i3 FAQ - Individual question feedhttps://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Sat, 05 Jul 2014 03:27:19 +0000How to force a panel to remain openhttps://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/If it's in the doc, I missed it; the same if it's intended to not be possible. Whenever I close the application in a pan, the pan closes and the other is resized. Say sometime a pan is just temporarily empty and another application is to be opened in there later. To avoid visual disturbance of unstable layout, how do I force the pan to remain open so that the screen layout does not change? I though using a container application may be the way, while I'm afraid this is more easily said than done. Note: I don't consider this issue as a big matter, rather as a cool plus.Thu, 03 Jul 2014 22:09:58 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/Answer by joepd for <p>If it's in the doc, I missed it; the same if it's intended to not be possible.</p> <p>Whenever I close the application in a pan, the pan closes and the other is resized. Say sometime a pan is just temporarily empty and another application is to be opened in there later. To avoid visual disturbance of unstable layout, how do I force the pan to remain open so that the screen layout does not change?</p> <p>I though using a container application may be the way, while I'm afraid this is more easily said than done.</p> <p>Note: I don't consider this issue as a big matter, rather as a cool plus.</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/?answer=4116#post-id-4116It is not in the docs, as this is not possible. i3 uses all of your workspace, no exceptions. So you are on your own. What you could do, is to make a split container from the application you want to remove, before opening the new window. After that, you can kill the window that you wanted to kill, and the original window will not have changed size. If you are so inclined, you can automate these two or three extra steps. Fri, 04 Jul 2014 10:12:24 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/?answer=4116#post-id-4116Answer by ANOKNUSA for <p>If it's in the doc, I missed it; the same if it's intended to not be possible.</p> <p>Whenever I close the application in a pan, the pan closes and the other is resized. Say sometime a pan is just temporarily empty and another application is to be opened in there later. To avoid visual disturbance of unstable layout, how do I force the pan to remain open so that the screen layout does not change?</p> <p>I though using a container application may be the way, while I'm afraid this is more easily said than done.</p> <p>Note: I don't consider this issue as a big matter, rather as a cool plus.</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/?answer=4132#post-id-4132i3 is not capable of this. However, the [Subtle](http://subtle.subforge.org/) window manager and (I believe) [herbsluftwm](http://herbstluftwm.org/) are both able to do this. In fact, predefined screen regions for windows called "gravities" are a fundamental part of how Subtle handles window management. You may find one of them to your liking.Sat, 05 Jul 2014 03:27:19 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4113/how-to-force-a-panel-to-remain-open/?answer=4132#post-id-4132