Terminator is an advanced terminal emulator supports multiple terminals layouts, arranging terminals and change its sizes in a single window layout. In this tutorial, I will show you how to configure Terminator layout and customize it fit along with your desktop environment.

This is a screenshot of my desktop shows my Terminator layout configurations. So, let’s get started with installing Terminator and configuring the layouts.

If you don’t have Terminator terminal emulator, you can install on:

Or

On Fedora:

For other Linux distributions check the official website.

Layout configurations

Run Terminator, Alt+F2 –> “terminator”.

Change the layout for current profile, by Right Click on the “Terminator window” and select if you like to split it “Vertically” or “Horizontally”. Split the window and start dragging the edges of each terminal if you would like to adjust its height and width.

If, you would like to close on these terminals, Right click and select close.

Here’s a screenshot of my desktop after I split Terminator window to become like this.

Save Current Layout to use it later

Now, I will save the current layout to be able to run it directly next time without keep splitting the Terminator window every time I run it.

Open Preferences window by using the mouse right click on terminator window and select Preferences, then select the “Layout” tab and click “Add” to save the current layout. You can rename each Layout, If you clicked on the name of this tab.

Run Terminator with the new Layout

Now, you are all set and ready to use this layout whenever you want. Here’re some commands will help you to run Terminator with different layouts and with different options.

Run Terminator commands using “Run command window” “Alt+F2″ is commonly used as a keyboard shortcut.

Default Terminator with a custom Layout

I saved a layout with name called “newsys”. So, if I want to run it, I will use this command down below.

Terminator with a custom layout and window is Maximized

Terminator with a custom layout and window is using full screen mode

Please check the terminator Preferences window for more options, and check terminator help command or man command in Terminal.

Run commands at the start-up of Terminator layouts

You can setup a custom commands to run in each Terminal.

Select the Terminal name and assign a custom command as shown in the screenshot.

[How To]: Backup Terminator Layouts

You might consider backup Terminator layouts to use it in other distributions. The configuration file is located in this path, copy it and keep it in somewhere safe.

Configuration file includes all layouts you have created with its height and width, currently activated plugins, background transparency, font type, font size, and the custom commands you have created for each terminal. So, if you would like to configure Terminator from this file, that’s fine.

Hopefully you liked it! Please share it. That’s for now.