Xfce 4 Window Manager

You need to give the focus to a window if you want it to receive keyboard and mouse input. Window decorations colors will change, following the focus. To obtain more details about focus options, please refer to the corresponding section below.

A keyboard shortcut allows to switch the focus from a window to others : Hold Alt and then you can press Tab repeatedly untill you get to the window you want to focus. If you use it, you will see a small popup showing the application name, its icon and the window title. Also xfwm4 will highlight the outline of the window that will receive the focus.

NOTE: the use of a keyboard shortcut in an application needs the application window to have the focus :)

If you maximize a window, it will expand on your display and use all avaible space (as it is defined by workspace settings). You can maximize a window either vertically, horizontally, or both at once.

To maximize a window, perform one of those actions:

You can make any window appear in fullscreen mode (it will then use all the size of your screen without showing the window borders) by using the customizable Alt + F11 keyboard shortcut.

To maximize a window vertically :

To maximize a window horizontally :

When a window has been maximized in a way or another, it can be restored to its previous size doing one of these actions :

Although certain special windows can not be resized, you are able to resize most of them to fit your needs.

You can hide a window performing one of these actions :

Alternatively, you can hide all windows of current workspace, excepted the one you are using, in only one action : click the menu button of the title bar and choose "Hide all others".

To "unhide" a window, you will have to select its name or its icon in one of those Xfce 4 components :

If you "shade" a window, it will be reduced to the size of its title bar. The same repeated action makes a window to shade/unshade :

If you "stick" a window, it will be visible at the same place on all your workspaces. The same repeated action make a window to stick/unstick :

The "raise window" function makes a window frame appear above all the other frames. To raise a window, you can :

You can make a window frame to always stay above all other windows by opening the window menu and selecting the "always on top" item.

The "lower" function sends a window frame below all other frames. To "lower" a window, you can :

There are several ways to move windows :

You can send a window to another workspace by performing one of these actions :

To close a window :

The list on the left side of the dialog shows all avaible window decorations. The xfwm 4 module offers the choice between 4 different themes, but there are more than 60 supplementary themes avaible in xfwm4-themes extra package.

The "Font select" button shows the family font currently in use for the window title appearance. Click this button if you want to change it, and a "Font selection" dialog will appear. It works like the font selection dialog of the user interface settings manager plugin.

Whatever the buttons layout is, you can choose the alignment of the title inside the title bar, selecting one of those simple options : align it to the left, center or right.

The button layout configuration uses an easy drag and drop tool. Click and drag the buttons to change the layout. Drop a button in the "Hidden" area to remove a button from the titlebar. All modifications will have an immediate effect on the title bar buttons position.

The list on the left side of the dialog shows all avaible shortcuts themes, using the name of directories that contain a keythemerc file.

By default, there's only one theme : $(datadir)/themes/Default/xfwm4/keythemerc

In the default configuration the following keybindings are defined:

There are two lists on the right side of the dialog. The "Windows shortcuts" list shows the keyboard shortcuts which are used to drive the window manager. The "Command shortcuts" list shows the keyboard shortcuts which are aimed at launching applications. To modify one of the shortcuts, you have to double-click on it in the list, using the left button of your mouse, and compose your new shortcut when the "Compose shortcut" popup window appears.

Figure 4. The compose shortcut popup

If you want to create a new theme, create a directory like this one, for instance : $HOME/.themes/Custom/xfwm4/keythemerc, then select it in the list of available themes.

If you do not know the names of your keyboard modifier keys, you can launch the "xev" application from a terminal and test them.

A focused window receives the keyboard and mouse input. You have the choice between two focus models :

Selecting this option will automatically give the focus to newly created windows, without the need to click or move the mouse pointer.

If this option is selected, the frame of a newly focused window will automatically appear over all other frames, after an amount of time that you can adjust with the "delay" slider.

Choose this option if you want a window to pass over the others when you click anywhere on its frame. If this option is not selected, you will have to click somewhere on its decorations (title bar, borders or corners) to raise it.

You can choose the windows borders to be attracted by the borders of other windows, or by the screen edges, when they are moved. The distance from which this effect will be applied can be specified with the "Distance" slider.

Select the first option if you want to switch to the next workspace when the mouse pointer reaches the screen edges. Select the second one if you want the same behaviour while dragging a window. You can specify the screen edges resistance using the corresponding slider.

Two options allow you to choose if the content of a window will appear or not, when you move or resize it (not displaying the content will save some system resources).

Select what must be the behaviour of the window manager when you double-click on the title bar of a window : shade window, hide window, maximize window or none.

This option allows you too choose the number of workspaces you want to use (between 1 and 32).

This field shows the list of avaible workspaces. If you want to edit the name of one of them, click its number and a fill the entry of the dialog that will then appear. When it's done, click the "Apply" button, or just press the Enter key, to return to the list.