Technical Reference

Architectural model

A Workspace is the persistent task-level macro-container the user intends to return to. WorkspaceCanvas is its technical representation and names its complete spatial and configuration scope. The FocalRegion is formed by its FocalPanels; the ContextualRegion is the remaining area. Both regions are subordinate spatial parts of the canvas. A panel can remain empty of windows while its boundary still defines part of the FocalRegion. Window configuration is associated with the Workspace; browser tabs remain associated with their respective browser windows rather than becoming independent desktop rectangles.

Why this differs from tiling: FocalPanels and the ContextualRegion are structural parts of the WorkspaceCanvas. They are not merely regions produced by a window-tiling algorithm. A conventional arrangement may look similar without the same panel and region relationships. See FocalContextual vs. Tiling for the conceptual comparison.

A saved Workspace (.ows) definition can also record Workspace Options: selected system settings and OpenWorkspace preferences. On Windows, examples include system volume, light and dark color settings, desktop icon visibility, the applied wallpaper, and workspace sound feedback. These are configuration values, not spatial regions. Saved system volume is applied on load only when the user enables Restore saved volume. The saved contextual defocus level ranges from 0 to 100 and controls visual dimming of the contextual region without changing its coordinates.

WorkspaceCanvas
├── FocalRegion
│   └── FocalPanel(s)
├── ContextualRegion
├── contextual defocus level (0–100)
├── application and browser-window configuration
│   └── browser-tab configuration
├── resource references
└── Workspace Options
    ├── supported system settings
    └── OpenWorkspace workspace preferences

WorkspaceSnapshot ── describes saved WorkspaceCanvas state
WorkspaceManagementSystem ── records supported Workspace state
                            └── reconstructs selected saved state

WorkspaceSnapshot describes the supported configuration recorded at capture; it is distinct from the live desktop. WorkspaceManagementSystem names the nonspatial logical role responsible for recording and restoring supported Workspace configurations; it does not assert a literal implementation object. A WorkspaceCanvas does not own or reparent application processes, and neither the snapshot nor the management system is a spatial region.

Product concepts and terminology

The FocalContextual model corresponds to the workspace, background arrangement, and virtual-panel arrangement described in U.S. Patent 12,346,707. The related international publication WO2022132899A1 also describes focal resources in panels and contextual resources in the surrounding background arrangement.

These are explanatory terminology correspondences, not a claim that every patent embodiment is shipped in the product. The patent uses “tiled virtual panels” for one panel arrangement; that describes panel geometry within the architecture, not conventional tiling of peer windows. See Capabilities for current product support and the intellectual property overview for related documents.

Spatial model

The represented virtual desktop is the union of its displays’ addressable areas in a shared coordinate space. The FocalRegion combines the represented display areas enclosed by FocalPanel boundaries, even when no window occupies a panel. The ContextualRegion is the remainder across all represented displays; it may span displays or consist of disconnected pieces. Display edges set its outer extent; subtracting the FocalRegion can add panel edges to its boundary.

“Context” means spatial context, not AI or language-model context. OpenWorkspace captures the full DPI-aware virtual desktop, including multiple monitors. FocalContextual layouts can use space across those monitors. The equations describe addressable display surfaces rather than a single bounding rectangle, which may include gaps between displays. They do not prescribe native pixel or DPI units or imply that every operating-system window is clipped to a region in every interaction state.

Technical glossary

Workspace Canvas

The top-level spatial and configuration representation of the complete desktop layout associated with a named Workspace.

More detail

Structural role: Combines canvas geometry, Focal Panel boundaries, the contextual remainder and saved defocus level, window and browser configuration, resource references, selected supported system settings, and saved OpenWorkspace preferences for the Workspace.

User authority: The user decides what belongs to the Workspace and establishes its arrangement.

System responsibility: The system records and reconstructs supported parts when the user requests capture or restoration.

Boundary: It is a logical configuration container, not ownership or reparenting of applications or operating-system processes, a package of referenced document bytes, or a promise of universal capture. Workspace remains the normal product-facing term; Workspace Canvas is not a separate user-facing product concept.

Workspace Explorer

The user-facing interface for finding, organizing, opening, and editing named Workspaces.

More detail

Structural role: Shows a searchable collection of saved Workspaces for the selected Display Profile, with names, labels, and desktop previews, and provides controls for selecting and restoring them.

User authority: The user chooses which Workspace to create, organize, edit, save, or open.

System responsibility: The system presents saved Workspace records and carries out requested navigation, capture, and restoration through supported mechanisms.

Boundary: Workspace Explorer is a product interface, not a desktop region, a Workspace Canvas, or an independently saved part of a .ows file.

Workspace Editor

Workspace Explorer's surface for capturing the desktop as a new Workspace (by using 'Save As') or recapturing it to update a named Workspace (by using 'Save').

More detail

Structural role: Presents editable Workspace information and save actions for recording the current supported arrangement.

User authority: The user edits available Workspace details and chooses whether to create a new saved Workspace or update an existing one.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace records the supported Workspace configuration through the selected Save As or Save action.

Boundary: Workspace Editor is a product interface, not a separate spatial region or independently saved .ows object. Available fields and actions depend on the current Workspace state and product support.

