A layout combinator that sends a specified number of windows to one rectangle and the rest to another. Each of these rectangles are given a layout that is used within them. This can be chained to provide an arbitrary number of rectangles. The layout combinator allows overlapping rectangles, but such layouts does not work well together with hinting (XMonad.Layout.LayoutHints, XMonad.Layout.HintedGrid etc.)

You can use this module with the following in your xmonad.hs:

import XMonad.Layout.LayoutBuilder

Then edit your layoutHook by adding something like:

myLayout = ( (layoutN 1 (relBox 0 0 0.5 1) (Just $ relBox 0 0 1 1) $ simpleTabbed)
            $ (layoutAll (relBox 0.5 0 1 1)                         $ simpleTabbed)
            ) |||
            ( (layoutN 1       (relBox (1/3) 0 (1/2) 1) (Just $ relBox 0 0 1 1) $ Tall 0 0.01 0.5)
            $ (layoutR 0.1 0.5 (relBox (2/3) 0 1     1) Nothing                 $ Tall 0 0.01 0.5)
            $ (layoutAll       (relBox 0     0 (1/3) 1)                         $ Tall 0 0.01 0.5)
            ) |||
            ( (layoutN 1 (absBox (-512-200) 0 512        0) (Just $ relBox 0 0 1 1) $ simpleTabbed)
            $ (layoutN 1 (absBox (-200)     0 0          0) Nothing                 $ simpleTabbed)
            $ (layoutAll (absBox 0          0 (-512-200) 0)                         $ simpleTabbed)
            ) |||
            ( (layoutN 1 (absBox 10 0 0 (-10)) Nothing $ Tall 0 0.01 0.5)
            $ (layoutN 1 (absBox 0 0 200 0) Nothing $ Tall 0 0.01 0.5)
            $ (layoutAll (absBox 10 10 0 0) $ Tall 2 0.01 0.5)
            ) ||| Full ||| etc...
main = xmonad def { layoutHook = myLayout }

This will produce a layout similar to DragPane, but with the possibility to have multiple windows in the left half and tabs that show the available windows. It will also produce a layout similar to ThreeColMid and a special layout created for use with a 80 columns wide Emacs window, its sidebar and a tabbed area for all other windows.

The final layout is for applications that use a toolbar in a separate window, shown on a low resolution screen. It has a master area that cover almost the whole screen. It leaves 10 px to the left and 10 px at the bottom. To the left the toolbar is located and can be accessed by focusing this area. It is actually 200 px wide, but usually below the other windows. Similarly all other windows are tiled, but behind the master window and can be accessed by moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen. Everything can also be accessed by the standard focus changing key bindings.

This module can be used to create many different custom layouts, but there are limitations. The primary limitation can be observed in the second and third example when there are only two columns with windows in them. The leftmost area is left blank. These blank areas can be avoided by placing the rectangles appropriately.

These examples require XMonad.Layout.Tabbed.

For more detailed instructions on editing the layoutHook see the tutorial and XMonad.Doc.Extending.

You may wish to add the following keybindings:

   , ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_h ), sendMessage $ IncLayoutN (-1))
   , ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_l ), sendMessage $ IncLayoutN 1)

For detailed instruction on editing the key binding see:

the tutorial.

Predicate exists because layouts are required to be serializable, and XMonad.Util.WindowProperties is not sufficient (for example it does not allow using regular expressions).

compare XMonad.Util.Invisible