KDE Virtual Desktops and Keyboard Shortcuts
 

I have just, in a weekend expedition, migrated from using Windows 2000 to Slamd64 10.2 as my primary development desktop. I have to admit, I'm having fun doing it. :)

My current problem is that I can't seem to configure keyboard shortcuts for my virtual desktop manager. I had a program for Windows 2000 ("VirtuaWin") which acted as a quasi-virtual-desktop program by hiding and showing frames. It was sloppy work, but it ran in userspace and did the job. And, compared to being stuck on one desktop with my usual 50 or so windows, all was much nicer.

Now I'm in KDE and I'm having trouble using the virtual desktops. Specifically, I can't seem to find where to configure the interface. I'm used to the following functionality, all of which was heavily configurable in VirtuaWin:

* Holding Control while dragging a window against the edge of the screen moved it to the next or previous desktop. (I had my virtual desktops set up in a 1 tall by 4 wide fashion, so my windows were moved my touching the left and right of the screen.)
* Pressing Control+Shift+NumpadPlus or Control+Shift+NumpadMinus cycled to the next or previous desktop, respectively.
* Pressing Control+Shift+F9 through Control+Shift+F12 jumped me to desktop 1 through desktop 4, respectively.

I will appreciate any help whatsoever in attaining this functionality under KDE. I'm thrilled by this transition (and my machine is definitely happier about it) and I'm pretty sure my desktop is Linux to stay, but it'd be a shame if I had to take my hands off the keyboard and find the mouse every time I want to switch desktops. That takes time and concentration that I'd prefer not to spend whilst coding. :)

Thanks for reading and for any assistance. Cheers!

Hope this helps...

Open the KDE Control Centre and have a look at Desktop / Multiple Desktops to get multiple desktops.
Have a look at Desktop / Window Behaviour and open the Advanced tab - under Active Desktop Borders you can figure moving between windows with the mouse.
Under Regional & Accessibility / Keyboard Shortcuts you can configure which keys do what.

I don't remember changing my defaults but I often use <Ctrl><Tab> to switch between desktops and <Ctrl><F1> <Ctrl<F2> etc to select individual desktops.

Yes, actually... that managed to get almost everything accomplished. I do enjoy not having to hold Control to move the windows from one desktop to another.

One last question, if you please. I've discovered that I can change the desktop geometry from 2x2 to the 1x4 with which I'm familiar by specifying that only one row should be used. This seems to be the only way to get the left-to-right loop I like. However, as a result, the Desktop Previewer panel on my task bar is very wide and obtrusive. Is there any way to simply display somewhere the current desktop number rather than that bulky preview?

Thanks again for your help!

hmm - I haven't been able to make it do that. But you could remove it completely - the multiple desktops still behave the same way. If you want a quick way to see which desktop you've changed to, open the Control Panel, go to Desktop / Window Behaviour and click the checkbox beside "Popup desktop name on desktop switch".

Specifically, it used to appear in my system tray. I've removed the desktop display entirely, as this seemed to be the only option. I'd write a suitable system tray app but I'm really not very skilled with anything but Java.

Thanks again for your help.

No problem :)