# Desktop split screen
Source: https://docs.aden.space/docs/help/apps-integrations/desktop-split-screen

Up to five surfaces side by side in the desktop shell, opened by dragging any rail button or sidebar row onto the page, or by Alt-clicking a link, a row or a tab.
{/* Generated by `bun docs:publish` from docs/features/desktop-split-screen.md: edit the spec, not this file. */}

## What it is [#what-it-is]

The desktop window can show up to five things side by side. Hold Alt (Option
on a Mac) and click:

* a link inside the Aden web app: the page it points at opens beside the one
  you are reading, which stays where it was
* a page in the Links sidebar, or one of its pinned tiles: that page opens in
  a new pane at the end
* a surface in the rail: that surface opens in a new pane at the end

Or drag it there: pick up anything in the rail (System, Aden, Organisations,
Admin, Links and your pins) or a page in the Links sidebar, and drop it on
the page. A frosted outline shows where it lands before you let go, its label
marked with what the drop does (open here, replace, open beside, float):

* the middle of a pane replaces what it shows (on the main pane, it opens in
  place of the page)
* the left or right third of any pane, the main one included, opens a new
  pane on that side
* the band along the bottom of the page floats it: it opens in a phone-sized
  window right there, under the pointer. The band shows as soon as a drag
  starts ("Drop here to float"), so the zone is there to find

Press Escape mid-drag to call it off: the outline goes, and letting go drops
nothing.

A pinned app's chats open in a pane as that app's inbox, where a chat opens inside the pane with back to the list. A pinned file opens in its own app, so it only opens here. With five panes open,
a drop replaces one. Drag the dividers to resize.

Every extra pane has a header that names it, with back (where there is
history), float, open it in the main pane, and close. On a page, its address
sits beside the name, short (`instagram/mavesound`): click into it for the
full URL, type another (or on Aden a `/path`) and press Enter.
A Links page searches the web for anything that isn't an address. The same
works in a floating window's top bar.

**Floating windows.** Float lifts a pane out of the row into a window over
the page, like Slide Over on an iPad. It opens phone-sized at the right, so
a web page floats in its mobile layout. Its top bar is one line of frosted
glass: the name, back, "…" and close. Drag the bar to move the window,
resize it from any edge or corner, and double-click the bar to switch
between phone and tablet size. "…" zooms what it shows from 50% to 150%,
switches size, puts it back beside the page or opens it in the main pane.

**Out of the app.** A floating window can leave the app for a window of
its own: "Open in its own window" in "…", or drag it off the app's edge. It
slides off as you drag (a strip always stays in to grab); once most of it is
outside it dims, and letting go opens it right where it hangs, at its size,
fading in. Outside it still looks like a floating window: the same frost
(macOS's own), one bar that drags it, the rounded page under it. "…" there
puts it back into Aden as a floating window, and "Open in the main pane"
hands it to the app window. System stays inside.

**Back into the row.** Drag a floating window against the page's left or
right edge and the outline of a pane on that side shows; let go and it
docks there.

**Splits in the rail.** While a split is on screen, the rail shows it under
Links as its panes in a row of small tiles. Leave it for another surface and
it stays in the rail; click it to bring the whole split back. The rail keeps
the last four; right-click one to close it.