Workspace Options

Settings that can be saved and applied for a named Workspace: supported system settings such as desktop wallpaper, desktop icon visibility, and color mode, plus OpenWorkspace settings such as sound feedback.

More detail

Structural role: Groups selected system settings and OpenWorkspace preferences associated with a Workspace Canvas.

User authority: The user chooses available options for a Workspace and may use inherited defaults.

System responsibility: The system records supported values and applies them on restoration according to platform capabilities and user restore preferences.

Boundary: Workspace Options names a configuration category, not a separate desktop region or independently saved .ows object. It does not imply that every operating-system or OpenWorkspace setting can be applied per Workspace.

Workspace Action Bar

Workspace Explorer's control panel for opening, renaming, relabeling, or deleting a Workspace.

More detail

Structural role: Presents actions for the selected saved Workspace in the Workspace Collection.

User authority: The user selects a saved Workspace and chooses whether to open, rename, relabel, or delete it.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace carries out the selected action through supported Workspace collection and restoration behavior.

Boundary: Workspace Action Bar is a product interface, not a desktop region or independently saved .ows object. Its actions apply to the selected saved Workspace.

Workspace Collection

The collection of saved Workspaces shown in Workspace Explorer for a selected Display Profile, based on the profile associated with each Workspace when it was created.

More detail

Structural role: Groups saved Workspaces by their associated Display Profile for browsing and selection.

User authority: The user selects a Display Profile and chooses which saved Workspace to open or manage.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace filters saved Workspace records by the selected profile’s configuration descriptor.

Boundary: Workspace Collection is a filtered view of saved Workspace records, not a separate desktop region or independently saved .ows object. Selecting a profile does not alter the saved Workspaces.

Workspace Controls

The keyboard shortcuts and voice commands used to navigate and open Workspaces, and control their focal-contextual presentation.

More detail

Structural role: Provides supported input paths for opening Workspace Explorer, switching between or restoring Workspaces, saving or refreshing the current Workspace, showing or changing panels, and adjusting contextual dimming.

User authority: The user enables an available input method and initiates each shortcut or spoken command.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace maps registered shortcuts and recognized voice commands to the requested action where supported.

Boundary: Workspace Controls are interaction methods, not a spatial region or an independently saved .ows object. Command coverage depends on platform and settings; voice control may require an active license.

Workspace Management System

The logical system role that records, manages, and restores supported configurations for named Workspaces.

More detail

Structural role: Maintains user-directed Workspace Snapshot records and accessible resource references. On restoration, it reconstructs supported windows, browser configuration, resource openings, placement, and saved settings. It is nonspatial.

User authority: The user chooses when to save, update, select, or restore a Workspace.

System responsibility: The system records supported configuration when saving and reopens resources, executes placement, and applies saved settings when restoring, using available operating-system, application, and browser mechanisms.

Boundary: This name describes a logical management role, not a public API, separately exposed component, or literal implementation class. Restoration does not guarantee launch timing, identical process identifiers, identical live content, or success when dependencies are unavailable.

Focal Region

The area of the desktop encompassed by a Focal Panel or the union of two or more Focal Panels.

More detail

Focal Panel: A user-defined rectangular coordinate boundary and placement target. It may be empty or hold one or more windows. Every window placed in it takes the panel’s full bounds (position and dimensions); windows cannot be tiled, cascaded, or arranged with partial overlap inside the panel.

Panel arrangement: When two or more Focal Panels are present, they form a single horizontal array. Neighboring panels touch along a vertical edge, with no gap between their bounds; panels cannot be stacked vertically.

Panel Tray: The control associated with each Focal Panel, positioned at the bottom of the panel and spanning its width, for selecting among windows placed in it and bringing a selected window forward. Selecting the active window can instead minimize it.

Structural role: With no Focal Panels, the Focal Region is absent from the desktop, and the desktop is expressed as a single continuous canvas with no focal-contextual division. One or more panels establish FocalContextual mode, even when unoccupied.

User authority: The user defines the panels and chooses which content becomes focal.

System responsibility: The system executes explicit positioning or snapping within supported behavior.

Boundary: Neither the region nor its panels infer importance, select content, own applications, or guarantee clipping or embedded rendering. “Focal” means user-established spatial priority, not necessarily operating-system keyboard focus.

Panel Controls

Controls and menus that fly out and pop up from the outside border of Focal Panels for quick-saving a Workspace, structuring its panels, generating thumbnail image shortcuts within it, and defocusing its Contextual Region.

More detail

Structural role: Controls can create a thumbnail image shortcut or pop the panel’s top-level window into the Contextual Region; pin eligible windows in the Focal Region or Contextual Region so they persist across Workspace switches; add or remove panels; update a named Workspace’s saved state; set the Contextual Region’s 0–100 defocus level; display Workspace name and labels; and navigate to Workspace Explorer or OpenWorkspace Settings.

User authority: The user invokes each control and chooses which windows, panels, and saved Workspace state to change.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace performs supported window moves, pinning, panel updates, saving, dimming, and navigation in response to those actions.

