Comment 0 for bug 736080

Binary package hint: unity

First of all, i'm approaching unity usability from a power user's perspective. I mainly use the desktop for coding, and i need it to be as fast as possible.

Unity has been surprisingly usable, but i needed to add the following shortcuts to various of compiz's shortcut settings. The following shortcut proposals, aim for consistency and increased desktop managing speed.

Proposed shortcuts for changing windows:

Unity desktop already supports Alt-Tab and Shift-Alt-Tab. I've added in the compiz's switcher plugin the following shortcuts:

Alt-ScrollWheelUp
Alt-ScrollWheelDown

Shortcuts that work in the same way as Alt-Tab and Shift-Alt-Tab

Proposed shortcuts for changing desktops:

Unity already supports Control-Alt-Left and Control-Alt-Right shortcuts: I've added in the compiz's deskwall plugins the following shortcuts:

Control-Alt-ScrollWheelUp
Control-Alt-ScrollWheelDown

That work in the same way as the Control-Alt-Left and Control-Alt-Right shortcuts. Here i should mention that i find it immensely easier to have my desktops in a 4x1 arrangement.

Expos plugin shortcuts:

Getting a quick idea of what goes on in the various desktops is very important. So i've added the top-right corner as a trigger for the desktop expos.

Right now the unity's expos shortcuts are in my opinion wrong. If a user accidentally triggers an expos, then it isn't obvious that he should double click on a desktop to zoom into it.

As it is a lot faster to just single click a desktop to zoom into, i've changed the zoom-in action to require a single click. For moving windows, i've set the Alt-Button1 shortcut in the expos plugin. Alt-Button1 is also used when moving windows in the regular desktop so this change also increases consistency.

Scale plugin shortcut:

I've found out that setting the SpecialKey(windowskey)-Button1 shortcut to trigger the scale action, significantly increases Unity's usability. In this way when a user presses a holds the SpecialKey, and then presses and holds the Button1, he can in a very fast way change windows or if he wishes open a new application from the Dock.

I have found that above shortcuts do not conflict with other shortcut actions, Improve consistency of the desktop, and make it immensely faster to use for me (a power user). For regular users, these shortcuts won't get in the way.