Pop-out windows

Retired. The Command Center has been replaced by the workspace surface: split panes, tabs and the right panel inside each workspace. It no longer has a menu entry or shortcut. See Keyboard shortcuts for moving between workspaces, tabs and panes.

A Command Center group can be popped out into its own native desktop window. Use this on a multi-monitor setup so each monitor shows a different group of layouts.

How to pop out

In the main window, with the group active, click the pop-out icon at the right end of the toolbar (the arrow-out-of-box icon). A new native window opens, owned by that group.

The popped-out window:

• Shows only the popped group’s chip and its layout tabs.
• Has no + Group button and no pop-out icon (only the main window can spawn new groups or pop more out).
• Can still add, rename, delete, and reorder layouts inside the group it owns.

Back in the main window, the popped-out group is shown as inactive and the main pane displays a placeholder card explaining the group is open elsewhere — with a Focus window button that brings the popped window forward.

Bringing it back

Close the popped-out window. The group rejoins the main window automatically with the same layouts intact.

Why a single owner

Layouts and pin state are shared, but only one window is the active editor for a given group at a time. This avoids two windows fighting over which tab is active or where a tile lives in a split. The non-owning window shows the placeholder so it’s obvious where to go to keep editing.

Tips

• Pop out the group you want pinned to a second monitor and let the main monitor cycle between other groups.
• Layouts inside the popped group still persist normally — close the window, reopen it later, the layouts are exactly where you left them.
• Pop-out is desktop-only. The portal opens layouts in regular browser tabs/windows; that’s a different mechanism.

Related topics

• Groups and layouts
• Mosaic and mini-chat