IDEA for windows collect and resize

[r2]

a utility app for Windows. i would think very easy to create, and i know i would donate to have it.
with "im" chat windows being so widely used, i find 3 or 4 open all the time. it would be really nice to have a small ctrl+click app to
resize and line up all open im windows, or for that matter any window selected.

simply hold ctrl key, click on all open windows to select, and have them all line up next to each other ON SAME MONITOR in a line and automaticly resize to fit in the line when the key is released.
if anyone wants to try this one, contact me, ill beta it and work with.

thanks all!
r2

[MilesAhead]

Have you looked at this free program?

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/Windows-Layout-Manager.shtml

I haven't tried it myself but from the description it sounds like you could arrange things how you want and save the layout.

Also NirCmd has a 'win' command you can use to move windows around and resize them.  It would probably take some experimentation with partial window title matches to tune a batch file to move however many matching windows were open.. but it might work.

Also there's bound to be other freeware similar on Softpedia if you search. Window placement utilities are one of the more common freewares I would guess.

[r2]

nothing like what im talking about out there yet.
i don't want a resizer, or a save position or a programmable one touch layout kind of function, i want a "snap to" kinda tool.

i want to highlight or encompass several im windows at once, whether live or background, and when the mouse button or hotkey is let go, have the selected windows all snap to one target monitor and automatically resize to fit in a line or 2 at the set resolution of that monitor. there should be an options system incorporated into the app that allows user choice of which monitor is the target, what hotkey to use, whether to line horz or vert, and to make 1 row or 2 rows. and the app should know how big to draw all the windows at target resolution so no matter how many windows are open, 3, 5 or 8, all will be the same size and lined up straight and square. the app needs to determine the size of the windows to get them to fit on the target screen at any given resolution. so obviously, 3 windows will be bigger than 7 windows, but all will be same size and lined up. then the user can click on any window to return it to active as need be.

if you use a multi monitor system in windows, like me, (i use 3), and have several chats open at once, (normally at least 4) they tend to get placed everywhere across all monitors. they tend to open randomly across 3 monitors, sometimes taking up valuable screen real estate. i find myself frequently doing this manually to free up monitor space for other things. though it is very easy to drag windows onto one monitor, line them up and resize them one at a time, it would be a lot nicer to do it with one click. lets say: hold ctrl, touch each window with cursor and when key is let up, boom, all at once.

but hey, thanks for the response. at least i know someone read my post.

[MilesAhead]

I would look here and see if anyone has something close. You may be able to use their source as a starting point:

http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=ef355b4c0c4b8232d717df7a10821c54

Generally unless something is just an explorer window, I'm not a believer in resizing other people's program windows.  Often the controls turn into a mess, or they ignore size messages anyway(perhaps with the exception of editors and browsers which tend to expect to be sized to user preference. But often dialog based apps you'll end up with the controls occupying the same area if you size it larger, with just a colored panel out to the window border.  Looks really stupid.)

If there are free grid/resize/reposition apps around they should be on AutoHotKey forum or perhaps AutoIt3 scripts:

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/forum/9-example-scripts/

Also I don't see the functional difference between laying out how you want a bunch of messenger windows and saving the layout with a rules based program that will duplicate the result when the windows are present, and hitting a hotkey that calculates it.  Seems to be a distinction without a difference.