Approaches are provided for managing content displayed on a touch screen enabled device. An approach includes detecting a gesture on a surface of a computing device. The approach further includes collecting data about touch events generated from the gesture on the surface of the computing device. The approach further includes evaluating the collected data to determine whether the gesture is recognized for changing a layout or format of content displayed on the computing device. The approach further includes performing a service call to an application programming interface of a layout tool to have the change in the layout or format of the content executed when the gesture is recognized. The approach further includes displaying the content on the computing device with the change in the layout or format.