Maybe check out the Gnome extension Forge, if you want tiling, but not all in
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Sway is basically i3 but for Wayland, so guides for i3 may be somewhat helpful for you.
The man page is probably also worth a read: https://man.archlinux.org/man/sway.5
Short version: Sway/i3 doesn't merely allow you to control your WM via hotkeys, it requires you to. Unless you know/have configured the hotkeys for opening a terminal or an application launcher, you won't be able to do anything. As such, you are looking for a guide on how to configure Sway, rather than on how to use it. Once you know how to configure Sway, actually using it should be immediately obvious.
i remember in one case sway didn't autogen its config for me, so I had to get it myself
I think the default mod key is the 'super' key (formerly known as the windows key). It might be alt actually, I don't remember. Super + 1-9 switches between workspaces, which hold your windows. Shift + super + 1-9 moves a window to another workspace. you can find more key bindings by viewing $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sway/config (or wherever config files go on your system).
Here's some useful defaults for Sway: (the default mod key is meta, aka the windows key)
- Mod+d: open application menu
- Mod+arrows: switch active windows
- Mod+shift+arrows: move window (rearrange within a screen, or move between screens)
- Mod+1-9: switches workspaces
- Mod+shift+1-9: moves active window to that workspace (does not activate that workspace)
- Mod+space: make the window a regular floating window. Using Mod+arrows on a window that's floating will move that window (I think) 10 pixels at a time. You can also drag this window around with the mouse.
Lay-out:
- Mod+w: tabbed lay-out
- Mod+e: split lay-out (default)
- Mod+s: stacking lay-out
When using split lay-out (these take a little getting used to):
- Mod+b: split the current "container" horizontally
- Mod+v: split vertically
Placing windows next to each other will put them in a "group" together, which you can see by them sharing the same blue title bar thing. Using these shortcuts changes how the windows in the group are represented.
I found getting windows in/out of the group I want, and especially splitting and re-arranging groups within groups, to be a little unpredictable, but after using Sway for a while you do get used to it.
Forgot one thing: that top bar is also entirely configurable. It's called waybar, and you can find the docs here: https://github.com/Alexays/Waybar/wiki/Configuration
Pretty much everything in Sway is configurable, as most of it is just written in a config file. You can use different application launchers (fuzzel, for example), you can add a notification centre like swaync, or just customise waybar with whatever modules you want. I think you can even switch out waybar for something else, but I haven't tried that myself.