RibbonA window manager for ultrawide monitors on Mac
On an ultrawide display, halves are too wide and the middle is the only comfortable spot. How a scrolling window manager uses the width on a Mac.
By Chethan Kumar S N · Updated
An ultrawide monitor gives you an enormous amount of width, and macOS doesn’t do much with it. A maximised window is far too wide to read. Two halves are each still the size of a normal monitor. And anything at the far left or right edge means turning your head.
What works on an ultrawide is columns: three or four windows side by side, each a sensible reading width, with the one you’re working in near the middle.
Why halves and quarters don’t fit
macOS’s built-in tiling, and snapping apps like Rectangle, think in halves and quarters. On a 34-inch 21:9 display, half the screen is roughly as wide as a whole 24-inch monitor. That’s too wide for a document or a code editor. Quarters fix the width but halve the height. Thirds help, but you still place every window by hand, and new windows still open on top.
Columns on a strip
A scrolling window manager gives every window a full-height column on a strip, and the screen shows as many columns as fit. On an ultrawide, that’s three or four at once:
- ⌃⌥R cycles the focused column between ⅓, ½ and ⅔ of the screen. Three ⅓ columns fill an ultrawide perfectly.
- ⌃⌥C centres the focused window, so whatever you’re working on can sit right in front of you instead of at the edge.
- ⌃⌥F fills the screen for a moment, and puts it back when you press it again.
- New windows open beside the one you’re in. The others stay exactly as they are.
When you open a fifth window, the strip runs past the edge of the screen instead of squeezing everything. Swipe or press ⌃⌥ ← → to slide along.
Ultrawide plus a laptop
Many people use an ultrawide with a MacBook open beside it. In Ribbon, every display has its own strip, its own focus and its own scroll. Moving past the end of one strip carries on to the next display, ⌃⌥N sends a window to the other display, and you can switch Ribbon off for any display, for example to keep the laptop screen floating for chat and music.
Getting set up
- Install Ribbon and grant Accessibility access.
- Open three apps on the ultrawide and press ⌃⌥R on each until they’re ⅓ wide.
- Use ⌃⌥C to bring the one you’re working in to the centre.
Ribbon runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple silicon, with a 7-day free trial, then $15 once.
Questions
How do I split an ultrawide monitor on a Mac?
macOS's own tiling only does halves and quarters, which are too wide on an ultrawide. A window manager gives you columns instead: with Ribbon, each window is a column at ⅓, ½ or ⅔ of the screen, so three windows side by side is a ⌃⌥R away.
Does Ribbon work with an ultrawide monitor and a laptop screen together?
Yes. Every display has its own strip, its own focus and its own scroll. Swiping or pressing ⌃⌥ → past the end carries on to the next display, and you can switch Ribbon off for any display.
Ready? Buy Ribbon for $15, or read all the guides.