path: root/tde-i18n-en_GB/docs/tdebase/kcontrol/windowmanagement/index.docbook

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<articleinfo>

<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;</author>
<author>&Jost.Schenck; &Jost.Schenck.mail;</author>
<othercredit role="translator"><firstname>John</firstname><surname>Knight</surname><affiliation><address><email>anarchist_tomato@herzeleid.net</email></address></affiliation><contrib>Conversion to British English</contrib></othercredit> 
</authorgroup>

<date>2004-05-04</date>
<releaseinfo>3.2</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>actions</keyword>
<keyword>window placement</keyword>
<keyword>window size</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="window-behavior">
<title>Window Behaviour</title>

<para>In the upper part of this control module you can see several tabs: <guilabel>Focus</guilabel>, <guilabel>Actions</guilabel>, <guilabel>Moving</guilabel> and <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel>. In the <guilabel>Focus</guilabel> panel you can configure how windows gain or lose focus, &ie; become active or inactive. Using <guilabel>Actions</guilabel> you can configure how windows react to mouse clicks. <guilabel>Moving</guilabel> allows you to configure how windows move and place themselves when started. The <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> options cover some specialized options involving moving windows between desktops and <quote>window shading</quote>. </para>

<note>
<para>Please note that the configuration in this module will not take effect if you don't use &kde;'s native window manager, &twin;. If you do use a different window manager, please refer to its documentation for how to customise window behaviour. </para>
</note>

<sect2 id="action-focus">
<title>Focus</title>

<para>The <quote>focus</quote> of the desktop refers to the window which the user is currently working on. The window with focus is often referred to as the <quote>active window</quote>. </para>

<para>Focus does not necessarily mean the window is the one at the front &mdash; this is referred to as <quote>raised</quote>, and although this is configured here as well, focus and raising of windows are configured independently.</para>

<sect3 id="action-focus-focuspolicy">
<title>Focus Policy</title>

<para>There are four methods &kde; can use to determine the current focus: </para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Click to Focus</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>A window becomes active when you click into it. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Focus follows mouse</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Moving the mouse pointer actively over a normal window activates it. New windows such as the mini command line invoked with <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> will receive the focus, without you having to point the mouse at them explicitly. </para>

<para>In other window managers, this is sometimes known as <quote>Sloppy focus follows mouse</quote>. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Focus under mouse</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The window that happens to be under the mouse pointer becomes active. If the mouse is not over a window (for instance, it's on the desktop) the last window that was under the mouse has focus. New windows such as the mini command line invoked with <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> will not receive the focus, you must move the mouse over them to type. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Focus strictly under mouse</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Similar to <guilabel>Focus under mouse</guilabel>, but even more strict with its interpretation. Only the window under the mouse pointer is active. If the mouse pointer is not over a window, no window has focus. New windows such as the mini command line invoked with <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> will not receive the focus, you must move the mouse over them to type. </para>

<note><para>Note that <guilabel>Focus under mouse</guilabel> and <guilabel>Focus strictly under mouse</guilabel> prevent certain features, such as the <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;&Tab;</keycombo> walk-through-windows dialogue, from working properly.</para>
</note>

</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>Once you have determined the focus policy, there are the window raising options. </para>

<para>By placing a mark in front of <guilabel>Auto Raise</guilabel>, &kde; can bring a window to the front if the mouse is over that window for a specified period of time. This is very useful with the <guilabel>Focus follows Mouse</guilabel> option. You can determine the delay by using the slider bar/spin box combination. </para>

<tip>
<para>Setting the delay too short will cause a rapid fire changing of windows, which can be quite distracting. Most people will like a delay of 100-300 ms. This is responsive, but it will let you slide over the corners of a window on your way to your destination without bringing that window to the front. </para>
</tip>

<para>If you do not use <guilabel>Auto Raise</guilabel>, make sure the <guilabel>Click Raise</guilabel> option has a mark in front of it. You will not be happy with both <guilabel>Auto Raise</guilabel> and <guilabel>Click Raise</guilabel> disabled, the net effect is that windows are not raised at all. </para>

</sect3>


<sect3 id="action-focus-keyboard">
<title><guilabel>Navigation</guilabel></title>

