Unity needs a way to switch (tab) between windows on current workspace
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ayatana Design |
Fix Released
|
High
|
John Lea | ||
Unity |
Fix Released
|
Critical
|
Jason Smith | ||
unity (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Jason Smith |
Bug Description
The new Unity alt-tab switcher aggregates windows from all workspaces and groups them by application.
This replaces the old default, which would switch through windows on the current workspace only.
The omission of the ability to switch between windows only on the current workspace removes some core functionality of workspaces.
It creates impracticalities for using workspaces in a keyboard-driven workflow. I will illustrate these below.
For this discussion I presume that the user has more than one window on some or all workspaces, since otherwise much of the point of workspaces becomes moot.
Previous keyboard driven alt-tab workflow:
User moves to relevant workspace with ctrl-alt-[arrow]. They alt-tab to select the desired window on that workspace.
If the user has grouped windows together on a workspace because they want to use them together, for example a word processor and some open PDFs, switching quickly between them while typing is straightforward and fast. If they tab to the wrong window it will gain focus and they will quickly tab to the new one.
Keyboard driven workflow using new alt-tab:
Ctrl-alt-[arrow] becomes redundant, since alt-tab will take the user to whichever workspace the application is on, so the user is no longer directly using the spacial workspace concept. Alt-tab may take longer to navigate because it contains all windows on all workspaces.
Switching between windows intentionally grouped onto one workspace becomes more laborious because there are many erroneous windows. Furthermore, if the user accidentally selects the wrong window it can be quite dizzying since they are unexpectedly whisked away to another workspace, then back again when they select the right one.
This raises the question: why use the spacial concept of workspaces at all, when the window must be selected from a single long list anyway?
The solution is to add a new shortcut for cycling between windows on a single workspace (and without grouping them by application). That is, the old behavior but on a new key combination.
I propose that the most elegant keybinding for this would be ctrl-alt-tab, because this links well with the keys for moving between workspaces, enabling a smooth flow for selecting a workspace and then a window on it.
Proposed ctrl-alt-tab workflow:
User moves to relevant workspace with ctrl-alt-[arrow]. Continuing to hold ctr-alt down, they may use tab to select the desired window on that workspace.
Moving between windows intentionally grouped onto a workspace is again fast and efficient.
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Desired Solution:
- In 12.04, by default Alt-tab should only switch between windows on the currently visible workspace (or workspaces in the case of multiple monitors).
Changed in unity: | |
status: | New → Opinion |
Changed in unity (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Opinion |
Changed in ayatana-design: | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in unity: | |
milestone: | backlog → 5.2.0 |
Changed in unity (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Confirmed → Fix Committed |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | Fix Committed → Fix Released |
Changed in ayatana-design: | |
status: | Fix Committed → Fix Released |
tags: |
added: reviewedbydesignp removed: udp |
Open ccsm -> Unity Plugin -> Switcher -> check the box that makes the switcher workspace aware (changes sorting order)