Boundary: Panel Controls are interface controls, not separate desktop regions or independent .ows objects. Pinning and window actions apply where supported.

Thumbnail Image Shortcut

A thumbnail-sized image representing a window moved from a Focal Panel into the Contextual Region.

More detail

Structural role: Keeps a panel window accessible as a movable thumbnail in the Contextual Region.

User authority: The user creates it by dragging a window out of its panel or selecting Create thumbnail shortcut in Panel Controls, and double-clicks it to return the window.

System responsibility: The system generates the thumbnail object for the associated window, hides the window, and docks it in its associated panel when the shortcut is activated.

Boundary: The shortcut is a representation of the window, not a second application window. If the panel arrangement changes, the return target is reassigned to the first current panel; button placement requires available desktop space.

Contextual Region

The part of the represented desktop surface outside the Focal Region.

More detail

Structural role: Provides surrounding space for supporting material across one or more displays; it may consist of disconnected areas. Its extent depends on display and panel boundaries, regardless of panel occupancy. A saved 0–100 defocus level can visually dim it to increase contrast with content in Focal Panels without changing its boundary.

User authority: The user decides which content remains contextual and when to move content into or out of focus.

System responsibility: The system carries out recorded or explicit positioning within supported behavior.

Boundary: Context means desktop space, not LLM or prompt context, semantic retrieval, embeddings, vector search, model memory, process suspension, or an algorithmic relevance score.

Display Profile

A user-named profile of a specific monitor configuration that associates saved Workspaces with its Workspace Collection.

More detail

Structural role: Identifies the configuration by monitor count, virtual desktop dimensions, and scaling. Workspace Explorer shows the saved Workspaces associated with the selected profile.

User authority: The user can name and select a profile; saving a Workspace associates it with the current display configuration.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace detects the current configuration and matches saved Workspaces by the profile’s derived descriptor.

Boundary: A profile name can change without changing its matching identity. A Display Profile does not reconfigure monitors or operating-system display settings.

Pre-run state

All supported application windows and browser tabs are captured automatically when an OpenWorkspace session begins and can be restored as the Pre-run state through the New Workspace dialog.

More detail

Structural role: Preserves the supported application windows and browser tabs present at session start as a source for creating a Workspace later.

User authority: The user chooses whether to restore the Pre-run state when creating a Workspace.

System responsibility: When a Pre-run state capture exists, the system clears supported desktop content and optionally minimizes unsupported desktop content prior to restoring the captured application windows and browser tabs through supported integrations.

Boundary: This is a capture of supported application windows and browser tabs at session start, not an ongoing recording or a complete backup of application state, browser state, or live page content.

Wallpaper Gallery

A user-curated collection of images imported from local files and available as wallpaper for individual Workspaces.

More detail

Structural role: Provides a reusable collection of wallpaper choices for individual Workspaces.

User authority: The user imports images from local files and chooses which wallpaper to apply to a Workspace.

System responsibility: OpenWorkspace adds selected image files to the gallery and applies the chosen wallpaper where supported.

Boundary: Wallpaper Gallery is a product interface and image collection, not a separate spatial region or a collection embedded in each .ows file. A saved Workspace refers to its selected wallpaper resource rather than storing the image bytes.

User and system responsibilities

The user decides task membership, participating applications and resources, the arrangement, what becomes focal, and when to capture or resume. The system records supported configuration and resource references, reopens supported resources, executes recorded placement, and applies supported saved settings according to user choices.

Execution can use algorithms for geometry, snapping, positioning, and reconstruction. The boundary is autonomous or inferred decision-making: the system does not rank windows by relevance, select focal content, infer the user’s task, or proactively promote content into focus.

System Boundaries

Workspace lifecycle

Live state and a saved snapshot are distinct. Unsaved changes to the live canvas do not alter the previous snapshot. A Workspace does not by itself imply continuous synchronization or automatic capture.

1. 01

   Compose

   The user curates a live, user-authored arrangement.

2. 02

   Capture

   The user requests a saved Workspace state.

3. 03

   Resume

   The user selects restoration; supported state is reconstructed.

4. 04

   Revise

   The user works, rearranges, and optionally captures an update.

After resuming, the user may rearrange the live Workspace and request another capture. Any updated saved state follows that user request; restoration remains subject to application, resource, permission, authentication, and environment availability.

OpenWorkspace vocabulary

The technical glossary above is the single human-readable definition list. Its terms have stable OpenWorkspace namespace identifiers. FocalRegion names the union of the areas enclosed by FocalPanel boundaries. The vocabulary defines semantics for documentation and machine retrieval; it is not a developer SDK, integration API, interchange protocol, native .ows format, or third-party serialization contract.

Browse the namespace identifier index or the exact JSON-LD representation.

Current product coverage

The architectural model defines these terms and relationships. Actual capture and restoration depend on the platform, supported applications and browsers, available resources, operating-system capabilities, and application behavior. OpenWorkspace for Windows and OpenWorkspace for macOS have different current coverage.

See Capabilities for what OpenWorkspace supports today. Future portability, sharing, scheduling, and automation are roadmap directions where described elsewhere; these definitions do not mark them as released.