Docs / Monitors
Monitor Management
BetterStage treats your entire multi-monitor setup as a single workspace. Stages span all connected displays, so switching a stage hides and shows windows on every monitor simultaneously.
Multi-Monitor Behavior
A stage is not tied to a single display. When you switch stages with Opt+1 through Opt+9, BetterStage hides every window belonging to the outgoing stage and reveals every window belonging to the incoming stage — across all monitors at once.
- Windows stay on the monitor where you placed them. Switching stages never moves a window to a different display.
- Tiling layouts (Bento Box) are computed per-monitor, so each display gets its own independent grid.
- Snap zones work on every connected monitor. Drag a window to the edge of any display to trigger a snap zone.
Hidden Window Parking
BetterStage hides inactive stage windows by moving them just outside a display instead of using macOS app hiding. Keeping parked windows near their own display usually makes stage switching, Bento Box changes, and Tabbed Layout tab switching faster on multi-monitor desks.
In macOS Display Settings, leave roughly 120 px of vertical clearance where displays meet. If the gap is too shallow, BetterStage may need to use the global hide corner instead.
- For best performance, arrange displays so each staged monitor has an open bottom-left or bottom-right corner with no neighboring monitor touching that corner.
- Leave about 120 px of clear vertical gap beside the bottom-left or bottom-right edge in macOS Display Settings when possible. Smaller offsets can still leak a hidden window's rounded corner or shadow, so BetterStage treats those as unsafe and uses another parking spot.
- Turn Use local hide corners when possible on in Settings > General > Hidden Window Parking to use the optional faster parking mode and keep hidden windows near their owning display. Turn it off to use the legacy global hide corner on the rightmost display.
If every local corner would visibly leak a hidden window, BetterStage falls back to the legacy global hide corner on the rightmost display.
Pinned DisplaysPro
Sometimes you want a monitor to stay untouched — a dedicated reference screen, a video call display, or a monitoring dashboard. You can pin individual monitors so they remain visible across all stages.
- Open Settings > Displays.
- Click a display in the layout preview or choose Pinned in the per-display controls.
- Windows on pinned monitors remain visible regardless of which stage is active.
Unpinned displays are staged: they follow stage switches and only show the current workspace. Pinned displays stay visible all the time. When you pin a display, BetterStage merges its windows into one always-visible workspace. When you unpin it, BetterStage re-attaches those windows back into stage management.
Display ID Persistence
BetterStage tracks displays using a stable hardware identity, not just the temporary display ID assigned by macOS. This helps monitor settings survive disconnects, reconnects, sleep/wake cycles, and port changes.
- Unplug a monitor, reconnect it, and your settings are restored automatically.
- BetterStage uses display model, serial, resolution, and position to recognize a monitor even when macOS assigns a new display ID.
- In rare cases where a display cannot be matched confidently, you may need to reconfigure that monitor in Settings.
Display Layout Memory
BetterStage remembers stage layouts and display identities across the monitor arrangements you use — laptop on its own, docked to a single external, docked to a multi-monitor desk setup, and so on. Workspace Continuity restores the matching stages, windows, and per-display layouts after that arrangement settles.
Wake and Reconnect Behavior
Workspace Continuity in v1.3.0 waits for the Mac's display topology to settle, then restores the latest local checkpoint. This covers app restart, wake from sleep, docking, undocking, and display reconnects.
What happens today:
- Wake from sleep— BetterStage resumes restores stages, window positions, and layouts from the latest checkpoint.
- Display disconnected— macOS may move its workspace is preserved in the Offline Display Shelf instead of being flattened into a remaining display.
- Display reconnected— the display is matched by hardware identity and its workspace returns automatically.
Recovery is automatic and stored locally. Open Settings > Workspaces to review automatic recovery options or manage named Saved Workspaces.
Missing Monitor Behavior
If a monitor disconnects while you're working, BetterStage creates an Offline Display Shelf entry that preserves the missing display's stages, window membership, and layout ownership.
From the Stages Bar you can:
- Wait for reconnection and let BetterStage restore the display automatically when it returns.
- Move the offline workspace to a connected display if the missing display will not return.
Returned Monitor Behavior
When a previously missing monitor reconnects, BetterStage identifies it from hardware details and restores its staged or pinned display setting. It no longer shows a Move Back / Keep Stage recovery dialog.
- Staged displays rejoin normal stage switching.
- Pinned displays stay visible across stages again as soon as BetterStage recognizes the monitor.
Workspace Continuity restores the display's prior stages, window membership, and layouts from the protected offline workspace.
Hot-Plugging
BetterStage detects monitor connect and disconnect events in real time. There is no need to restart the app when you plug in or remove a display.
- Monitor connected: BetterStage picks up the new display, restores any saved settings for its display ID, and begins managing windows on it.
- Monitor disconnected: Windows that were on the removed display are reassigned to remaining monitors by macOS. BetterStage updates its internal state and continues managing the active displays.
- Tiling layouts are recalculated automatically when the monitor configuration changes.