[FZ Editor] Allow margin syntax for Show Space Around Zones

[Postlagerkarte]

Having space around the zones is great!

However, I really don't want any spaces at the top and bottom of the zones. To make everyone happy, can you enable margin syntax for the "space around zones" feature?

i.e. I want to be able to enter 10 5 15 5 in the space textbox and the system should do:

top margin is 10px right margin is 5px bottom margin is 15px left margin is 5px

[crutkas]

can you explain a bit more of your use case here? They "why", not just the "what"

[crutkas]

Context: a canvas style layout, you could do this, grid style, this is where there is a single margin

[enricogior]

@Postlagerkarte would it be good enough to have once extra checkbox to set/remove spacing between the zones and the edges of the screen? I see very little value to manually set each individual zone margins, imagine if you have 9 zones grid, having to go and set it for each would be very inconvenient.

[Postlagerkarte]

@crutkas @enricogior : Yes, a simple solution would do. However, I want to get rid of the space on top/bottom of the zones because it steals valuable vertical space. Horizontal spacing between the zones is fine.

[crutkas]

So it is a global setting you want adjustments on, not per zone?

[trholman]

Having worked with this for about a week, I can agree that it would be nice to set the value of the space around the zones. I am also wanting to shrink it so I can have each window be as big as possible. For my purposes, having the windows touch would be most ideal. I am not looking for aesthetics as much as functionality and gaining screen space for each window would add very much to functionality. Even if it is a single variable to change for shrinking the space between zones, it would be awesome. Great job on this project. I love it. Keep up the good work.

[enricogior]

Hi @trholman

For my purposes, having the windows touch would be most ideal

You can already do that, un-checking Show space around zones before applying or editing a template.

[Jay-o-Way]

@SeraphimaZ @niels9001 old issue. Think this is doable (and worth)?

[downhiller]

I also would love to have space-between without space-around. So - for instance - on a 1920x1200 screen I could have three 620 x 1200 columns with a 30px gutter between each one.

Use case: I have 4 1920x1200 thin-bezel screens. When I have things maximised on each screen, the bezels give me a dark border between apps roughly equivalent to about 30 pixels. With this feature that border could exist between my tiled FancyZone windows as well, for a pleasing aesthetic.

Aesthetics aside, I find it easier to focus on one window if there's a gap around it. But gaps between the FancyZones and the monitors bezel is wasted space, and unnecessary.

As a coder myself, I feel this is "probably" an easy fix, and the UI requirements should just be a single checkbox.

[ghost]

Horizontal spacing between the zones is fine.

I'd prefer the ability to eliminate all horizontal and vertical spacing. At present my layout is (3840x2160 UHD):

 ┌───────────────────────────────────┬─┬─────────────┐
 ├───────────────────────────────────┤ ├────────────┼│
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │ MS Teams   ││
 │      VM Player (Linux Dev)        │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ │            ││
 │                                   │ ├────────────┼│
 │                                   │ ├────────────┼│
 ├───────────────────────────────────┘ │            ││
 │                                     │ MS Outlook ││
 │                                     │            ││
 │                                     │            ││
 └─────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴┘

The following would be useful:

  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  ├───────────────────────────────────┼─────────────┤
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │  MS Teams   │
  │      VM Player (Linux Dev)        │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   ├─────────────┤
  │                                   │             │
  ├───────────────────────────────────┤             │
  │                                   │  MS Outlook │
  │                                   │             │
  │                                   │             │
  └───────────────────────────────────┴─────────────┘

Note: With the latest update to PowerToys, the ability to adjust the padding between zones (to zero) has been resolved.

[Zloool]

Unchecking the "Space around zones" checkbox or setting the numerical value to 0px still leaves a 1px margin around each window. This results in noticeable 2px lines between adjacent windows and a 1px gap near the screen borders or taskbar.

Attached: A "T-junction" between three windows demonstrating the problem.

PowerToys Version: 0.83.0 OS Version: 10.0.22631.4037 Screen Resolution: Dual monitor setup (2560x1440 + 1080x1920)