---
url: https://among-terminal.github.io/features.md
---

# Features in practice

Among Terminal keeps native VTE terminals in a single GNOME window. This guide
connects each everyday control to a real demonstration and its detailed reference.
The recordings use synthetic projects; zsh, Starship, `ll`, `mc` and `htop` are
demo tools, not software installed or configured by Among Terminal.

[Full-length overview videos](/overview/) ·
[Default shortcuts](/shortcuts/)

## Split and resize terminals

Press **Ctrl+Shift+N** to split the focused pane. A wide pane splits side by side;
a tall pane splits top to bottom. Repeat to build a nested layout with separate
shells, for example a project listing, file manager and process monitor.

Drag a divider to allocate more space, or use **Ctrl+Shift+Right** to grow the
focused pane and **Ctrl+Shift+Left** to shrink it. Resizing keeps the terminals
running rather than starting replacement shells.

[![Separate live terminals running ll, mc and htop](/media/features/02-split-resize.png)](/media/features/02-split-resize.mp4)

**Demonstrations:** [split panes](/media/features/02-split-resize.mp4) ·
[keyboard resize](/media/features/02b-keyboard-resize.mp4) ·
[mouse resize](/media/features/02c-mouse-resize.mp4).

## Rearrange panes without restarting tools

Drag a **pane header**, not terminal text, onto another pane's edge. Left/right
edges place panes side by side; top/bottom edges stack them. The drop indicator
previews the destination. The moved terminal retains its process and focus;
dragging inside terminal text still selects text.

[![Moving a live pane by its header](/media/features/03-pane-drag.png)](/media/features/03-pane-drag.mp4)

[Pane movement and drop rules](/panes/#dragging-a-pane-to-a-new-position).

## Focus, zoom and fullscreen

* Click a terminal or its header to focus it; **Alt+Arrow** moves between panes.
* **Ctrl+Shift+X** expands the focused pane to fill its workspace. Press again to
  recover the same nested layout; hidden panes keep running.
* **F11** enters or leaves fullscreen. Normal startup is maximized, not fullscreen.

[![Zooming a pane while preserving the workspace layout](/media/features/04b-zoom.png)](/media/features/04b-zoom.mp4)

**Demonstrations:** [focus](/media/features/04-focus.mp4) ·
[zoom and restore](/media/features/04b-zoom.mp4) ·
[fullscreen](/media/features/04c-fullscreen.mp4).

## Organize projects into workspaces

Use the header's **New workspace** button or **Ctrl+Shift+T**. Double-click its
sidebar name to rename it: **Enter** accepts, **Escape** cancels, and empty names
are rejected. Each workspace has a colour marker and a live terminal count.

Click a sidebar entry, use **Alt+1…9**, or cycle with **Ctrl+PageUp/PageDown**.
Inactive workspaces keep their terminals and processes running. The sidebar
collapse button reduces the list to a strip: colours and counts remain visible,
and every workspace remains reachable.

[![Renaming and switching between Atlas and Orbit](/media/features/05-workspaces.png)](/media/features/05-workspaces.mp4)

**Demonstrations:** [create, rename and switch](/media/features/05-workspaces.mp4) ·
[collapse and expand the sidebar](/media/features/05b-sidebar.mp4).

## Clipboard, links and pane actions

Right-click a terminal, or press **Shift+F10** in the focused terminal, to open
its native menu. In mouse-reporting programs, use **Shift+right-click**; an
ordinary right-click still goes to the program. Menu actions belong to the pane
that requested them, including when another pane was previously focused.

**Copy** copies that pane's selected text; without selection it is disabled.
**Paste** uses VTE's normal text-paste handling, including bracketed paste when
requested by the terminal program; without a clipboard text format it is disabled.
**Select All** selects available terminal text and scrollback, not other panes.
Copy/Paste availability follows selection and clipboard changes even while the
menu is open. Pasting sends text to the program: it is not session command replay,
but a shell can interpret pasted newlines, so only paste text you trust.

