar of any one of them and choose Organise > Bring all to front.

Give a widget a colour

1. Right-click the widget's title bar.
2. Choose Organise > Recolor.
3. Pick Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green or Orange. The current colour has a tick beside it.

To remove the colour, choose Clear color. Colours are also what the Columns view sorts by when you group by Colour. See Show a desk as columns, a list, a table or a gallery.

Keep your own layout on this device

On a desk you share, moving a widget moves it for everyone. If you would rather arrange the desk your own way on this computer, without changing it for anyone else:

1. Right-click an empty part of the desk.
2. Choose Customise this device's layout.

From then on, where you put widgets and how big you make them is kept for you on this device, and comes back when you reopen the desk. The rest of the desk, such as the widgets' content, is still shared.

To go back to the shared arrangement, right-click an empty part of the desk and choose Stop customising this device's layout. The desk returns to the layout everyone shares.

Tips

• Line things up quickly. Draw a box around a row of widgets, then use Align top and Distribute horizontally.
• Make a labelled group. Select related widgets and click Group, then rename the section to say what it is for.
• Let PlexiDesk do the arranging. Tidy lays out the whole desk in one click. See Tidy, auto-arrange and Smart Stack.

Common questions

Shift-click does nothing on a widget. It works on loose widgets on the desk. Widgets inside a section, pinned widgets and sections themselves are not selected. To include a widget from a section, move it out of the section first.

Dragging on the desk moves the view instead of drawing a box. Hold Shift while you drag. A plain drag pans the desk while Drag the canvas to pan is on.

I cannot drag a widget. Check whether it is pinned: a pinned widget shows an amber pin. Pick another corner or unpin it.

The + and − buttons are missing. They are not shown on widgets inside a section. Use the section's own layout, or move the widget out of the section.

A widget jumped when I let go of it. If Snap to grid is on, a dropped widget moves onto the nearest grid point. Turn it off from the command palette if you want free placement.

Related tasks

• Tidy, auto-arrange and Smart Stack
• Show a desk as columns, a list, a table or a gallery
• Open widgets full screen and side by side
• The controls on every widget
• Right-click menus
• Move around the canvas
• Desks, rooms and the canvas