<para>In the <guilabel>Navigation</guilabel> frame you can configure the way switching between applications or desktops using <keycombo action="simul"> &Alt;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo> or <keycombo action="simul"> &Ctrl;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo>. </para>

<para>Switching applications using <keycombo action="simul">&Alt; <keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo>, &ie; holding down &Alt; while repeatedly pressing the <keycap>Tab</keycap> key, can take place in &kde; mode or in <acronym>CDE</acronym> mode: in &kde; mode you will see a box in the middle of the screen showing you the currently selected application while you are still holding down the &Alt; key. In <acronym>CDE</acronym> mode focus goes to each new window as it's selected. </para>

<para>Next there is an option where you can choose to <guilabel>Traverse windows on all desktops</guilabel> or not. With this enabled, switching windows with <keycombo action="simul"> &Alt;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo> will show all windows, on all desktops, and take you to the appropriate desktop for the window you select. With it disabled, only windows on your current desktop are selectable with <keycombo action="simul"> &Alt;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo>, and you must use <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Tab</keycap></keycombo> to switch to other desktops yourself. </para>

<para>If you check the <guilabel>Desktop navigation wraps around</guilabel> checkbox, then after you reach the <quote>last</quote> desktop, pressing <keycap>Tab</keycap> again will select the first desktop again.</para>

<para>Many people name their virtual desktops according to their purpose or some other naming scheme. You may find it convenient to select the <guilabel>Popup desktop name on desktop switch</guilabel>, so you can quickly tell that you've switched to the right one.</para>


</sect3>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="action-actions">
<title>Actions</title>

<para>In this panel you can configure what happens to windows when a mouse is clicked on them. This panel is divided into four sections. </para>

<sect3 id="action-actions-sec1">
<title><guilabel>Titlebar double-click</guilabel></title>

<para>This section provides a single dropdown box. You can select either <guilabel>Shade</guilabel>, several variations of <guilabel>Maximise</guilabel> or <guilabel>Lower</guilabel>. </para>

<para>Selecting <guilabel>Maximise</guilabel> causes &kde; to maximise the window whenever you doubleclick on the titlebar. You can further choose to maximise windows only horizontally or only vertically.</para>

<para><guilabel>Shade</guilabel>, on the other hand, causes the window to be reduced to simply the titlebar. Double clicking on the titlebar again, restores the window to its normal size. </para>

<tip>
<para>You can have windows automatically unshade when you simply place the mouse over their shaded titlebar. Just check the <guilabel>Enable Hover</guilabel> check box in the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab of this module. This is a great way to reclaim desktop space when you're cutting and pasting between a lot of windows, for example. </para>
</tip>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="action-actions-sec2">
<title><guilabel>Titlebar &amp; Frame</guilabel></title>

<para>This section allows you to determine what happens when you single click on the titlebar or frame of a window. Notice that you can have different actions associated with the same click depending on whether the window is active or not. </para>

<para>For each combination of mousebuttons, modifiers, Active and Inactive, you can select the most appropriate choice. The actions are as follows: </para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Activate</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Make this window active. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Lower</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Will move this window to the bottom of the display. This will get the window out of the way. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Nothing</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Just like it says. Nothing happens. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Operations Menu</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Will bring up a small submenu, where you can choose window related commands (&ie; Maximise, Minimise, Close, &etc;). </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Raise</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Will bring the window to the top of the display. All other windows which overlap with this one, will be hidden <quote>below</quote> it. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>Toggle Raise and Lower</term>
<listitem>
<para>This will raise windows which are not on top, and lower windows which are already on top. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>

<sect3 id="action-actions-sec3">
<title><guilabel>Inactive Inner Window</guilabel></title>

<para>This part of the module, allows you to configure what happens when you click on an inactive window, with any of the three mouse buttons. </para>

<para>Your choices are as follows: </para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Activate, Raise and pass click</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This makes the clicked window active, raises it to the top of the display, and passes a mouse click to the application within the window. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Activate and pass click</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This makes the clicked window active and passes a mouse click to the application within the window. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Activate</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This simply makes the clicked window active. The mouse click is not passed on to the application within the window. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Activate and Raise</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This makes the clicked window active and raises the window to the top of the display. The mouse click is not passed on to the application within the window. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="action-actions-sec4">
<title><guilabel>Inner Window, titlebar and frame</guilabel></title>