Pointer-opened menus can offer **Copy Link** and **Open Link** for explicit
hyperlinks and plain absolute **http**, **https** and **mailto** URLs. An explicit
hyperlink takes precedence over its displayed text. Other valid explicit schemes
are copy-only; malformed, control-containing or oversized targets are not offered.
Keyboard-opened menus omit link entries rather than reuse an old pointer target.
Open Link requests the desktop handler asynchronously, never a shell command;
handler failure shows an error while the terminal remains usable.

**Split Pane**, **Expand/Restore Pane** and **Close Terminal** reuse the existing
pane controls. Their shortcut hints follow Settings, and removing a shortcut does
not disable its menu action. Arrow keys navigate, Enter activates, and Escape
returns to terminal input. No context-menu recording is included in the videos.

[Detailed menu and pane rules](/panes/#terminal-context-menu).

## Optional live status plugins

After [installing the examples](/plugins/#installing), open **Settings** with
**Ctrl+,** and select **Plugins**. All three examples are disabled by default;
enable only the ones you want. Switches apply immediately and persist on restart.

| Plugin | Where it appears | What it reports |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `clock` | Right application footer | Local time, including seconds |
| `system-status` | Application header | CPU, memory and root-filesystem usage, with percentages and meters |
| `pane-pwd` | Each pane footer | That pane's known directory; the tooltip contains the full path |

Directory changes need your shell to publish **OSC 7**; installing Starship alone
does not supply it. Unknown directories are not replaced with another pane's
path. Resource readings describe the plugin's process/mount namespace, which may
differ from the whole host in a sandbox. Plugins run as separate processes, but
that is fault isolation, not a security sandbox: install only trusted code.

[![Toggling clock, resource meters and pane directories in Settings](/media/features/06-plugins.png)](/media/features/06-plugins.mp4)

[Live status and directory integration](/plugins/#live-status-examples) ·
[Third-party plugin protocol](/plugin-development/#protocol).

## Restore a layout, not yesterday's commands

On a new launch with a saved session, choose **Restore** or **Start new**.
Restoration recovers workspace names, colours, nested splits, focus and known
directories, including inactive workspaces. Every terminal starts a **fresh
shell**: commands, running tools and scrollback are not replayed.

The demonstration restores four shells in different project directories, then
manually runs `ll`. Changed directories require shell OSC 7 reporting even if
the directory plugin is disabled. Missing directories fall back to an accessible
home/startup directory and are reported in Settings. Storage failures are visible
and retryable; recent changes can be lost after a crash.

[![Choosing Restore and reopening separate project directories](/media/features/07-session-restore.png)](/media/features/07-session-restore.mp4)

[Session consent, storage and recovery limits](/sessions/).

## Close a pane and keep working

**Ctrl+Shift+W** closes the focused pane and its process. The sibling that fills
the space receives focus, so the next keystrokes reach a surviving terminal.
Closing a workspace's last pane closes that workspace; the final workspace asks
for confirmation before the application exits. Closing a pane can end a running
job: this is not a detach operation.

[![Closing one pane and typing ll in its surviving sibling](/media/features/08-close-pane.png)](/media/features/08-close-pane.mp4)

[Closing, process exit and focus rules](/panes/#closing-and-exiting).

## Appearance and preferences

The native interface supports light and dark styling. Shell prompts and terminal
colours are configured separately; Among Terminal does not import GNOME Terminal
profiles.

[![The terminal listing in light and dark appearance](/media/features/01-themes.png)](/media/features/01-themes.mp4)

In **Settings → Keyboard**, select an action and press a new shortcut, or use
**Escape** to remove its binding. Changes take effect without restarting and are
saved together with explicit unbinding. Save failures leave the current edit
active for this session and show a warning; a later edit retries saving.

Shortcut editing and storage recovery are documented but are not demonstrated
in these clips. See [shortcut controls](/shortcuts/) and
[preference persistence](/preferences/).

The written instructions explain each action without requiring video playback.
Demonstrations show native X11 behaviour; they do not establish support for
untested platforms or assistive technologies.