Pane layouts

On a computer, one tab can hold several terminals side by side. ZestSSH shares the tab’s room between them by itself, and keeps the arrangement you make. The Layout button in the session header picks one of 19 arrangements for 1 to 8 terminals.

Layouts are a computer feature (Windows, macOS, Linux). On a tablet or an unfolded phone, see Split terminal.

The automatic grid

A tab nobody arranged stands in a grid that grows with it:

Terminals in the tab	Grid
1 to 3	One row, side by side
4 to 8	Two rows
9 or more	Three rows

The upper rows take the odd ones: five terminals stand three on top and two below, each as wide as the next in its row. When a terminal joins the tab or leaves it, the grid is made again for the new number, so no pane ends up a sliver because it came last.

A terminal joins a tab when you drag it onto the tab, drop one tab on another, or open hosts together with Broadcast to hosts (see Broadcast).

Undo combined tabs

Dropping one tab on another combines them into one tab, and so does Merge same-color tabs in a tab’s right-click menu (for tabs you gave the same color). A notice says “Combined into one tab” (or, for a color group, how many tabs were merged) with Undo for 5 seconds. Undo puts every tab back as it was, with its own arrangement. The sessions are not touched either way.

To split a pane, right-click the tab and choose Split right or Split down, or press Ctrl+Shift+D or Ctrl+Shift+E. The new pane opens another session to the same host, beside or below the pane you split, and the panes share the room evenly again.

What you arranged is kept

Once you change a tab yourself, for example by dragging a divider or picking an arrangement, the tab is yours:

• A divider you moved stays where you put it while panes come and go elsewhere. It is kept with its tab, also when ZestSSH reopens your tabs after a restart (Auto-restore previous sessions, in Settings > General, on by default).
• Double-click a divider to share its two sides evenly again.
• A terminal that joins joins the way your arrangement grows: a row gets longer, a stack taller, the shortest row of a grid gets one more, and beside a large pane the stack gets one more.
• An empty place to connect in your arrangement is filled first.

A divider can be dragged until either side has 15% of the room. Opening or closing SFTP moves no divider: SFTP shows in its own panel, not as a pane.

To put a tab back in its grid, choose Automatic in the Layout menu.

Pick an arrangement

1. Open the tab.
2. In the session header, choose Layout (“Arrange the panes of this tab”).
3. Choose a picture.

The menu follows how many terminals the tab has:

• Automatic first, from two terminals on: the grid above.
• Then the arrangements that hold exactly the tab’s terminals. The one that is the same as the automatic grid is not offered twice.
• Under With room for more, arrangements with up to three panes more than the tab has terminals. Their spare panes are places to connect a host.

The arrangement the tab stands in is marked. An arrangement with fewer panes than the tab has terminals is never offered: choosing one would hide terminals.

The command palette lists the same choices under Layout: Automatic and the arrangements that hold exactly the tab’s terminals.

The arrangements

Panes	Arrangements
1	Single
2	Side by side, Stacked
3	3 columns, 3 rows, 1 + 2 (a large pane on the left, two stacked on the right), 2 + 1 (two stacked on the left, a large pane on the right)
4	2×2 grid, 4 columns, 1 + 3 (a large pane beside a stack of three)
5	3 + 2 (three on top, two below), 2 + 3 (two on top, three below), 1 + 4 (a pane beside a 2×2 grid)
6	3×2 grid (two rows of three), 2×3 grid (three rows of two)
7	4 + 3 (four on top, three below), 3 + 4 (three on top, four below)
8	4×2 grid (two rows of four), 2×4 grid (four rows of two)

The Inspector

Beside the panes, Inspector in the session header (“Details and tools for this session”, or Ctrl+Shift+I) opens a panel about the session that has the keyboard. It has three tabs:

• Session: under Connection, the host, its address, what it signed in with, and the network, route and port forwards in use; under Status, the state, since when, the latency and the data received; under Load, the host’s CPU, memory, disk and load average while Server monitor watches it (“Server Monitor is not watching this host” otherwise); under Details, the protocol, the key exchange, the cipher and the host key.
• Tools: under For this host, the snippets whose default host is this host or a host in its folder, then the ones you run most (Often used), with Search snippets for the rest. Under Recent here, the commands run on this host: click one to put it at the prompt (“Put it at the prompt; press Enter to run it”), or use Run again (a risky command asks first) or copy it. History opens the History page on this host. Under Port forwards, this host’s forwards with Start and Stop, and + Add.
• Look: the terminal’s Font size, Cursor and Colors, with Match terminal to app theme. These are the app’s own settings, so they change every session. See Terminal fonts and App themes.

While command history is off on this device, Recent here says “Command history is off on this device”, with Turn on.

Free plan

The Free plan opens up to 4 sessions at once on a computer. The Layout menu also shows the arrangements for five, faint and with a lock, and under them More layouts with Squeezed. Choosing a locked arrangement, or that line, opens the upgrade page. Squeezed has no session limit (see pricing). A split that would go past your plan’s limit is not made, and ZestSSH says so.

Limits

• Splitting stops at 8 panes: “Maximum 8 panes reached. Close one or open a new tab.” The automatic grid has no such limit for terminals that join a tab in other ways.
• The automatic grid does not look at the window’s shape. A tall window gets the same rows as a wide one; pick Stacked or 3 rows where you want them.
• No layout keys. Ctrl+Alt with a digit arranges nothing in this version. Use the Layout menu or the command palette.
• Maximizing a pane (Ctrl+Shift+M, or Maximize focused pane in the command palette) shows that pane alone, and stops the tab’s broadcast, since only one terminal is then on screen. The same key, or Restore pane layout, brings the others back.

Next steps

• Workspaces to save your open tabs with their layouts and reopen them with their hosts.
• Broadcast to type into all the terminals of a tab at once.