<para>This bottom section, allows you to configure additional actions, when a modifier key (by default &Alt;) is pressed, and a mouse click is made on a window.</para>

<para>Once again, you can select different actions for <mousebutton>Left</mousebutton>, <mousebutton>Middle</mousebutton> and <mousebutton>Right</mousebutton> button clicks. </para>

<para>Your choices are:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Lower</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Will move this window to the bottom of the display. This will get the window out of the way. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Move</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Allows you to drag the selected window around the desktop. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Nothing</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Just like it says. Nothing happens. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Raise</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Will bring the window to the top of the display. All other windows which overlap with this one, will be hidden <quote>below</quote> it. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Resize</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Allows you to change the size of the selected window. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Toggle Raise and Lower</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This will raise windows which are not on top, and lower windows which are already on top. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect3>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="action-moving">
<title><guilabel>Moving</guilabel></title>

<sect3>
<title><guilabel>Windows</guilabel></title>

<para>The options here determine how windows appear on screen when you are moving them. Most of these options exact a price in performance, so if you want to streamline your desktop, you should turn them off. However, if you have a fast computer, they may make your day a little more pleasant, so leave them on.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Display content in moving windows</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Enable this option if you want a window's content to be fully shown while moving it, instead of just showing a window <quote>skeleton</quote>. The result may not be satisfying on slow computers without graphic acceleration.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Display content in resizing windows</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Enable this option if you want a window's content to be shown while resizing it, instead of just showing a window <quote>skeleton</quote>. The result, again, may not be satisfying on slower computers.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Display window geometry when moving or resizing</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Enable this option if you want a popup tooltip to tell you the size in pixels of a window as you resize it.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Animate minimise and restore</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>Enable this option if you want an animation shown when windows are minimised or restored.</para>
<para>With the slider, you can set the speed of the animation.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Allow moving and resizing of maximised windows</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>When enabled, this feature activates the border of maximised windows, and allows you to move or resize them just as you can normal windows.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Placement:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>The placement policy determines where a new window will appear on the desktop. <guilabel>Smart</guilabel> will try to achieve a minimum overlap of windows, <guilabel>Cascade</guilabel> will cascade the windows, and <guilabel>Random</guilabel> will use a random position. <guilabel>Centred</guilabel> will open all new windows in the centre of the screen, and <guilabel>Zero-Cornered</guilabel> will open all windows with their top left corner in the top left corner of the screen.</para>

</listitem>
</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title><guilabel>Snap Zones</guilabel></title>

<para>The rest of this page allows you to configure the <guilabel>Snap Zones</guilabel>. These are like a magnetic field along the side of the desktop and each window, which will make windows snap alongside when moved near.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Border snap zone:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>Here you can set the snap zone for screen borders. Moving a window within the configured distance will make it snap to the edge of the desktop.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Window snap zone:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>Here you can set the snap zone for windows. As with screen borders, moving a window near to another will make it snap to the edge as if the windows were magnetised.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Snap windows only when overlapping</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>If checked, windows will not snap together if they are only near each other, they must be overlapping, by the configured amount or less.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="action-advanced">
<title>Advanced</title>

<para>In the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> panel you can do more advanced fine tuning to the window behaviour. </para>

<variablelist>
<title>Shading</title>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Animate</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If this option is enabled, shading, or rolling up a window until just the title bar is shown, will be animated.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Enable hover</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If this option is enabled, a shaded window will un-shade automatically when the mouse pointer has been over the title bar for some time. Use the slider to configure the delay un-shading. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>Finally, you can configure <guilabel>Active Desktop Borders</guilabel>. If this is enabled, moving the mouse to a screen border will change your desktop. This is useful if you want to drag windows from one desktop to another.</para>

<para>You can set this option to <guilabel>Disabled</guilabel>, which is the default, to <guilabel>Only when moving windows</guilabel>, or to <guilabel>Always enabled</guilabel> in which case just pushing your mouse against the side of the screen will switch you to a new desktop.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

</article>