States. Why?

[oblivion]

One area of the Toolbox I don't use right now is States.

I don't really struggle to understand what it can do; seems quite clever, if potentially a little scary.

What I don't understand, really, is why I'd want to use it.

The video shows flipping between a game and a few open windows but I'd be more interested in kind of real world examples of how this feature might be used by people... So are there any real world use cases, perhaps?

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

It's for opening a set of apps and their windows at specific positions and parameters, and optionally some PC specs as well. So you could (for example) open Firefox on one monitor at a specific position, and Calculator at the bottom-right of another monitor at 75% transparency and always on top, with the PC audio volume set to 50%, and the clipboard cleared of all content. All from a single hotkey press for that state. And as you guessed, you can have as many states as needed to set up your daily workflow like that.

[GCRedditor136]

I use States just to position my app windows, rather than launch and position them. I just right-click the system tray icon of Toolbox and pick the state to restore. Each state has only "Restore layouts of listed items" checked, with the other options unchecked. Makes it quick and simple to move everything where I want them.

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

GCRedditor136: You don't actually need States to do that. In the "Automation" tab is the "Action Wizard" button at top-left. Click it and select "Save window states(s) > All current windows". This will create an action that restores those window positions in future from whatever trigger you like, such as a hotkey.



As you can see below, the windows of "Notepad" and "Calculator" have been saved by the wizard, for restoration that way.

[Bazza]

How did I never see this before? But it looks like it doesn't include each window's volume level? Can that be added?

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

It's been added for the next update, Bazza.

[GCRedditor136]

I totally overlooked the Action Wizard option to save all window states. Thanks for the heads-up, Paul.