Repository: PowerToys
Issue: Sliding panes - Andy Matuschak
Labels: Idea-New PowerToy

### Description of the new feature / enhancement

**TLDR**; a sliding window management system for FancyZones similar to [this community plugin](https://github.com/deathau/sliding-panes-obsidian) for the Obsidian app for users who want the productivity boost that tiling can bring while keeping valuable screen real estate. With this, you no longer need to choose between _no screen space without minimizing_ and _ample screen space with messy windows_; you can have both.

I come from Obsidian.md where they offer a community plugin which organizes the window panes from within their app in a unique and really useful way. I haven't seen any other window manager do this other than in this app. Basically, the windows don't tile, they stack in a cascaded fashion with the focused window sliding over the others like a card in a deck. It's beautiful. I tried to set something similar up in FancyZones but it just doesn't work well. Super clunky with windows covering other windows, unable to find one of the windows in the 'deck', etc. The good news is this unique feature is already coded and done, it just needs to be applied to the windows window manager as an option in FancyZones. 

**How it might work:**

Go take a look at the [github page for the plugin I referenced](https://github.com/deathau/sliding-panes-obsidian). There is a video which perfectly demonstrates its usage. It might be difficult to implement the horizontal scroll bar, but you don't even need it because clicking on the window bar on the left of the window automagically moves the other windows out of the way with a really pretty animation. I'm unsure if moving the titlebars on the left of the window is easy or not, but it would complete the look, I think. Although this could easily work by just adding a thin clickable line to the window you want to focus, and the other cards just move out of the way (see the video). It really is beautiful and so clean.

It's a tall order but this would revolutionize windows window manager in my opinion. Not even Apple has thought of this and they're all about user experience. Windows 11 was a great step in the right direction but it needs more than some window snaps and a center bar. This would be a game changer.

### Scenario when this would be used?

**Why?**

Tiling allows you to work on many different windows at once, which is great for getting a lot done, but it can be distracting. For people who have many different programs open at once, but don't want to minimize or shrink their screen real estate with tiling, this works perfectly. It puts the focus on one window, and allows for easy access to the other windows.

### Supporting information

The plugin on obsidian has 160k downloads as of now, and that's just the Obsidian userbase. Andy Matuschak also uses this method in his notes website. 

If this was done like the sliding panes plugin, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to do it vertically as well. It could be extended even further too by allowing screen space for a sliding system as well as a static system. For example, sliding panes for the left 3/4 of the screen and the other 1/4 right can have pinned windows that don't slide.