Better window management strategies?

[Dotan Cohen]

On 26/05/07, Joe Smith <jes at martnet.com> wrote:
> How do you folks manage your working windows? I find that working on a
> standard WIMP desktop is a distracting battle of locating and arranging
> in the needed windows. The current tools, specifically in the default
> Fedora Gnome desktop are not working well for me, but maybe I've missed
> something.
>
> Here's what I've tried:
>
> * Focus follows mouse
>
> I can't stand "click to focus", primarily because it's disruptive to
> move a window to the top for something simple and then to restore the
> z-order I had before.
>
> Using "focus follows mouse" solves that problem, but I'm left with the
> converse problem: I often have problems finding the window I need and
> bringing it to the top when necessary.
>
> Here's what I've tried for that:
>
> 1. Alt-tab to cyle through windows. This is the exact functionality I
> need, but having to access it through the keyboard, with a rather
> awkward key chord is not convenient enough. I want something that will
> work with the mouse.

It's not awkward at all if you let your thumb rest on the left ALT key
and your fourth finger (has it a name?) rests on TAB. It becomes
second nature real quick. Sometimes, I find myself
thumb-fourthFingering a newspaper that I'm reading.

> 2. The window-selector panel menu. Better, but it's distracting to use
> the panel here: it's too far from my working windows and it's
> complicated to locate the correct button on the panel and select the
> right window given only their titles.
>
> 3. Application window menus: these would be ok, except they don't work
> with Nautilus under "focus follows mouse" (Mozilla Seamonkey and
> OpenOffice are the two big ones I use, that don't work).
>
> What might help:
>    * a window menu built-in to the title bar
>    * a method to "restore the previous order", or at least to send the
> top window down.
>
> Other suggestions? What obvious solution have I missed?
>
> <Joe

Dotan Cohen

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