GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 742581
allow to switch workspaces in the overview using just pgup/pgdown instead of super+pgup/super+pgdown
Last modified: 2015-03-26 21:01:05 UTC
The default keyboard shortcut for switching workspaces up and down are Super + Page Up / Super + Page Down. The same shortcuts work also in the overview mode. However, I've always found that a bit confusing and hard to use. I think we could improve the functionality greatly if we also allow to use plain Page Up / Page Down keys to switch workspaces while being in the overview. This is the reasoning: 1. If I open the overview, I have already pressed Super once. I know that pressing Super again will close the overview. So I'm always subconsciously hesitant to press something like Super + Page Down, because I'm afraid that the overview would get closed instead of switching the workspace. I know that that's not true, but it is always my automatic initial reaction, and I need to spend a fraction of a second thinking every time in order to convince myself that indeed I should use the full shortcut. 2. While in the overview, the workspaces are displayed and the current one is highlighted. It seems consistent with usual interfaces to allow plain Page Up / Page Down without modifiers to switch them (there's nothing else to switch, just the workspaces). For example, if you display all available applications (9-dot icon in the overview), you can also use Page Up / Page Down to scroll up and down in their listing. It seems consistent that you can use the same key to scroll in workspace list in the workspaces view. It's the same interface. 3. This feature is popular among many users, and there is a gnome-shell extension which allows this (outdated at the moment): https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/29/workspace-navigator/ This extension also allows using Up and Down arrows to switch workspaces in the overview. Feel free to consider that as well, of course, but the core of my request is to allow Page Up / Page Down, because that's what I find inconsistent in the current design and what I most usually fight with. To be clear, I don't want to replace the current keyboard shortcuts, I would like Page Up / Page Down to work *in addition* to them (in the overview mode). Thank you. gnome-shell-3.14.3-1.fc21.x86_64
PgUp/PgDown works in the app picker, so allowing them in the window picker as well makes sense to me. (In reply to Kamil Páral from comment #0) > This extension also allows using Up and Down arrows to switch workspaces in > the overview. Feel free to consider that as well No, as arrow keys are already used for navigation between windows.
Was trying to work on this bug/feature, but unfortunately was having issues to reproduce this bug. The super+pgup/pgdn keybinding is not working on my laptop(distro : fedora 21 gnome 3.14.0). On using the above keybinding, even though the workspace switcher box comes up but fails to switch to workspaces up or down. The ctrl+alt+arrowkeys keybinding is working fine to switch between workspaces left/right. The super+home/end keybindings happen to work, where the workspace switcher box displays horizontally while switching workspaces. I have checked the keybindings in the gnome-control-center, they are set to default. A little help needed. Thankyou.
Devyani, it seems you have your workspaces configured horizontally instead of vertically. I have no idea how you did that, it seems that it's impossible to configure in gnome-tweak-tool, and even gnome-classic mode uses vertical workspaces (I performed a clean F21 install into a VM). Maybe it's because of some old configuration from older GNOME versions? Try to create a clean new user profile, you should see the default configuration.
(In reply to Florian Müllner from comment #1) > PgUp/PgDown works in the app picker, so allowing them in the window picker as well makes sense to me. So you decide to make PgUp/PgDown available in overview mode as what Kamil said? If so, should I make a relative patch now?
(In reply to Isaac Ge from comment #4) > So you decide to make PgUp/PgDown available in overview mode as what Kamil > said? Yes. > If so, should I make a relative patch now? Devyani is already interested, see comment #2.
*** Bug 652617 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to Kamil Páral from comment #0) > The default keyboard shortcut for switching workspaces up and down are Super > + Page Up / Super + Page Down. The same shortcuts work also in the overview > mode. However, I've always found that a bit confusing and hard to use. I > think we could improve the functionality greatly if we also allow to use > plain Page Up / Page Down keys to switch workspaces while being in the > overview. > > <...> > > gnome-shell-3.14.3-1.fc21.x86_64 +1
Created attachment 300330 [details] [review] Patch to allow switching workspaces in the overview using pg Up/Down keys. Hello, I have attached the patch that allows to switch workspaces in the overview by just using the Page Up/Down keys. Please kindly look into it. Thanking You. Devyani K.
Review of attachment 300330 [details] [review]: If I bought the commit message, we would have quite a problem: - if the <super> modifier was the issue, then the patch should use the configured keybinding without the modifier (for instance the default used to be <ctrl><alt>arrow-up/down, which according to that reasoning is just fine) - we would need to do the same for *all* keybindings that are available in the overview - except of course that it wouldn't work at all, as removing <super> from "<super>a" or "<super>v" will just leave "normal" keyboard input that triggers a search - if there is a perceived conflict between overview shortcut and other keybindings, then it works in both directions: "I want to switch workspaces, I don't want to *enter* the overview" Considering those issues, the only workable approach to avoid confusion about standalone-<super> and <super>-keybindings would be to stop using the <super> modifier for any keybindings that may be used in the overview, not assuming a particular shortcut for one keybinding and hardcoding a "super-less" version of it. Now, I don't think this is actually much of an issue: Keybindings like <super>a have been around for quite a while now without causing major complaints, and even if there is some initial confusion, it's easy and safe to just give it a try - after all, recovering from leaving the overview accidentally is hardly expensive, it's literally just a keypress away. I'm also not aware of any confusion with those keybindings outside the overview, so I really think this is a non-issue - if we end up agreeing that it is, we can reconsider our default keybindings, but in my opinion having a consistent "system modifier" isn't something we should give up lightly ... With all that said, I actually do think that this patch makes sense, but for different reasons: workspaces are similar enough to pages to support the standard keys to switch between them where we can (i.e. where we don't interfere with applications), and for consistency with the app picker. ::: js/ui/workspacesView.js @@ -20,3 @@ const WORKSPACE_SWITCH_TIME = 0.25; -// Note that mutter has a compile-time limit of 36 -const MAX_WORKSPACES = 16; Unrelated change @@ +544,3 @@ this._workspacesViews[i].destroy(); + this._primaryIndex = Main.layoutManager.primaryIndex; Unrelated change
Created attachment 300366 [details] [review] Patch to allow switching workspaces in the overview using just pg Up/Down keys. Hello, I have rectified the errors in the commit message. I agree that the super keybindings aint an issue. The Page Up/Down keys support the standard keys to switch workspaces and are also consistent with the app picker. Also, considering that the workspaces being alligned vertically, the keys actually mean to serve the similar purpose. Please kindly take a look. Thanking You. Devyani K.
Created attachment 300396 [details] [review] Patch to allow switching workspaces in the overview using pg Up/Down keys. Hello, I have rectified the style nits in the commit message. Please kindly take a look. Thanking You.
Created attachment 300397 [details] [review] Patch to allow switching workspaces in the overview using pg Up/Down keys. Hello, I have rectified the style nits in the commit message. Please kindly take a look. Thanking You.
Reviewed on chat, pushing - thanks!