--- title: "Navigation" url: "https://learn.omacom.io/2/the-omarchy-manual/51/navigation" --- # Navigation Everything in Omarchy happens via the keyboard — _EVERYTHING!_ When the system first starts, you literally can't do a thing with the mouse alone. But you can hit `Super + Space` to reveal the application launcher and `Super + Alt + Space` to open the Omarchy Menu. These two commands allow you to do just about everything. But the application launcher is not intended to be the main way to operate the system most of the time. We can get faster than that! All the most important applications are bound directly to individual hotkeys. You start the terminal with `Super + Return` and a browser with `Super + Shift + Return`. Try doing one after the other, and you'll see the magic of Hyprland's tiling in action: ![browser+terminal.png](https://manual.omakub.org/u/browser-terminal-yCV75f.png) You can then hit `Super + J` to stack them horizontally instead of vertically: ![stacked.png](/u/stacked-sswEJE.png) Hit `Super + J` again to return them to horizontal positions. Then try `Super + Shift + Arrow Right` while on the browser to swap the windows. Now try `Super + Ctrl + T` to start the Activity monitor. That'll appears as a floating window. You can tile it using `Super + T` (and hit that again to make it floating again). Now press `Super + Shift + F` to open the files manager. You'll have a neat four-way setup: ![fourway-tiling.png](/u/fourway-tiling-SHbfzO.png) You navigate between the window you want to be active with `Super + Arrow`. This will switch focus and move the cursor to the center of the new application. If you hit `Super + Shift + 2`, you'll move the current focused application onto the second workspace. `Super + Shift + 1` moves it back. (And `Super + Shift + Alt + 2` will move the current focused application onto the second workspace without switching to it). If you hold down `Super` and use the mouse to click on a window, you'll be able to rearrange where it sits. If you hold `Super` and use the right button on the mouse, you can freely resize the window. You close a window on `Super + W` (and close all windows on `Ctrl + Alt + Delete`). You can also go full screen with `Super + F` or even just full-width (keeping the top bar) with `Super + Alt + F` or full-screen within a window with `Super + Ctrl + F` (good for YouTube!). --- ### Dwindle vs scrolling layout Omarchy's default layout is called dwindle. It keeps all the windows you open on a single workspace visible at all time, even if it has to shrink them down. ![dwindle-layout.png](/u/dwindle-layout-BNU9qb.png) But you can also choose to turn a workspace into the scrolling layout where windows are lined up side-by-side, beyond the visible edge of the display. You turn a single workspace into this layout via `Super + L`. ![niri-layout.png](/u/niri-layout-LvV25i.png) If you wish to ue the scrolling layout as the default, you can set that in `~/.config/hypr/looknfeel.conf` under `general { layout = scrolling }`. --- ### Grouping windows Windows can be grouped using `Super + G`. Once you're in a group, every window you start while that's active will belong to the group. You can move between these grouped windows using `Super + Ctrl + Arrows` or `Super + Alt + 1/2/3/4` to go directly to grouped window in order. You can move a window out of the grouping with `Super + Alt + G` or disassemble the entire group by hitting `Super + G` again. Finally, you can move windows outside the group into it with `Super + Alt + Arrows`. --- ### Popping windows You can pop a window out of its workspace allocation with `Super + O`. That'll pin it as a floating window that follows you on whatever workspace you go to. Great for video players and the like. ![popped-window.jpg](/u/popped-window-L8N3dk.jpg) --- ### Scratchpad workspace Finally, there's a special scratchpad workspace that overlays on whatever workspace you're currently on. You access what's on that using `Super + S` and you place windows there using `Super + Alt + S`. It works well for controls or perhaps a terminal that you quickly want to interact with in an overlay without leaving the current workspace. If you want to move a window off the scratchpad, you just move it directly to another workspace with something like `Super + Shift + 1` to move it to workspace 1. --- ### It takes some getting used to! It takes a little while to get used to navigating your desktop like this, but once you do, it'll be hard to go back to a traditional mouse-driven desktop experience!