More Workspaces

One of my favorite Linux features is multiple workspaces. Go into Settings / Workspaces Settings and you can set up as many "desktops" as you want, and you can switch among them using <ctrl><alt><right or left cursor> or the mouse/trackpad scroll wheel or with the switcher applet installed on the panel (see below). On my Ubuntu laptop I typically have it set to six workspaces so I can do multiple tasks without dealing with overlapping windows.

On my AAO I set the number to four, and then added the workspace switcher to the panel using the "xfce4-panel -a" command. Only trouble is, that takes up quite a bit of panel space. Today I discovered that <alt><ins> adds workspaces and <alt><del> removes them. Wow! Now I can have the benefit of multiple workspaces when I need them and also have the switcher applet on my panel without taking up a lot of panel room all the time.

A small feature, I admit, but a "cool" one in my opinion. Now I gotta try this on Ubuntu.

One disclaimer: I am using the xfce desktop, so I don't know for sure that this will work with the stock Acer desktop. If anyone tries it, please post to let us know.

 

Works! Very cool indeed. Thanks for finding this out and posting it.

Cheers.

 

'<alt><ins> adds workspaces and <alt><del> removes"
just multiples my playground! thank you!

 

There is a way to shoe-horn around that, but it's a bit hairy thanks to the curious restrictions Acer added to xfce4:

1. Open a file browser window[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
2. Select the address bar, and enter to "/mnt/home/.config (This directory is usually hidden, so you''ll have to enter it manually)[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
3. Enter the "xfce4" subdirectory[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
4. Enter the "panel" subdirectory[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
5. Double-click the file whose name starts with pager-. The exact name of that file varies, since "xfce4-panel -a" generates it semi-randomly, but there should be only one there.[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
6. Change the line reading "rows=1" so that it reads "rows=2", and save[/*:m:91d2nfgb]

Now for the tricky bit. Because we're not doing this the way xfce4 designed it to be done (thanks to Acer), xfce4-panel needs to be restarted. However, a simple reboot won't solve this; xfce4-panel will save its current configuration to disk, overriding the changes we just made, so we'll have to do it the rude way:

1. Press Alt-F2. At the prompt, enter
   Code:

   killall xfce4-panel

   The panel should now disappear.[/*:m:91d2nfgb]
2. Press Alt-F2. At the prompt, enter
   Code:

   xfce4-panel

   The panel should now be back.[/*:m:91d2nfgb]

The result of this is that those workspaces now take up a lot less space in your status bar, since they're now stacked in two rows. This means that the default of 4 workspaces take up exactly as much space as a single workspace before, while still being big enough to be usuable. A second result is that navigating those workspaces by keyboard becomes slightly less awkward; you can browse through them using CTRL+ALT+cursor keys.

Hope this helps. See the attached screenshot for an example.

 

Brilliant, thank you