Desktop tour

The Singularity desktop keeps the screen quiet. Two things are always present: a thin panel at the top and a dock at the bottom. Everything else appears when you ask for it.

The panel

The panel runs along the top edge. On the left you will find the active app and a way into the overview. The center holds the global menu, the menus for the app you are using. The right side has a compact cluster for network, sound and battery, a clock, and notifications. The clock can show 12-hour or 24-hour time.

The panel stays out of the way. It can run flat, taking on a solid background, and it does so on its own when a window is maximized, then goes transparent again when the screen is clear. It also hides entirely for fullscreen windows. If you prefer one less bar, the panel can fuse into the dock and become a single element. See the dock.

The overview and the launcher

Press Super and Space to open the overview: your apps and running windows in one place, with search at the top. The search there is the deep one, finding apps, your files, and even the answer to a quick calculation. The launcher itself comes in two styles, a fullscreen grid or a compact menu, so you can choose how much it takes over the screen.

For launching by name without the overview, there is Spotlight. Both the workspace overview and the launcher can be opened and closed with four-finger touchpad gestures, with their content following the movement before it settles.

Workspaces

Press Super and W for the workspace overview, a grid of your workspaces with the windows on each. Workspaces can be dynamic, created and removed as you need them, or a fixed number you set yourself.

Windows

Windows get rounded corners by default, which drop away when a window is maximized or tiled. Optional tiling can use a fixed grid or a horizontal strip that moves past the screen edge. In scrolling mode, three fingers move through the columns, windows can share a column, and a panel indicator shows your place in the strip. See Scrolling tiling for the full layout and its controls. The app switcher can show as a vertical list or a grid of icons.

Press Super and D to reveal the desktop. Current windows move toward the screen edges without being minimized, leaving their edges available for restoring the layout. A four-finger pinch controls the same action directly.

Hot corners

Pushing the pointer into a screen corner triggers an action. Each of the four corners can be set to open the workspaces, open the overview, open settings, or do nothing. By default the top-left opens the workspaces and the top-right opens settings.

Multiple monitors

The panel and the dock can each appear on every monitor or just one, and you can choose which monitor hosts the shell’s windows when you have more than one.