The first thing to do when you start using sway is to copy the configuration file, which is normally in /etc/sway/config, into your home directory.

mkdir ~/.config/sway
copy /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/

It has some basic settings already set, but you’ll probably want to change some of them later.

The basic keybind for running a terminal emulator, which by default is foot, is Super+Enter (Super is the name for what is otherwise called the Windows key or the Command key, depending on your keyboard).

Super+D starts the launcher app (wmenu-run by default).

If you want to change them to something else (i use fuzzel as the launcher), change the variables at the top of the config file and press Super+Shift+C to make sway reload it.

Super+Shift+E is used to exit the session.

As for the top bar that says “1”, it displays a list of your workspaces. You can switch between workspaces by pressing Super + the number of that workspace, or move the current window to a new workspace by pressing Super + Shift + number. You can also click on the workspace’s label in the bar to move to it, or use the mouse wheel to go to the next/previous one.

The timer at the top right is sway’s status bar. By default it shows only the current time, but it’s compatible with the i3bar protocol and can show a variety of statuses. Programs like i3blocks, i3status or swayrbar can be set up to display a variety of data in the status bar, or even to create widgets that respond to clicks.

To open an app launcher press Win+D, then type the name of a program you want to launch and press enter. Boom, you’re using Sway. Here are the default key bindings: https://wiki.garudalinux.org/en/sway-cheatsheet

As already suggested, take a look at i3 Window Manager’s docs: https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html because Sway (works on Wayland) is a port of i3 (works on X11).

I think this wiki cheetsheet will explain some of the defaults. Pretty much everything is controlled with a keybind using the meta/super (windows) key. Mod + d should open the launcher, I only used dmenu but yours might be something else. The launcher will let you launch applications by name. If you just want a terminal, Mod + Enter will open one.

You will want to look at your config. It should live in ~/.config/sway/config. If it’s not there then mkdir ~/.config/sway/ && cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/. That should list the keybinds you have set. You can look up the options in the man page for sway.

Once you can do some basic window control, you might want to customise the status bar. The config should tell you what bar is being used, but there are a huge array of statusbars to choose from - I used i3status-rust but try searching for i3/sway statusbars to see what’s out there.

The sway man pages are really helpful. I prefer waybar and bemenu to round out my core environment tools.

Check out any results for i3 wm use, they’re quite interchangeable.

Second advice is to check config examples and change or identify your meta key (I think default is ctrl, but I like alt).

Within the config file you can see many key combos for using Sway, but if you find new terminal, launcher, and workspace navigation (that’s your 1) you should be off to the races.

I think the above would be shift-meta-return, meta-D, and shift-meta-1,2 (to move a window to a workspace) and meta-1,2,3 (to go to a workspace). But I’m just on my phone and my memory gets mixed up because I have more memory from scrotwm/spectrwm and I might be mixing things up.

For a more user friendly tiling desktop environment, you should have a look at COSMIC. It is still im alpha, but I use it as a daily driver…

Check out cosmic