Randall R Schulz wrote:
On Wednesday 23 July 2008 11:35, LLLActive@GMX.Net wrote:
Hi all,
what is beginning to be quite annoying is working with different Desktops. I have different working groups organised on a desktop each. I often have OpenOffice Writer, Calc and Firefox open on various desktops. When I open up a link on Desktop 1 in Thunderbird, a window opens on the latest FireFox I used prevously; the one on the other desktop I used last. I have to hunt down in which desktop it opened by going to each desktop and activate it. This also happens when I open an OpenOffice document or calc file with konqueror. Closing all apps on the desktops before going to another desktop defeats the purpose of having different desktops - or have I missed the rational behind different desktops. Is it a bug or a feature?
We think alike. I have eight virtual desktops and each has a specific purpose.
Assuming you're using KDE:
Two things are available to help you realize this kind of organization:
1) You can move individual windows or all of a given application's windows to a different desktop either via the window's menu (right-click the window titlebar) or via a taskbar icon. OK, have done it before. 2) You can impose pervasive preferences such as resident desktop, size, maximized state, exclusion from the ALT+Tab switcher, or taskbar.
The interface for (2) is arcane (Right-click on titlebar -> Advanced -> Special Window Settings) to activate a dialog where you can define what is in effect a rule for constraining or modifying the window's behavior.
The first two tabs in the resulting dialog, "Window" and "Window Extra" are used to determine to which windows the rule will apply. The other three tabs, "Geometry," "Preferences" and "Workarounds" are the special behaviors that will be imposed when a window meets the criteria in the first two windows.
You'll have to experiment with these to get the selectivity and behavior you want, but it's a very powerful scheme once you get the hang of it.
I did that, and it has changed behaviour. Will have to see what the effects are. There seems to be no difference between "Special Windows Settings" and Special Application Settings" in KWin of KDE 3.5.7 Release 72.9. Both open the same box in the "Geometry" tab. "Special Application Settings" seems useful to keep the mail client on one Desktop with Geometry -> Desktop -> Force -> 1. Mail. It always opens on Desktop 1 (which I called Mail), irrespective of the desktop I start it in. Links in Firefox seems now to open in the same Desktop where the link is clicked in the mail client on Desktop 1, ... so far. It also sometimes behaved correctly before, but I cannot at will reproduce the scenario where it starts to misbehave. It just sometimes seem to happen. Will try to be more observant now, till I can find the process that produces the mischief.
You can also find a centralized editor for these rules in the KDE Control Center: Desktop -> Window-Specific Settings.
What seems to be important is Focus (saw it in Focus & Focus Policy in the KDE Help centre). It is only relevant per Desktop, which does not address my problem I think. I will observe further. I'm still working out what "(Default) Disable focus stealing prevention for XV" could mean in "Window-Specific Settings- Control Centre". It has "^xv .*" in the Window class (application type), and in Workarounds has marked "Focus stealing prevention" on Force and None. How does focus get stolen?
:-(
Al
Randall Schulz
:-| Al -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org