Workspaces in Cinnamon: the defaults, and a layout for each one

A layout per workspace.

Workspaces are the oldest way to keep a desktop tidy: four screens, each with its own windows. What Cinnamon does not do is let those screens look different from each other. Here are the defaults — and how to put a different layout on every workspace.

workspace 1 · one window

workspace 2 · main + list

workspace 3 · editor + two

What Cinnamon gives you.

Defaults in Cinnamon 6.x, read from Cinnamon's own settings schemas.

Four workspacesCreated up front, not on demand. The settings schema allows up to 36, and Cinnamon's own workspace settings are in System Settings → Workspaces.

SwitchCtrlAlt+←/→ moves to the workspace next door.

Take the window alongCtrlAltShift+←/→ sends the focused window over and follows it.

Jump directlyThe numbered shortcuts are unbound by default; assign Super+1…4 in the keyboard settings and you never cycle again.

See where you areThe workspace switcher applet in the panel, and the workspace name that can be flashed on screen while switching.

Expo and ScaleAn overview of all workspaces, or of the windows on the current one. Both reachable from the hot corners, which ship switched off.

What workspaces do not do.

A workspace is a place, not a plan. Everything about how the windows are arranged inside it is the result of what you did by hand, and it belongs to the session rather than to the workspace:

No arrangement of its own. Move a window in workspace 2, and workspaces 1 and 3 do not know or care.

Nothing arrives ready. Switch to an empty workspace and the screen is empty. The first two windows still land wherever the applications put them.

The half-tiling is manual, too. Super+arrows pushes one window at a time — see what Cinnamon does on its own.

Nothing carries over. Every workspace, every day, one window at a time.

If that is exactly how you like it, you are finished here. If your three workspaces are "writing", "browsing" and "chat", each with a shape you keep rebuilding, the rest of this page is for you.

A layout per workspace.

greenTile keeps its settings per monitor and per workspace: preset, auto state, remembered borders. Workspace 1 can be one wide column while workspace 2 is a main window with a list beside it and workspace 3 stays free for floating windows.

Install greenTile from the release zip, restart Cinnamon, enable it in the Extensions manager.

Open the preset panel on the workspace you are setting up: SuperCtrlP. Pick one of the sixteen starters or paint your own on the 6 × 4 grid.

Assign the preset to the monitor and workspace. Switch to the next workspace and repeat — the panel always edits the workspace you are on.

Turn auto mode on for the workspaces that should look after themselves: SuperCtrlA on, SuperCtrlD off. Leave a workspace without auto mode and it stays a free surface for windows you place by hand.

Work normally. Switch between workspaces as you always did; each one brings its own arrangement with it.

That is the part no window manager shortcut can do for you: the workspace remembers the shape of your work, not just the windows you left there. A monitor that gets replugged or a Cinnamon that gets restarted finds its assignment again and puts the windows back in the order you left them.

Extensions that help with workspaces.

Not tiling, but the same corner of the desktop. All three are in the Spices catalogue.

auto-move-windows

Apps find their workspace

Moves applications to specific workspaces when they create windows, so your browser opens on workspace 2 by itself.

declared for Cinnamon 4.0 – 5.6

RearrangeWorkspaces

Reorder them

Rearranges the workspaces themselves and takes their windows along — handy when the busy one ended up fourth.

declared for Cinnamon 5.4

workspace-scroller

Scroll to switch

Switches workspaces when you scroll with the mouse at the screen edge.

declared for Cinnamon 2.4 – 4.4

The compatibility column is worth a second look: these three were written before Cinnamon 6 and still declare older versions. They generally keep working, but they are not maintained for current releases. More on the state of the catalogue in the tiling extension overview.