https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=461118
Bug ID: 461118
Summary: Proposal for improved keyboard navigation of KDE
activities
Classification: Plasma
Product: kwin
Version: unspecified
Platform: unspecified
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: normal
Priority: NOR
Component: activities
Assignee: kwin-bugs-n...@kde.org
Reporter: richardjac...@pm.me
Target Milestone: ---
A common barrier to my really getting into using KDE activities is the
difficulty of moving windows between activities, especially with the keyboard.
Activities work well for desktop apps where I can set their default workspace
but web browser windows are where it gets annoying for me. I find browser
windows often have to activity switch and setting the appropriate visibilities
is slow fiddly mouse work [^1]. Especially by comparison with moving a window
between virtual desktops which can be easily bound.
The closet thing that I could find to this suggestion here before was this bug
report: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271686 however this seems to miss
the fact that windows can be in multiple activities as a commenter on that
issue observed. To properly manage window activity visibility with the keyboard
we need more than just the concept of 'move' window to activity but 'toggle
window visibility in activity x'.
Consider this example set of keyboard shortcuts and actions:
- `Meta+Tab` - cycle activity
- `Meta+Shift+<x>` where x indicates an activity e.g. I use `c` for
communications, `m` for media etc.
- `Meta+Shift+Ctrl+<x>` Toggle active window visibility in specified activity
i.e. the activity with the `Meta+Shift+<x>` where x is the same
- Holding `Meta+Shift` could bring up a dialog over the active window
like the current 'Show in activities' option in the rightclick on the titlebar
dropdown.
- `Meta+Shift+Ctrl+a` could be used for 'show in all'
This would need keyboard shortcuts for:
- 'toggle window visibility in activity x'
- 'make window visibility in all activities'
- It would also be nice to have 'make window exclusively visible in
activity x' (maybe `Meta+Shift+Alt+<x>`) this is the equivalent of 'move
window to activity x'
- Plus for ease keeping track of which activities a window is visible
in the UI feature where the 'Show in activities' dialog pops up over the middle
of the active window (when you hold `Meta+Shift` in my example). So a keyboard
shortcut for: "show 'Show in activities' for active window (while depressed)"
This is more of a collection of feature requests to make a cohesive whole for a
good experience quickly controlling window visibility in activities with the
keyboard.
A number of these are potentially slightly non-standard keyboard shortcuts as
they may need to be aware that 'activity x' exists i.e. the shortcut for "move
window to activity: 'x' " may need to be dynamically created when activity 'x'
is created, though virtual desktops seem to get away with just having a bunch
available even if they are not used so maybe that would work for activities
too.
A keyboard shortcut which has the effect: "show 'Show in activities' for active
window (while depressed)" Would also be useful for a 'hybrid' input mode where
you use the keyboard to get the 'Show in activities' dialogue up and then click
in the dialogue with the mouse as you can select windows of activities with the
window and activity switchers (`Alt+Tab` & `Meta+Tab`). It still involves the
mouse but has fewer steps than the `Alt+F3` approach.
It's quite a lot of stuff but I really think something like this is really
needed to make activities viable for a more keyboard focused user.
[^1]: I know that you can do this with `Alt + F3` arrows keys space bar and
return but in my experience this is quite flaky, the options are not changed
when I try and toggle them with the spacebar and apply with return (at least on
Plasma 5.25.5 on fedora 36 or 5.18.8 on ubuntu 20.04)
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