Whee! Cmder can do split panes!

cmder-splitSo exciting!

According to the ConEmu documentation you can create a new split task by pressing Win+W (doesn’t work on Windows 8 because that opens the Windows Search charm instead) or from the “New Console” dialog (which can be reached by right clicking any tab, or right clicking the Cmder window title, or clicking the [+] in the status bar) and then selecting to task to start and where to split it to. 

cmder-split-where

Did you know you can duplicate one of your open tabs too? This is an interesting feature, one that I use when I am at a certain location and I want to open a new command prompt to that same location. Simply duplicate my existing tab! (Right click the tab and select “Duplicate Root”). 

From the GUI there’s no way to duplicate a tab into a new split pane, but you can create keyboard shortcuts to do so. Below I created a shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+B” to duplicate the active tab into a split pane below. Similarly, “Ctrl+Shift+R” to duplicate the active tab into a split pane to the right. 

cmder-split-shortcutsI modified the default shortcuts for switching between panes so I can use “Ctrl+Shift” plus a direction key. The default was the “Apps” key (that’s the key between the right “Win” key and right “Ctrl” key, the one with a mouse pointer on it) which I found difficult to use. Focus also follows your mouse, so whichever pane you hover on gets focus automatically. 

Hope this helps someone! If you are interested in fiddling more with this here’s a Super User question on how to start several split consoles from one task.