Better window management strategies?

[Alexander Boström]

lör 2007-05-26 klockan 12:54 -0400 skrev Joe Smith:

> How do you folks manage your working windows?

This is what I do:

I have 9 virtual desktops and a tiny little 3×3 workspace switcher. Why?
Because I've bound Ctrl+Alt+numeric-keypad-number to "switch to desktop
n" (where kp 7 maps to desktop 1, 8 to 2 and so on). And similarly,
Shift+Alt+NumPad is bound to "move active window to desktop n". So the
switcher is just there to give me little visual cues about what desktop
are occupied etc.

I use focus follows mouse mode.

I've bound Ctrl+Alt+UpArrow to "maximize height". Useful when that xterm
or Evolution compose window needs to be a bit bigger but you don't want
to take your hands off the keyboard. Keep in mind that pressing it
repeatedly will switch between maximized and non-maximized.

Also, I've bound the + key on the numeric keypad (close to the mouse!)
to "raise lower". If the active window is partially obscured by any
other window, it's raise to the top of the stack. But if it's already on
the top, it's pushed to the bottom, behind every other window. This is
very useful:

Just stack a bunch of xterms or whatever on top of each other for
example on the left side of the screen, using the rest of the screen for
something else, like emacs. Now you can put the mouse pointer on top of
the xterm stack and push the kp+ key to flick through the windows. I use
this instead of tabbed GNOME Terminals. It also works great for a bunch
of fullscreen browser windows, instead of using Alt-Tab.

The above lets me manage windows pretty effectively without straying
from the default window manager. It can all be done by clicking a bit in
the GNOME keyboard shortcut prefs, there's nothing magic or
edit-weird-textfiles about it.

/abo